Recently in Rangers News Category

Usually towards the end of the year, we always hear about how many players the Texas Rangers have used overall in any particular season. The Rangers are usually towards the high end of that list. Injuries, callups, usually make for a long list, and you tend to forget the guys who are here so quick that they don't even have time for the proverbial "cup of coffee".

I've done this for the last two seasons, and it's worked out pretty well. I've also gotten some positive feedback on it, so I'm doing it again in 2010. For the record, if you'd like to see the final tallies for the last two years, you can still see them here: [ 2008 | 2009 ]

Anyway, this post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2010. I am going to count guys who get called up, but don't play immediately (or sometimes don't play at all), as they will be part of the 25 man roster officially. So here goes. The most recent additions will be on the top of the list. The original opening day 25 man roster is not in any particular order.

In 2010, the Rangers have nobody in the original opening day 25 that is making his major league debut. We had one in 2009 (Elvis Andrus) and one in 2008 (Kaz Fukumori). We do have, however five guys making their Ranger debuts in 2010: Blanco, Garko, Guerrero, Harden, & Ray.

Total players in 2010: 44
Total pitchers used in 2010: 19
Total position players used in 2010: 25
Total players making major league debut: 5

#44 - Alex Cora (Aug 24)
#43 - Michael Kirkman (Aug 20 - Major League Debut)
#42 - Brandon Boggs (Aug 15)
#41 - Cristian Guzman (Jul 31)
#40 - Jorge Cantu (Jul 30)
#39 - Mitch Moreland (Jul 29 - Major League Debut)
#38 - Cliff Lee (Jul 10)
#37 - Bengie Molina (Jul 2 - acquired on 1st, not active till 2nd)
#36 - Omar Beltre (Jun 30 - Major League Debut)
#35 - Alexi Ogando (Jun 12 - Major League Debut)
#34 - Tommy Hunter (Jun 5)
#33 - Pedro Strop (May 15 - Sent back down May 16, did not appear, came back later)
#32 - Guillermo Moscoso (May 15)
#31 - Derek Holland (May 12)
#30 - Ian Kinsler (Apr 30)
#29 - Max Ramirez (Apr 27)
#28 - Craig Gentry (Apr 27)
#27 - Justin Smoak (Apr 23 - Major League Debut)
#26 - Matt Treanor (Apr 8)

#25 to #1: Scott Feldman, Neftali Feliz, Frankie Francisco, Rich Harden, Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis, Doug Mathis, Dustin Nippert, Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, Chris Ray, C.J. Wilson, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden, Elvis Andrus, Joaquin Arias, Andres Blanco, Chris Davis, Ryan Garko, Michael Young, Julio Borbon, Nelson Cruz, Vladimir Guerrero, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy.

Please note that 1 to 25 are in no particular order.

Wow. It just seems so surreal. Completely, and legally, Tom Hicks is out. The 30 major league owners voted this morning, and it was a 30-0 vote in favor of the GnR ownership group taking over.

The stories this morning talked about how Greenberg had to be excluded from the room and made to wait outside when the actual vote was going on, since he technically was not an owner. I had visions of him sitting in a hallway by himself like any number of teen angst movies you see where he's twiddling his thumbs, although in this day and age, he'd be texting someone. Or checking in via Foursquare, or anything like that.

Anyways, the vote was unanimous, and by all accounts shortly afterward the GnR group released the funds, and bam. It was over. They are the new Rangers owners. From what I can gather, there's still some issues that will come up after the season, like the lease, and the grounds around the ballpark. Plus the jet lease that Chase made some noise about at the last second last night. But that can probably be dealt with in due course.

Bring on the new scoreboards guys - I'll be there tomorrow night. It's why I bought tickets tomorrow night, figuring it would be the first game under the new regime. I have tickets in the last row of Section 342 - not the greatest, but it was the best I could get - and I bought them LAST friday. :)

Chuck Greenberg should throw out the first pitch. Let's dance, people!

Commissioner Bud Selig concluded the first day of the quarterly owners meetings in Minneapolis by announcing that the Texas Rangers sale was approved unanimously by the ownership committee and the executive council.

A final vote of the 30 team owners will take place Thursday morning. The investment group headed by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan must receive 75 percent of the votes for the sale to be approved. That appears to be a formality.

"I'm delighted that we got through the first two steps with unanimity," Selig said. "Tomorrow we'll have to meet and tell you how the final vote came, but I guess you can probably guess that."

Greenberg and the two heavy hitters in Rangers Baseball Express, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, answered questions and presented the operational plan and philosophy to the ownership committee. Ryan did not attend the meetings.

Greenberg said that he welcomed the process, and it appeared to be well-received one week after his group was locked in an intense courthouse auction with Mark Cuban and Jim Crane to purchase the club.

"It beats the heck out of last Wednesday," Greenberg said. "I said to Bob Simpson and Ray Davis, 'What are we doing next Wednesday?' "

It appears as though they will be owning a major-league franchise.

This article originally appeared online here. Yeah, I know I just copied the whole thing, but really - what could I add to this? This article says it all.

I'll have more to say tonight, but..

The Rangers get Cliff Lee, and Mark Lowe (on DL for season) plus $2.55M in cash for..

1B Justin Smoak, P Blake Beavan, P Josh Lueke, & 2B/IF Matt Lawson. Other than Smoak, those guys are all AA players, definitely not major league ready. A friend of mine in Seattle said the press up there is going nuts about catcher catcher catcher. Surprised he's not getting a catcher. Teagarden, Salty, or Ramirez.

USSMariner is happy about Smoak, though. As they should be.

But the best part about this - the ABSOLUTE BEST PART is that the Yankees did not get him. I honestly don't care who we gave up. So long as it doesn't help the Yankees, I'm all for the trade.

I noticed this banner yesterday during the Rangers game. It was over in left field inbetween a couple of the retired number signs. Was a group of fans who apparently want Michael Young to have a small "C" on his uniform. As you recall, the team did that with Alex Rodriguez after the failed trade to Boston, but before he was traded to New York. I believe it was done as an appeasement to his ego, but he was traded not long after that, and the concept of "Team Captain" hasn't come up again since.

I feel like I fall on the side that things they don't really need a "designated" team captain. I think everyone sort of knows Young is anyway. But I thought I'd give these guys a push and plug 'em. Head on over to their site at:

http://www.youngforrangerscaptain.com/

From Opening Day 2010

As I'm sure you've seen by now, the Rangers' 25 man roster has been set. Still, I wanted to mark it and get ready for the new season. Here's what we're going to bat with for opening day tomorrow (or later today as the time is now 1:30AM Monday as I start writing this):

Starting Pitchers: Scott Feldman, Rich Harden, Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis, CJ Wilson

Relief Pitchers: Neftali Feliz, Frank Francisco, Doug Mathis, Dustin Nippert, Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, Chris Ray

Catchers: Jarrod Saltamacchia, Taylor Teagarden

Infielders: Elvis Andrus, Joaquin Arias, Andres Blanco, Chris Davis, Ryan Garko, & Michael Young

Outfielders: Julio Borbon, Nelson Cruz, Vladamir Guerrero, Josh Hamilton, & David Murphy

Notables here are Ian Kinsler being put on the DL as well as Tommy Hunter. I wanted to say a few words about each of these guys, my opinion of them so to speak..

• Scott Feldman: Scott surprised the heck out of a lot of people last year. He won 17 games despite not being on the opening day roster. He had some struggles in his last 3-4 starts, and he did have a realistic shot at 20 wins, which was impressive. Got a nice contract extension this spring, let's hope he lives up to it.
• Neftali Feliz: Came out throwing smoke and looked very much like the guy we were told he'd be. The league adjusted, and he appeared (to me) to have some struggles adjusting to that. Hopefully he can get that worked out. I'm sure he'll be fine in 2010, but I don't think he'll be 101 every pitch, and strike out 8 out of 10.
• Frank Francisco: There's a lot of talk we're going to let him walk after 2010. I'm not so convinced of that. He's definitely not an elite level closer (Rivera, Papelbon), but he's definitely serviceable. I think the walk talk is that he's making $3.6m this year, and that's a lot for a "serviceable" closer.
• Rich Harden: A big enigma. Brought in when we traded Millwood away. It's a gamble, for sure, and he by far hasn't looked that impressive this spring. But, like everyone else, I know he can be great if he's "on". Let's just hope he's on more often than he is not. Assuming he's even on the hill in the first place.
• Matt Harrison: I liked Matt a lot when he first showed up. Pitched well, and made you feel good about the fleecing of Atlanta. He's come back to Earth a bit since then. Hopefully his spring ERA of 5.68 isn't an indicator of where he's going. Still positive about him, but not as strong as before.
• Colby Lewis: I know when he was brought back, a lot of people were excited about it. I heard on Baseball Tonight & the MLB Channel that there was more than just the Rangers after him. I remember what he was like when he went out the door, so I wasn't thrilled that he was coming back, despite all he did in Japan. Still, he's done well enough this spring, and he has done well in the K department (16 in 18.2 IP).
• Doug Mathis: Also doing well in the K department (10 in 10.1 IP this spring). He had a nice ERA. Mathis isn't one of those guys who is a big time sexy name, but is durable, and seems to do well.
• Dustin Nippert: Dustin's spring allowed BA was .112. His WHIP was 0.42. He's struck out 10 in 12 innings - over five games. His spring ERA was ZERO. Bring it on. His stock has certainly rose given the way he performed when he first got here from the D'Backs.
• Darren O'Day: Since the day he wore Kason Gabbard's uniform in Toronto, he's done nothing but been one of the best bullpen pickups we've ever made. Hopefully that continues into the new season.
• Darren Oliver: Another guy with a spring training ERA of ZERO! Where was this guy when he was last in Texas ping-ponging back and forth between the rotation and the pen? Glad he's finally figured it out. We could use it, as I believe he's the only lefty in our bullpen.
• Chris Ray: The guy we got back from Baltimore in the Kevin Millwood trade. I'm not really terribly thrilled with this move. Not expecting much here. Hopefully I'm wrong.
• C.J. Wilson: What a surprise this was in spring. I don't think a ton of Ranger fans were that jazzed about him trying out for the rotation, but he nailed it. While his record was 0-2, he had a good ERA (3.24), and his other numbers were good too. I wonder how long this experiment will last.
• Jarrod Saltamacchia: I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever come through on the promise he had when he was obtained originally as the centerpiece of the Teixeira trade. While I don't think he's awful, he has had a lot of problems, and needs to make a lot of noise to claim the catcher's role as his. It's part of why guys like Toby Hall are on our roster.
• Taylor Teagarden: Taylor's problem is his bat. I don't think anyone doubts his defense or game calling. But he's got some big offensive problems at the plate. He did bat .319 in 2008, but he only had 40 some at bats. In 2009, he batted just .215 and this spring he was around .225. That's not gonna get it done. If he could bat even something like 260 or 270, he'd probably nail the job as his.
• Elvis Andrus: What a surprise Elvis was last year. Much was made about Michael Young's move to third, and Elvis needing to be "helped" by Omar Vizquel. But Elvis seemed to do well. He had the usual rookie mistakes, he wasn't godlike, but wow was he great when he was "good". Hopefully he improves this year, as his rookie year was pretty darned good. Plus I took him in one of my fantasy leagues, he'd better do good. ;)
• Joaquin Arias: See Saltamacchia. This guy screams unfulfilled promise. The Yankees went through great lengths to keep us from finding him when we chose someone as the PTBNL in the Alex Rodriguez trade. He is the last remaining tie to that trade, too. Probably only here due to injuries. Suspect he goes down when Kinsler comes back in a week.
• Andres Blanco: Don't know much about him, but I've read where his defense is good, which is why he was brought in late in spring to be a backup infielder. Always need guys like this around.
• Chris Davis: Defense is great. He seems to have solved his major epic level offensive funk from the middle of last season. Let's hope he rakes. Plus I know if he's around a friend of mine will go to games just to see him, as she thinks he's hot (Hi Jen!) ;)
• Ryan Garko: See Andres Blanco.
• Michael Young: Don't need to explain Michael Young to a Rangers fan. He handled the move to 3B defensively extremely well last year. Can't see any reason why (barring injury) we won't get another "Michael Young" season from Michael Young. Also goes into the season with a plus .400 batting average.
• Julio Borbon: Our anointed center fielder and leadoff hitter. He's young, I don't think he's going to have an OBP of like .500 or something, but it feels like the same kind of gamble this year like they made with Elvis last year. Hopefully it works out as well.
• Nelson Cruz: Nelson finally figured it out last year, and if he has another year like last year again, I think he can shake the 4A tag he had become attached to somewhat. Almost won the Home Run Derby last year, so he's definitely been noticed nationally.
• Vlad Guerrero: He's not the total rake hitter that he used to be, and his defense (well, his body really) has made him mostly a full time DH. But he can still hit, and I saw enough of that "swing at anything and still get a single" that used to irritate the heck out of me in spring training to tell me that he can probably still hit well. Let's see if 81 games at our ballpark helps him more. Granted he's not hitting against us anymore, so that could be a factor.
• Josh Hamilton: Down year last year for Josh. Played with his mechanics, and was hurt a lot. Everything this spring says he's back to the form he was at in 2008, so if that's true, then look out for a big year from him.
• David Murphy: I thought Murph had earned a permanent spot in the lineup, but he goes into the season as the fourth outfielder. I hope the lack of regular playing time doesn't hurt him, as I like Murph a lot. Reminds me of Rusty Greer.

That's our starting 25. Ian Kinsler was hurt in the spring, and was only in five games, so it's impossible to judge him for 2010. I had seen where Clint Hurdle has made a difference in his "Capt Fly Ball" mentality from last year. Hopefully that sticks once he comes back.

Overall, despite our crappy record in the spring, I think it could be a very good year for us. The Angels are still the team to beat, but they lost a bunch of pieces after last year, so they could be down a little (but not a lot, they'll still be great). The Mariners have improved a lot, but I'm not sure if it's enough to make a real threat at the division, but they'll definitely be better. The A's, I dunno. So I think the division is more open than it has been in years. We certainly could win it. I'm not making any win predictions, but I think a 90 win season is not out of the question.

As a reminder, if you have MLB Network, the Texas Rangers edition of their "30 Clubs in 30 Days" series starts tomorrow, the 25th of March.

While I haven't watched each episode, as it'd be overload, I have watched for the teams I like, and the ones in our division. I have, however, watched one segment in each episode. They're doing the "Prime 9 Best Plays in Franchise History". You'd think of the ones they'd do for the Rangers, it would be Kenny Rogers' perfect game, clinching the playoffs in 1996, Nolan Ryan's 6th no hitter, and Nolan Ryan's 7th no hitter. Probably Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout as well.

If you don't have MLB Network, you should. Make sure and check it out tomorrow. It plays like 3 times tomorrow, and then gets repeated a bunch of times before the season starts.

Saw this commercial on TV the other night, and laughed at it. It's a commercial for the current iteration of the Take 2 MLB game, "MLB 2K10". Made me laugh.

So I'm driving around running some errands early this afternoon, and I have the XM talk channel on. They're heading to commercial, and they say, "There is a breaking story, more on the update". I figure, "eh, someone got released, or Strausberg got officially assigned to the minors". By this time I get to the drive through teller at the bank, and they said "Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine use in 2009", which prompted me to say out loud "Holy shit - that is a big deal". I'm sure the teller heard me say that, but he didn't ask me what I meant.

When they came back from break, Kevin Kennedy and some dude I don't know who it is started talking about it, and at that time, not much in the way of facts were known. Before I get to my own thoughts on the matter, I feel compelled to get this point across in the graphic shown here.

While some might say that's a harsh response, I have to say it was my honest and true immediate response to hearing the news. I mean, Ron has never done this before, and why at age 57 (I believe) when he's fairly set in terms of his baseball career he felt it necessary to do that is beyond me. If he was a lifetime habitual user, I'd understand why he was doing it - but to START now? That's where the dumbass comes from. I mean, really. Maybe we could get Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live to do a "Really, Ron? REALLY??"

Here is the complete text of Ron Washington's statement about this.

OK, the initial reaction remarks over, the attention then turns forward to "now what"? Thanks to Evan Grant, I'm going to copy this text of his regarding the "facts"...

The facts: Washington acknowledged he used cocaine last season sometime during the first half of the year and after he was rewarded a contract extension for 2010. Washington would not reveal any details of exactly how, where and when he obtained the cocaine, saying he bore the sole responsibility for what he called a "stupid mistake."

• Washington was made aware of an upcoming drug test, immediately informed the Rangers and MLB of his use of the drug and entered a treatment program. He did, in fact, fail the drug test.

• Washington, who turns 58 on April 29, said it was the only time in his life he had used cocaine. When asked if he was saying that he had never used illegal drugs anytime in his life, he said only "I've never used this drug before."

• Rangers GM Jon Daniels and President Nolan Ryan said the club discussed all possible options on the handling of Washington's transgression. The club, however, could not reveal the failure of the drug test. That would have violated the confidentiality of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

• Washington said he completed the terms of MLB's drug treatment plan two weeks ago. He said he was tested three times a week as part of that treatment. He also said he would be willing to submit to more testing to help reinforce that he is "clean."

• MLB officials declined to comment, citing confidentiality regarding the testing/treatment plan. They said they would have no comment on reaction to Washington's announcement.

Given how much of a wide berth sports fans generally give players for far worse transgressions than this, the calls I'm seeing for "Fire him now!" just does not work in my mind. So many Cowboys fans STILL want to hoist Michael Irvin up on a freakin' pillar despite all the shit he's done, yet Washington deserves to be run out of town for a single offense, despite the fact that he was apparently rather pro-active, and informed both the Rangers and MLB about taking it before the results of a drug test was known. That's not the kind of mentality from a person who was trying to hide something. Given that he's passed every drug test since that one he failed, I'll buy into the fact it was a one time thing that hasn't been an issue since.

Everything I've read on ESPN, MLB, and the Rangers blog at DMN tells me that it's a non issue to the team too. There were a lot of quotes of support from Nolan Ryan & Jon Daniels about this. One has to think that Chuck Greenberg knew for awhile, too. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but if he ever fails for it a second time, he needs to go immediately. I do think that it makes his leash shorter. His contract was already going to be up after this season, so I suspect if the team goes into a tailspin, he might not have as long a slide time grace period as he did last year when everyone was calling for his head (unjustly, I think). Overall, I think he's a good baseball man, someone who has to deal with a lot of things that none of us do, and someone who made an epic level screw-up in judgment. I'll be curious to see what Josh Hamilton has to say about all this, given his own past.

From what I've read, the Comissioner's Office could still hand down some sort of punishment, but my gut feeling is that there won't be any. So lets give Ron our support, and I'll accept his apology, provide that turns out to be the truth of what happened. If it turns out something else happened he hasn't said, I'll likely change my opinion, but for now, I think we should applaud him for being forthcoming with the problem he caused. I don't think he should be let completely off the hook - perhaps some sort of fine might be in order?

But my religion tells me to forgive, so I will. But I still think it was a really stupid thing to do, hence my use of "dumbass". Again, don't forget all the other sports figures we've forgiven for far worse than this. I did also like that "almost all" of his players showed up the press conference in support of him. Still want to hear what Josh Hamilton has to say.

Let's get to April, eh? :)

UPDATE: I was talking to a friend of mine about all this, and he said something which reminded me of a point I wanted to make, but forgot to when I wrote this earlier today. It's the quote in Ron's statement that says "Washington, who turns 58 on April 29, said it was the only time in his life he had used cocaine. When asked if he was saying that he had never used illegal drugs anytime in his life, he said only "I've never used THIS drug before." "This" drug? What others has he used? If there are other drugs involved, the question becomes how long ago? If it was 20+ years ago, who cares? If it was a year and a half or so? Then we'd care.

UPDATE 2: Given I wrote about a dozen game updates to catch up with the last week and a half, I wanted this up near the top, so I bumped it up, even though I wrote it yesterday.

Saw this story on the Rangers site tonight..

The Texas Rangers today announced that the team will honor the memory of Bobby Bragan by wearing a uniform patch during all games in spring training.

Bragan, who spent over 70 years involved with professional baseball, passed away on January 21 at the age of 92 in Fort Worth. The former major league player, coach, manager, and executive was a long-time front office employee for the Rangers, serving in public relations and community capacities.

The oval patch contains the red and blue lettering, "BOBBY BRAGAN, 1917-2010" with a white background and red border. It is located on the right sleeve of the Rangers' blue jersey tops, which the club will wear for all spring training games in 2010.

Following spring training, the jerseys will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation. The team also plans to donate a number of the jerseys to the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation, which has provided over 500 scholarships to Dallas-Fort Worth area students since its inception in 1992.

The Rangers will wear the Bragan patches for the first time on Tuesday.

I have to confess. When I saw the story, I didn't remember who he was. :(

While the official schedule of HD programming for the 2010 season hasn't been posted yet, I read something tonight that gives me hope. You see this will be the third (and second full) baseball season since got an HDTV. Baseball looks so much better in HD, that when they have just an SD feed, I frequently will not watch the game and listen on the radio instead. Snob, perhaps, but after you go HD, you don't want to go backwards.

Anyway, last year there were 120 games in HD, covering Fox Sports Southwest, Fox 4, and KDFI Ch 27. In 2010, almost all of them are Fox Sports Southwest. Here's my count of what channels have how many games for the Rangers in 2010:

Fox Sports Southwest: 131
TXA-21: 25
Fox 4: 5
ESPN: 1

That's a total of just 30 out of 162 to be on free over the air TV (which I believe is a first for the home opener not being on free OTA TV), 132 are pay cable. That's quite a percentage shift. If you're just over the air TV, you're getting screwed. But you should get cable or satellite anyway if just for MLB Network - they are awesome.

Anyway, of the games produced, I would think the bulk of them would be in HD. ESPN is guaranteed HD, and The Fox 4 games are national, so that's a guaranteed 6. I'm not sure about TXA21, as they're new in 2010.

But what follows is why I posted this. Saw this news story about the Brewers games on Fox Sports Wisconsin being 100% in HD for 2010. Makes me think if the Brewers can do it, we can too. If it comes out we can't, I'll want to know why.

Washington, D.C. (February 24, 2010) -- For the first time, all Milwaukee Brewer baseball games will be in high-def this season on Fox Sports Wisconsin.

That's according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The regional sports channel will broadcast 136 Brewer games in high-def this season.

Of the remaining Brewer games on TV, six will be televised nationally on Fox or ESPN, which will also cover them in HD, and 15 will be broadcast by the local station WMLW, according to the newspaper. (Apparently five games will not be televised this year; there are 162 regular season games.)

Fox Sports Wisconsin's coverage of the regular season will start on Monday, April 5, when it airs the Brewers-Rockies game at 1:10 p.m.

Well, I haven't written much lately, despite the start of camp as a few projects have opened up for me that could lead to full time employment again. Something I still don't have since last May, so that is by far my #1 priority. To that, I'm gonna add a thoughts on recent events.

First off, Jamey Newberg's quote from this past week is something I want to answer. Jamey asked this.

"Does it mean anything when Bobby Valentine says on ESPN on February 18 that Ron Washington is on the hottest seat of any manager in the league?"

