👋 Good morning! What a weekend in Dallas sports. The Rangers pulled off an 8-1 homestand, and Cowboys fans booed and begged Jerry Jones to pay Micah but cheered on their team. Everything feels normal again, the way it should be. Let’s make it a great week! — Bobby Karalla

The Texas Rangers are the hottest team in the American League and, kind of out of nowhere, are now tied for the final Wild Card spot. As Jeff Wilson writes, timing is everything. They’ve won 12 of their last 15 games stretching back before the All-Star break, just in time to clear up any confusion ahead of this week’s trade deadline. (There’s no reason for this team to sell. If anything, it might be time to look for an upgrade or two.)

“I think it shows a lot of fight, a lot of grit, knowing that this was an important homestand,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “When you approach that deadline, you want to be in the race. I think they knew that, they felt it, and they responded.”

Upgrading is easier said than done, though. Jeff also wrote a bit of a trade deadline primer over the weekend and does an excellent job laying out some players the club could target, and more importantly the financial hurdles they’d need to overcome to do so.

Fortunately, the team has plenty of positional talent and a playoff-caliber starting rotation. The most glaring weakness is the back end of the bullpen, but there are a few high-end closers available that could be attainable. One, of course, is former Ranger Emmanuel Clase.

As Jeff writes, the bullpen does have help on the way in the form of Chris Martin and, in the event the team makes the playoffs, either Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter, whichever one doesn’t make the playoff rotation. So maybe one single trade for a closer is all the team needs.

Jerry Jones doesn’t seem to be bothered by the “Pay Micah” chants from Cowboys fans during Saturday’s opening ceremony in Oxnard. In fact, he said last year’s “Pay Lamb” chants were louder. (That isn’t the own he thinks it is, by the way.) Instead of paying Micah over the weekend, though, the Cowboys paid Jake Ferguson.

If you’re still on Luka body watch, today is going to be a tough day. If you’re the turbo-aggro “move on, you baby” type, today is going to be even tougher.

ICYMI from late last week, Sean Shapiro wrote a nice piece about Toby Petersen, the new head coach of the Texas Stars. Petersen also joined the DLLS Stars crew on the show recently, too.

Maybe this is just cope, but Schotty is so much more fun to listen to than Mike McCarthy or Jason Garrett. Not sure what exactly that means, but it does mean something.

Be sure to subscribe to our shows wherever you listen to your podcasts. Traffic can be the worst, and one of the best ways I get through it is by listening to the audio versions of our DLLS shows. You should, too!

Bobby Karalla
DLLS Sports Head of Content​
[email protected]