Poor Toby's Almanac: Where have you gone Sam Marsonek?

Toby descends from a pack of wild dogs that have roamed the mystical lands of the Transvaal since the beginning of time. Each Sunday morning, he helps us look ahead:

The Week That Is: Big game today for the Rangers as they close out the first half of the season.

The Rangers are 5-0-1 in their last six series. They have not lost a series since losing two out of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates. They did split four games with the Red Sox but they take taken two of three from the Reds, Cubs, Astros, Tigers and Angels. So they try to keep the streak alive with Kevin Millwood on the mound on Sunday.

Then comes the All-Star brak – four days for the Rangers – and then they open the second half with a road trip to Anaheim and Oakland. It’s their only road trip of the season where they go to both Anaheim and Oakland on the same trip.

The Rangers are 37-50 going into Sunday’s game and this will be the first time in four years that they have been under .500 at the break. This is only seventh time in franchise history that they’ve lost 50 games by the All-Star break, and just the fourth time in the last 33 years.

Losing to winning: Pay attention this is pretty good. Only twice in club history have the Rangers had a losing record at the All-Star break and then went on to have a winning season. The last time it happened was in 1990 when they were 40-44 at the break and 83-79 at the end. In the great season of 1974, they were 48-50 at the break.

On the other hand, there have been six seasons where the Rangers had a winning record at the break and ended up with an overall losing record. It happened in each of the last two seasons. Also the Rangers have either led or been tied for division lead at the All-Star break eight times in club history. That includes two of the last three years.

The Oracle of the Elysian Fields: "You look at the numbers and Orlando Cabrera is more deserving. This isn’t a perfect process picking an All-Star team. I didn’t make the rules. I’ve been chosen by the manager to go out and represent this team and that’s what I’m going to do." Michael Young.

All-Star Statistics: Young gets ready to go to San Francisco, Rangers hitters are hitting .289 (26-for-90) in All-Star competition with 12 runs scored, three doubles, one trip, four home runs and 19 RBI. The four home runs? Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Hank Blalock and Ruben Sierra.

Their pitchers? 2-1 with a 5.89 ERA. Plus one save. Nolan Ryan won in 1989 and Kevin Brown won in 1992. John Wetteland saved it in 1999. Jim Kern was the losing pitcher in 1979.

Birthdays: Sam Marsonek is 29 on Tuesday.

Marsonek, a 6-foot-6 right-hander, was born on July 10, 1978 in Tampa Florida and was a star pitcher at Tampa Jesuit, the same high school that produced Lou Piniella. The Rangers had two first round draft picks in 1996: 18th and 24th overall.

They ended up taking R.A. Dickey out of the University of Tennessee and Marsonek. With the 32nd overall pick they took left-hander Corey Lee out of North Carolina. Right-hander Derrick Cook was the 53rd pick out of James Madison.

Four pitchers from the top 53 picks. Sound familiar? Only Dickey is still pitching.

Marsonek was signed for over $800,000, which was a princely sum in those days. They brought in Nolan Ryan as the final salesman to seal the deal. Of course they only gave Dickey $75,000 after they found out he had no ulna collateral ligament.

Anyway, Marsonek spent 31/2 years with the Rangers and never got higher than Class A. On Dec. 13, 1999, he and Brandon Knight were traded to the Yankees for Chad Curtis. He eventually pitched in just one game for the Yankees in 2004. His last season in the Minors was 2005.

Cook, who is 31, was finished after the 2001 season. Lee, who is 32, pitched in one game for the Rangers in 1999 and gave up a three-run home run to Carlos Delgado. He was eventually traded to the Chicago White Sox and was last seen pitching in Japan.

Rangers general manager Doug Melvin was fired after the 2001 season. The Oakland Athletics had just won a division title and 102 games with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. The Houston Astros had won their division title with Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller, Tim Redding and Scott Elarton.

Tom Hicks looked at both teams and fired Melvin. I remained convinced that more than anything, the 1996 draft ultimately cost Melvin his job.

Sam Marsonek is now with the Somerset Patriots. He is 2-3 with a 4.89 ERA

Last call: "Andres Galarraga. He was the first one to do it. But I took it away from him. I stole it."
Sammy Sosa on his home run hop.