Perhaps it's just my sarcastic nature, but it could be viewed as he's doing a passive aggressive thing to perhaps get his old job back? He was there when Nolan Ryan signed on to Texas back in 1989. Now that Nolan's running the show, perhaps Bobby V is looking to play the same card only backwards? :)

C.J. Wilson's mouth: CJ took some heat right as camp was opening when he said this..

"It's no secret I don't think I should be limited to the set-up role. I have too many weapons," Wilson said. "Here is the reality. It is real simple. There are not very many guys that have the stuff that I do that would be willing to sign here if they were free agents. There is no experienced pitcher that has my stuff that would sign here, historically."

It's an interesting scenario, as one feels he lost the closer's job much the same way that happened between Rod Barajas & Gerald Laird a few years ago. Got hurt, someone else stepped in, didn't get it back. On one hand, I can understand his frustration. On the other hand, you don't go mouthing off about your employer and why nobody else would want to sign here. Yikes. Nolan Ryan handled it well, but I wonder if that stuff will factor into the subconscious of those making decisions around here. I don't have any desire to see CJ out of here, but think for a minute if he was paired with Ozzie Guillen. hahaha. :)

The Catching Situation:

What happened? We were stocked with catchers, who were backlogged behind Laird. We move Laird to Detroit and now we find ourselves looking for bottom of the barrel free agent catchers to shore things up? Saltamacchia hasn't worked out, Teagarden hasn't shown he can be a #1, and Max Ramirez? Dunno. Where'd our big glut go? A bit scary there.

Endy Chavez signed:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. See Joey M's commentary for more on that.

Rangers miss payment:

It was announced that the Rangers missed a close to $40 million payment into an MLB fund that helps fund - I don't remember exactly what, but references to deferred money to Arod, Juan Gonzalez, and Rafael Palmeiro came up. It was said that the payment could be something the union could file a grievance over, but have decided not to, leaving it to new management to figure out. Apparently it was factored into the price of the sale of the club, so it's probably a non issue. Amusing how well Tom Hicks is trying to screw the pooch on the way out the door.

Josh Hamilton predicts 96 wins: That's a lot. When you realize it's just 9 more games over last year it doesn't seem like a lot, but 96? I'd love for that to happen, as it pretty much means we'd be in the playoffs. Come on Rangers!

Brad Wilkerson: Brad Wilkerson signed a minor league deal with the Phillies today, which does NOT include an invite to camp . He supposedly retired last spring after being released by the Red Sox. This isn't a big deal, but I just wanted an excuse to post this picture again:

In my quest to get the site in shape for the new season, I started working on the schedule pages. The first thing I did was check out the Rangers site to see what the schedule looked like. Looking for weird events that I need to keep track of, etc...

For the last few years, the Rangers deal has been with Fox TV. Certain really high profile games (like opening day) were on Fox 4. The majority of the games are on Fox Sports Southwest, as the team makes more money with them on cable. Since the deal was with Fox, the free OTA games were on KDFI Channel 27. That is not a surprise, since they're all Fox.

However, today when I went to look at the schedule I noticed that the OTA games were on KTXA-21. It's not a huge deal, but that's a CBS station. Did something change with the TV deal that I'm not aware of? There wasn't any sort of announcement that I recall.

Does anyone have any information on this? I wonder if there was some unannounced deal where the TV contract was renegotiated in order to help Hicks get some more coin.

Additionally, while it hasn't been said, I'm hoping we can get a "100% of the games in HD" this year. Last year there was a huge deal made out of the fact that they had a rather large percentage of the games in HD. I'd love for all the games to be in HD. It's so much sweeter that way.

As we creep closer to the start of spring training (it's THIS MONTH!), I've finally started bringing my website up to speed. I'm unfortunately still unemployed from last May, and I found, despite the free time, I wasn't always in the mood to work on my websites. That's a feeling that only recently returned to me, and to that, I updated my website's uniform number history section for 2010. The Rangers finally posted their roster for spring training, and with it come all the uniform number assignments for the 40 man roster as well as all the NRI's (plus coaches).

A few observations.. The Rangers have had for awhile Zack Minasian as the home clubhouse manager for the last 16 years. After the 2009 season, he was let go (we never really heard much about that story, actually). One of Zack's "things" from the past was that if there was some "important" Ranger who was with the club, and then was not, their number was not given out for a year after that. Some examples from the past were when Pudge left after 2002, nobody wore #7 in 2003 (until Eric Young got it in 04). Same goes for Juando's departure after 1999. Nobody had #19 in 2000, but Gabe Kapler had it in 2001. Also Rafael Palmeiro. He had #25 in 2003, then nobody in 2004, until Marshall McDougall had it in 2005.

We have several numbers for departed Rangers that are unassigned in 2010. Now I don't know who the new equipment manager is, but he appears to be holding up that tradition too. Anyway, the numbers are 8 (Rudy Jaramillo), 9 (Hank Blalock), 33 (Kevin Millwood), & 53 (Joaquin Benoit).

One other amusing thing to me (perhaps only to me, as I don't think anyone else cares to this level) is the number 21. 2010 will be the first year in a row that the same player has worn number 21 since 2001. That is the most inconsistent number. Check this out:

2000: Ruben Mateo
2001: Ruben Mateo, Craig Monroe
2002: Pat Borders, Reynoldo Garcia, & Todd Hollandsworth
2003: Ruben Sierra, Jason Jones
2004: Jason Jones (only in camp, was released before opening day)
2005: Esteban German, Steve Karsay
2006: Adam Eaton
2007: Sammy Sosa
2008: Milton Bradley
2009: Jarrod Saltamacchia
2010: Jarrod Saltamacchia

The last player who wore #21 for two complete full seasons in a row was Warren Newson, who carried that number in 96, 97, & 98.

Oh, and Johnny Narron (Josh Hamilton's "life coach") switched from 73 to 23. :)

There is one thing I was hoping fans could help me by contributing. If you've ever looked at my uniform number history page, I've gathered over the years pictures of the various numbers being worn on players. I've posted some of them on the bottom of each number's page as an "example" of that number. The Ruben Mateo picture above is one of those. But check out the pages, and look at the bottom. I think it makes for a nice little archive of pictures.

The part you can help with is with pictures. Take a look. If you have pictures of any of the players who I do not have a picture of, I'd love it if you could send me the picture for inclusion on these pages. I'm specifically looking for ones that show the player's name along with the number. Not just the front where the number is, I really want one with the player's name and number from the back being shown. I know a ton of you have picture archives (I've seen 'em on Facebook & Picasa Web Albums), but I'm sure there's a ton more I haven't seen.

Please take a look at what you have, and if you have something useful for this project, let me know, I'd love to get it online. Danke. Here's some of the ones I've collected. It's the guys who are only up for 2-3 games in a season and then never to return are the hardest to get shots of. :)

A lot has been made, and will be made until the Chuck Greenberg group formally gets the keys to the barn about how much our salary will be. My friend Maury Brown over at bizofbaseball.com posted the latest in his salary series, this time covering the Texas Rangers. I decided to cover that story here too with my own commentary.

Now that Scott Feldman came to terms last night, all of our arbitration eligible players are under contract, continuing a streak the team has in avoiding things like this. Here are the currently under contract players for 2010, and the values of their salaries.

• Michael Young - $16,000,000
• Rich Harden - $6,500,000
• Vladimir Guerrero - $6,500,000
• Ian Kinsler - $4,000,000
• Frank Francisco - $3,265,000
• Josh Hamilton - $3,250,000
• C.J. Wilson - $3,100,000
• Darren Oliver - $3,000,000
• Scott Feldman - $2,425,000
• Colby Lewis - $1,750,000
• Brandon McCarthy - $1,300,000
• Chris Ray - $975,000
• Khalil Greene - $750,000
• Dustin Nippert - $650,000
• Esteban German - $600,000

That's a total of $54,065,000 for 15 players. 15 players does, of course, not make a full team, so there's more to come. Six more are insufficient service time players, meaning we can renew them if no agreement is reached. Those guys are:

• David Murphy - $414,820
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia - $410,890
• Brandon Boggs - $408,540
• Nelson Cruz - $408,070
• Chris Davis - $406,620
• Luis Mendoza - $406,210

Those numbers are their 2009 salaries. While their 2010 salaries are unknown, Maury theorizes that giving the players a 6.5% pay increase would make the overall salary demand for these six players a total of $2,614,735.

Add that to the previous total, and the salary is now at $52,614,735. We still have four roster spots to fill, so the actual number will be a bit higher. Actually the "four spots" remark comes from Maury. He uses all these players listed above as players to be on the 25 man roster, and as a Rangers fan, I know they won't all be. Putting all those names above in "slots", here's what I come up with:

C Jarrod Saltamacchia
1B Chris Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
3B Michael Young
SS
LF Josh Hamilton
CF
RF Nelson Cruz
DH Vlad Guerrero

BN David Murphy
BN Khalil Greene
BN Esteban German
BN Brandon Boggs

SP Rich Harden
SP Scott Feldman
SP Colby Lewis
SP Brandon McCarthy
SP Dustin Nippert
CL Frank Francisco
RP CJ Wilson
RP Darren Oliver
RP Chris Ray
RP Luis Mendoza
RP
RP
RP

This shows five "slots", but.. We know who our starting shortstop will be (Elvis Andrus), and we are expecting Julio Borbon to be the starting centerfielder. Neither of these guys were on Maury's list. On top of that, there's no backup catcher in this mix (Teagarden, Ramirez, Toby Hall?) either, so that will bump one of the guys on this list to AAA.

Elvis made $400,000 in 2009, and Julio Borbon has a major league salary too. He signed a 4 year major league deal that started in 2007. 2010 is the final year of that. The total value of that contract is $1.3 Million, but the breakdown of that is unknown to me. A straight breakdown of Borbon's contract is a $325,000 payment, but I find it hard to believe that would be his 2010 salary, as it's under minimum.

I also find it unlikely that Brandon Boggs & Esteban German will start the year with the big club, and probably Luis Mendoza, too, so the "holes to fill" is probably larger than that. I know their salary counts towards the total club salary obligations, but I believe Maury's article talks totally about 25 man opening day roster, not total obligations.

As long as we're talking about obligations, we do have some dead money on the books this year. Most of it is for actual players playing elsewhere that we owe money to somewhat. They are:

• Kevin Millwood - The Rangers are picking up $3 Million of his 2010 salary in Baltimore.
• Frank Catalanotto - Who just today signed with the Mets, we owe $2 million for a buyout of his contract.
• Vicente Padilla - $1.75 Million for his contract buyout

And then there's Alex Rodriguez. Lest you think his optout from a couple of years ago removed our obligation to him, think again. All that relieved us from was the money we'd have to send to the Yankees for the opted out years of the contract (of which 2010 would have been the final year had it still be in play). No, there's a still a messy (and it's messy to figure out) issue of deferred money.

The best I can figure, we owe Alex Rodriguez $3 Million in 2010 as part of deferred money. I know a lot of the Rangers' obligation went away when he voided the last year of his original contract (which would have been THIS season), but at the time there was some noise made about us still owing some small amount from the voided years (not the years that had happened in TX & NYY). There is still the deferred money from the original years which we're on the hook for. The original payout plan for that was for it to not be over until 2025, but in looking at it now, I think that deferred money came due earlier, and I think - but am not 100% positive that 2010 is the last year we have to pay for Arod. It's confusing, because Texas owed deferred money from the original years of the voided contract. When he was traded to NY, the terms were rejiggered a bit to reduce the load on deferred money TX owes. When the contract was voided, I'm a little unclear as to whether the years we owed deferred money was changed (to us being done in 2010), or if there are two separate piles of deferred money Texas is paying on. I think, but am not sure, that the voided years also had deferred money that were attached to them that are owed, despite the base salary not being owed.

Having said ALL of this, our salary looks to be right about what it was last year on opening day, which was $68,178,798. Maury's article says our 2010 opening day payroll will be $3.25 million less than 2009, but if you add the dead money for Alex Rodriguez into the mix, it's pretty much a wash.

We'll find out before opening day how it all plays out, obviously. But it's still confusing somewhat. :)

Hopefully this is nothing, but... read this tonight over at Maury Brown's excellent bizofbaseball site on the Rangers sale.

While I expect this is just one of those legal bumps, one can never quite tell truthfully. I've seen so many fans around the metroplex hail what was announced over the weekend as the endgame. A lot of it reminded me of the rather boneheaded move Dubya made some years ago with his "Mission Accomplished" speech. Fans are saying "here comes the money" and doing dances, claiming Ben Sheets is coming right behind this announcement. These seem like the same kind of fans that call in to post game shows and go "when are we getting some pitching in here?" Where's Steve Busby when you need him?

Anyway, I won't get truly excited about this until the keys are handed over.

For the majority of Texas Rangers fans, the statement from Hicks Sports Group saying that a sales agreement between HSG and a group of investors headed by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan was a sign that the end had finally come, new owners were on the way.

But, in a case where Hicks Sports Group debt is still hanging over the heads of the Rangers, there's a chance that the deal may not meet the muster of HSG's biggest lender.

One of the final steps in the process includes approval from the 40 creditors that HSG is in debt to before approval from MLB. As reported by Daniel Kaplan of the SportsBusiness Journal, Monarch Alternative Capital, a hedge fund that now owns $100 million of the $525 million of debt that Tom Hicks has incurred may be a deciding factor in the sale. Monarch Alternative Capital is known as a "distressed debt buyer" or in more unflattering terms, a "predator" that looks to "buy debt at a discount from banks that hold defaulted loans and then hopes to make more by selling the assets."

Because Monarch is in the business of extracting as much of a profit as possible in these types of deals, they could have a considerable say in the matter. As reported by the SBJ:

Monarch saying no to a deal that guarantees it a sure amount of cash could be considered an unlikely scenario, but sources are painting a picture of Monarch as being willing to go to the mat if it thinks it is not getting every penny it should.

It has been reported from multiple sources that the bid from Houston businessman, Jim Crane, was higher than the Greenberg-Ryan bid. It is unknown if Crane would be allowed back into the bidding process, should Monarch Alternative Capital not approve of the deal that the Greenberg-Ryan group has on the table.

Hey gang, it's been awhile since I've had a baseball update - this is my first "real" baseball post of 2010. The last thing I posted was the day that Kevin Millwood was traded, and that was about a month ago. A few things have happened since then, so I'll have a few thoughts on the stories that have happened since the last time I posted.

I also need to get in gear for spring, as camp starts in about a month (give or take a few days). I need to get my roster pages in shape, finish entering the 2010 schedule into the site, and update the known uniform numbers for my uniform number history pages. Thanks again for visiting, and sticking around. This will be my 12th season since this site started. Still enjoy doing it, although I've found it harder and harder to devote time to the site like I'd want to. Second kid has something to do with that. :) Anyway, here goes...

Dec 8 - Pudge to Nationals: In a move that probably surprised everyone except Scott Boras, Pudge made another cash grab and signed with the Washington Nationals for two years and $6 Million dollars. That's a lot for Pudge in 2010. It's not like he's awful, but a lot of that has to be for "Pudge", not Ivan Rodriguez, current mlb player. I remember saying when we traded for him that you'd better enjoy it as he wasn't going to be here in 2010. Well, he's not. This isn't a total I told you so, because in the days leading up to this signing, I thought we had a shot at bringing him back, especially with the questions around Salty's health. Then he Boras'ed the salary base for old backup catchers, we had no hope on that one.

Dec 10 - Rangers sign Rich Harden: To replace the departed Kevin Millwood, the Rangers took a flyer on Rich Harden. As it's been stated, Harden has the potential to be totally stellar. His stuff is incredible, but like a lot of guys, he has issues staying on the field. If somehow we can solve his health problems, this will be a steal for us, as the deal is just for $6.5 Million for 2010. There's an $11M option for 2011 with a $1M buyout. But that's less of a concern. If we can get out of him what he's capable of (and he's only 28 years old. It could work out incredibly, but it quite equally has major flameout potential. One to keep an eye on, but I like the signing.

Dec 11 - Josh Lewin to return as announcer: Josh's contract was due to be up I believe on Dec 31st, and he was signed to a one year deal for 2010. Amusingly enough, the press release for this states that there is an "option" for 2011. Does it have a buyout figure? Since when did announcers get "options" like that? One of the big keys to this was the fact that he'd miss fewer games for the Rangers when going away to do Chargers games in September. I can't recall if there was a specific limit to said missed games or not, but it was something that always bugged me. I'm no Lewin hater (as there are a lot of in DFW), but his shtick has started to grate as the years go on. I can't see him as an Ernie Harwell, or a Vin Scully, or a Harry Kalas type. The kind that stays in one place for 30 years. My guess is he'll be gone within a few. I have no facts to back that up, just a "gut feeling".

Dec 12 - Esteban German signed: The Rangers signed Esteban to a one year, $600,000 contract (if in majors; just $200k if in minors) for 2010. Next.

Dec 19 - Lowell trade dead: After much back and forth, a proposed trade of AAA C Max Ramirez to the Red Sox for Mike Lowell was killed after Lowell was in town, and failed the physical. Granted, the Sox were rumored to be paying $9M of Lowell's $12M salary for 2010, but it still struck me as "why are we helping them with a salary dump?" Lowell by all accounts is a nice guy, I'm sure the intangible stuff would have been fine, but I couldn't imagine he'd be THAT big of a deal offensively. I didn't much care either way about this one, and the trade's cancellation didn't bother me.

Dec 21 - Darren Oliver Returns: Again. That makes the third player in the "three time tenured Rangers player club", which also includes Bill Haselman & Kenny Rogers. The second time Oliver was here wasn't the greatest of times. He still seemed a bit confused as to whether or not he wanted to be a reliever or a starter. Never seemed to grasp both. However, I seem to recall him starting to put together the relieving career that would serve him well in Anaheim. He's been well traveled inbetween Rangers stints 2 & 3, having also pitched in Boston (02), Colorado (03), Houston (04), NY Mets (06), and the Angels (07-09). Still, I think most everyone sees this as a good move. Just don't try using him as a starter again. Side note, if the Rangers make the playoffs in 2010, Darren will turn 40 during that time.

Dec 26 - Guardado to Nationals: In a move I can only comprehend as "veteran bullpen guy to mentor", Eddie Guardado signed with the Nationals. So much for being run down and wanting to retire.

Dec 31 - Marlon Byrd to Cubs: In a move that probably surprised nobody, Marlon Byrd won't be a Ranger in 2010. I think both sides really did want him to return, but he was apparently squeezed out in a money play due to the sale of the club. Shame, as he was a fan favorite. I do have to admit that when I heard the news, I had to do a Birdman wave on my sofa one last time. :) While the Cubs didn't overpay for Byrd nearly the way that Anaheim did for Sarge Jr a couple of years ago, I did see a lot of noise nationally about whether or not Byrd is cut out to be a 162 game type player. He is staying with Rudy Jaramillo, who is also a Cub. I hope he does well there. Just not against my Phillies.

Jan 8 - Salty cleared to play: Salty was cleared to resume baseball activities again. It's expected he'll be ready to go once camp starts in a month. If he's healthy, it will probably help a bit, but I wonder if we're still going to try and get some veteran help at catcher just in case. His problems throwing last year were awful to watch, I hope his surgery around the end of last season has fixed those problems. Also hopefully Clint Hurdle can work on his swing, as he seemed to have lost his way offensively. Could have also been injuries, who really knows? Just need him to be better than last year for sure.

Jan 10 - Khalil Greene signed: To replace Omar Vizquel, who perplexingly went to the White Sox, the Rangers dipped into the free agent pool and fished out former phenom Khalil Greene. Greene is mostly known for playing for the Padres, where he was touted as the next in line in the Jeter / Garciaparra / Arod line. Maybe not THAT high profile, but he was a big name. Then he flamed out, and ended up with the Cardinals in 2009, where he spent time away from the club with what amounted to "a head case". It was officially labeled as a "social anxiety disorder". Uh, what? Not sure what to make of that. Provided his head is right, he should be a good veteran backup.

Jan 11 - Vlad Guerrero signed: Due to the failed trade for Mike Lowell, the Rangers were still after a right handed power bat for the middle of the lineup. Given what was available in the free agent market, he was by far the best fit of the available options. To be honest, if they were after a left handed guy, I wanted them to sign Jack Cust. But it was an RH they needed, so Vlad was the way to go. I've liked Vlad for a long time - way before he was really known. For some reason that I can't recall now, I hooked onto him as a great player back in Montreal. Loved his arm in right, was a total cannon. He could wallop the ball like there was no tomorrow. I loved seeing him play. I'd tune in to Astros games when they played the Expos just so I could see Vlad. Have always liked him. In 2010, he's not what he was, his legs have broken down, so he's going to be mostly restricted to DH duties. I'm sure he'll play more in the field than the two games he played there in 2009. But really, he's the DH. I've never been a big fan of a permanent DH, I prefer using that spot to rotate guys in, give them rests, etc. Still, if you have to have one, might as well have a guy who can hit a ball out of the ballpark after it's bounced out in front of the plate. This should go well, provided he can stay healthy (where have Ranger fans heard that line before?)

Overall, it's not been an awful off season, all things considered. We did have some moves to talk about. Given how hamstrung the team could have been given the off season front office dance, I'm generally happy with the moves we've made. I don't think any of them takes us backwards at all. We just need our pitchers to keep improving like they did last year.

The division is far more wide open, as Anaheim has taken some major roster hits (of which we have two), so they've come back. Seattle has improved a heck of a lot. I mean they're seriously better, and Oakland? Well, it's the usaul Oakland story. So I think the division is winnable for sure. I'm not going to homer it and call the Rangers a favorite, because they're not. The divison should be much closer than in recent years, and if things break right, yeah, we could win it.

Bring on the games.

P.S. Did I forget anything major in the moves department since Millwood was traded? Someone usually reminds me of that after I've posted.

History has a way of repeating itself, doesn't it?

Hey. I've been out of it the last week with some personal stuff relating to attempting to get work again (unemployed for seven months SUCKS).

Anyway, ran across this article today on Chuck Greenberg and the Rangers. It's written by my friend Maury Brown over at bizofbaseball.com, and sizes up how the sale of the team finished. Yeah, I know, it's not "finished", but I'm referring to the bidding part. Make sure and read it, it's got some lovely goodness in there. Plus a picture of Greenberg with Penguins star Sidney Crosby. Heh. :)

I'll be back before Christmas with some updates.

Well, Kevin Millwood was traded today. He was our "Number 1" starter for a couple of years now, and spent four seasons in a Rangers uniform. I always liked Kevin from his days in Philadelphia, and while he was never a guy who would mow down everyone, he was if nothing else a fairly regular pitcher. Oh, he spent a little time on the DL, but for the most part he was a pretty consistent pitcher. I won't say I'll lose sleep over him leaving, but I won't exactly try and kick him out the door, as I know some people wanted to do. So Kevin was moved to Baltimore, who from what I can gather will serve as their veteran "mentor" starter. Kind of what he was like here. I also thought his "southern drawl" fit in well here, too. Don't know why, maybe it's because I'm originally from up North, it just worked for me.

