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