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Being “The Guy” at Catcher

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Earlier today on the Texas Rangers Facebook group I’m on, a discussion popped up on our catching situation.   I postulated that since Pudge left as a regular player after the 2002 season, we haven’t had that ONE GUY we could count on to be the #1 catcher, the one guy you KNEW would be there year after year.   There just hasn’t been that guy.   I decided to dig into the numbers (and I dug deep), looking for all of the guys who have caught for the Rangers from 2002 onwards because I wanted to prove my point.

Pudge & Sunny

Some Thoughts

The closest we’ve come to that was Rod Barajas, who caught 105, 119, & 94 games in 2004, 2005, & 2006.   He’s the only guy with three consecutive years being “the guy”. [Read more…]

My Seat Selector Has Been Updated

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One of my long standing features of this site, the “Seat Selector” has been updated for the 2016 season.  The last time I updated it was in April of 2012, and a few things have happened since then.   The newest thing of course is the new scoreboard in left field, but I also have a much better camera on my phone now (iPhone 6s+), so I wanted to retake them with a better camera than last time.  The first version of it went online back in 1999 (less than a year after I started the site in Dec 1998).  I stopped doing daily game updates a couple of seasons ago, but some parts of the site (like this one) will always be updated.

Anyway, check it out by clicking on the picture below (which I took on Apr 2, 2016 standing in Section 326.   One note – the selector doesn’t seem to work on phones and tablets.  Not quite sure why (except I’m using an older HTML feature called the imagemap).   This does work fine using a proper web browser on a computer.

Section 326 - 2016 Season

Rangers Twitter News

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I have a Twitter account for this website, but it’s pretty disused since I stopped doing daily game updates a couple of seasons ago.  Still, I use Twitter A LOT.  Both personally and professionally.   Tonight I started a list of “Texas Rangers  News” accounts.   It’s basically anyone who is Texas Rangers specific (or really close to it), all together in one feed.

If you use Twitter, feel free to subscribe to the list.   It is available here:  https://twitter.com/JoeSiegler/lists/texas-rangers-news/

The people I have on there as I said are folks who run pretty much all Rangers news.  I’m not putting everyone who covers Rangrers news there.  Two examples are TV people like Newy Scruggs and Anthony Andro.   My logic for Scruggs is that he’s obligated to cover tons of things, and while he does occasionally post about the Rangers, he’s more a “generic Sports news” account.   Same goes for Anthony Andro.  He used to be only Rangers, but after he switched gears to FSSW a couple of years ago, he posts about everything.

I think I’ve covered all the big ones (and a couple you might not have thought of).   If you can think of someone I don’t have on here, and who you think SHOULD be, please, by all means.  Let me know who you think I should add.

NOTE: I have a Dallas Morning News feed on here because they have a Twitter specific Rangers feed.  The Ft Worth Star Telegram doesn’t have one, but I followed their Rangers beat writers, too.

You can view a live version of the tweet in this news post below.  :)

2016 Roster Thoughts

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It has been awhile since I’ve written about anything here, and those who are on Facebook know I’ve spent the majority of my time there in the Rangers Fan Group.  I still keep up with the uniform number history part of my website, but most of the other ones are archival.   However, from time to time, I get the urge to write about something, and that’s today.

The 2015 season is over.  It ended QUITE ugly.  No Ranger fan will deny that.   The formal off season starts I believe it is two days after the World Series ends when players eligible for free agency can file for that.   Given where we were expected to be when the season started (and especially after 2014), to say we got into the playoffs was a major accomplishment.  The way we exited the playoffs was bad.  No doubt.  But thoughts turn to 2016, and I decided to take a look down the Rangers roster and offer a few thoughts on everyone and what I think will happen for next season. [Read more…]

How Many in 2015?

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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 seven seasons, and it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve also gotten some positive feedback on it, so it’s become a permanent feature here.  If you’d like to see the final tallies for the other years I’ve done this, you can still see them here: [ 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 ] Anyway, this post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2014.  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.