When I first heard about this trade, my thoughts were "Uh, does that make Scott Feldman our #1? After just one really good season like that it seems a bit dicey, doesn't it?" Then the word came down a little while later we were bringing in Rich Harden. I'll talk about Harden more in his own post after he actually signs, so I'm not nearly as panicy as say oh, I don't know Kurt Cockran might have been about that. Sorry Kurt. :)

We get Chris Ray back. Ray was the Orioles' closer not too long ago. Did some nice work for me in a fantasy league one year. But he had surgery and was out all of 2008, and was horrible in what he did on the field in 2009. I see this as a pure salary dump so they could get Harden in here. If Ray doesn't work out, no big deal. We also get a PTBNL as well, who will be the guy the Orioles select in the Rule 5 draft tomorrow.

Anyway, I'll be sad to see Kevin go. Always liked him, but it definitely was the first cog in several other moves being talked about in Indy. Those other ones are the signing of Rich Harden (likely announced tomorrow - $6.5M & 3.5M in incentives, plus 11M option for 11 with $1M buyout), and some talk of us sending Max Ramirez to Boston for Mike Lowell (and a boatload of cash, I assume).

More tomorrow on these other moves.

One final thing about Kevin Millwood. My contract notes for him state that he's due a $15 million "signing bonus", which is payable from 2011-2015. We're rumored to be sending $3 Million to Baltimore for Kevin's 2010 salary. I wonder how much of the $15 million bonus money we're still on the hook for? Anyone with more knowledge than me know? Jamey? Evan?

Today I read an article showing in detail what all the players playoff shares are. You see team names on there you'd expect. Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers. Those all make sense.

But at the bottom of the list is the Texas Rangers. Apparently finishing second in your division (and being a non Wild Card team), also affords you a playoff piece. Granted, it's way smaller, but it just seems weird to see the Rangers pop up in the list of playoff share money. Just seemed weird.

Anyway, here's the numbers for the Rangers...

(Share of Players' Pool: $590,731.16; value of each full share: $9,276.38) - The Rangers awarded 58 full shares, 5.25 partial shares and 4 cash awards.

The first batch of items for the off season have happened.

Marlon Byrd: On the first day of free-agent eligibility, Marlon Byrd filed. No surprise there, he probably deserves a decent paycheck. As we all know, there's been a lot of noise about him wanting to stay, but whether he remains is unknown. It's down to money, and the fact that there is a logjam coming behind him. Don't know how long we'd want to commit. There's just too many variables now. There's some talk that should we not bring back Byrd, they might sign Jermaine Dye as a replacement. That would have to be a single year deal.

Omar Vizquel: Some talk that Vizquel might re-sign here to be a backup again in 2010. I have to say, he seriously surprised me. He never failed to produce as a backup, never complained about playing time, he was awesome. If he came back next year and produced the same way, I don't think anyone would complain about that. Plus he'd probably be cheap, so I say do it.

Sale of Club: No updates that I'm aware of. Everyone's been talked to. Not sure what the actual next move is.

Pudge: There was a lot of talk at the end of the season about there being interest on both sides for Pudge to come back, even if everyone is healthy, catching wise. The rangers article today says that they now want to see how Salty is doing. Bummer. I want Pudge back without thinking about other guys.

Starting Rotation: There's also talk today that both CJ Wilson & Neftali Feliz are candidates for the starting rotation. Feliz is not a surprise,really - that's what he was in the minors. CJ Wilson briefly started early in his career, but hasn't done that for awhile. Is our starting 5 so weak that we're looking at moving TWO relievers in there? Eek!

Guys not coming back: Hank Blalock & Andruw Jones are done. They're not being pursued apparently. Eddie Guardado is likely retiring, and who knows about Joaquin Benoit. The major paper and web stories label him as "in limbo". What the heck does that mean - really? His contract is technically up, I think. Benoit had figured it out before he got hurt, and he is by far the longest tenured Ranger. Not sure who that would be at the moment if he was let go.

UPDATE: Just as I was about to publish this on my site, I saw the story on the official Rangers site that the following Rangers have officially filed for free agency: Ivan Rodriguez, Hank Blalock, Marlon Byrd, Eddie Guardado, & Joaquin Benoit. None of these are surprises, and all are covered above, but the official announcement has been made.

Well, Rudy Jaramillo's successor has been named, and it's not Rusty Greer. It's Clint Hurdle. I don't know a lot about Clint Hurdle, but if you read the article on the Rangers site about him, there's this quote..

the importance of a team-first mentality

There was some noise at the end of the season about Jaramillo's mentality being too much for the three run home run. I don't know how true that is, but the "team first" mentality quote plays off those remarks. I can't add anything profound about Hurdle, as I don't know jack about him, but let's hope he turns out OK. Probably won't make anything worse.

The one question I want to know is what uniform number will he wear? :)

Read an article this evening saying that Hicks might have six offers for sale of the Rangers. This is not surprising, as all indicators seem to be that the team will change ownership hands this coming off-season. Assuming that's legit, this would just be part of that process, and itself isn't newsworthy, but I haven't seen any hard news in a little bit since that bru-ha-ha I started by reporting what I heard on XM about MLB loaning Hicks money for payroll.

Anyway, the only offer I care about is the one from Nolan Ryan, or at least the one that Nolan Ryan is involved in, and the one that will result in Nolan Ryan being the primary owner.

This is all amusing timing, as I got an email this morning from Ranger fan "Darren", asking me this.

Joe, They (Dunham & Miller) have been talking about moving the Rangers this morning. Are you hearing it?

I wrote him back saying that I had not, as I don't care for the Ticket at all, and never listen. Did anyone else hear this? Since I did not, I can't directly comment on what they said. I wonder if it was actual talk about the team moving (like news), or was it just them speculating on what might happen if finances don't get any better? Let me know what happened here.

To top this all off, it's interesting to add that I heard on the radio yesterday driving to the doubleheader a report saying that AAA Round Rock might become the Rangers new AAA affiliate once the contract for RR & OKC expire after the 2010 season.

Gee, would that work out for Nolan Ryan owning the Rangers and owning one of their minor league affiliates, eh? :)

I think most people expected this to be the last time we saw Pudge in a Rangers uniform.

That picture was from his last Rangers home game where it was expected by everyone (if not officially) that it was the end of his Rangers tenure. Well, that's not the case. After spending time with the Florida Marlins, the Detroit Tigers, the New York Yankees (shudder), and the Houston Astros, the Rangers re-acquired him today in a trade with Houston for two "mid level" prospects. As I write this (1:44PM), the prospects haven't been named yet. We're also apparently responsible for the remainder of his $1.5 million salary for 2009. A pretty good bargain.

UPDATE: Several unconfirmed stories are now saying that it's an A-ball pitcher named Matt Nevarez plus a PTBNL.

UPDATE 2: It's apparently Nevarez and Jose Vallejo, although Vallejo is technically being classified as a PTBNL, due to some waiver technicalities. Furthermore, Jamey Newberg is saying that if the Rangers make the playoffs, we'll owe the Astros a third PTBNL player.

All the stories I've read have said that Pudge has been told Taylor Teagarden is the #1 catcher, and Pudge is being brought in as a backup. That probably will work out fine, and when he's added to the roster, one would expect Kevin Richardson is headed back to the minors.

While the romantic Rangers fan will love this move, I can't expect it's for any more than this season. Yeah, the veteran leadership issue will be well covered with this move, but in 2010, I can't see where Pudge will fit, so we'd better win the World Series now, as I cannot imagine why Pudge would re-sign here next year, nor why we'd make him an offer. Enjoy the last couple of months Rangers fans, as this is likely it for Pudge with the Rangers.

Having said all that.. I hope he is catching on Thursday night, as I'll be at the game. I want to see him again! :)

He got to see Feliz in action. Then got sad. Check it out.

So, Vicente Padilla was designated for assignment. I think most everyone assumed he'd be here through the end of the season, and there'd be zero chance they'd pick up his option for 2010. He was out of here at the end of the season. However, his actions in the Oakland series probably sealed his fate.

With his favorite beanball target of a team coming up (Anaheim), I suspect the move was made to get rid of him before anything worse happened. During his time here, he developed a reputation of being a headhunter. It's known I follow the Phillies too, and I don't recall him being a beanball pitcher there. No idea what he was like in Arizona. I went back and found this article (and this one) from Beerleaguer (one of my fav Phillies sites) about Padilla being moved here, and while the gist of it was "good riddance", I can't find any specifics about why he had worn out his welcome in Philadelphia. I remember hearing at the time it was a "we don't care if we get a bag of beans for him, move him out".

So he comes here, is decent, if not stellar, and as time moves on, seems to have developed a reputation of throwing at guys. I know there's a lot made out of players who will "defend their players" and all that, but Pidente down here seems to be the guy who starts it, not the guy who retaliates.

Read this morning a lot of quotes from players saying it was a good move. Marlon Byrd came out and said "It's about time", and the DMN's article talks about how several players were thanking GM Jon Daniels in the clubhouse after it had happened. I didn't realize he was quite THAT unliked in the clubhouse.

From a baseball side, he had one good month this year - May. Since his waiver move awhile back, he hasn't been lights out, except for maybe the first start after that. Since the All-Star break, I read where his ERA is over 6. We're putting Dustin Nippert in the rotation in his place, but Nippert or anyone else we might throw in there won't do any worse, and the headgames Padilla can bring is probably something we could do without. Again, Daniels portrayed him as a bad teammate, so conjuring up memories of Sidney Ponson, a pitcher that was not pitching THAT poorly was moved out for the good of the team's "chemistry". But with us having a decent shot at making the playoffs, we figured we were better off without him. Ouch.

Heck, even his name doesn't get respect. The DMN article this morning printed his name as Vincent Padilla, and last night, Fox Sports Southwest in their news crawl had his name spelled as Vincente Padilla. Of course, that doesn't compare to the old Harry Kalas story. One time the late great Philly broadcaster referred to him as Vicente Pidente, which is the reason I called Padilla that. This is probably one of the last times I'll ever get to use the word Pidente on this site, and that alone is a reason I'll miss him. But probably the only one. hahaha.

One last thing. I know still pictures taken of a very moving event can lie. I am well aware of that fact. However, in looking for pictures of Padilla, I ran across the brawl pictures from Sep 16, 2007 with Oakland. I ran into this one. It looks like that even during a brawl that Pidente seemed on the outside not with his teammates (yeah, I know that's not really what is going on, it just looks that way).

UPDATE: After I wrote all this, I saw an article with remarks from Padilla saying he was "disappointed" in the move. What pitcher would say "Yeah, it's probably good they got rid of me"?

Saw a comment on another baseball blog about Vicente Padilla having swine flu. The remark the guy made at the bottom made me laugh. Check it out:

Nolan Ryan is probably on the phone to him right now telling him to suck it up and pitch through it.

hahahahahahaha. :)

Which of these things do you believe Nelson Cruz enjoyed more?

I'd have to say meeting Obama. The picture comes from the site of the photographer David Bergman. I started following this guy around the time of Obama's inauguration, because the guy took one hellaciously cool photo (1,474 megapixels!) of the inauguration. Anyway, this particular photo was taken from several he took the other night in St. Louis. Check out Bergman's site, he has a great story about Obama and the players; he mentions Cruz by name with... "It was fun to see major league players like Curtis Granderson and Nelson Cruz getting autographs and shooting cell phone pictures."

I was driving around today listening to XM's "MLB Home Plate" talk shows, and heard something that seems like epic level news. A caller called in and mentioned that Tom Hicks & the Texas Rangers failed to make payroll yesterday. They said that MLB had to step in and give the team $15 million to make payroll. Whether that was office payroll or player payroll, they weren't clear.

But Kevin Kennedy who was the host said he had several personal ties in the orginazation, going back to his days here (so he said). He claimed he knew something about the situation, and was quite sure that the team "would be in different hands this coming offseason".

Now we knew Hicks was trying to sell controlling interest (PLEASE PLEASE - Mr Ryan..), but this was the first I heard of real money problems like not being able to make player payroll. Kennedy said this wouldn't affect day to day operations, because MLB has a fund set up for things like this, but he did say it probably would affect who could be brought in at the trading deadline, that we couldn't take on much (if any) salary.

This is the first I've heard of it. Either I missed something bigtime in local reporting, or nobody's talking about it. Surely I'm not the first person in DFW to mention this?

This story surprised me. Read this morning an article about Marlon Byrd getting supplements from the guy who used to run BALCO.

The article goes on to mention Byrd has not tested positive for anything. The article also mentions Scott Feldman by name too, but nothing wrong there either.

I have to wonder why someone would get involved with the BALCO guy given Barry Bonds, Game of Shadows, and all that stuff.

Don't know if you've seen these before, but I was just told about a few cool stories.

One is from the print magazine Guideposts, and it's a cover story about Josh Hamilton. It's a story any Rangers fan will already know, but it's a great story and is worth checking out again. Gotta praise God for that story!

The other is an interview with CJ Wilson done by the site "The Hall of Very Good". You can check that one out here, which includes the fact that CJ doesn't use an iPhone, which is a bit of a surprise to me.

The Hall site also recently ran a nice article looking at the career of Omar Vizquel. Check that out, too.

As those who read my site know, I'm not the most knowledgeable about the minor leagues. I know some names, but I don't get into the minutae of every prospect that comes down the pike. Still, here's who we got on Day 1:

1 - 14: Matt Purke, LHP (same school as David Murphy)
1 - Supp: Tanner Scheppers, RHP (Pick awarded for loss of Milton Bradley)
2 - 62: Tommy Mendonca, 3B (Fresno? Nobody goes to Fresno anymore!)
3 - 93: Robbie Erlin, LHP

As for the details... I will defer as usual to Jamey Newberg. He's the Rangers minor league guru, and if you haven't read his report on yesterday's draft, you need to. You can get to it here:

http://newberg.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/06/day_one_of_the_draft_bold_busi.html

UPDATE: As I was writing this, the news flash came in that the Rangers drafted Ruben Sierra's son, aptly named "Ruben Sierra" in the sixth round as a center fielder.

Travis Metcalf was claimed today by the Kansas City Royals. It's a shame he got out, as I really think he deserved a shot to be our starting 3B in 2009. He was squeezed out in a 40 man roster situation, not too dissimilar to the way that Doug Davis was squeezed out a few years back.

Hopefully he gets some real time to play with the Royals. Nice guy, hope he does well.

We also signed Esteban German back in a counter move. German played some backup for us back in 2005.

Well, I'll cheat, and use the text out of the official press release...

• Designated infielder Travis Metcalf for assignment
• Placed right-handed pitchers Joaquin Benoit and Eric Hurley on the 60-day disabled list, effective today
• Placed right-handed pitchers Willie Eyre (retroactive to March 27) and Dustin Nippert (retroactive to March 27) on the 15-day disabled list
• Purchased the contracts of infielder Elvis Andrus, right-handed pitcher Kris Benson, left-handed pitcher Eddie Guardado, right-handed pitcher Jason Jennings, outfielder Andruw Jones, and infielder Omar Vizquel from Triple-A Oklahoma City
• Reassigned catcher Emerson Frostad and right-handed pitcher Derrick Turnbow to minor league camp

The inclusion of Metcalf is disappointing, I really thought he could have been an option at 3B this year. I'm sure they'll try and squeeze him through waivers and outright him to AAA. I would normally expect him to never make it through, but doing it at this time of the year we stand a chance since everyone else is dealing with their own 40 man roster issues.

I still am not sold on the Kris Benson experiment. I think he's a 5.80 ERA 1-4 record in April waiting to happen. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

Andruw Jones cost us Frank Catalanotto, who had kind of become a lost man anyway, so hopefully Jones is good enough to make us forget that move.

We shall see how this all works out, but even if it's a guy you hate, you always want to see them on the first base lineup on opening day. That's what will happen tomorrow. Can't wait! :)

Today there was a bunch of roster moves made. I'll add a few words on them..

Tommy Hunter was optioned to AA Frisco. A lot of guys are high on this guy, and he seems like a nice enough guy to me, but when he pitched for us in 2008 (only three times for an ERA of 16.36), I felt he was not ready. I'll give this an "incomplete" rating (not that I'm rating 'em all).

Joaquin Arias optioned to AAA. There was some noise this week about him possibly being moved, but I didn't really think that was happening. His injuries have bumped him down the pecking order, and had they not done the thing with moving Young to 3B, I could have seen Arias here being the backup infielder. However, they did move Young, wich brought up Elvis, which brought in Vizquel as mentor. I get the feeling we'll never see Arias here full time unless there's a major breakdown of someone. He's tradebait eventually I suspect, but not now - it wouldn't be selling high, I think.

Brandon Boggs optioned to AAA. Man, he caught fire when he first came up last year, didn't he? Stuck around for awhile, but isn't the "stud" name you'd expect. Probably pushed out by Andruw Jones, I would think.

Doug Mathis reassigned to minor league camp. Eight appearances in 2008 (four starts; 6.85 ERA). Kind of like Hunter, but I got the impression he was more "cooked" than Hunter was. Again, nice guy, got hurt, moved down the pecking order due to injury time off, I'm guessing.

Netfali Feliz & Derek Holland reassigned to minor league camp. Uh, not yet, guys.

And Frank Catalanotto. He was placed on irrevocable release waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release. That is a rather wordy way of saying "Bye!". I know it's not as cold as that. I told my wife they released Cat tonight, and she seemed surprised by that (but she doesn't really follow the team too closely). In explaining it to her, I said something like "Well, when he came back, it was a great time for Cat. At that time, we needed his bat back, but he quickly got passed over by a bunch of other young kids, and eventually got squeezed out." His contract probably kept him from being formally traded, but he's in the same boat now that Adam Eaton, Andruw Jones, Geoff Jenkins, & Gary Sheffield are in. Someone else is going to be paying big bucks to play elsewhere. Catalanotto's waiver period actually expires on opening day, so he's in limbo between now and the start of the season. Unless he's claimed on waivers in the meantime, he's not going to be on an opening day roster. He'll get a job somewhere, but I doubt he'll have a starting job again in he majors. Shame, as he can still hit, but he seemed squeezed out here for sure. He did have a contractual clause in his current contract which stated this.. "If Frank has 500 plate appearances in 2009, or 1000 combined plate appearances in 2008 and 2009, the option jumps to $5.5 million and the buyout to $2.25 million." If he goes somewhere and does get the 500 at bats, I wonder if we'll be on the hook for the additional money, too. I couldn't find anything online about it, and I asked a few people about it, and they didn't know either. Any contract experts out there know anything about this?

As we wave goodbye to Frank Catalanotto, I think this picture taken at a game in Anaheim some years ago is appropriate.

Speaking of big bucks to play elsewhere, don't forget, we still are paying money to Alex Rodriguez to play in New York. Not as much as we had been before due to his opt-out, but we still are. That knaws at you just a little, doesn't it?

I'll have more to say about the final opening day roster once the big bomb of roster moves are made to accommodate all the guys moving on and off the 25 man & 40 man rosters.

In a move that's not totally unexpected, the Rangers today announced that George W. Bush will throw out the first pitch at a Rangers game. I'm surprised he never did this when he was the sitting President of the United States. I know he threw out the first pitches at several other teams games (Yankees after 9/11, Nationals come to mind too), but never here. I know Dick Cheney did that once, I was there.

The security for Cheney's appearance was insanely tight. I recall when I got there seeing a lot of extra helicopters flying around the stadium. Every entrance into the lower seating bowl had metal detectors, and it was in your best interest to stay there. It made just getting to your seat a nightmare due to the metal detectors in use. I found out that day that if you were not in the seating bowl when Cheney came on the field, the secret service stopped people from entering. I'm going to guess the same deal will be in play here, so don't be doing the "Gotta go to the bathroom" or "I want to go get this pretzel before he comes out". If you care about seeing Dubya, sit your backside down in your chair and stay there. Granted, that's what you should be doing ANYWAY.. :) When Cheney was there, a guy sitting a row away from me was complaining about the security, so I know people were held out when they wanted to see him. Find your seat and stay there before the opening ceremonies get started.

Normally opening day is a fiasco with traffic. Last year it took me TWO HOURS to get home from opening day (almost a full hour to get to I30 from the Ballpark). I expect things to be a lot worse this year with Dubya and all the Secret Service extra security going on.

I do wonder how strong the boos will be. Yeah, it's Texas and all that, but he left office as a pretty unpopular president.

I looked through my photo archives, I found a pic of the home opener in 2000 where the elder George Bush threw out the first pitch. I'll probably get some better pics than this, as my digital camera has gotten a lot better in nine years. :)

According to TR Sullivan, the Rangers have released Jimmy Gobble. That means that CJ Wilson & Eddie Guardado are probably the lefthanders we'll open the season with out of the pen. We'll probably be seeing a lot more of these things over the next few days, as opening day is next Monday, and there's still a gaggle of NRI's in camp.

Did anyone happen to catch what uniform number he was wearing? The Rangers site said he wore #94, which I find hard to believe. Mostly because you don't usually give guys who have real major league experience a number like 94. Thanks.

A week ago or so I was contacted by a guy who runs a blog back in my hometown of Philly, but he was doing a series on all the teams. Anyway, he has been running his own thoughts as well as including text by some other blog writer. He contacted me about writing about the Rangers, and his preview is now online. Here's what I wrote for him:

• Letter Grade for Offseason Moves: I'm giving it an "I". The reason for that is if you go down our roster transactions, the Rangers signed not a single player to a major league contract. Every single one of them was a minor league NRI type of deal. The only person brought in that will have a direct impact on the major league staff is the new pitching coach. Mike Maddux by all accounts so far has done a great job in getting the message across. How well that translates though is unknown. We've had something like seven different pitching coaches in the last eight years or so, so I'm hopeful this can work.

As for actual players? That's the true "Incomplete", given only a couple of them are likely to break camp (the most likely being Vizquel, Donnelly, Guardado, & Turnbow), and most of them never seen again, it's really hard to go here. Technically Elvis Andrus is an NRI too, but he's essentially been annointed the SS heir apparent, so I don't know if that counts. I don't think Andruw Jones will break, given the guys already here, I can't see where he fits.

So "Incomplete" is my grade.

• Most Essential: I'm going with Brandon McCarthy. As with most teams, what's essential is pitching. The Rangers won't have any problems scoring runs, but what will determine our success is how our pitching does. Millwood and Padilla you know what you're gonna get, and we're sending out three "kids" (relatively speaking) behind them in the rotation. Of the guys they're saying are going to be in the rotation, I think Brandon McCarthy needs to be what we sent John Danks to the White Sox for. Since he's been here, he's been "meh" (to be kind). It appears that he's turned the corner, and might have figured it out based on what we've seen so far in camp.

So I think you need McCarthy to do well. That would be three decent (if not awesome) starting pitchers, and once you get to 3 of 5, you get that feeling that "maybe this can work". 2 of 5 makes you feel like there's too many holes, but get over that hump with the third, and you feel you can carry the rest. Or I do. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my feeling.

