This past March, I went on a trip down to Round Rock to see the Texas Rangers play their AAA affiliate, the Round Rock Express in the final exhibition game of Spring Training. It was cool, as I got to ride down with Patrick McCollough, and we had a great time talking baseball, and a ton of other things. We were sponsored by Chevy, and as such, a video trailer of our trip made it onto the Chevy website this week under the name of our outing, “Chevy Line Drive to Round Rock“. Check out the trailer below, and the website, which also includes some pictures, and a 15 minute or so interview with the four of us that went there on our thoughts leading into the season.
As a side note, the video shot of Patrick in the car, and the shot of driving down the road was filmed by me using a Flipcam. :)

While I’ve never had a huge following of people who leave comments on my reports, there have been a few. I wanted to tell you guys that I’ve had to turn comments off on the site for the time being.
The problem is that I’ve been carpet bombed by spammers attempting to well, spam the heck out of my site. The problem is that they’re so overloaded my site with attempts that it’s swamping the entire server. The physical server that this site resides on also has a few other sites, all of which are being trashed by this move.
I’ve temporarily removed the file that allows for comments until I can figure out a way to better protect the site from that kind of thing. Sorry about that to the three of you who seem to comment (and Kurt). :)

A Rangers fan, a Yankees fan & a Red Sox fan are climbing a mountain & arguing about who loves his team more. The Red Sox fan insists he is the most loyal. “This is for the Sox!”, he yells, & jumps off the mountain. Not to be outdone, the Rangers fan is next to profess his love for his team. He yells “This is for Texas!” & pushes the Yankee fan off the mountain. GO RANGERS!!

Something that’s always bugged me is the fact that the pre and post game shows on Fox Sports Southwest are in SD, yet the games themselves are in HD. A week ago or so, I got a press email from someone at FSSW telling me what the upcoming TV schedule was for the season. So I asked them more or less what the deal with this situation was:

I never understood why the cameras out there in that left field “studio” show reports during the game in HD, but as soon as you go to post game, it’s back to SD – from the same cameras.

He responded back with this.

Thanks for your interest in Rangers Live pre/postgame shows. We hope to begin distributing those shows in high-definition sometime this season as we complete conversion on our Dallas studio from standard-def to high-def. The reason shows have been in standard-definition is because they are run through our Dallas studio, which we’re targeting to be fully-functional for high-definition programming later this season. Hope that addresses your concern. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.

It’s been that way for a couple of years now, and the HD switchover happened what, two years ago now? Bit late to the party there. I want my Mark McLemore at the desk in HD, darnit! :)

Well, here we are. Opening Day for the Texas Rangers. In the 50 year history of the franchise, it’s the first time ever we go into a season with “Defending American League Champions” on our necks. It’s a good sign to be wearing. Yeah, all the talk about not sneaking up on people, and they’ll be gunning for you applies, but man. It still feels good to wear that sign.
The 25 man roster was set while I was down in Round Rock the other night, I wanted to say a few words about the roster before today’s game actually happens, as my thoughts might be clouded by an actual game if I write afterwards.
Our pitching staff:

Dave Bush, Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, Mark Lowe, Darren O’Day, Alexi Ogando, Pedro Strop, Mason Tobin, Matt Harrison, Darren Oliver, C.J. Wilson, Arthur Rhodes, Derek Holland.

Of this crew, Bush, Tobin, & Rhodes are new guys. A couple others are making their first opening day roster. A few remarks:
Dave Bush – I’m not sure what to expect here. A middle of the road starter when he was in Milwaukee, he’ll be in our pen. I don’t think we’re getting a spectacular performance out of him here, but he’ll probably be just “OK”.
Feliz: Lots of talk about back and forth between rotation & pen. Late it was decided he was going to remain the closer. I suspect that will stay that way all season unless we fall out so bad, they start looking towards next year. So long as we’re winning or in the race, he’ll stay there, then they’ll move him to the rotation next year, and bring in someone else.
Lewis & Wilson: With Lee gone, these guys will be expected to carry the load. I think Lewis is probably better suited to repeat 2010’s performance, based on his longer time being a starter. A lot is made out of Wilson’s prep work, so that could be a factor, too. Hard to tell what will happen here.
Harrison & Holland: These guys need to grow into their roles as starters. The tag of young starter I think has worn off, and if they don’t deliver, they’ll get passed by with other people going forward. I think at least one of them will rise to the challenge this year. If we get both? Wow, we’ll be in good shape if the guys up top hold up their end of the rotation, too.
Darren O’Day: Ugh. Horrible spring training. Hope he can turn it on now that the bell has rung, but man, I’m not comfortable with him now.
Oliver & Rhodes: I see them as mostly the same thing. Older guys who can still pitch well. Probably should be solid numbers from both, but not spectacular.
Mark Lowe: Not sure what to think here.
Mason Tobin: He’s had a great spring, but as a Rule 5 guy, you wonder at what point do we have to make the decision of “do we let him ride it out”, as he’s not likely to be able to stay if we need to send him down.
Pedro Strop: Fantastic spring. I really hope he keeps going, as the up/down/up/down from last year really devalued him in my eyes, and I suspect messed with him. Be nice to see him stay here for awhile.
Alexi Ogando: Nice that he’s getting a shot to start in place of Tommy Hunter. Bad for Tommy, of course. But if Ogando can grab a hold of that and not let go, man, we’ll be even more better off. We’ll see how it goes in his first start.
Napoli & Torrealba: Yorbit will probably be fine, but I can’t see him being any better than Pudge is at this point in Pudge’s career. Can we have Pudge back, please? Napoli has more power, and probably will I think work out better numbers wise. Behind the plate? Hard to tell, dont’ know enough about either of them as a catcher for that.
Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, & David Murphy: I’m lumping all these guys together as I expect the same thing from all of them. Which is “more of the same”. Not expecting surprises here, assuming they all stay healthy.
Andres Blanco: Good bench guy. Valuable 25th man on the roster for sure.
Adrian Beltre: I suspect he’ll disprove the contract year talk. I’m figuring on a big year by him, assuming he stays on the field.
Julio Borbon: By all accounts, he’s improved his offense, which in the past was his weak point. Now his defense is suspect, which is exactly backwards of how he’s been in the past. Not sure how this will play out. If his defence remains a question mark too long into the season, I see him being moved out of the lineup pretty quickly.
Mitch Moreland: Gut feeling, but I figure on a huge season for him. Can’t tell you why, just a “gut” thing.
I also expect “just missed” guys like Michael Kirkman & Chris Davis to be up here before too long. Davis first, once the 13th pitcher idea is done away with. I’ve got this vibe about Chris Davis. Kind of like when Nelson Cruz was sent out on waivers, and nobody claimed him. He kid of shook the 4A player label that Davis kind of has now. Rakes in the minors, bring him up, not so much. If Davis can shake that, I suspect he’ll get traded for some big chip, as I don’t see him here long term – he’s blocked in too many places (at the moment Beltre & Moreland). Granted, the last time we had a hot first base prospect who was blocked, he was moved, and we ended up probably needing him. This is of course Adrian Gonzalez, who was blocked at the time by Mark Teixeira.
Then there’s also the story of Michael Young’s 10-5 rights. While a lot of happy talk is being made because he’s on the opening day roster, I suspect the trade talk will start up again soon. Not actual “talks” per se, but the fan/sports writer talk once his 10-5 date gets closer (what is that date, actually)?
This is the last thing I’ll write before the game, which starts in about four hours from now. It’ll be fun. While I am still mildly irritated that I’m not going (this is the first home opener I haven’t gone to since the one in 1996), we have some friends coming over from our church to watch. We’ll still have fun, just not the SAME fun.
So thanks be to God for this day, thanks be to God for my life, and the blessings bestowed upon all of us this day. May everyone at the game get there safe, get home safe, and know that they’re loved. Thanks to God for my friends, and thanks for my being able to be in a position in life where I can have a house, and have the means to be able to enjoy these things, despite my continued involuntary unemployment situation.
Amen.
Play Ball!