Total players in 2015: 57
Total pitchers used in 2015: 31*
Total position players used in 2014: 27
Total players making major league debut: 9

Luke Jackson was optioned back to AAA without actually pitching, so it’s debatable if he counts on the list.  I count it.  :)

  • #57 – Drew Stubbs (9/1 – Replacing Roman Mendez, who was DFA)
  • #56 – Luke Jackson (9/1 – Replacing Alex Claudio, who was placed on 60 day DL)
  • #55 – Andrew Faulkner (8/28 – Replacing Nick Martinez, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #54 – Will Venable (8/20 – Replacing Josh Hamilton, who was placed on the DL)
  • #53 – Mike Napoli (8/8 – Replacing Ryan Rua, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #52 – Ryan Strausborger (8/4 – Replacing Leonys Martin, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #51 – Cole Hamels (8/1 – Replacing Robinson Chirinos, who was placed on the DL)
  • #50 – Sam Dyson (8/1 – Replacing Keone Kela, who was optioned to AA)
  • #49 – Bobby Wilson (7/31 – Replacing Tomas Telis, who was traded to MIA)
  • #48 – Jake Deikman (7/31 – Replacing Matt Harrison, who was traded to PHI)
  • #47 – Chris Gimenez (7/31 – Replacing Jon Edwards, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #46 – Tomas Telis (7/17 – Replacing Carlos Corporan, who was placed on the DL)
  • #45 – Matt Harrison (7/4 – Replacing Neftali Feliz, who was DFA)
  • #44 – Michael Choice (6/24 – Replacing Alex Claudio, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #43 – Spencer Patton (6/7 – Replacing Ross Ohlendorf, who was placed on the DL)
  • #42 – Joey Gallo (6/2 – Replacing Alex Claudio, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #41 – Chi Chi Gonzalez (5/30 – Replacing Thomas Field, who was DFA)
  • #40 – Hanser Alberto (5/28 – Replacing Phil Klein, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #39 – Josh Hamilton (5/25 – Replacing Neftali Feliz, who was placed on DL)
  • #38 – Ross Ohlendorf (5/17 – Replacing Kyuji Fujikama, who was DFA)
  • #37 – Kyuji Fujikawa (5/14 – Replacing Spencer Patton, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #36 – Sam Freeman (5/13 – Replacing Stolmy Pimentel, who was DFA)
  • #35 – Thomas Field (5/11 – Replacing Rougned Odor, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #34 – Spencer Patton (5/4 – Replacing Roman Mendez, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #33 – Kyle Blanks (4/29 – Replacing Mitch Moreland, who was placed on the DL)
  • #32 – Alex Claudio (4/27 – Replacing Tanner Scheppers, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #31 – Wandy Rodriguez (4/24 – Replacing Logan Verrett, who was designated for assignment)
  • #30 – Tanner Scheppers (4/17 – Replacing Anthony Ranaudo, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #29 – Anthony Ranaudo (4/15 – Replacing Phil Klein, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #28 – Stolmy Pimentel (4/12 – Replacing Jon Edwards who was optioned to AAA)
  • #27 – Carlos Peguero (4/11 – Replacing Ryan Rua who was placed on the DL)
  • #26 – Jon Edwards (4/11 – Replacing Derek Holland who was placed on the 60 day DL)

#25 to #1: Anthony Bass, Ross Detwiler, Neftali Feliz, Yovani Gallardo, Derek Holland, Keone Kela, Phil Klein, Colby Lewis, Nick Martinez, Roman Mendez, Shawn Tolleson, Logan Verrett, Robinson Chirinos, Carlos Corporan, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland, Rougned Odor, Adam Rosales, Shin-Soo Choo, Delino DeShields, Leonys Martin, Ryan Rua, Jake Smolinski.  (the original 25 is not in any particular order)

Players making their Making Major League Debut are bolded

Roster Notes:

  • Luke Jackson was originally called up August 7th, and stayed for a few days but didn’t play.
  • * – The number of players does not match position players & pitchers added together, as we’ve had one position player pitch this season (Adam Rosales)
  • Only 8 players on starting 25 were on the roster last year.
  • Of the group of 9 Texas players that are on an Opening Day roster for the first time, 6 are rookies (DeShields, Kela, Klein, Rua, Smolinski, Verrett), 3 are seeking ML debuts (DeShields, Kela, Verrett), and 2 are Rule 5 Draft picks (DeShields, Verrett)
  • Apparently the Rangers don’t officially count guys who are called up and sent down without actually playing – but I do.
  • In 2015, the Rangers have 3 in the original opening day 25 that are making their major league debuts).  The previous years’ counts in that regard were one in 2014 ( (Seth Rosin), 2013 (Leury Garcia & Smokin’ Joe Ortiz), 2012 (Darvish & Ross), one in 2011 (Mason Tobin), none in 2010, one in 2009 (Elvis Andrus), and one in 2008 (Kaz Fukumori).
  • This will mark just the 3rd time in Rangers history that 3 players with no previous major league service time have opened the season with the club: 1974 (Mike Cubbage, Mike Hargrove, Jim Sundberg) and 1986 (Pete Incaviglia, Mitch Williams, Bobby Witt).
  • This is the 1st time Texas has ever started a year with 2 players selected in the previous December’s Rule 5 Draft, the 1st in the majors since Milwaukee in 2003.

Site Update – May 2015

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If anyone is still looking here, you’ll note I changed the theme again.  I was having some technical problems with the old one, and wanted a new “coat of paint” so to speak.  I’ve kind of let most things slide here.  I stopped the daily updates in the 2013 season, and I kept with the transactions through the end of the 2014 season.

One thing I’m still doing that I’m VERY proud of is the uniform number history section.  I’ve gotten some nice compliments from Victor Rojas (when he was here), and Eric Nadel himself has told me he’s used it as a reference on air.  That’s the highest compliment I could get as a Rangers fan.  No way am I letting that go!   I’m also fond of the “How many in 201?” series I’ve done for the last few years, am keeping up with that.

Lots of places might look strange, but I don’t want to just jettison all the work I’ve done over the years.  I’m still mostly hanging out on the Texas Rangers Facebook Group these days.   If you are on Facebook, come join us.

Baseball Trade Rumors App

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As we head into the off season, we begin a phase of the baseball season that was never as fascinating to me when I was younger, but in the last decade or so, I became enthralled with all the movement of players and contracts and whatnot.   Oh, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing as great as the game itself, but I’ve found my enjoyment of the process almost as great as the games themselves.  But not completely.  :)

IMG_2371
Main Unsorted News Page

I think social media has played a big part in my interest in all of this.  However, with all the official sources, the beat writers, players themselves, and just regular bloggers all in the mix, it can be a bit of a cacophony to keep track of without going nuts.

Enter “MLB Trade Rumors”.   This is a website that I’ve been following for years, and if you’re at all interested in baseball transactions, I can’t recommend them enough.  The website is available here, for free: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com – that’s been that way for awhile, and is a valuable tool.

However, we can’t always be around our computers, and there are mobile apps available for iOS & Android.   Those aren’t free, but are WELL worth the cost of the app.   The app costs $2.99, which is pretty darned cheap given what you get with it.  Officially the app is known as “Baseball Trade Rumors”, and not “MLB Trade Rumors” like the website is.  I suspect that has something to do with the name “MLB” and licensing, but that’s a non issue.  Ionly point it out in case you went searching for “MLB Trade Rumors” for the app name, you won’t find it that way.

The app is HUGE around certain times of the year (Winter meetings, Trade deadline, etc).   This is a great way to keep up with “up to the second” transaction rumors and whatnot.  There’s other ways to get this info for sure, but I’ve found given all the hard work it is to keep track of it all, these apps do a great job sorting it down to the individual nuggets you’d want.