• Breakout Potential: Pitching wise, I'm gonna say Matt Harrison. At the back end of last season he looked pretty good. He's one of the guys we got (stole) from Atlanta in the Mark Teixeira deal, and he came over as a good prospect. He's had flashes of brilliance during his time here, but at the end of last season, you got this "feeling" that perhaps he might be a guy set to go something like 15 or 16 wins and 7 losses. Can't quantify this with "facts", it's mostly a gut feeling. But then prediction kind of pieces like this are all gut feeling, aren't they? :)

Offensive wise, I think it's a tie between Chris Davis & Ian Kinsler. I think if Ian Kinsler hadn't gotten hurt, he would have challenged Dustin Pedroia for the MVP (Hello Evan). Kinsler doesn't get the coverage he deserves because he plays his home games in Arlington TX. But a full season of what he did in 2008 would take care of that. Chris Davis came up here mid last season and had 17 home runs and 55 RBI in just 80 games. A full season of that would qualify for a breakout season, I think. :)

• Prediction for 2009: 89-73, second place. Angels will still win, but not by as much as they have recently. Oakland's moves are good, and Seattle still needs a few years to get going again, although former Ranger coach Don Wakamatsu should help in that regard.

Greg thinks the Rangers will end up in last place with a record of 79-83. I don't agree with that at all. Granted, if you want to have a positive outlook on the Texas Rangers, you can't be an outsider, as the team likely does look like crap to an outsider.

Makes me wonder what John Hart has to say tomorrow on the Rangers entry on MLB Network's Rangers edition of "30 Teams in 30 Days". He knows the team, so there better be some love. :)

One of my favorite sites has posted their Texas Rangers edition of their "Offseason in Review" series. It's available online now.

I'm not going to copy their text here, but I will post their summary. Here's what they said in their "bottom line".

Knowing the fruits of his top-ranked farm system won't be realized in 2009, Jon Daniels held off on spending money this offseason. Veterans such as Blalock, Guardado, Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Frank Catalanotto, and Marlon Byrd may serve as midseason trade bait.

Eric Nadel announced on the radio a few minutes ago the first round of spring cuts.

Thomas Diamond & Kason Gabbard were sent to AAA camp.

Moscoso, Poveda, Vallejo reassigned to AAA camp. NRI's Daigle, Pena, Richardson reassigned to AAA camp.

Diamond I figured wouldn't be here until later in the year, so that's not a surprise. I'm mildly suprised (but not REALLY surprised) that Kason Gabbard was sent out on the first round of cuts. I thought Gabbard had a decent chance of breaking with the club.

Friend of mine from Seattle (Dave) will be bummed about that, as he was a big Gabbard fan when he was in Boston.

There's a new article about Michael Young's move to third base this spring up on ESPN.com today. Written by Jerry Crasnick, this article goes into a bunch of stuff that Rangers fans would already know, but it's nice to see it covered on a national stage. This quote in particular struck me as nice that Michael has that level of confidence about himself.

I don't expect [moving to third base] to be a difficult transition. If you can play short at a high level, you can play anywhere.

Let's also hope that this quote from Jon Daniels is the truth, and isn't just sugar coating to get the problem to go away so to speak..

"The way I look at it, he's been here for eight years, and he's going to be here for at least another five," Daniels said. "When you have a couple of rough weeks in a 15-year relationship, I think you're doing pretty well."

From the God is Good Department...

By now if you've read this site, you know about the Josh Hamilton story. Good kid goes bad, almost dies.. I gloss over that because if you're a Rangers fan, you know the story. It's a great story, and for me the best part of the story is not the recovery from drugs, but the fact that it was God that did it, and more importantly how far in front of himself Josh puts God and is not afraid to say it. So it's with great pleasure I tell people to read his book. I've handed my copy to a few people at my church and have had them read it. It's driven a couple of people to tears reading it. If you've never read it, you should.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this now is a show that is on tonight on MLB Network. It is the first of their originally produced documentaries, if you will. They're leading off with the Josh Hamilton piece. Officially, the episode is called "Josh Hamilton: Resurrecting the Dream", and will premiere tonight at 8PM local time here in Dallas. Here's a bit of text from the MLB.com press release..

Secaucus, N.J. - MLB Network today announced it will broadcast two original documentaries created by MLB Productions, both telling compelling comeback stories involving current MLB players. This Friday, February 27 at 9:00 p.m. ET, MLB Network will air Josh Hamilton: Resurrecting the Dream, a one-hour documentary on Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton - which takes an insider's look into Hamilton's journey back into baseball.

Josh Hamilton: Resurrecting the Dream recounts Hamilton's journey both in his own words and for the first time, from the perspectives of his family members and close friends. The program marks the first documentary ever produced on Hamilton, and takes a comprehensive look into Hamilton's substance-induced breakdown, personal recovery and eventual climb to become one of the top hitters in the American League. Personal passages from his autobiography are read by Hamilton himself to further contextualize his journey.

MLB.com is pretty anal about their online video, so I'd normally stream the commercial they are running for the show here in this article, but I can't (legally, anyway) do that. So I'm just going to link to it.

Check it out if you get a chance. MLB Network in their two months on the air so far has shown a tendency to repeat the heck out of their programming, so if you miss the initial showing tonight, you probably can catch it at some point in the future too, I would imagine. :)

Yeah, it's the charity game. It doesn't technically count in the spring training standings. But it is a game against another team. Here we go again!

Ian Kinsler, 2B
Michael Young, 3B
Josh Hamilton, CF
Nelson Cruz, RF
Hank Blalock, DH
David Murphy, LF
Chris Davis, 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Elvis Andrus, SS

It's been previously stated that the local Rangers coverage is carrying five games this year. That news is now a week or so old. However, today MLB Network published their broadcast schedule of games for spring training. They're running several games, but not all of them are live. A decent amount are live, but not all of them. The first thing I did was check the Rangers appearances.

They are listed as being on the schedule three times. March 14th, March 27th, and April 1st. Two of these three dates are already on the local TV broadcast schedule. The third (April 1st) was not. However, April 1st is the one game of the three that isn't live. According to the existing schedule, that game will be played at 1PM Central Time. The MLBN schedule says it will air at 4PM local time. If you can avoid the score until the game comes on MLBN, it is an additional game you can check out.

Another day, another few random comments from me about recent stories:

Josh Hamilton Quits Again: There was a story in the DMN on Monday about Josh giving up chewing tobacco at the request of his kids. I can't say I have a problem with that. The stuff is fairly disgusting, IMO. I've become a big fan of his. I have started passing his book around my church so people will know his story. Especially those that aren't big baseball fans. Might pull some of 'em in. :) Anyway, this line from the article was particularly effective at getting the point across:

"You know it's bad when your 3-year-old holds up a water bottle, and asks if daddy spit in this before she drinks out of it," said Hamilton, referring to his daughter Sierra. "That's when you know it's a problem."

What's more encouraging about that is Josh said he broke the habit by asking the elders of his church to lay hands on him and pray. That's great that he came to God to rid himself of a vice like that. God is Good!

Justin Smoak: You know, even if you do no research at all on the Rangers' minor leagues, you can't help but pick up on the guys who are going to be a big deal. By osmosis. Just being in the same town as Jamey Newberg, you just know the guys to watch out for even if you never saw or heard or read anything about them. That's the feeling I get about Smoak from Jamey. DMN had an article about him today. It had some seriously high praise for him, saying:

Special adviser Mel Didier, who has been in baseball more than 50 years, said Smoak is a more complete switch-hitter than Mickey Mantle and Mark Teixeira were at this stage.

Wow.

Michael Young Fourth: The intrasquad games played on Monday contained a surprise. Michael Young batting fourth. It's an interesting proposition, and something that I've always wondered about. When I was young and growing up, the thinking was that you put your best hitter fourth. That's why it's called "cleanup". The idea is that the first three guys would be on the bases, and the fourth, the guy MOST LIKELY to drive them in was the cleanup batter. Generally that's a big home run guy (for me it was Mike Schmidt), or at least it used to be. Generally fourth is still a power guy, but the cleanup slot has lost its prestige to the third slot. Somewhere along the line, it became the way things are done to put your best hitter third. Which is where Michael Young has been a lot the last few years. But he was fourth here. Granted, it's the first spring intrasquad game, so it's not a major deal here, but it's an intriguing proposition. With Bradley gone, we do need protection for Hamilton, I'll be curious to see if Michael young doesn't end up behind Hamilton once the real games get started.

Vernon Wells: Joey M over at BBtiA has a nice article about what might have happened had Vernon Wells decided to sign here a couple of years ago when he was a free agent. At the time it was WIDELY expected he would, being a local boy, and a friend of Michael Young's, but he stayed in Toronto. If he had signed here, I'd say we probably wouldn't have Josh Hamilton at this point.

Spring Video: The Ft Worth Star Telegram Baseball Blog ("Foul Territory") has been posting a lot of cool video of batting practice, impromptu interviews and the like. I'm not going to list them all, but there's some good stuff there. If you're reading this, then you probably know about it already, but just in case you didn't.. There you go.

Nelson Cruz: A lot of fans (myself included) seem to think that Cruz may have finally broken the AAAA label he had, and had the lightbulb go off. One hopes that it will stick with him. Rangers history is littered with guys who have great August and Septembers, but when it comes time for next season, stink up the joint. Cruz hit a grand slam in the intrasquad opener, which is a good sign, and is just one hit obviously, but it's a nice "oh please let that be real" moment. :)

Mailbag Stuff: The mailbag segment with TR Sullivan and the official site is back. While the usual moronic questions of "trade x for y" (without any thought given to the question) are at a minimum, I do have to say I was a bit disturbed by the thought that mlb.com thought it wasn't needed and had actually taken it away. With Even Grant's newsletter gone now, this is the only regular one like that Yeah, Jamey has started doing that, but his is less frequent. I wonder if the FTST will start doing this.

Two days to go until the first game on the radio! :)

In addition to the Anna Benson signing news, the Rangers also released their 2009 TV schedule. It's available as a pdf download from the Rangers site (not the usual webpage story). You can grab it here. I've decided to comment on some of the text contained within the press release.

First off, they say "the majority of" Rangers games will be broadcast in HD this season. As this will be my first full season with an HDTV, I'm interested in that. I am curious to see what "majority of" means, as that could mean anywhere from 82-161 games. We shall see. They also have not announced what games are HD yet.

Texas Rangers local television rights holder FOX Sports Southwest today announced the team's 2009 TV schedule. The 158-game local package includes an all-time high 133 games on FOX Sports Southwest, 24 over-the-air telecasts on KDFI My 27 in Dallas-Fort Worth

First off, the schedule says 158 game local package. The remaining four games are scheduled to be broadcast. One of them is on ESPN (May 3), and the other three are Saturday afternoon Fox National games (May 16, May 23, & Aug 8). So all 162 games are going to be on this year.

However, If I was viewing Rangers games on JUST rabbit ears (no cable or satellite), I'd be pissed at this. Of the 162, only 28 are on free over the air TV (24 on Ch 27, and 4 on Ch 4). Most of those are bunched towards the front end of the season, too. If you go look at my site's schedule page, you'll see the breakdown. Of those 28 over the air games, 7 are in April, 8 are in May, 7 are in June, zero in July, 1 in August, and 5 in Sep/Oct. It's pretty stacked towards the early part of the season. On top of that, after May 26th, every single free over the air game is a Saturday. While this doesn't affect me, if you're an older viewer who does rely only on rabbit years, you're moving to radio mostly, because you've just had a major dent put in your viewing.

Josh Lewin begins his eighth season as the television voice of the Rangers. He'll be joined by former Rangers player and general manager Tom Grieve, who is back for his 15th season as analyst. Jim Knox returns for his 10th season as roving reporter on home games.

Tom Grieve is quite good. Lewin I've kind of cooled on lately. While I don't actively dislike him like some of the other local fans do, I was kind of hoping Josh would take the San Diego job, and let Vic get promoted (although his new gig with MLB Network trumps this). Unfortunately, we are getting a 10th anniversary of Jim Knox. Ugh. I really really wish we wouldn't have dumped Craig Miller and John Rhadigan for Knox. This means another season of "It's the second inning, we go to Jim Knox", or translated "It's the second inning, reach for the Tivo skip while we talk to people in the Fox Box we couldn't care any less about".

John Rhadigan and Dana Larson host RANGERS LIVE with Ric Renner and Emily Jones reporting. RANGERS LIVE home game shows once again will originate from a set on the left field concourse level at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, giving fans attending games an opportunity to watch the live broadcasts in person.

Ric Renner is another guy that can go. He's too hyper annoying, and most of the people he interviews have this look of "Can we please get someone else?" Rhadigan, Larson, & Jones are all fine. Renner is another use of the TiVo skip button. I do wonder about the post game show, though. They had Mark McLemore on for a lot of those. I saw him turn up as an in studio analyst with MLB Network this past week. I wonder if that's his new gig.

The press release also talks about the ancillary shows they will be having again this season, including "Lunch with the Rangers", "Rangers Live" (pre & post game), and "Rangers Insider". In addition, there will be Rangers discussions on the Fox Sports shows "In My Own Words", "Spotlight", & "Under the Lights".

Finally, if you're not a Metroplex viewer, this news might be of interest to you:

Games on FOX Sports Southwest will be shown on cable and satellite television systems in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico. FOX Sports Southwest also has created a Rangers broadcast syndication network to distribute the 25 over-the-air games carried in Dallas-Fort Worth to television stations in the team's outer markets. Participating affiliates will be announced later.

Make sure and check out the entire press release here (pdf download).

It was announced on Saturday that the Rangers have signed Kris Benson to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. This is pretty much a zero move. I can't imagine this amounting to much of anything. This just feels like the Kip Wells move in 2006. Meh.

The only realy good thing about having Kris Benson on the team would be his wife Anna. See below. The only downside to THAT is that they'd send Jim Knox over to interview her, and as much as I'd want to see Anna Benson on TV, I'd prefer Jim Knox not be there, too.

I've decided that I'm going to try and shamelessly steal an idea that Joey over at BBTia does which is offer my thoughts on the stories of the day. I probably won't be able to do it as regularly as him, mostly because i don't always have time in the morning to peruse the stories, digest it and spit it out, I have stuff to deal with at work. hahaha. :) Anyway, here's what I see today.

Minor Injuries: It seems that Brandon Boggs and Marlon Byrd are dealing with some minor injuries. Boggs has an inflamed right shoulder (and got an MRI), and Byrd is recovering from a knee surgery. Byrd has apparently declared himself 75% healed, and there's not a ton on Boggs. In the various scenarios we've been hearing, I haven't heard much about Boggs. He was a nice story in 2008, but barring injuries to our projected front line guys, I don't see Boggs cracking the lineup much this year - especially if Andruw Jones is on the roster.

Ben Sheets: Given Sheets didn't sign with the Rangers and had surgery, he probably thinks he can make a major play with a team contending. I was hoping we'd do the sign for a two year contract with year 1 being next to nothing. Oh well.

Nelson Cruz: There was a nice article I read in the DMN about Nelson Cruz and his turnaround last year. Apparently the fact that no other club claimed him when the Rangers released him was the turning point. If he continues that into 2009, I think it pretty much seals it for Brandon Boggs as I theorized above.

Number 21: Jarrod Saltamacchia has switched to #21, voluntarily giving up 25 for Andruw Jones. I covered this last week when I updated my uniform number history section of the website with all the spring moves. Anyway, some notes from the DMN say that it was done out of respect for Andruw. Uniform numbers are a big thing with me, so I like to make note of things like this.

Joaquin Arias: The same set of notes talk about Joquin Arias and playing short again in workouts so far. The last remnant of the Alex Rodriguez trade (either direct or indirect) is probably never going to make it with the Rangers, I would imagine. With Elvis Andrus all but being handed the SS job, and Michael Young going to third, I can't see where Arias fits anymore.

Frank Catalanotto: Here's another guy who I think would be off the club if his contract wasn't what it is. He seems to have been relegated to almost 25th man; we barely saw him last year. This article talks about his playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. It's theorized he will probably see more action there then he will for the Rangers. Shame, as I really liked the guy, but when he came back, he "not hit" himself into the position he's in. The Rangers website talks about this too, also including Travis Metcalf in this category of "just about forgotten players".

Rudy Jaramillo & Steroids: OK, I'm breaking my steroids rule after only a couple of days, but not for the usual reason. This was an angle I had thought about a lot. With all the talk of Ranger players and steroids, did it diminsh the reputation of Rudy Jaramillo at all? He's generally considered the best hitting coach in baseball, and if the Rangers were as roided up as has been theorized, perhaps Rudy wasn't that great after all? I'd like to think that's not the case, and this article by Jim Reeves addresses this issue. It's a good read. Rudy's also the last link back to the Johnny Oates era (well, OK Jerry Narron is also here in an advisory capacity), and I kind of like he's still around - even if just for that reason.

Less than a week now till the first game of spring training.

Oh, and finally, thanks to Adam Stellar over at "Ranger Rumors" for naming me a "Hot Rangers Fan". It was kind of odd to see that pop up. Not sure what I did to deserve that, but thank you. :)

So we've gotten going with pitchers and catchers. That opened on Saturday.

In a move that surprised me, Ron Washington has effectively named his starting rotation. Now. Before position players are supposed to report. If you had a rotation slated to include Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, and a fifth of Roger Clemens, it seems odd to name your starting rotation this early. Especially when the names are Millwood, Padilla, Feldman, Harrson, & McCarthy.

Millwood & Padilla probably are both good #3 guys, but I'm not sure if either is #2 material, definitely not #1. Scott Feldman has done well for us lately, but I don't think that's truly a confident fan choice. Matt Harrison also has done well, but has little under his belt long term, and McCarthy? Can we have John Danks back?

It just seems odd to me to declare these guys the starting five. Obviously, anything can change between now and the start. It probably will, but I don't understand the mindset of having things declared this early. I saw some line about having our catchers get in sync with the starters. That seems like a pile of bunk, to be honest.

There's a boatload of other guys in camp that fall under the category of "rotation competition". Does anyone really believe these are the five we're going to battle with at the start of the season? I don't.

I'm pretty sure we're going to be hearing a ton of "Elvis has left the building" jokes this season. I'm sure I'll make some of them, but I'll try and space them out. So I thought I'd get the first one out of the way on the opening of Spring Training.

If you're reading this site, you know that Spring Training officially opened today. Pitchers & catchers had their formal reporting day yesterday, and today was the first day of workouts. A good deal of the position players are in camp as well, which is no real surprise. But it's nice to read reports on actual game play. Not too long before games start, either.

We did however, make it into spring training after an offseason where we signed nobody to a major league contract from the free agent pool. Everyone we signed as a minor league deal, which doesn't count against the 40. The problem with THAT is if there's a ton of them who play well enough to get roster spots, we're going to have to get rid of some people to make that move, but we'll see how it plays out.

First game is Feb 25th, but the first "real" game is Feb 26th, and it's on the radio. This is good.

I saw an article online tonight about MLB 2k9, the forthcoming annual entry in videogame baseball from 2K Sports. The article (from gaming news site Operation Sports) shows screenshots from every ballpark in the new game. Below is their shot from the Ballpark in Arlington (click on it for a larger version).

As you'll note from the shot, they did not take into account the changes in the ballpark for 2009. I know they start working on these months and months before they come out, but I was kind of hoping they'd be in there. I haven't seen a shot of the Ballpark from the Sony entry (MLB 09: The Show), but they probably have the same layout.

The games come out in just a little over two weeks at this point, and the Sony entry for the PS3 looks absolutely stellar again. I wrote about it a lot for last year's edition, and that was stellar - things only look to get better. The 2K entry also appears to be much improved from what I've read.

Here are some ordering links if you're interested:

2K Sports' MLB 2K9:
[ Xbox 360 | Playstation 3 | Playstation 2 | PSP | Wii | PC ]

Sony's MLB 09: The Show:
[ Playstation 3 | Playstation 2 | PSP ]

The Rangers announced this afternoon that our Spring Training broadcast schedule will be far greater than at any point in the past. Some highlights:

• Five games on TV! - In the past, we'd get generally two, and all in the last week. This time most of them are at the end of spring training, but there's one early. The five dates are Mar 7 (White Sox), Mar 22 (Dodgers), Mar 25 (DBacks), Mar 27 (Brewers), & Apr 4 (Royals). The last one is the spring finale, and is in Arlington.
• 18 games on the radio! - This was previously announced when the new radio deal with 105.3 FM was announced, but it's nice to see a lot more of them. You can check out my schedule page for spring training to see what is what there.
• MLB.com Gameday Audio - It was said that there will be eight (presumably other) games that will be webcast on Gameday Audio. I'm hoping it uses the Rangers guys, and not just the general MLB guys. The latter don't make for a good broadcast, I think, since they spend most of their time talking about everything else except the teams on the field. The press release refers to it as "Texas Rangers Gameday Audio". That could just be markting crap, and it's the MLB guys, but I'm hopeful those will be actually listenable. The press release does NOT, however say which eight games. They only mention the first one, which is March 10th. If anyone knows the dates of the other seven, please pass them along to me. Thanks.

In addition, I went through my schedule for the regular season and updated game times. The schedule published a month or so ago had about 20 games with TBD as the gametime. That's been rectified for all but one game, so I've gone ahead and updated my schedule with the proper times. The official press release talks about three other games that have had their times changed, I picked up those, too.

Saturday, June 20 at San Francisco: TBD to 8:05 p.m. CT
Sunday, August 16 vs. Boston: 7:05 to 1:05 p.m. CT
Friday, August 21 at Tampa Bay: 6:08 to 6:38 p.m. CT

The Rangers continue their march to getting to camp without signing a single player to a major league contract from the free agent pool this offseason. A couple more signings.

Yesterday, the Rangers signed Jason Jennings to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. Last year was clearly a disaster for the Mesquite TX native. He even said so in the remarks about the contract for 2009. This really is not a big deal. He'd have to pitch his way onto the roster. Doesn't cost us much at all - if he makes the roster, he gets $800,000 plus various incentives totaling $1.4 million based on innings pitched (from 110 through 200). Only $15,000 of the contract is guaranteed, so this is no brainer, really.

Today, the Rangers signed Brendan Donnelly to a minor league contract. Apparently if he makes the club, he'll get $950,000 and can request his release if he's not in the majors between March 27 and April 27th. He's coming off of Tommy John surgery in 2007 for his right elbow. This would be about the time guys bounce back, so we'll see. Ranger fans should remember him (and his goggles) from his time with the Anaheim Angels.

Finally, while he hasn't signed, there's a lot of talk that the Rangers are about to sign Andrew Jones to a minor league deal. He's getting a gazillion dollars from the Dodgers in money and deferred money to go away, so he's a zero risk player - we don't need to pay him anything at all, really. Rudy Jaramillo has a habit of working gold with players, and until he dropped off the face of the Earth two years ago offensively, he was seriously top dog player. I don't particularly think outfield is a place we need to pick up players - we have an overflow as it is, and a couple really good guys in the system. Unless Rudy fixes him in spring, and he hits 50 HR and 145 RBI again, I'm not particularly sure I see the need. We'll see.

Oh, and I haven't said anything about Ben Sheets at all. He's hurt. Nobody signed him. Now we know why. I would like to see the Rangers sign him to a two year contract now with the first year paying him next to nothing, and the next year be somewhat realistic. Probably won't happen, though.