Some of you may remember my noodling around town in a Chevy Cruze that was dooded up with Rangers stickers and some antlers around the time of the World Series last year. That was a cool thing, and I ended up going to a World Series game for the first time in my life due to that promotion.
Well, the folks behind that promotion are at it again. They’re sending me, along with a couple of other Rangers bloggers down to Round Rock on Wednesday as part of a group roundtable.
The promotion is called “The Chevrolet Line Drive to Round Rock”.
Basically myself and three other guys are going to be headed down to Round Rock on Wednesday, and we’re gonna take in the game. We’ll be in Section 121, Rows 3 & 4. You can come by and say hi during the game. Or, you can meet up with us after the game, where we’ll be doing a round table discussion with other Rangers fans to talk about the upcoming season, how the spring went, how jazzed you are for the new scoreboard, or whatever! It’ll be cool.
Anyway, the guys I’ll be going down there with are:

• Patrick McCullough from rangersfanradio.com
• Joshua McMurray from IrishP1
• Jonathan Collander from NolanWritin.com
• Scott Lucas from The Newberg Report

It’ll all be a blast, and we’re all looking forward to it. Hope some of you who are going to be in Round Rock can come by and say hi!
Oh, and this past Thursday night, the four of us appeared on the latest episode of Rangers Fan Radio (02×08 – “To Start or Not to Start”). You can listen to that now by heading over to rangersfanradio.com, or visit the page for the podcast in iTunes, and subscribe there.
Also looking forward to checking out The Salt Lick, a great Austin BBQ joint that opened a new location RIGHT NEXT TO THE DELL DIAMOND!

Am I the only person on the net who doesn’t like this new video going around of some kid crying because Michael Young is being traded? It seems kind of cruel to be honest, and I didn’t find it funny at all.
Not entirely sure what kind of parent would force their children to cry like that, and THEN put it on the Internet for folks to laugh at.
And no, I will NOT be linking to it. Sigh.

I can’t say I’m surprised given how much he’s been pushed around the field lately, now being pushed mostly off of it. It seems inevitable given how much noise about it we’ve heard the last few days.
If he is moved, I’ll write about it a little more then. Just kind of waiting back and seeing what will happen if he is moved.

Rangers fan Josh Rodgers sent me a couple of fun little Rangers videos this morning he made. Check ’em out:

That’s a bit of a surprise. Saw a minute ago where the Rangers are sending Frank Francisco (and cash) to Toronto for catcher Mike Napoli. Saw it on a Twitter post a few minutes ago.
This is interesting, as might signal that Alexi Ogando might have to stay in the bullpen if we lose Frankie.
We also had catching set – with Torrealba & Treanor sharing duties. If Napoli comes in, I suspect it will bump Treanor to AAA – or off the club. Neither of which I’m sure he’ll be thrilled about. Assuming there isn’t another corresponding move to move one of the catchers out (can we trade Torrealba that quickly? Probably Treanor), it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
Edit: Should have read the complete Twitter update before I posted this. Rosenthal says it won’t force those two off the roster, it will fulfill that “last bench spot” we tried to fill with Jim Thome. C, 1B, & DH. Other than catcher, that’s what Mike Young was doing. It will be interesting to see how the at bats play out if there’s no injuries along the line.
NOTE: If you’re reading this on an RSS feed, sorry for all the duplicates.