Now, I have an iPhone and an iPad, so how the Android version works specifically, I can’t say.  My brother has that, and from what I can gather it is mostly the same – but I can’t speak from first hand experience there.  I can speak from the iOS app.

You can get notifications on your phone by team, by individual player, and by league.  You can also tell it to notify you of actual transactions and not just rumours, also sort by just one team set of news, the info is quite flexible in the app.

The notification system is the strongest point of this app for me, because otherwise it’s an app version of a website, and I could just look at the website for the same info.  But the notifications are the reason I bought this app.   In the screenshots below you can see a few examples of the ways you can set up things to be notified about.

This is a universal app, and works on the iPad too, but is one of the rare apps that I don’t like the iPad interface, and wish I could run the iPhone interface on the iPad just double spaced.  There is only one other negative thing I have to say about the app.  You can’t use it to send stories to your friends (via text msg, email, or Facebook).  The only thing you can do with individual entries is tweet them.  Which is fine, but I don’t always want to do that. Hopefully that gets changed in a future version.  But this is a minor quibble, and isn’t a dealbreaker for me.

Baseball Trade Rumors is probably my second most used iPhone baseball app (the first being the MLB At Bat app).  Mostly because this keeps track of trade info all the time, and I make use of the track by player feature, so I get notified on my phone when something happens with those players.   I don’t have very many apps in the Notification center on my iPhone to help conserve battery power, but this one definitely lives in the notification center!

If you’re a fan of transactions, I STRONGLY urge you to look into this.   Very useful tool.

$2.99 – [ App Store Link | Google Play Store ]

How Many in 2014?

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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 five seasons, and it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve also gotten some positive feedback on it, so it’s become a permanent feature here.  If you’d like to see the final tallies for the other years I’ve done this, you can still see them here: [ 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 ] Anyway, this post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2014.  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.

Total players in 2014: 64
Total pitchers used in 2014: 40 *
Total position players used in 2014: 27 *
Total players making major league debut: 17

  • #64 – Guilder Rodriguez (Sep 7, replacing Yu Darvish, who was placed on the 60 day DL)
  • #63 – Spencer Patton (Sep 4, was a Sep callup)
  • #62 – Lisalverto Bonilla (Sep 2, was a Sep callup)
  • #61 – Michael Kirkman (Sep 2, was a Sep callup)
  • #60 – Derek Holland (Aug 30, replaced Robbie Ross, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #59 – Ryan Rua (Aug 29, replaced Jim Adduci, who was placed on the DL)
  • #58 – Tomas Telis (Aug 25, replaced Shin-Soo Choo, who was placed on the DL)
  • #57 – Jon Edwards (Aug 15, replaced Robbie Ross, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #56 – Alex Claudio (Aug 13, replaced Yu Darvish, who was placed on the DL)
  • #55 – Mike Carp (Aug 4, replaced Chris Gimenez, who was placed on paternity list)
  • #54 – Phil Klein (Aug 1, replaced Ryan Feierabend, who was designated for assignment)
  • #53 – Jerome Williams (Jul 25, replaced Jake Smolinski, who was placed on the DL)
  • #52 – Nate Adcock (Jul 24, replaced Joaquim Soria who was traded to DET)
  • #51 – Geovany Soto (Jul 17, replaced Carlos Pena, who was designated for assignment)
  • #50 – Ryan Feierabend (Jul 13, replaced Aaron Poreda, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #49 – Matt West (Jul 10, replaced Phil Irwin, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #48 – Phil Irwin (Jul 8, replaced Nick Martinez, who was placed on the DL)
  • #47 – Roman Mendez (Jul 7, replaced Michael Choice, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #46 – Jake Smolinski (Jul 7, replaced Donnie Murphy, who was designated for assignment)
  • #45 – Neftali Feliz (Jul 4, replaced Ben Rowen, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #44 – Adam Rosales (Jun 30, replaced Luis Sardinas who was optioned to AAA)
  • #43 – Carlos Pena (Jun 24 – replaced Brad Snyder, who was designated for assignment)
  • #42 – Ben Rowen (Jun 11 – replaced Tanner Scheppers, who was placed on the DL)
  • #41 – Brad Snyder (Jun 10 – replaced Mitch Moreland, who was placed on the DL)
  • #40 – Miles Mikolas (May 14 – replaced Matt Harrison, who was placed on the DL)
  • #39 – Nick Tepesch (May 14 – replaced Martin Perez, who was placed on the DL)
  • #38 – Justin Germano (May 8 – replaced Scott Baker, who was designated for assignment)
  • #37 – Rougned Odor (May 8 – replaced Josh Wilson, who was designated for assignment)
  • #36 – Scott Baker (May 7 – replaced Daniel Robertson, who was optioned to AAA)
  • #35 – Matt Harrison (Apr 27 – replaced Luis Sardinas who was optioned to AAA)
  • #34 – Daniel Robertson (Apr 23 – replaced Pedro Figueroa, who went to DL)
  • #33 – Luis Sardinas (Apr 19 – replaced Jim Adduci, who went to DL)
  • #32 – Aaron Poreda (Apr 18 – replaced Tanner Scheppers, who went to DL)
  • #31 – Colby Lewis (Apr 14 – replaced Daniel McCutchen, who was designated for assignment)
  • #30 – Hector Noesi (Apr 13 – replaced Adrian Beltre, who went to DL)
  • #29 – Kevin Kouzmanoff (Apr 9 – replaced Seth Rosin, who was designated for assignment)
  • #28 – Yu Darvish (Apr 6 – replaced Nick Martinez, who was sent to AA)
  • #27 – Nick Martinez (Apr 5 – replaced Daniel McCutchen, who was sent to AA)
  • #26 – Daniel McCutchen (Apr 1 – replaced Chris Gimenez, who was designated for assignment)