The Rangers made it official today, bringing Eddie Guardado back for the 2009 season. It's a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. I'm pretty sure he'll be in the pen when the season starts. I have no facts there - just a gut feeling.

I wrote about why I thought it was a good (if not exciting) move a couple of days ago, so I won't repeat that. I will say this, though. It makes the Rangers one of just two teams to not sign a single player to a major league contract this offseason.

Just saw an announcement a few minutes ago that the radio coverage for the Texas Rangers is changing for 2009. All Rangers games have been on AM KRLD 1080 since 1995. That's not going to be the case starting this season.

Effective with the 2009 season, all weekday Texas Rangers games will be on 105.3 FM (aka "The Fan". According to the press release on the Rangers site, it is only weekday games (Monday through Friday) that are here. Saturday and Sunday games will continue to be on KRLD 1080 AM as they have been since 1995. The reason for this is unspecified "anticipated schedule conflicts". The schedule lists 110 games on 105.3, and 52 on 1080.

This probably isn't a big deal in the long run when you compare it to the confusion of TV coverage (given all the possible channel choices there), but it does take away that tagline KRLD has used for ages... "All the games, all the time". Still, it does seem easy enough to wrap one's head around. "OK, M-F is 105.3 FM, and Sat-Sun is 1080 AM - Got it". I will be curious to see how the better fidelity plays out. On top of that, I wonder if the broadcasts will be geared towards HD-Radio, as KRLD-FM is an HD-Radio channel, from what I've read today.

One other bonus is that this will really increase the radio schedule for spring training games. Generally, spring training games were only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I asked aout that a few years ago, and was told that KRLD didn't want to piss off the "Dr. Laura" audience by replacing that show with Rangers games. This apparently will bypass that limitation. The number of spring training games is now 18, versus the 12 it has been for awhile now. 16 of the 18 are on 105.3. Check out the Rangers press release for a list of the dates of the Spring Training games (I'll have my site's schedule page updated shortly).

UPDATE: I've updated my site's schedule pages with the radio dates during spring training.

TR Sullivan is reporting this afternoon that the Rangers are likely to close a deal in the next day or so for Eddie Guardado to return to the Rangers for 2009. This is probably a move that isn't likely to light any fires when it happens. It certainly didn't last off season.

But he was pretty darned serviceable for us last year, and if he pitches in 2009 like he did in 2008, it should help. Will probably be a low dollar amount signing, so yeah, it's probably a decent move to make.

This was probably pushed a little faster by the Benoit news from last week. Despite the fact that Eddie is a lefty, and Jack is a righthander, one has to figure that Benoit's going down moved this forward, even a little. There was also rumblings about Eddie signing again before this, so who knows?

Those of you who like to stand in the ballpark and flap your arms like a bird when Marlon Byrd is up will be happy about this one. He and the Rangers came to terms tonight on a contract for 2009. His case was the last possible arbitration case the Rangers had on their plate. Actually, he would have been a Ranger in 09 anyway, it was just down to money.

Marlon had asked for $3.6 Million, and the Rangers countered with $2.7 million. They settled on $3.06 million, which is pretty much in the middle.

With the Byrdman signed, that resolves the arbitration possibilities for this offseason, keeping intact our record of not having gone to an actual hearing in about nine years now, the last being Lee Stevens.

Saw a story in the current Dallas Observer about the Texas Rangers, a fan, and the winter carnival. Along with the usual comments about "what about the pitching?"

The thrust of most of the article is about the fan Paige Skinner, and her (I assume it's a girl) presumed slight by the players when she was at last season's finale. Here's a quote from the article:

"It was supposed to be Fan Appreciation Day," Skinner says. "But the players didn't toss us a ball, a batting glove, not even a smile or a wave. In fact, a security guard hopped up on the dugout and told us to go home. They treated us like we suck, and we're the ones who've supported them through all these losing seasons. Without us, they'd have nothing. I was furious. Ticked beyond belief."

While I do agree with her about security guards - they tend to be a bit overzealous in the "Get out" mantra (that should be worked on, really). I have an issue with the thrust here that the players seemingly owed her something. Particularly the comment "they treated us like we suck". Using the words "They treated us" means there was an intentional desire on the players to make the fans feel like "they suck". Somehow I doubt that. The specific comment was also made about not getting an item thrown to them. I don't think so. Just because you attend a game, doesn't mean you have the RIGHT to have something given to you. Even on Fan Appreciation Day.

There's another comment that one could make about the fact that if you can afford to sit in the seats down by the dugout, you don't need (much less deserve) freebies like that. Buy your own. If the players REALLY wanted to foster goodwill, take the balls and gloves and stuff up to Section 345 where poor families have to sit because they have zero chance of ever being able to sit in the seats down at the bottom and be "slighted" by the players.

Those fans would be far more excited I think over a freebie from the players than those who can afford to sit in the first few rows of Sections 31-35.

Saw a few minutes ago where it appears that Joaquin Benoit had surgery which will knock him out for all of the 2009 season. Shame if true, as he's developed a nice career as a reliever, now that he's finally figured out what works.

He's the elder statesman on the Rangers roster, nobody's been here on the active roster longer than he has.

I bet you it means we might get some movement regading the bullpen and the "Hot Stove". Who would you bring in to replace him, or just use another kid from the farm?

The first year Buck Showalter was here, I attended a Winter Carnival before he had managed a single game. The date of this was February 1, 2003. I had gotten into a Q&A session with Buck which was held in that auditorium room behind the museum. So I get in there, take my seat, and wait for things to get started. I wasn't doing much of anything, and it was then I realized that Buck himself had come over to me. I looked up, and Buck introduced himself to me with a handshake, saying "Hi, I'm Buck Showalter, Rangers manager". I thought a second and said "Hi, I'm Joe Siegler... uh... FAN!" :) Anyway, Buck asked me if I preferred the red Rangers hats to the blue. I said I far prefer it to the blue, to which Buck said "Well, the coaches will be wearing the red hats in spring training, hopefully to give Mr. Hicks a few ideas".

These ideas took a long time to take hold. Buck's coaches did wear them in Spring Training, and I thought it was distinctive. You could spot a coach easily, since they were the only ones on the field wearing red hats.

Well, in 2009 we finally have red back in the uniforms. Oh, there's been some minor red in trim areas, but let's face it, red hasn't been a real uniform color for years. There was a press conference today where the Rangers unveiled several new uniforms. It appears that every one has been changed up somewhat. I'll get into the individual uniforms below. Just as a reminder, this was what the uniforms looked like the last time red was the primary color:

Here's a quick refresher on the last couple of times there were any kind of uniform change or addition. If you're reading this on an rss feed, you'll need to click over to my website to see the rest of this story (it's long, and I didn't want that huge of a story on the front page).

It's been awhile since I offered any big opinions on anything, so I'm going to post about several of them all at once. Here goes:

Michael Young:

You know, as the Michael Young thing broke, I have to admit I didn't know what to write. When it was first announced he wanted a trade, my first thought was "Wow". I thought a bit, and couldn't come up with something more profound than that, so I didn't say anything. The details came out that Michael Young was "told" he was moving to third base. I felt a little bit that he should have been talked with about it, instead of talked "TO" about it. Granted, we don't know the exact tone of the conversations, we weren't in there, so we have just the news reports and the reporter accounting of the issue. None of which had first hand insight into the actual meetings as such. Then there's the other issue. If I tried at my job to say "No, I don't think I'm going to do what you told me to, I want to go to another company", I'd be thrown out on my ass faster than you can say "recession". So I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for multimillionaires who don't want to do what their boss tells them. No, not at all.

Still, having said that, you don't want arguably the biggest name on your team to be unhappy, so you start looking into the trade possibilities. The problem is, most of the money we were paying Michael Young was not for his performance on the field. He was paid to be the "face of the franchise". Intangible money like that doesn't translate well when talking about trades. Michael Young is a great player both on the field and off. However, when you pay someone for "off the field", it's hard to get another team to buy into that. If you look at it just on the dollars vs the on the field stuff, he's overpaid - big time. Especially when we get to the back end of the contract. So yeah, it would have been hard to move that. Felt we had a very little chance of moving him, which probably would have meant an unhappy player.

Then the equally surprising move that Michael Young decided to accept the move to third came down the pike. Michael said all the right things when it was announced. It appeared that Nolan Ryan stepped in to work it out (as he should, he's the team president after all), but one gets the feeling that Young still isn't too thrilled about it. Provided this team doesn't finish under .500 again, or Elvis Andrus makes 50 errors, and Young makes the transition well enough, this should be OK. The Rangers have Steve Buchele on staff, he can help Michael with that. What's Dean Palmer doing these days? Give him a ring. Heck, he can even call his old buddy Alex Rodriguez, if he's not too busy chasing down Madonna or just counting his money.

Bit of a sticky time here, but it seems to have worked itself out on the surface. We'll see as we get into the season how it all works out.

Newspaper Coverage

Saw in this morning's Newberg Report about a merging of the local beat writers between the Dallas Morning News & Ft Worth Star Telegram writers. Not just for the Rangers, but for other sports too. Now I couldn't care less about the Cowboys or the Mavericks, but the Rangers & Stars I am interested in. That's not entirely fair, I like the Mavs sometimes, but I rarely read about 'em in the paper.

Anyway, it appears according to this that the FTW guys are the only "beat" guys now. It would appear that Evan Grant & Richard Durett are out of a job covering baseball. Now I don't know all the facts here. The only place I've seen this story covered is Jamey's update for today - I've not seen it in the other two newsletters. I may have just missed that (which is possible, as I've had some family stuff going on this week), but it would appear that the FTW guys are going to just be the baseball writers in the Dallas Morning News.

To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me before too long if the Dallas Morning News & Ft Worth Star Telegram end up merging totally. Given the horrible state newspapers were in before this current economic mess, it wouldn't surprise me to see them merge completely to stay in existance.

So long as Jean-Jacques Taylor and Randy Galloway stay out of Rangers coverage, I'll be happy. Taylor seems to have a disdain for covering baseball almost as strong as Newy Scruggs does, I never like reading. Randy Galloway seems far too bitter to have any opinions that can't be translated as "Screw the Rangers, they're all losers", that I don't want to listen to him, either.

Omar Vizquel:

Word came out last night that the Rangers were trying to sign Omar Vizquel to play as a backup shortstop to the Rangers. My initial knee-jerk reaction after reading that was to think? Him? Middle infield in the fastest infield in the AL? Come on - what's with that? I immediately IM'ed Jamey Newberg, and said this:

(11:15:02 PM) Joe Siegler: Omar Vizquel? WTF
(11:15:35 PM) Jamey Newberg: why WTF?
(11:16:04 PM) Joe Siegler: Just seems bizarre to me. Yeah, I know all the logical reasons, but you don't go ancient for a backup, we have enough of our own kids to fill that role.
(11:16:20 PM) Jamey Newberg: c'mon
(11:16:22 PM) Jamey Newberg: like who
(11:17:10 PM) Joe Siegler: I would have started by not moving Michael Young from SS. I suppose I should write about all this stuff on my site. Get it out. :)

He's right though - who would we have as a backup? As I said above, I would have never moved Michael Young in the first place. But he's moved. So we need to do something. Secondly,I would have kept Ramon Vazquez as the guy. But he's not here, and he really deserves to start (although I don't think he's going to win anything in Steel Town). When I made the comment to Jamey, I was thinking along the lines of German Duran, or Joaquin Arias. I mean, Arias was groomed as a big deal shortstop for awhile. But it seems, according to all the press I've read today that we're going after Omar Vizquel. In his prime, he was a stellar player. At the tail end of his career here, he can probably help us in a backup role, and as well as mentoring. Not that Michael Young is a bad mentor (he's great), but it can't hurt to have another really knowledgable shortstop to help out.

So yeah, I was fairly prophetic in what I said with Jamey. Type it out, and I'l feel better. While I still think we'd do OK with Arias as a backup, I guess Vizquel won't be horrible. I suppose I'm in the "Meh" category about this.

New Advertising:

It appears that the new advertising slogan for 2009 will be "Built for Fun". The Official Rangers site has changed its masthead to show this.

For the last two years, it's been "You could Use Some Baseball, and looked like this:

I rather liked the billboards around town for the last two years that were part of this campaign. I don't suppose this makes a huge difference, but I rather liked "You could use some baseball". I guess we'll have to see how this new one plays out.

Don Zimmer:

Saw today that former Rangers manager and overall good guy Don Zimmer had a stroke. Strokes are never a good thing, but in reading about this one, it doesn't seem too bad. Some of them are debilitating, and it appears he will be able to go to camp with the Rays. I met Zim once two years ago in spring training when the Phillies were playing the Rays. I've read both of his books. Always admired him, will be grateful for his recovery.

Josh Hamilton:

Saw this story where someone got mad that Sony picked Dustin Pedroia for the cover of MLB 09: The Show instead of Josh Hamilton. Check it out, it's an interesting read.

I'm still pretty surprised by the Michael Young thing.

I don't know what to say about it, which is why I haven't said anything.

From the day it was announced that Victor Rojas was leaving the Rangers to go work for the MLB Network, you haven't heard anything about a replacement. Or at least I didn't. I was surprised at how LITTLE you heard about this. All I heard at the time was that both Victor & Josh were up for the TV job in San Diego with the Padres. I still wish that Josh would have taken that to be "Mr. San Diego", then bump Victor to TV and bring in someone new for radio. Didn't get that, but we did get a new radio guy today.

It was announced this afternoon that Vic's replacement in the radio booth is a guy by the name of Dave Barnett. I don't have much to say about him, because I don't know who he is. I IM'ed Jamey about it, and he replied with the fact that he used to do Rangers TV back in the 80's, and national work since. I didn't move to this area until the 1992-1993 offseason, so that was before my time. Jamey did call the hire "fantastic" in the IM chat with me, so that's encouraging. He also spooged about the dude in an email update a few minutes before I wrote this. :)

Check out the story on the Rangers site for more details about him. Hopefully he shows up at the Winter Carnival in a couple of weeks. Be nice to meet him and say Hi.

I did get a small chuckle out of this quote from the Rangers site story. "Nadel, who has been the lead broadcaster on radio since 1995, had significant input into the hire." If they made this move without major input by Eric Nadel, that would be a massive mistake!

While the broadcast didn't say anything about it, one would assume that Barnett would pull the double duty that Victor Rojas did and fill in for Josh Lewin on TV when he's off doing Chargers games. Scratch that. According to this story on the FTWST website, he'll be doing the same thing that Vic did subbing for Josh. I've updated my broadcaster history page for 2009 with Dave Barnett, and assuming the sentence above is correct. Check it out.

The FTWST article does have this quote:

"For the last couple of years I've been looking for a situation where I could work with a team again and still work with ESPN," Barnett said from his home in Denton.

Does this mean that Barnett will also be leaving to do work for ESPN during the season? I don't like that about Lewin, he should be there for all 162 games. I don't like these disappearances.

After posting this article, and looking at the picture, he looks like he could be Howie Long's brother. :)

The Rangers have decided to kick the tires of deposed Milwaukee closer, Derrick Turnbow.

Turnbow who spent the last four years in the Brewers organization comes to us after having spent most of 2008 on the shelf. He pitched just eight games this past season, so his numbers aren't probably relevant. Which is good, as his ERA in 2008 was 15.63! :eek:

He's obviously here because of our new pitching coach, Mike Maddux. A couple of years ago, he was quite the dominant closer in Milwaukee, and if he has healed, and can recapture that, it probably will help us. He was deposed before he got hurt and couldn't play. So hopefully his signing isn't a case of a pitcher forgetting how to pick (hello Rick Ankiel). Still, it's a minor league deal, so he has to prove he can pitch to make the club. If he does make the club, his salary will be $925,000 plus another $300k or so in incentives. Not the worst deal from the Rangers standpoint if he does make the club and then stink up the joint.

We also signed two other guys to minor league deals. Casey Daigle and Elizardo Ramirez. Elizardo had a cup of coffee with the Rangers in 2008, but didn't really distinguish himself. Daigle I don't know anything about, so I don't have a ton to write about here on these guys.

None of these signings make me want to jump up and down, but none make me want to go "D'oh!" either. We'll have to wait and see what happens here in the spring.

Last week, it was announced that the Ballpark in Arlington would be getting some video board upgrades. This is something that has been long since overdue. The changes are a mixture of additions and replacements, plus a couple of subtractions. Since I have a wealth of pictures of the place I've taken over the years, I'll enhance with my own pictures showing the current status, as well as a few words of my own.

Given this will end up being a long article (due to my inclusion of pictures), I'm splitting it off onto its own page. If you're reading this in a feed reader, you'll have to visit my site to get the whole article.

I was expecting to have to brace myself to say goodbye to Victor to see him go to the Padres. Not to Northern New Jersey. Victor was hired by the MLB Network to do both in studio stuff as well as play by play. I will really miss him. I've really enjoyed Victor in the years here was here. There's donut I can think of to say about him in a negative light.

While I will really miss him on Rangers broadcasts, I expect MLB Network to be a daily staple in my house anyway, so I won't miss him TOO much.

Now, as to the issue of his replacement with Eric Nadel..

IF THAT HAPPENS, THE RADIO WILL NEVER GET TURNED ON AGAIN FOR A RANGERS GAME! COUNT ON IT. Put Steve Busby there. Or heck, get radical. Hire Jamey Newberg. Put him in the booth.

Makes me wonder what will happen if Josh Lewin is hired by the Padres now. Bring back Scott Franzke from Philadelphia, perhaps? Will make next season look quite different.

Since the Winter meetings have started in Vegas, I've seen a lot of names tossed around connected to the Rangers. I'll weigh in (like you were really waiting to hear what I'd say anyway) with some thoughts on these.

First off, I'm seriously glad we haven't heard the phrase "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" more. That's another one of those phrases that's worked its way into the American lexicon that needs to go away. That out of the way, here's what I think of:

Kerry Wood: There was a bunch of talk about Kerry Wood coming here. I know early on his career he was one of those guys you'd give up the farm to get here. Local boy playing for the Rangers would make for a great feel good story. He's turned it around lately as a closer. I would have liked if he came here for the touchy feely aspects (I did like the Jason Jennings sign for the same reason). However, if he came here, he'd be the defacto closer, pushing CJ and Frankie backwards in the innings slots. Still, I don't think the world would have ended had he come here. Reports today say he's signing with the Indians anyway, so it doesn't really matter, I suppose.

Randy Johnson: This is probably a Nolan Ryan thing. Bet you that if he wasn't the team president, this wouldn't be an option. I keep thinking about that famed meeting between Johnson & Nolan back in Seattle ages ago where supposedly Ryan turned around Johnson. If he came here it would be for a back end of the rotation guy as well as the famed "mentor" tag. This wouldn't make me jump up and down with excitement if it happened, but I probably wouldn't be too mad about it either. Depended on money, I suppose as to what my level of excitement would be. We've heard that we can't make certain moves without doing things like moving Blalock for salary room, so if we sign him to $8 million, I'm not buying the "move salary" excuse for anyone else.

Ben Sheets: The obvious connection here is our new pitching coach, Mike Maddux. Maddux being Sheets' pitching coach in Milwaukee for awhile. There's also the local story going on here, as Sheets is from this area. This probably would be an OK signing, but again - contract. I would love a kick the tires contract, but that's unlikely to happen. Keep him on the field, and he'd probably be pretty decent. But that's the kicker, keeping him on the field. We've taken a lot of fliers on guys in recent years who couldn't stay on the field (Jason Jennings, Adam Eaton, and of course the king of this department, Justin Thompson). I'm indifferent towards this idea, but at the same time realizing it could work.

Gary Sheffield: Haven't we been down this path before with Carl Everett, Milton Bradley, and to a lesser extent, John Rocker? Of all these "tempramental, but could work if the stars align" players we've signed or looked at over the years, Sheffield excites me the least. He's way on the decline, and I would go nuts watching that bat waggle 162 games. Ugh. Pass. Hope this doesn't happen.

Eddie Guardado: I wrote this last summer when we traded Eddie to the Twins, I wrote the following about the move..

Eddie Guardado was traded to the Twins today, his original organization. Eddie was one of those guys that when we first signed him back in January, I thought "What the heck are we doing?" Turned out Eddie was a great guy, pitched pretty well, if not spectacular, and had a fire in him that you wished more guys had. Still, we're not going anywhere, and if he can help the Twins, I wish him well.

GOING THE OTHER WAY:

Hank Blalock: I still think he's going to be moved before the season starts. I can't give you facts, or a reliable link. It's just a gut feeling. My unscientific, and unlinking rambling says that it's the Giants.

Michael Young: When I saw the reports that we were "quietly shopping" Michael Young, I did actually utter "what?" at my computer screen. Mostly because I couldn't see us moving him this soon after signing that huge extension. The only moving I see him do is to third base (or back to second). It's not one of those blind fan things like "You can't trade him! I love Michael!!!!!!!". It's more a "who would want that contract", and it's not like he's a bad player, either.

Jarrod Saltamacchia: With Laird off to the Motor City, I have a hard time seeing that we'll move one of our remaining guys now. The current situation is a split (I think) between Salty and Teagarden, with Ramirez in AAA. If we moved Salty, it had better be for a big return - meaning something major league ready, as it would leave our catching team as Teargden and Ramirez, and feeling suddenly thin again pretty quickly after being too deep. There's talks that Florida wants Salty, but the Rangers aren't interested unless we include 22-year-old right-hander Chris Volstad. There's also talk that the Marlins are kicking the tires on Pudge again.

I think everyone expected the Rangers to not go into 2009 carrying four catchers. That logjam was relieved somewhat early this morning when Gerald Laird was traded to the Detroit Tigers.

In return, we got two minor league pitching prospects. Their names were Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. Stats and writeup about minor leaguers I've never heard before are not my strong point, so I'm going to shamelessly rip off what Scott Lucas (of the Newberg Report) wrote about them.

Used mostly as a starter, the 25-year-old, 6'1" righty walked eight and struck out 50 in 34.2 innings with a 3.12 ERA in AA Erie. Earlier in 2008, he posted a 2.42 ERA in 52 high-A innings. As Jamey mentioned, Moscoso was recently named Detroit's #10 prospect by Baseball America. He's presently pitching for Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, where he has an 8.36 ERA in 14 relief innings.

In addition to Guillermo Moscoso, Texas will receive 6'3" RHP Carlos Melo, a native of the Dominican Republic. Melo made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2008, posting a 5.14 ERA in 49 innings. Per Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press, Melo "is known for an electric fastball that averages well over 90 miles per hour." Melo struck out 61 of 187 batters faced (33%) and walked 20 (11%) in the DSL.

While I'm sure these guys are pretty decent prospects, I do have to admit to being disappointed that we didn't get anything major league ready (or at least close to it) in return. Catcher was one of our rare really strong points, and I do have to say I really wanted something back that would show an immediate impact in Arlington. From what I've read online, that's neither of these guys. We've had way too many trades over the last several years that would fall under "bag of magic beans" category, and while I can't say that about the two new inbound prospects, I can't get over that feeling of "Oh great, here we go again".

I always felt Laird got the shaft when he got hurt, and lost his job here to Rod Barajas at the time. Given our catching logjam wasn't going anywhere any time soon, perhaps it's best to send him somewhere that he'll get a chance to play. It's mildly interesting that Laird will become the regular catcher in Detroit, replacing their last regular catcher, a former Rangers catcher who famously wore #7 during his time here (yeah, I know he was with the Yankees at the end of the season, but you know what I mean).

This will immediately make Saltamacchia and Teagarden the major league catching team in Arlington, with Max Ramirez going to AAA, I would wager. I'd also expect us to sign a journeyman veteran catcher to play with Ramirez in AAA (A Guillermo Quiroz / Adam Melhuse kind of guy). Laird was our best "game calling" catcher, so hopefully Saltamacchia can step that up. The biggest plus for Laird was his superior defense. Hopefully the guys who we will go to battle with in 09 can pick it up, as Laird's gundown rate was pretty darned good.

Also, ESPN's MLB site is currently running a poll asking which is the best remaining catcher the Rangers have? I've embedded the poll here on my site below:

Edit: They've changed the poll to something else, but when I last looked at it, Jarrod Saltamacchia was leading with a 72% vote.

I received a flyer from the Rangers yesterday for 2009 full and half season ticket plans. Unless I win the lottery, I'm not doing THAT. But, it does have one thing in it I had not seen before. 2009 ticket prices. One would think that with the economy in the toilet, that they wouldn't raise any prices. Not so. Almost all of them are going up in some capacity. The majority of the increases are small (on the order of a dollar), and almost all of them are in the "Premium Game" group. Still, I broke out a 2008 pocket schedule, and compared it to the 2009 flyer. Here's what I found:

Changed ticket prices:

A few notes. The Commissioner's Box and the VIP Infield sections are listed as N/A. That's presumably because you can't buy them on the fly, they're usually dignitaries, or are already gone, so I'm not surprised those aren't listed.

The Upper Home Run Porch has N/A as it's prices in this chart, which I find odd, as that never sells out - unless the entire game is sold out. Not even close. Given the prices I've seen in this comparison, I have to imagine it's the same as the others. The regular price is the same, and the premium is up $1. That's why I have "guess" in the chart above.

The Premium games are listed as:

• April 6 (Indians - Home Opener)
• May 16 (Angels, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• May 25-27 (Yankees)
• June 13 (Dodgers, Saturday Interleague game)
• June 27 (Padres, Saturday Interleague game)
• July 18 (Twins, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• July 20-22 (Red Sox)
• August 1 (Mariners, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• August 14-16 (Red Sox)

I'm sure if this gets covered at all in the press, the Rangers response will be something like "90% of the tickets are going up only $1 and only for 16 games". They're right mostly - the majority of people won't be affected too much.

But still. This is just more evidence that the team still doesn't GET IT. They want less empty seats? Either win, or cut your prices. Don't sneak tiny price hikes out there like this.

Bet you beer goes up another quarter, too.

A few thoughts about a few things recently in RangerLandâ„¢. :)

Arbitration:

To no one's surprise, Milton Bradley was offered arbitration. I think most everyone would like him to be back in 2009, but Milton made a lot of noise about retiring if he doesn't get a multiyear deal. I don't see THAT happening, but he'll probably try. The arbitration offer will definitely call his bluff on the retiring thing. I really don't know which way he'll go on the decision, which is due on Sunday night at 11PM. Assuming he doesn't take it, we'll get a sandwich pick between Rounds 1 & 2 of next year's draft.

The other players we had eligible for arbitration (Jamey Wright, Jason Jennings, & Ramon Vazquez) were not offered arbitration. I don't see Jamey Wright coming back in 2009. Ramon Vazquez is being courted by a few teams in the National League, plus we have some other guys (Arias, Duran) who can play the super sub role. Jason Jennings will probably get a minor league deal. I've seen a few remarks in the last few days that both sides seem to want that, and is a "can't hurt" kind of idea, since he's off the 40 man.

Speaking of players not offered arbitration.. If Bradley doesn't come back, I wouldn't mind taking a flyer on Pat Burrell to replace his bat in the lineup. If Burrell doesn't go back to Philly, he might want a one year "make good" contract, which could work here. Their numbers in 2008:

Games: Burrell 157, Bradley 126
AB: Burrell 536, Bradley 414
H: Burrell 134, Bradley 133
AVG: Burrell .250, Bradley .321
HR: Burrell 33, Bradley 22
RBI: Burrell 86, Bradley 77
BB: Burrell 102, Bradley 112
K: Burrell 136, Bradley 112
OBP: Burrell .367, Bradley .436
SLG: Burrell .507, Bradley .536

Burrell has a lower batting average, but the power numbers are somewhat better than Bradley - but he did also play more games. I'm not saying "GIMME BURRELL!", but if he's available on a decent short term deal, I wouldn't be upset.

Spring Training Schedule Released:

The other day the Rangers announced the schedule for Spring training. I've updated my site's schedule page with the 2009 schedule. I found the way I did it in 2008 was by far the easiest I've had in all my years doing this site (2009 will be the 11th season since I started this site). The biggest problem I've always had was doing the game update, and then having to do the index page. Last year I got some templates in place which allowed me to update the game, and then the schedule page would be updated with the result, and a link to my commentary. I'm doing the same thing for 2009. The hassle is in setting it up - it takes about two hours to set up one month's page, it's really tedious template work, but it pays off during the season with zero work to update. Anyway, check out my schedule.

A note about spring training this year. Traditionally the Rangers have only scheduled a single off day. This year there are four scheduled off days during spring training. I wonder if that's any sort of concession to the World Baseball Classic. Radio and TV has not been announced for spring yet, but generally Saturday and Sunday games are on the radio (and the odd Friday game), and two games are on TV at the end of spring training. My guess is they'll follow that pattern again, but I don't have firm info on that yet.

Padres and our broadcasters:

There was a report not too long ago that the San Diego Padres are considering both Josh Lewin & Victor Rojas for their open TV broadcaster slot. I have to say I've grown to really like Victor Rojas, and would be bummed out if he left. Obviously, if he was offered the job, it's a promotion for him, and that would be good for Vic. Bad for us. This is what I wish would happen.. The Padres hire Josh Lewin to be "Mr. San Diego". As he's already a broadcaster for the Chargers, it could work in that regard. You then promote Victor Rojas to be the play by play guy for the Rangers on TV. Then hire back Scott Franzke from the Phillies to be Eric's radio partner. That's unlikely to happen as Franzke is already on TV in Philly. Philly announcers do it differently than here - there's no dedicated radio & TV guys. It's just broadcasters, and after three innings or so, they switch from TV to radio, so you never have the same announcers for an entire game. So Scott would be unlikely to return. However, DO NOT PROMOTE MIKE OGULNICK FROM THE POST-GAME SHOW! (OR JIM KNOX FOR THAT MATTER) He is the reason I have stopped listening to the Rangers postgame show completely. If they put him on radio, I'd probably have to stop listening to that too - despite Nadel being there. Shudder.

So yeah, I don't want Victor to go anywhere. Please.

Mariners Raid:

The Mariners hired Don Wakamatsu as their manager, and when he was signed, it didn't occur to me that he might raid our staff. There's widespread reports that Rick Adair, our minor league pitching coordinator as their new bullpen coach. On top of that, our former pitching coach Mark Connor is supposed to be named their pitching coach. I'm sure the Adair move will bug Jamey Newberg more than me, but I don't see it as the end of the world. I guess because I haven't seen a tremendous amount of success at the major league level with the guys that have come out of the minor leagues. Yeah, yeah - I know. There's a million variables behind that, and it can't be blanketed with a comment that easily.

Back in early November, Jamey Newberg had this in one of his email reports:

According to MLB.com, right-handed reliever Kazuo Fukumori signed a minor league contract to return to the Rangers.

I find that odd, as his original contract was a one year deal with team options for 2009 & 2010. He had a $1.4 Million salary for 2008, and the same in 2009 and $1.75 Million in 2010. Both 09 & 10 were team options with $200k buyouts each. If they resigned him to a minor league deal, that tells me that they bought out the two option years, and resigned him. I've not seen anything about this anywhere online - and Jamey didn't know anything about it, either.

Does anyone reading this know what happened with the Fukumori option years - officially? If so, pass along a link or something in the comments. Danke.

UPDATE: I found a link on the Sporting News Canada website that says the Rangers technically released him back on May 11th, which would have meant a buyout of his options (plus presumably payment of the remaining 2008 salary). Still kind of surprised I never saw this get any news reporting until now - and even then only because I went and dug for it.

Yesterday afternoon, Michael Young got some vindication when he won the 2008 AL Gold Glove award for shortstop. This has been a bone of contention between Rangers fans and the uh "National media", who always seemed to slag Young on defense. There were always these really strange sabre-metric things which showed Young at the bottom of the barrel defensively, that other guys are better shortstops if you apply these strange numbers and conditions (like what compass direction a digested twinkie is moving in your digestive system). But you just had to watch Young to know he was a good shortstop. If you're one of these people who rely on strange numbers to prove anything, I think you're missing the point. Use your eyes, not your head - Young is a great defensive shortstop. Now I don't make a case that he's the best ever, but he's certainly up near the top of the game. I think by the time his career is over, he'll have amassed a huge number of individual awards beyond the ones he already has. Will he have a ring to go with it? Hopefully. :)

His 2008 numbers were quite good. He had a .984 fielding percentage, which was second in the majors (behind only Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies). He lead all shortstops by being involved in 113 double plays (which is more of a team stat than an individual stat, really), and ranked second in assists and total chances. I think he's pretty deserving, and yeah, I'm a Rangers fan, so I'm bound to say that. But show me someone in the AL who is better this past year. Unless you're going to play the homer vote for your own team, you can't, really.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is Hank Blalock. As I type this sentence at 12:46PM on Friday, the Rangers have not yet picked up Blalock's option. Several local media outlets have said that it's a foregone conclusion he will, so I'm writing this as if they already have. If for some reason they do not, I'll have to re-edit this story later today. :) Anyway, with Blalock's option picked up for 2009, he's on the books for $6.2 Million. Apparently, the reason it hasn't been picked up so far is the Rangers wanted to talk to him face to face, and tell him what they have planned. Which, according to several published reports is to trade him for pitching. If we kept him, it wouldn't be awful, but would create a logjam. Blalock probably can't effectively play third anymore, so he'd be either at first or at DH. Being at first puts a block on Chris Davis. Now Davis can go play third, but he's better at first. I also personally have never liked the concept of a dedicated DH. I always felt that the DH should be an open position that someone who is hurt, or needs a day off can go bat, and not strain themselves too much on the field. I think Blalock will be moved somewhere in the offseason, Chris Davis will open at first.

That leaves a regular third base job open. The immediate thought would be Ramon Vazquez (they'd have to sign him for more than one year, and hand him third base to keep him), or Travis Metcalf. He can play third, but his long term bat is still a bit suspect, I think. We've been hearing the Rangers kick the tires of a few free agent third baseman, none of which really excites me. I'd rather take my chances with Metcalf, or resign Vazquez to play 3B.

As for Blalock, though, I always felt he'd be here for a long time, it's a shame it appears he's on his way out. Guess there will be no more Hank's Homies. They've been gone as a regular game sight for awhile, but this would finish them off, I'm sure. That was quite fun when it was new.

Anyway, congratulations to Michael Young on his Gold Glove. Hopefully he wins some more hardware to go with that. Like one all of us can celebrate.

UPDATE @ 5PM Friday: Just noticed that Blalock's option was officially picked up. No surprise there - I think the shock would have been if they did not. Of course, now the fun begins as to see what we do with him. I did find it funny that the Rangers official site used this headline on the site for this story. "Rangers bring back Blalock for 2009 campaign". That's not quite what they did. They picked up his option. Misleading headline there. :)

I meant to write about this the day it happened, but I was having a bit of a pain flareup, and was not in the mood to creatively write. Now I'm laying in my bed with my leg raised up on a pillow, and leaning to my site to write on my laptop after about seven hours of watching election returns. A quick note about that. I really enjoyed the returns on my HDTV with NBC's coverage. The space on the side that you wouldn't see on an old style TV was filled up with other info (recent state wins, electoral tally, etc) which was really cool to have while the main talking was going on. I enjoyed that.

Anyway, the other day the Rangers hired Mike Maddux to be their pitching coach. By all accounts, this is a great hire. There are a lot of numbers you can point at during his tenure in Milwaukee. Their ERA was great, several pitchers who left there tanked elsewhere. As a fan of the team, all the local fan website writers are all behind the move - and I am, too. This move should really help our team with one if its biggest problems - pitching. If you're reading this site, you are no stranger to the numbers that comprise the Rangers pitching staff stats. 5.97 ERA last season, and while I don't have them in front of me, they weren't much better in any of the other recent years. Maddux' pedigree says he should help improve our staff. You know it, I know it, Jamey Newberg knows it, and team management expects it.

Thats' where my excitement about a pitching coach hire ends - because I think this is not the kind of hire that will excite the fanbase, really. Why? If you are reading this site, or any of the other Ranger fan sites (Baseball Time in Arlington, Lone Star Ball, Jamey's site, etc, etc, etc..) then you know the value. But your average Joe Six Pack (yeah, had to work in another presidential thing) doesn't really care about that. I'm talking about the doofuses who call in to post game shows and go "When are we going to get some pitching in here?" These are the guys who will look at the 2009 rotation of Millwood, Padilla, Feldman, Harrison, & ? and go "These are the same guys - they're not doing aything!" Your average fan who is interested only in things like the all you can eat seats won't give a rats spit about the coaches. They want wins. Obviously, we all want that, but unless you're a fan who reads a site like mine, you probably don't care whether the pitching coach is Dick Bosman, Orel Hershisher, Oscar Ocosta, Mark Connor, or Mike Maddux.

Having said that, I think the move is a good one, it should help us. I'd be surprised if it helps us in 2009, though. I'm sure we'll see an improvement, but probably not an immediate dramatic one. It's probably a good idea that we kept on Andy Hawkins on the staff. His familiarity will certainly help, I'm sure.

I still think we should have John Wetteland as a bullpen coach, however. Would LOVE to see that.

Well, the World Series is over, and my home town Phillies won. It was quite a surreal feeling, my franchise is not used to winning. Yeah, you heard a lot about how we won in 1980, and that was awesome. I was 15 at the time. I thought it was great! Then the years went on, we got teased in 1983 with the Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, & Tony Pena mostly Reds Phillies team. We got teased again in 1993 (Friggin Joe Carter can TOUCH THIS!).. But overall, the Phillies are a historically bad franchise. They lose. A lot. So when I sat there on Wednesday night watching the three and a half inning game, I didn't know what to feel. I couldn't go much of anywhere, since I"m confined to a recliner or the bed due to my surgery, but at least I got to experience the World Series in High Definition (save for game 1, which was in a hospital bed). The parade is going on now as I write this. ESPNNEWS is carrying parts of it, but not the whole thing, which disappointed me. Hopefully the eventual DVD of the World Series will have the whole parade on it. To finish up on that, I'll quote a sign I saw in the stands right after the game was over. "Mitch, we forgive you!" :)

Anyway, now that the World Series is over, the other stuff starts. The off season. As with every Rangers off season, we'll be looking to shore up pitching. That seems to be the story every season. I'm sure we'll also hear a lot about how bad the Rays were last year, and they went to the World Series. While of course, anything can happen, I can't see the Rangers doing that. The Rays seemed to have a better foundation of pitching. We have too many holes to fill. Oh sure, a perfect storm of pitching would be great, but I can't see it happening.

Yesterday, the first batch of Rangers filed for free agency. I'll say something about them below. My gut feeling is no big name comes in here, if we do have any inbounds, it will probably be a name like a Joe Blanton that the Phillies got - no name that will set the world on fire, but someone who is "good". Might be via Blalock, who knows. Here goes, the Rangers who have filed for free agency:

Hank Blalock: I must not understand the technicalities of free agency filing, as the Rangers hold an option on Blalock. I was under the impression that he isn't a free agent unless we decline his option, which is unlikely to happen. I think everyone in the world expects the Rangers to pick up his option for 2009. After that, who knows - but I think there's a decent chance he'll get traded in the offseason for some sort of startng pitching. However, if Bradley doesn't return, it could make Blalock more attractive to keep - put him at DH, and play Chris Davis at first.

Milton Bradley: Milton has been making a lot of noise about how he will retire unless he gets a multi-year deal. Yes, he had a career year in 2008, and I have to admit, I liked him when he was on the field. But that's his big question mark. He missed a decent (if not a lot) amount of time on the field, and there was a scramble at the end of the season for him to get qualifying at bats. That is not the mark of a truly healthy player. I would love to have Bradley back, but the only way I see him back here now is if nobody will give him a multi-year deal. I could see us offering him a one year with a team option, but my guess is his ego won't allow him to accept that. Shame.

Bradley was also declared a Type B Free Agent on Friday. That's not as good news for the Rangers, as they were hoping for an A I'm sure. The Type B means that the Rangers wouldn't get a good pick if someone else signed him after we offered arbitration. As a Type B, the Rangers would get a supplemental pick only. Oh well.

Ramon Vazquez: He has been fantastic for us here, and the only way I see him returning would be if they decide to play him as a regular third baseman under the Chris Davis scenario I mentioned above. If his slot would be utility guy, I can't see that happening - he won't want to do that again, I'm sure, and he deserves a better spot. Plus we have some other guys who can do the utility thing a lot cheaper (Joaquin Arias, German Duran). I don't see him back. In memory of the 2008 season, I'll take one last lift of the finger under my nose in his honor.

Jamey Wright: Jamey has been a decent, if not spectacular reliever for us. However, it's always been on a minor league deal that he's made the club on last cut. I don't have any hard numbers or facts to back this up, but my feeling is that he won't be back in 2009, they'll want to take a chance on something or someone different.

Jason Jennings: Well, that didn't work. Guy was hurt all the time, made just six starts. Hard to judge. The local boy makes good story was a good touchy feely thing, but it didn't do squat on the field. Major unknown - I could see them offering him a minor league deal pretty easily.

That's about it for the first wave of moves. I'm going to try and be more forthcoming with my thoughts this season. I said that going into 2008, and I stuck with it for awhile, but kind of fell off. I guess with guys like Adam, Joey, & Jamey out there, I sometimes feel my little opinions aren't worth much.

But the reason I'm giving it a try is the folks who wrote me during my surgery and said they liked my site, and had been reading for awhile, enjoying what I do. Thanks to all who wrote in during my recovery, and a big thanks to all who prayed for me. I'm a big believer in the power of prayer, so to have random folks I don't really know that well pray for my recovery... it's a great blessing. Thank you.

We have a winner! The answer was 55. That's a lot of players. Here is a complete list of all the players that were on the big league roster for the Texas Rangers in 2008. I kept track of this all season, and I intend on doing so again in 2009.

Total players in 2008: 55
Total pitchers used in 2008: 30
Total position players used in 2008: 25
Total players making major league debut: 13

• #55 - Brian Gordon (Sep 15 - Major League Debut)
• #54 - Bill White (Aug 25)
• #53 - Nelson Cruz (Aug 25)
• #52 - Brandon McCarthy (Aug 22)
• #51 - Joaquin Arias (Aug 18)
• #50 - Jason Ellison (Aug 7 - DFA Aug 25)
• #49 - Tommy Hunter (Aug 1 - Major League Debut)
• #48 - Ryan Roberts (Jul 29 - Major League Debut)
• #47 - Taylor Teagarden (Jul 18 - Major League Debut)
• #46 - Joselo Diaz (Jul 11 - DFA Jul 18)
• #45 - Matt Harrison (Jul 8 - Major League Debut)
• #44 - Warner Madrigal (Jun 28 - Major League Debut)
• #43 - Chris Davis (Jun 26 - Major League Debut)
• #42 - Max Ramirez (Jun 21 - Major League Debut)
• #41 - Eric Hurley (Jun 12 - Major League Debut)
• #40 - Kameron Loe (Jun 4)
• #39 - Elizardo Ramirez (Jun 3 - DFA Jun 8)
• #38 - Robinson Tejeda (May 30 - DFA Jun 15)
• #37 - Doug Mathis (May 11 - Major League Debut)
• #36 - Travis Metcalf (May 8)
• #35 - A.J. Murray (May 2)
• #34 - Brandon Boggs (Apr 29 - Major League Debut)
• #33 - Chris Shelton (Apr 29)
• #32 - Sidney Ponson (Apr 26 - DFA Jun 6)
• #31 - Jarrod Saltamacchia (Apr 25)
• #30 - Frank Francisco (Apr 22)
• #29 - German Duran (Apr 17 - Major League Debut)
• #28 - Wes Littleton (Apr 14)
• #27 - Scott Feldman (Apr 13)
• #26 - Luis Mendoza (Apr 12)
• #25 to #1: Joaquin Benoit, Franklyn German, Kazuo Fukumori (Major League Debut), Jason Jennings, Dustin Nippert, Kevin Millwood, Jamey Wright, Josh Rupe, Vicente Padilla, Kason Gabbard, Eddie Guardado (traded Aug 25), C.J. Wilson, Gerald Laird, Adam Melhuse (Released Apr 25), Hank Blalock, Jason Botts (traded Jun 4), Ben Broussard (Released May 15), Ian Kinsler, Ramon Vazquez, Michael Young, Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, Frank Catalanotto, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy

Caught the commentary on the Josh Hamilton book the other night watching the game, and looked into it. It's coming out on October 16th, and is apparently more of Josh's personal life story. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Click on the book cover here to get to Amazon.com's pre-order page (which is currently selling the book for 32% off). There's more about the book in this story over on the Rangers' site.

I know I'm behind on games again, I'll catch up at some point, but I don't know when right now, as my company is releasing a new product tomorrow, so I'm really tied up with that.

The Ft Worth Star Telegram has an article online today talking about the tentative 2009 schedule. According to that article..

• The Rangers will open at home (against Cleveland)
• The Rangers will close the season in Seattle again
• Interleague Away: Astros, Giants, Diamondbacks
• Interleague Home: Astros, Padres, Dodgers

I personally would prefer games start at 7:35 again, but I've ranted enough about that.

Eddie Guardado was traded to the Twins today, his original organization. Eddie was one of those guys that when we first signed him back in January, I thought "What the heck are we doing?" Turned out Eddie was a great guy, pitched pretty well, if not spectacular, and had a fire in him that you wished more guys had. Still, we're not going anywhere, and if he can help the Twins, I wish him well.

In return, we get minor league prospect Mark Hamburger. My first thought upon hearing that was not how well can he pitch, was "how badly can Josh Lewin go off on the obvious jokes there"? Since I'd never heard of him, I'm going to shamelessly steal from Jamey Newberg's update about him (since Jamey seems to know everyone in every minor league team everywhere)...

The player Texas has acquired from Minnesota for Eddie Guardado is 21-year-old right-handed reliever Mark Hamburger, a Minnesota native who is 1-2, 4.17 with 13 saves in 14 tries for Elizabethton in the Short-Season Appalachian League. The lanky 6'4" righty has held the league to a .250 average (righties have been particularly inept, hitting .221/.292/.305 off of him), striking out 40 and walking 13 in 36.2 innings while inducing 1.27 as many groundouts as flyouts. He posted a 1.20 ERA in 2007, logging 15 innings (12 hits, four walks, 12 strikeouts) after signing with the Twins as an undrafted free agent out of Mesabi Range Community College.