#25 to #1: Neal Cotts, Pedro Figueroa, Jason Frasor, Alexi Ogando, Martin Perez, Seth Rosin, Robbie Ross, Jr., Joe Saunders, Tanner Scheppers, Joakim Soria, Shawn Tolleson, J.P. Arencibia, Robinson Chirinos, Chris Gimenez, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Prince Fielder, Donnie Murphy, Josh Wilson, Jim Adduci, Michael Choice, Shin-Soo Choo, Leonys Martin, Mitch Moreland, Alex Rios.  (the original 25 is not in any particular order)

Players making their Making Major League Debut are bolded

Roster Notes:

  • * The total number of pitchers/position players do not add up because Mitch Moreland (May 6), Chris Gimenez (Jul 10), & J.P. Arencebia (Aug 13) all pitched an inning and count as both a position player and as a pitcher.
  • Apparently the Rangers don’t officially count guys who are called up and sent down without actually playing (Miles Mikolas) – but I do.
  • In 2014, the Rangers have just one in the original opening day 25 that were making their major league debuts (Seth Rosin).  The previous years’ counts in that regard were two in 2013 (Leury Garcia & Smokin’ Joe Ortiz), 2012 (Darvish & Ross), one in 2011 (Mason Tobin), none in 2010, one in 2009 (Elvis Andrus), and one in 2008 (Kaz Fukumori).
  • We have 11 players making their debut as Texas Rangers: Pedro Figueroa, Seth Rosin, Joe Saunders, Shawn Tolleson, J.P. Arencibia, Chris Gimenez, Prince Fielder, Donnie Murphy, Josh Wilson, Michael Choice, Shin-Soo Choo.  

Guilder Rodriguez purchased

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  • IF Guilder Rodriguez purchased from AA Frisco
  • P Yu Darvish moved from 15 day to 60 day DL [ Link ]

NOTES: This seems like a “reward the long time minor leaguer” with a callup.   21 games left in the season, and you call up a guy with 13 years of experience covering slightly over 1,000 games.   Not the long term answer of course, but a nice move by the team for a guy like that.