To take Eddie's roster spot, the team purchased the contract of Bill White, who made a handful of appearances for the Rangers last year. Nine appearances with a little over 9 innings pitched, and an ERA of 4.82. Not the greatest numbers there, but by all accounts has been having a bangup year in 2008. Given that we've effectively tanked in August, we'll probably see a lot more guys come up once the rosters expand next Monday.

The bigger question is - who will be the formal closer, or are we going to hear that phrase that ends in the word "committee" again?

UPDATE: The closer will be Frank Francisco. Probably not a terrible idea.

Also, the flip side of the Guardado trade is that Mike Lamb was designated for assignment by the Twins to make room.

This comes from a story I just read called "C.J. Wilson is a pud. Ron Washington is a stud." I don't know if it's as hostile as this guy makes it out to be, but kudos to Washington for not taking that. Kind of reminds me of the Tomo Ohka "turn his back" on his manager walking to the mound. You can't let your players give you crap like that. I wonder if this thing with Wash will put to rest the fan perception that Wash has no control, or is a weak manager.

Well, OK, there isn't such a thing. At least not officially. Anyone who watches the Rangers all the time knows this already. But it's nice to see a Ranger get some national love. Of course with the numbers Kinsler has been putting up, it's hard to truly ignore him.

ESPN's Jayson Stark has handed out his first half awards, and he names Ian Kinsler the first half AL MVP. Which is a pretty deserving award, I'd say. Here's what Jayson had to say:

If you're one of those folks who hasn't paid much attention to Ian Kinsler -- which at least puts you in a group that includes just about everyone in America except Mrs. Kinsler -- it would probably come as a shock to hear he's even the MVP of his own team. But while Josh Hamilton is a more charismatic story and Milton Bradley's 1.033 OPS makes him a sabermetric hero, it's Kinsler who has really been the centerpiece of one of the best offenses in baseball.

You'll undoubtedly be stunned to learn that Kinsler leads the league in batting, hits, runs, total bases, extra-base hits and multihit games. He's in the top five in the league in nine major offensive categories. He has stolen 23 bases in 24 tries (with the only caught-stealing on a pickoff). He's hitting .397 with men in scoring position. Only three of his 14 homers have been hit in that Texas home run paradise. He has run off separate hitting streaks of 23 and 19 games just since mid-May. And he has reached base in every game but one since May 16.

The only arguments against him come down to defense (16 errors) and the fact that his team hasn't been closer to first place than six games since June 1. But the Rangers actually have more wins since April 24 (42) than the White Sox (41), Angels (41) and Red Sox (40). So every number on Kinsler's stat sheet is relevant to his club's revival. And that's good enough for us.

I was cleaning up my bookmarks file this morning, and found a couple of Josh Hamilton links I can't recall if I mentioned before. Posting them in case you haven't, either.

1) Josh's Sports Illustrated Cover article

2) Video interview with Josh by Harold Reynolds of mlb.com.

I was listening to "The Show" on XM Channel 175, and they had David Murphy on. Was nice to see him get some national love. He said the usual stuff you'd expect about his team and all that. But the thing he talked about which made me post this entry was rookie hazing.

He talked about how the Rangers last year had their rookie hazing - they took the rookies, and the vets with the most service time got to pick a rookie's name and had them wear what they wanted. Murphy said that Brad Wilkerson had picked him, and the next day there was a Tooth Fairy outfit in his locker to wear. So Murphy had to wear that on the plane flight, and also to some party that night as well.

He pointed out that he's probably going to have to do it again this year, because of the oddity that he's still technically a rookie. To make it worse, he had to do this in 2006 as well after being up with the Red Sox in September of 2006 too! He didn't seem genuinely mad about it, but seemed like "Oh boy, I get to do this a third time now"

On the positive side, Murphy did mention that the Red Sox did give him a World Series ring after being up with them for just three games in 2007.

I've been sending emails for the last few months to members of my congregation telling them about Josh Hamilton. I sent them a few emails about his baseball activities (since I'm sure most of my congregation don't follow the team that closely), and also making them aware of his strength from God.

So I told them today about his winning the AL Player of the month for the first two months of the season (something that's never been done before). Mentioned he's now second in AL outfielders in the All-Star voting.

But one thing I noticed this afternoon which probably won't get as much press was the fact that he changed his agents. SI reported this fact today. Here's what they had to say:

Josh Hamilton's negotiations for a long-term deal may be held up a little by his decision to switch agents during negotiations that appeared to be progressing. Hamilton, a born-again Christian after returning from bouts with his drug addiction, explained to friends that he wanted to be with a Christian stable, so he switched agents from Matt Sosnick to Michael Moye as he seemed to be closing in on a long contract.

I don't suspect that will impact much. Somehow I don't see Josh's walk with God leading him to milk the Rangers for dumptrucks full of money - although he may end up with it, anyway.

As someone who also believes hard in Jesus & God, the fact that Josh is using baseball as a platform to push the Gospel is most refreshing for me.

I'm going to be at Saturday's game. It will only be my second game of the year so far (after opening day). I'm getting a good one. The pitching matchup will be Vicente Padilla and Roy Oswalt. That should be quite good (assuming they both pitch like themselves). Just saw one thing come across the Ft Worth Star Telegram Rangers blog. Check this out:

The national anthem before the Rangers-Astros game at 6 p.m. Saturday will be played and sung live via satellite from Baghdad, Iraq. The anthem will be performed by soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division, which is based in Fort Hood. This is the first time the Rangers have had the anthem performed via satellite.

Normally, the National Anthem bores me. Not the message behind it, but the fact that most people who sing it make it their personal time to go "LOOK AT ME!"

However, having it come in from Iraq is a seriously badass idea. I can't wait to see that.

Seattle first baseman Richie Sexson has been suspended for six games for charging the mound Thursday night. Texas pitcher Kason Gabbard was not fined or suspended. Seattle pitcher Felix Hernandez was also fined as were Rangers catcher Gerald Laird and pitcher Sidney Ponson.

Sexson should have gotten a few more games than that just for being a dumbass.

Thanks Foul Territory.

In a new award that I helped plug a few days ago, David Murphy was named AL Rookie of Month for April. This is a new award, I guess to complement the player of the month award. However, this one is voted on by the fans (hence my plug), and is sponsored (at least for now) by Gillette razors.

Given Murphy's barely qualifying as a rookie in 2008 (due to him having 105 at bats in 2007 - as well as 22 in 2006), I wondered if fans of the runners up (Jacoby Ellsbury in Boston, Armando Galarraga in Detroit, and Greg Smith in Oakland) would whine about his "rookie" status. I took a peek at those teams' official forums, and didn't see anything.

Still, rookie status aside, you cannot argue with Murphy's performance in April. It was fantastic. He played good defense, he was hitting the ball all over the place. It was the kind of performance you like to see out of veterans - not the kind you expect from your rookies & kids. This has turned out to be a great trade for us - Eric Gagne did nothing for Boston, and we got Murph, Gabbard, & Engel Beltre. Thank you Theo Epstein for that one.

I got this email in earlier today about a new Rookie of the Month award being run on MLB.com, so I thought I'd pass it along, as David Murphy is one of the candidates...

DAVID MURPHY ONE OF FOUR NOMINEES FOR NEW ROOKIE OF THE MONTH AWARD PRESENTED BY GILLETTE & MLB

David Murphy of the Rangers is one of four American League nominees for Major League Baseball's newest major award in both leagues -- the Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette (www.mlb.com/gillette).

In the American League in addition to Murphy, nominees for April (including March games) are right-hander Armando Galarraga of the Tigers, outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox and left-hander Greg Smith of the A's.

Fans get to decide the best starts by players starting their careers, and by voting become automatically entered in a drawing for a trip to see either the 79th All-Star Game on July 15 at Yankee Stadium or one of the 2008 World Series games. Voting will be conducted at the start of each month for the top rookie from each league.

In the National League, the four nominees are outfielder Kosuke Fukudome of the Cubs, right-hander Jair Jurrjens of the Braves, right-hander Kyle McClellan of the Cardinals and catcher Geovany Soto of the Cubs.

The online fan vote represents 20 percent of the overall balloting, with the remaining votes coming from team baseball writers and club broadcasters. Once voting is concluded, Gillette, MLB and Major League Baseball Advanced Media will announce the winning rookie for each league in a monthly press release and congratulate the winners at mlb.com/gillette.

That first announcement will be this Friday, after which Gillette will present the award winners with a Rookie of the Month trophy and make a donation to a charitable organization in each award recipient's name.

Statistical criteria is provided on the site for fans to make their selections. For position players, it's home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, runs scored. For pitchers, it's wins and saves, strikeouts, ERA.

Usually when a guy is DFA'ed, you don't hear much from them. But Jason Botts apparently wants out per this article over at the Ft Worth Star Telegram today.

Normally, I'm of the ilk of if a player wants out, get him out of here. But for some reason to hear the player actually come out and say it makes me want to bury him in the franchise somewhere so he doesn't get a fresh start. Petty reaction, I admit, but my point is you usually don't see quotes from the player saying this stuff.

Let's just hope he doesn't end up like Travis Hafner.

Saw an interesting link tonight which was a summary of stories about the possibility of Gerald Laird finally being dealt, now that Saltamacchia is back, and by all accounts will a) not be playing first, and b) is not going back to AAA. Laird's been doing fairly decently this year, and could bring something back, but it seems a bit early in the season to push that button.

I suspect he'll be dealt eventually, but my gut feeling is not this early. I didn't expect to see that happen until June somewhere. I still think he'll end up in Boston, but I don't have any hard facts on that - just a gut feeling.

The Yankees could probably use him too, but what do they have that they'd be willing to give up that we need? Unless a trade is expanded beyond 1x1, I don't see that happening, either.

What a shocker that is. Saw that remark on a piece over at Baseball Digest Daily. In it, Nolan talks about how few innings it takes to be considered a staff ace anymore. Check out the article here.

Saw a few minutes ago some official roster moves were posted to the Rangers site.

The first one was dated last night, but I was pretty positive I hadn't seen that earlier this morning when I looked. The first one had Frank Francisco optioned to AAA, and Eric Hurley reassigned to AAA.

The second one came this morning, when Kameron Loe and Jarrod Saltamacchia were optioned to AAA. I touched on the "why" earlier this morning, but Kam was still a possibility for the pen. Not now, he's been dispatched to Oklahoma.

None of these moves affect the 40 man roster, though. Just shuffling of existing 40 man players.

One other note. My roster page is being updated when these moves are officially made. As such, I still have guys like Adam Melhuse in the minors, even though they'll be on the 25 man. Once these moves are all officially made by the Rangers, I'll be updating my roster pages.

Before the game last night, several announcements regarding the roster were announced. They weren't formally made, however, so the roster (officially) remains as it was. But several things were announced:

C.J Wilson was named the closer: This one is the most obvious. I know officially anyway, there was talk that Eddie Guarardo was going to challenge Wilson, but I don't think anyone really believed that was a true competition. CJ seems like he could do the job after going 12-14 in save opportunities last year late. He doesn't strike fear in people at this point though (like Papelbon, Mariano Rivera at his prime, and Ugueth Urbina when he wasn't in jail), but he seems to be able to do the job. Hopefully he stays healthy and performs. It's been a few years now since we haven't had to change closers during a season.

Franklyn German makes the club: From the spring he's had, this isn't a huge surprise. He's done a nice job, and assuming this isn't a flash in the pan in spring training, this should be a good move. Hard to argue with giving a job to a guy whose ERA is 1.00. He has previous major league experience after being up with the Marlins in 2006, as well as with the Tigers from 2002-2005.

Jamey Wright makes the club: No huge surprise here. He did well for us in the pen last year, and that's where he's headed again. Should help out, assuming he doesn't regress.

Frank Francisco to minors: Ever since the chair throwing incident, he doesn't seem to have regained his total dominance he showed for awhile there. Shame, as I wanted him to succeed if for no other reason than to give the middle finger to Craig Bueno.

This leaves the bullpen with this roster: C.J. Wilson, Joaquin Benoit, Kaz Fukumori, Eddie Guardado, Franklyn German and Jamey Wright. There's still two open spots. My guess for those spots are Robinson Tejeda (because of the options thing)

Some other announcements:

Jason Botts makes the club: Jason has had a decent enough spring, and reports seem to indicate he's improved on his defense enough where he's earned himself a spot. I think this is probably his last chance though - if he blows this, I doubt he'll get through waivers.

Nelson Cruz to be DFA'ed: Several reports say that the Rangers will try and get Cruz through waivers, but I don't think anyone expects that to happen. He has one of the better throwing arms, and even though given multiple chances, has not grasped the role of regular, because his offense is so all over the place.

Kevin Mench to minors: In another move that I think surprised nobody, Kevin Mench will start the season in AAA. His contract stated he would agree to that, so once that clause was in there, I think he realistically became "the insurance policy". He would have had to have been miles above anyone else to make the club's opening day 25 man. Still, it would not surprise me to see him up here before too long, unless everyone stays healthy.

Jason Ellison to minors: Jason Ellison was also told he won't make the club, which doesn't seem like much of a surprise. I wasn't hearing his name a ton in reports and all that.

Catching:

Salty to AAA: This one came in right when I started writing this article, so I had to include it. According to TR Sullivan this morning, it was decided that Adam Melhuse would make the club as the backup to Gerald Laird, with Jarrod Saltamacchia going to AAA to get regular work. There also was some talk that Jon Daniels might still be trying to move Gerald Laird before the start of the season, but wants to get good value. He better, as while I don't think Laird is the seriously long term answer, he does appear to be a good catcher, so you don't want to just give him away.

A few notes, though. Franklyn German, Jamey Wright, and Adam Melhuse are NOT on the 40 man roster, and since ours is full, room will have to be made for them. The obvious candidate is Nelson Cruz, who is reported to be dfa'ed. That's one. The others will probably be guys moved to the 60 day DL.

None of these roster moves were officially made, my guess is we see a big bomb of transactions all at once right before the actual deadline when we have to get down to our starting 25.

Rangers signed Sidney Ponson today to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training (Story) This on the same day that it was announced that Brandon McCarthy will start the season on the DL, being out 6-8 weeks or so. Coincidence? Probably not.

I can't imagine there are any Rangers fans who are excited about the Ponson move. Will you feel good if he takes the mound in Arlington? I'd say probably not. There's some minor rumblings that he's gotten it together, and if so that'd be great for us. However, can you honestly say that you're truly excited about this signing? I can't imagine anyone thinking that. Even Jon Daniels would probably think "I hope this works" if he gets to Arlington. This really reminds me of the

I bet Josh Lewin will probably make a bunch out of the Aruba thing with him, I'd bet.

In a post over at the DMN Rangers' blog this afternoon, it was announced that Nolan Ryan's contract was officially signed, a four year deal. It runs through 2011.

Likewise, Jon Daniels got a two year extension as well. This runs both of them through 2011.

Of course, people can be fired anyway, but it's nice to see an attempt at stable upper management, something we haven't had in quite a long time. The true impact of Nolan Ryan on the club as President won't be known for awhile, I'd imagine. To date, it still seems somewhat like a "figurehead" type of thing, but I suspect it won't stay that way for long.

Despite the stupid Chris Young trade, which I'm still somewhat peeved at, I'd give thumbs up for Jon Daniels, so I'm glad to see these moves happen.

A couple of days ago we got the word that Kevin Millwood "tweaked" (Good Lord, what exactly does that mean) his hamstring, which will cause him to miss his first scheduled start on Friday.

Then this morning, Evan Grant posted the news that Brandon McCarthy is being held back from the exhibition opener tomorrow.

Neither are (officially anyway) being classified as a real problem. They're saying that Millwood should only miss one start, and that McCarthy could pitch if he had to. I've been following this sport enough to know that we rarely get the TRUE meaning of these things. Aside from that hyper technical term of "tweaked", do we really know - HONESTLY - what the problems are? They very well could be not a big deal.

I'm sure we'll hear the usual platitudes about how it's not a big deal, they're really fine, and the word most often heard with news like this... "precautionary".

But when I heard the McCarthy news, my first thought was "OK, that's two. It always comes in threes, so who gets it next"?

Never good to hear this news at ANY time in camp.

The 2008 Rangers TV schedule has been released. No huge surprises about it, although I have a few things to say.

It appears that more of the games are being shown on Fox Sports Southwest than before. The schedule shows 110 of them there. 48 are on "free TV" on KDFI-27, and two are on Fox 4 (home opener & July 13th). That totals 160 games. Up until a couple of years ago it was pretty much guaranteed there'd be 162 games televised. The last few years it seems it's 160. Does anyone know (for real) why there are two that aren't? Is this a tradeoff for the two we get televised during spring training? It seems with all the money (there's that word again) going around baseball and TV, they'd do all of them. You would THINK they'd jump at the chance to sell more commercial time. I don't understand that.

Anyway, the other two could be broadcast, as this schedule doesn't list any national games. There's always a few games that get rescheduled for ESPN Game of the Week, or Fox Saturday afternoon baseball or something like that. So this probably isn't set in stone. Also, there's no HD schedule yet. It doesn't affect me personally, as I haven't been able to afford to buy one of those yet - hopefully soon.

Another interesting thing is this new "FSN Plus" channel, which will be showing the 50 "free TV" games on an alternate cable channel. Read this from the press release about the schedule:

FSN Southwest will distribute the 50 over-the-air games broadcast in Dallas Fort Worth in the team's outer markets on FSN Plus, a second channel available to participating cable systems. Games on FSN Southwest will be shown in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico and on FSN Plus affiliates in markets where there are programming conflicts.

I have DirecTV here, and see them all anyway, but I'm a little unclear as to the purpose of this. If I subscribe to a system that has access to "FSN Plus", I'd be able to get the free TV broadcasts anyway. While I don't think this is bad, it just is a bit of an eyebrow raiser - I don't get it. Can someone who does please explain it to me?

The Rangers site has a press release about the schedule, as well as a downloadable PDF TV schedule of each game and which channel it is scheduled to be on.

I've started updating my 2008 schedule with this. I haven't posted it yet, because I'm doing something new in 2008, and it's incredibly tedious to set up - it takes me about an hour or so to do one month. But it will pay off as the season gets started. I hope to be finished some time early this coming week with that.

Ian Kinsler was signed to a five year contract extension, with a team option for 2013.

This effectively voids the $400k contact he signed the other day as it goes into effect now. The total dollar value is $22 million for the five years. The sixth year is a $10 million option with a $500k option.

More details as they come in.

UPDATE: I've got a breakdown of the 5 year guaranteed stuff. It does replace the $400k contract for 2008.

Signing Bonus: $1 Million
2008: $500,000
2009: $3 Million
2010: $4 Million
2011: $6 Million
2012: $7 Million
2013: $10 Million club option w/ $500k buyout

The Rangers site has a press release stating that 14 players have been signed to 2008 contracts. These are all guys we control, so the numbers aren't going to be bigtime here.

In fact, as I write this, only one number is out, that's Ian Kinsler's figure of $407,570.

Evan Grant thinks that this isn't a big deal, and it probably isn't. He even classifies it as a "good faith" move from Kinsler's people about a 2008 contract. The list of folks who signed for 2008 today are:

Joaquin Arias - $391,000
Brandon Boggs - $390,000
Nelson Cruz - $398,150
Scott Feldman - $397,430
Kason Gabbard - $396,380
Josh Hamilton - $396,830
Matt Harrison - $390,000
Ian Kinsler - $407,570
Kameron Loe - $410,690
Luis Mendoza - $391,000
Max Ramirez - $390,000
John Rheinecker - $395,320
Josh Rupe - $392,000
Jarrod Saltalamacchia - $396,710

That leaves 11 other unsigned players.

UPDATE: The Ft Worth Star Telegram blog posted dollar values for all of them. I've updated my list.

As has been reported the last couple of days, Kevin Mench has signed a minor league deal with the Rangers that includes an invite to spring training. Let's hope this repeat appearance of Shrek is better than the most recent repeat appearance of Shrek in the movies. Blech.

Several stories in the last few days said that the Rangers were asking for a guarantee that he would accept an assignment to AAA should he not make the club. The Dallas Morning News is reporting that was part of the deal, but it's not indefinite. That's because there is a reported condition that if he's not added to the major league roster by June 1st, he can request his release from the club. Kevin doesn't strike me as someone who is beyond his days to be stuck in AAA going downwards. I suspect he could hook on with someone if he's not here past June, so I expect he'll be gone if he's not in the majors. The deal calls for a $600,000 salary if he's on the opening day roster, although it doesn't say how much he gets if he gets called up later; probably a prorated number from that salary.

It makes the competition for the OF a bit more crowded. I would see his main competition being David Murphy ( who was wearing Kevin's old uniform number last season), Jason Botts, & Nelson Cruz. Cruz is probably on his last straw with the Rangers, and Botts probably isn't serious competition, as he's not the best outfielder around.

Be nice to have him around again. I wouldn't mind seeing the commercial with him and Rangers Captain back on the airwaves - that was one of the funnier ones around. Actually the Rangers site says it's available, but since mlb.com switched to a new media player, a lot of their older clips like this are all broken. Figures.

This is really a no risk move for the Rangers. My gut feeling is that he doesn't break camp with the club, though.

As we get closer to the fun starting again on Thursday with pitchers and catchers, I've been working behind the scenes on my site to get some things done. Not terribly obvious to you, but this one might be.

One of the features on my site that I don't think I've seen on any other Rangers site is a history of Rangers uniform numbers. I've got all the Texas Rangers years covered, and some Senators years, too. I've been keeping up with all the changes for the last 5 years or so as that's when I started tracking it. Information going backwards is not as complete, but still pretty accurate. What I mean by that is guys who were up for just one game or something in say 1977 aren't likely to be in here. I do have info for the numbers in the Senators years, but I haven't found the time to put that stuff in there. Hopefully soon.

Anyway, I've gone through and updated it for 2008 based on the published spring training rosters that are out and about. A couple of minor things which I don't have an answer for:

• Our new third base coach this year is Matt Walbeck. The official Rangers site doesn't list a number for him, so if you know what his number is, please tell me.
  
• It's been in several papers that old schoolers like Mark McLemore, Rusty Greer, Steve Buchele and others will be in spring training to coach the current players - possibly even in uniform. If anyone has seen assignments for these guys, let me know.
  
• If anyone has numbers for some of the other guys who are in uniform (bullpen catcher, some of the other folks in the dugout who aren't on the field coaches), let me know that, too.
  

Thanks, and I hope you get a kick out of my uniform number section of the site.

The season previews are rolling in now that spring training gets started this coming week (yay!). Here's a few of the ones I've noticed the last few days. If you know of one I haven't listed, please post it in the comments. Thanks.

• MLB.com/Texasrangers.com
• ESPN (technically a fantasy league preview for the Rangers)
• Yahoo Sports
• DMN Spring Training Preview

I for one welcome our new baseball overlord.

This will be good, and will likely be another thing that won't go right this offseason for Drayton McLane.

According to this story on Monday evening, Armando Galarraga, who was the last part of the Soriano trade we still had a piece of, was being traded to the Detroit Tigers.

According to the story, we would receive outfield prospect Michael Hernandez. I don't know much about this kid, that's more Jamey's bag, but given this was towards the back end of the designated for assignment period, it's probably not a prospect that would get most Rangers fans jumping up and down.

I'm sure Jamey will have more on this one shortly.

Lots of Rangers sites/blogs and newspapers have written about the possible return of Nolan Ryan to the Texas Rangers as president. It's an office that has had much ridicule from fans in the know since Tom Schieffer departed as president of the Texas Rangers not long after Tom Hicks bought the team.

Since then it's been a bunch of guys who didn't seem to care much about baseball or the fans, they were mostly hockey guys thrust into the role (Jim Lites, anyone?) who were a victim of Tom Hicks' attempt at synergy some years ago. He eventually (sorta) figured out that you can't run a baseball team like a hockey team. The other "joke" I used to laugh at was the one president (forget his name at the moment) who would have a video clip on the (not so Jumbo) Jumbotron at the Ballpark talking about how he wanted the fans to contact him. Even went so far as to give his email address, and said that every email sent to him would get answered. Oh yeah, RIGHT! Way to lie to your customer base every single night. That did not help the perception of monolithic business in the front office.

So anyway, at the end of this past season, the team moved Jeff Cogen back over to the Stars President's role (snicker - that further proves the hockey analogy), and the post has been left open. Any Rangers fan reading this site should already know that. Been a lot of talk about bring Nolan Ryan back in the role of President. It does raise an interesting role, the office of President has traditionally been one that was involved in biz only. The "baseball" side of things was kept separate. If Ryan comes back, I don't think he'll be some sort of dictator president, but it will be interesting to see how well he works with Jon Daniels. Of course, Ryan has owned two minor league baseball teams for awhile now, and that brings me to something I haven't seen discussed much.

Ryan is the owner of the AAA Round Rock Express, and the AA Corpus Christi Hooks, both teams in the upper two levels of the Houston Astros minor league system. What I've always wondered was if this would be a conflict of interest. Could Ryan exist as being the president of one club, and an owner of two minor league franchises for another? I always figured if he took the Rangers President post, he'd have to divest himself of his Astros minor league holdings, or at least put 'em in trust for his kids, or something like that.

So I decided to pose the question to Maury Brown of the very informative site "The Biz of Baseball". I figure he'd know, since he seems to know more about oddball baseball minutiae than almost anyone else I know. Here's some relevant bits from an email exchange we had:

Joe: The Nolan Ryan story has been playing locally since late last week. It does raise a question. If he became President of the Rangers, wouldn't he have to divest himself of his ownings of the two Astros minor league teams? I can't see MLB allowing a team president to own minor league teams for another franchise.

Maury: Try this... The Red Sox (Fenway Sports Group) recently purchased the Salem Avalanche of the Carolina League. There's more on that in this link. The Avalanche are an Astros minor league affiliate. Based upon that, it appears that Ryan would not have to divest himself of the Express or Corpus Christi Hooks.

Joe: So that's a no then. :) I would think they would perceive that as conflict of interest.

Maury: One might say that, but it's at the minor league level. MLB rules forbid owners from owning shares of more than one MLB team. Yet, at one point (a short period, mind you), John Henry owned parts of the Marlins, Yankees, and the Red Sox at the same time.

So it would seem that he wouldn't have to, although I would have to imagine we'll hear "conflict of interest" if he is hired as the Rangers President. With Sundberg being in the upper management team, and with a possible return of Nolan Ryan, it would help restore Hicks' image a bit with the fans, I think. I always kind of felt those images of Hicks celebrating championships in 1998 & 1999 were kind of "riding the coattails of the previous regime" (much in the same way that Barry Switzer rode Jimmy Johnson's coattails). I think a hiring of Ryan would be a good move, both from a baseball standpoint, and most CERTAINLY from a PR standpoint.

Still would like to see how the conflict issue I raise here would be officially dealt with.

Makes you wonder if "Nolan Ryan's All Natural Tender Aged Beef" would be a Texas Rangers sponsor, too. Heh. :)

For no good reason, here's that clip of Nolan Ryan & Robin Ventura. Thanks to Tim McMahon for the timing of his post referencing the clip right before I posted this. :)

Been taking it easy from reporting as you've noticed. I'm going to have a few words to say about a few recent events in Rangers Land.

1) Promotions Schedule: First off, I know I mentioned this the last time I did one of these kinds of updates, but I feel so strongly about it that I wanted to repeat it. The Rangers released the 2008 promotions schedule. It has the usual gaggle of things - Dollar hot dogs, fireworks, bobbleheads, caps, etc, etc... One thing that is worth nothing that I think needs to be pointed out. You know how in the last year or so the Rangers got in on that "We're going to charge more for higher profile games" (Read: Opening Day, Yankees, Red Sox)? Well, guess what? All the games that have pre or post game concerts, as well as all fireworks games are now part of this "premium pricing" thing. That's right, you're gonna pay a few more bucks just for that. Guess they got tired of footing the bill for the fireworks show.

Don't let them fool you when they say it's a free fireworks show. It ain't. :(

2) Kaz Fukumori finally added to roster: The Rangers finally added Fukomori to the 40 man roster on the 14th, after having announced his signing back on December 14th. He sat in roster purgatory in the meantime, but since he wasn't an MLB player before that, I'd wager there's some fiddly obscure rules. The casualty of this move was recently acquired first baseman Chris Shelton. Hardly knew 'ye, Chris. I guess that makes more space/time for Ben Broussard. (Story)

3) Marlon Byrd signed: Marlon Byrd was signed to a contract for 2008, avoiding arbitration. He was the fan choice in 2007 to be the starting center fielder this year. Given our moves since then, I seriously doubt he'll get that job unless there's some big health problems in spring training. Byrd got $1.8 million. For a fourth outfielder, that's not a bad payday. As I've said before, I remember Byrd from his days in Philadelphia. One of those "great promise" guys who shows flashes of brilliance, but never completely turns on the light bulb. Not sure what will happen in 2008 (Bradley, Hamilton), but I don't see him getting as much playing time in 2008, assuming he's here. As I write this on the 19th, there's been some talk the last few days about a possible trade with the Cubs for Byrd. Assuming everyone's healthy, this would be a logjam freeing move, but my gut feeling is that we hang onto Byrd going into the season at least. (Story)

4) Jason Jennings signed: There'd been talk for awhile now about the Rangers looking for a middle tier (cheap?) veteran reliever to join our rotation. They found one. Jason Jennings, of recent Houston vintage. Jennings is a local boy, having been born in Dallas. Had a horrendous year in Houston last year, going 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA. He had a decent ERA in 2006 (3.something) in Colorado, and could be OK if all the planets align. But I'm tired of these guys who "could" work out if everything goes right. So here I am again hoping everything goes right. Sigh. Also, there's been no corresponding 40 man roster move for this, so he hasn't "officially" been put on the roster yet as I write this. (Story)

5) Bill White 're-'signed: Somewhat serviceable relief pitcher Bill White was resigned to a minor league contract after having been waived and removed from the 40 man roster. Not a move that will get anyone jumping up and down, but he wasn't too bad in 07. Could be a nice roster emergency piece should you need it. (Story)

6) Gerald Laird signed: Gerald Laird was signed to a 2008 contract, avoiding arbitration. Laird will make $1.6 Million in 08 (over his 450k in 07). He completely tanked at the plate offensively in 2007, but if you're reading this site, then you should know about Gerald already. I still have to admit to being surprised that they announced that Salty will be the primary catcher in 08 awhile ago. One would think you'd go into it with competition. I can hear the interviews already in spring training on TV with Gerald. His reply will go something like "I've always had to fight for my job with this organization, this year will be no different." The only question is on what date will we get to hear him say that on TV? My gut feeling is we're hanging on to him long enough to trade him, given the catching depth we have in the minors long term. (Story)

I get an instant message from Jamey Newberg last night asking me if I had quit the blog (I did kind of say I might do that in September). So I posted this. Now I'm on my fourth post in the last 24 hours. Thanks Jamey! :)

Since my last post earlier this morning, a few things have happened, and a couple since last night.

1) Guardardo signing official: The Rangers officially signed Eddie Guardardo today. One year contract for $2 million, plus another possible FOUR million in incentives. Sounds like a similar deal (with less raw dollars) than the deal they gave Eric Gagne last off season. Somehow I don't think Everyday Eddie will be a) everyday, and b) as good as Gagne. The stated reasons are probably viable, they need some sort of established veteran presence in the pen. Two million isn't a huge loss if Eddie blows his arm out. I'm indifferent towards this one.

2) Jamey Wright resigned: Jamey Wright who had some surprisingly decent numbers last year with us was resigned to a one year minor league deal, which has an invite to spring training. Jamey was someone I did not want to like - I originally disliked the signing. It worked out better than I thought, he was pretty good out of the pen once he got there. Had a 2.05 ERA in 11 appearances. I would have thought he deserved better than a minor league deal, but oh well.

3) Bill White released: Bill White one of the lesser names in our pen last season was placed on waivers for the purpose of being released earlier this week. This made room for the Guardardo signing. Read tonight that he cleared waivers, and we're trying to resign him to a minor league deal. Eh.

4) Ticket Prices go up again: Sorta. The expensive seats that your average fan can't buy anyway are getting more expensive. Fine, they can gouge the boob job & cocaine crowd all they want. For those regular fans, we'll be in the cheap seats. I'd like to point out now though that the seats at the upper most part of the park are the same price as the first row seats downstairs were in 1994 when the place opened ($16). Those tickets are now $125 each.

5) Kazuo Fukumori: He was announced as signed, but when he was "signed", we had a full 40 man roster. The next person to be dropped was Bill White, and he was moved out to make room for Guardardo. So unless I totally missed something, Fukumori isn't "officially" signed yet. What's going on with this?

6) Promotions schedule: The Rangers released the 2008 promotions schedule. It has the usual gaggle of things - Dollar hot dogs, fireworks, bobbleheads, caps, etc, etc... One thing that is worth nothing that I think needs to be pointed out.

You know how in the last year or so the Rangers got in on that "We're going to charge more for higher profile games" (Read: Opening Day, Yankees, Red Sox)? Well, guess what? All the games that have pre or post game concerts, as well as all fireworks games are now part of this "premium pricing" thing. That's right, you're gonna pay a few more bucks just for that. Guess they got tired of footing the bill for the fireworks show.

Don't let them fool you when they say it's a free fireworks show. It ain't. :(

Short message for a short interview. Go check out a quick interview with Jim Colburn. Jim as you may now is the new "Director of Pacific Rim Operations" for the Texas Rangers. News about his hiring can be read here.

Anyway, Jim appeared on the XM Radio "Hot Stove" show on Thursday. You can read the exerpt from Jim's appearance here.

I guess the Reds cleared up some of their outfield logjam, a longtime problem up in Cincinnati.

The Rangers acquired Josh Hamilton from the Reds today for Edinson Volquez and minor league pitcher Danny Herrera. I have to admit to not knowing much about Herrera, but Volquez is not a stranger to Rangers fans. When he's on, Volquez is electric, but I think he kind of wore out his welcome by not being able to figure it out in the majors. Will he end up being like other pitchers who have left here and done well, or will he be like Ricardo Rodriguez and Juan Dominguez?

Josh Hamilton is one of those stories that you like. He's got tools, he can be what we need in CF, I think. He does have a bit of baggage. Jamey Newberg said it right in his news flash by saying just.. "Wow".

There's a nice breakdown of new Rangers reliever Kazuo Fukumori over on one of the Ft Worth Star Telegram blogs. It goes:

New Rangers reliever Kazuo Fukumori was introduced to the media Friday at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The media contingent had a strong international flair with many Japanese reporters on hand for the signing. Among things we learned about the 31-year-old right-hander were:

His last name is pronounced foo-koo-MORE-ee

He goes by Kaz

He's learning English but spoke through interpretors

He's a fastball, forkball pitcher

He's throwing from the mound already after having elbow surgery this year and expects to be ready for Opening Day

His preferred role is whatever role manager Ron Washington wants to put him in

He was 4-2 with 17 saves and a 4.75 ERA before the elbow surgery in 2007 while pitching for the Tohuku Rakuten

The contract is for two years with a club option for 2010

From the "dumbass" file..

NEW YORK -- A teenage shortstop in the Texas Rangers organization was suspended Friday for the first 50 games of next season after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance under baseball's minor league drug program.

Julio Gonzalez, 19, hit .253 in 27 games this season in rookie ball in Arizona.

The penalty came a day after the Mitchell Report was released, looking at steroids in the major leagues.

Gonzalez got the 30th suspension this year under the minor league program. There have been eight under the major league plan.

From an AP Wire story:

The Texas Rangers signed Edgardo Alfonzo on Friday to a minor-league contract that would pay him $650,000, plus incentives, if he makes the major league roster.

Alfonzo last appeared in the majors in 2006 for a total of 30 games with the Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays.

From my mind:

Ranger names named in the Mitchell Report:

After a quick search of the full Mitchell Report (avilable here) turns up these players who were with the Texas Rangers at some point in their career, although not necessarily when they were with the Rangers at the time.

• Ferguson Jenkins (Page 29) - Then commissioner Kuhn suspended Jenkins for his refusal to cooperate in an investigation into his own arrest for marijuana, hash, & cocaine.
• Jose Canseco (Page 66) - No further comment needed on this.
• John Hart / Juan Gonzalez (Page 98) - I'll just quote.. "By early in the 2002 season, however, Presinal was observed in and around the clubhouse of the Texas Rangers (where Juan Gonzalez was playing at the time). Sign-in records indicate that Presinal was in the Rangers clubhouse frequently that season. The Rangers also reserved (but did not pay for) rooms for Presinal at the club’s hotels that season. The Rangers’ general manager, John Hart, was aware of the October 2001 incident and Presinal’s alleged role in it". Busting John Hart was a bit of a surprise.
• David Segui (Page 150) - He has already publically admitted his use, no surprise here.
• Gregg Zaun (Page 179) - Apparently bought some steroids when he was with Kansas City. He never had that "look" of a steroid user, though.
• Hicks/Daniels (Page 204) - This page says the two had suspicions of Miguel Tejada when there was some talk of acquring him in December 2005.
• Mike Stanton (Page 205) - Apparently bought in 2001 when he was with the Mets.
• Jerry Hairston Jr (Page 207 & 251) - According to this page, he bought in 2003, after being referred to by Segui, and then again in 2004.
• Kevin Brown (Page 214) - According to this, he was referred to by Paul LoDuca when the two were teammates for the Dodgers.
• Eric Gagne (Page 217) - Appears that he bought sometime between 1999 and 2004 (again referred to by LoDuca).
• Gary Matthews Jr (Page 252) - Says what we already knew, that he received a package of HGH in August 2004 at an address by then Ranger minor leaguer Chad Allen.
• Ismael Valdez (Page 255) - Says that he bought $2500 of HGH in Sep 2002 while with the Mariners.
• Steve Woodard (Page 256) - Mentions he recieved steroids & HGH, but does not say WHEN.
• Jamie Reed (Page 299) - Rangers trainer is mentioned as someone who is anti-steroid.

That's my quick scan of the 409 page document for "Texas Rangers". If I missed someone, please comment on it.

Interesting that the report says that John Hart was "aware" of events during his tenure - and Juan Gonzalez is linked to him, too.

UPDATE: In my quick scan I missed a few players. I've looked at a few compiled lists since then, and saw that these guys were named, too.

• John Rocker
• Ken Caminiti - No surprise there, he admitted it.
• Manny Alexander

Rafael Palmeiro & Sammy Sosa are listed, but only regarding interviews; no implication of them "using" that I can find.

Well, I haven't done a good post in awhile, and given I've decided to continue the site after my September burnout, I probably should say something about recent events. I'm still going to lie low this offseason anyway, not do as much as some offseasons past. Kind of recharge, know what I mean? Anyway, here goes a few thoughts on several recent events.

Nov 30: Salty made starting catcher: I thought this was a bit of an odd move. It certainly rubs salt in the wounds of Gerald Laird, and I thought made him an easily movable target at the winter meetings. Given the names we have at catcher down in the minors, I figured naming Salty the primary catcher for 2008 meant that Laird was out the door for another piece. Didn't happen. I wonder how disgruntled Laird will be if we go into 2008 with him as backup. Salty as catcher doesn't bother me, but I think Laird has the edge on his defense. (Story Link)

Dec 1: Arbitration declinations: Several players were not offered arbitration, basically cutting them loose. The list here was Sammy Sosa, Jamey Wright, Jerry Hairston, & Brad Wilkerson. Hairston and Wilkerson were at this date locks not to come back. Events since then have pretty much guaranteed that. There was some talk that Sosa could come back under the right circumstances, but his statement that he wants $7 million guaranteed probably rules that out. Jamey Wright was better than I was expecting him to be, and wouldn't be surprised if he returns for the pen. But I haven't seen any news about him since this story. (Story Link)

Dec 3: Dance with Gagne again: There was some talk about the Rangers signing Eric Gagne again for 2008. Didn't happen, presumably because he wanted more guaranteed money than we were willing to provide (He got $10 Mil). So that didn't happen. Not a big deal, really. (Story Link)

Dec 5: Chris Shelton acquired: Chris Shelton was acquired from the Detroit Tigers at the winter meetings for spare part outfielder Freddy Guzman. Guzman was good to me on my baseball game on the Xbox 360, as he was incredibly fast. That's about it. Guzman didn't really have a chance here, so he was sent to Detroit for Shelton. Shelton can probably be good, although whether he gets the full time 1B job is a question mark. He had that incredibly hot streak of home runs early in the 2006 season, but fell out of favor in Detroit. Probably a good low risk pickup. Didn't cost us anything we really wanted, and it could work out from a "lightning in a bottle" standpoint. (Story Link)

Dec 5: Wash wants 10 more wins: Ron Washington came out and said that the Rangers target should be 10 more wins in 2008. That would give 'em a record of 85-78 record in 2008. Much better, but probably not enough to dent the playoffs. I saw Wash take a few shots in the press for those remarks. But he's the manager - what the heck is he supposed to say? "Uh guys, let's get the same 75 wins we had in 2007" - no he won't be doing THAT. (Story Link)

Dec 9: Rangers sign Milton Bradley: The Rangers signed Milton Bradley to a one year contract worth $5 mil plus incentives. It was later made official on Dec 13th. I'll just copy what I wrote a few days back on Bradley, as my thoughts haven't changed any. This is a bit of a comedown from the names we were talking about as outfielders, although the story said it was to be a primary DH. I never quite understood a specific player for DH, because I loved the way Johnny Oates handled the position. As a place you could dump a player who needed a partial day off, or a place to put your own guys. Signing a DH just to be DH always struck me as a very limiting thing. Anyway, Bradley has a history of confrontations. So did Carl Everett and John Rocker when they came here, so we shall see what happens. I'm sure it's nowhere near as bad as the reputation makes it out to be, but at the first sign of trouble, I'm sure it will be analyzed by the local media. I'm guessing they probably won't like it. I'm indifferent - it's not a signing that will make me jump and down, but I don't hate it, either. This is one of the two players that would make Josh Lewin's head explode with puns - the other being Coco Crisp. If we still end up with Crisp, I think Lewin might be speechless from the possibilities. ;) (Story Link)

Dec 10: Ranger fans are stupid: I'm getting tired of seeing stupid trade scenarios in email lists like the one I link to here. It's the same reason I don't like listening to post game call ins - the majority of the people who make these questions have no realistic idea of what they're talking about. Like the old tired "WHY ARE THEY NOT GETTING PITCHING?" Because there is no good stuff to get out there right now? I mean come on - several recent free agent signee suggestions I've seen mentioned aren't possible at all because they're not free agents! That just infuriates me - do your homework before asking a question! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! (Story Link)

Dec 10: Kevin Mench DFA'ed by Brewers: Our old friend Kevin Mench was DFA'ed by the Brewers (and later non tendered on Dec 12th). There was some brief talk about bringing him back, and I thought about it for a minute. TR Sullivan had a nice line about that in one of his mailbags.. "Don't need to look backwards like that" - or something to that effect. As a side note, the Brewers also DFA'ed Laynce Nix, but he got through waivers and was reassigned to Milwaukee's minor league system. (Story Link)

Dec 11: Rangers sign 7 minor leaugee free agents: Yawn. Franklyn German could be a name that might show up in Arlington, but does anyone think we'll see major league production out of these guys? Thank you, drive through. If I'm wrong on this, I'll admit it, but these "throw a bunch on the wall and see if anything stick" moves rarely work. (Story Link)

Dec 12: Rangers get Ben Broussard from Mariners: At the last minute of the non tender deadline, the Rangers acquired Ben Broussard from the Mariners from Tug Hulett. Ben Broussard is one of those guys who is good, but not awesome from what I can gather. His career numbers say he's not going to set the world on fire, but he will be servicable. Not entirely sure what his 08 status is, but I think he's arbitration eligible. He made $3.55 Million in 2007, so around that isn't unrealistic, and not bad on the pay scale. He's not going to be Mark Teixeira over there, but he'll probably be better than Brad Wilkerson was after Tex was gone. (Story Link)

Dec 12: Akinori Otsuka non tendered: As I mentioned in the story from last night, Aki was non tendered at the sdame time that Broussard was acquired. This brings a rather annoying close to the Chris Young trade. That one definitely falls under failure. I liked Otsuka during his time here, but spent most of his time hurt in 2007. As much as I would have liked to have seen him keep his job, perhaps it's time to just cut it, and go with CJ Wilson as closer. Nick Gorneault was non tendered, removing him from the roster. Never even wore the Rangers uniform after being picked up on a waiver claim Oct 29th. (Story Link)

Dec 13: Rangers sign Kazuo Fukumori: The Rangers finally sign a reliever, and got what appears to be a bargain - assuming the guy is healthy. Japanese reliever Kazuo Fukumori was signed to a 2 year, $3 million deal. He had bone chip surgery in 2007, which hampered his performance, but in 2006, he had a 2.17 ERA in 58 innings of work. If he can regain that in 08, this will be looked at as a very good move. Likely a setup guy for CJ Wilson. I like this move a lot. (Story Link)

That brings us up to the Mitchell Report, which as I'm typing this is due to be released in 15 minutes. I wanted to clear the deck for that, as it's going to be a fun ride when that hits. :)

Oh, Arod's deal with the Yankees was also formally finalized today (link). 10 years, $275 million (up to $305 with incentives), and no subsidy from the Rangers, although we still owe $9 million in deferred from the original deal. I can live with that.

Bring on the Mitchell Report!

Quick notes. I plan a "catch up" post in the next day or so with my thoughts on various things that have happened.

The Rangers got Ben Broussard via trade from the Seattle Mariners tonight for Tug Hulett. To make room of the 40 man roster, Nick Goneault was DFA'ed.

More on this here and here.

On top of that, the Rangers did not offer a contract to Akinori Otsuka, making him a free agent, and making the Chris Young trade even MORE annoying now.

UPDATE on Otsuka: Friend of mine pointed out how well this song fits the Otsuka / Young trade fiasco..

"I want my...I want my...I want my MVP!"

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