In a game that had the number three all over it, the guy who wore uniform number 3 didn’t even play. The Rangers won the game 9-3, which was three times the runs the Royals got. They had three innings where they scored three runs each. The backup guy playing third base ended up the Arizona portion of spring with a .333 average. Backup outfielder Craig Gentry had a three bagger. Adam Fox had a three run home run for a game total of three RBI’s. As a bonus there, his surname has three letters in it. Josh Rupe had three flyouts in the game. The Rangers had three players hit doubles. Scott Feldman got the win – his third of the spring. The game time was two hours and THIRTY THREE minutes. There were only three umpires in the game (OK, I’m reaching now).
And so ends the Arizona portion of the spring training schedule. Just two more games left, and it starts for real. There’s an exhibition game in Frisco on Friday night, and a game in Arlington on Saturday afternoon that I’m going to with my wife and soon to be four year old.
This last Arizona game featured a drubbing of the Royals by a 9-3 score (no more 3 lines, I promise). Scott Feldman started the game, and accoring to all the press, it will be the last time he starts for awhile. Mr. Anna Benson had better not be a flash, as I really wanted Feldman in there in the rotation from the getgo. Feldman went four innings, giving up just three hits and one earned run. Josh Rupe threw two innings, giving up one run, and the remaining three pitchers (Turnbow, Guardado, Wilson) only gave up one run – it was Wilson, and it was an unearned run. So our pitching was pretty good this game.
Offensively, Michael Young ended the Arizona portion of spring with an 11 game hitting streak, which gives him a .349 batting average. That’s pretty good, hope that carries over to April, we’ll need it. Three doubles, a triple, two home runs, the power was going. This is the time of year when you go “Eh, I don’t want to write about this one, it doesn’t count anyway, let’s get going”.
I’m surprised I wrote as much as I did. :)
Several Moves
- OF Frank Catalanotto placed on irrevocable release waivers
- P Tommy Hunter was optioned to AA
- Optioned to AAA: Joaquin Arias & Brandon Boggs
- Assigned to minor league camp: Netfali Feliz, Derek Holland, & Doug Mathis [ Link ]
My Thoughts on Today’s Roster Moves
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.
ST33: Rangers win late 5-4 on Jones Home Run
Due to work concerns, I was unable to listen to any of this game until about the middle of the seventh inning, when almost all the scoring was done. At that point, the game was tied 4-4, and the only real excitement I got to hear was Andruw Jones’ home run to win the game in the ninth. This is the last time we’ll see the Angels until May 16th (on a Saturday afternoon Fox game of the week). We faced them just two times this spring, and won twice (13-7 on Sunday, 5-4 today).
The Rangers only threw out three pitchers today. None of them are guys making the club. Doug Mathis started. Doug appeared in eight games for the Rangers in 2008, posting a 6.65 ERA. Which is pretty close to what his spring ERA is in 2009 (6.75). In this game he went just four innings, giving up just three hits. However, he accompanied those hits with three walks for a total of three earned runs. Two of those runs came on a home run ball to Matthew Brown. Tommy Hunter followed with a scoreless inning (Tommy was in 3 games in 2008, for a 16.36 ERA). The final Rangers pitcher was Derek Holland, who had the weird line of 4IP, 3H, 1ER, a blown save, and the win.
That win came on the aforementioned home run by Andruw Jones in the ninth to take the decisive lead. Jones had come in for Josh Hamilton in his slot. Josh himself had a solo home run earlier in the game. Jones also had a double in the slot as well, so this hole had some power on April 1st. You know the drill, four doubles, two home runs, six singles, Rangers scored, we won. Old hat, eh? hahahaha
Anyway, it’s nice to see the page flip to April. Next Monday is Opening Day. I’ll be there, as will most others living in this area that read this site, I’d wager. Bunch of roster moves are imminent.
ST32: Rangers lose big to Giants, 10-3
I’m not saying much about this game. The reason is there’s a big Giants fan where I work, and the less said about this fiasco the better. Still, a few comments:
- This game featured no position player substitutions. I believe that was the first game like that all spring. The same guys who started the game in the field (save for the pitcher) ended it.
- We had just six hits, two of ’em by Josh Hamilton, and one of THOSE was a three run home run off Barry Zito, accounting for all our runs.
- Matt Harrison was not good, I actually got a chance to listen to the start of this game at work yesterday. Was ugly.
- Barry Zito didn’t sound too bad. Of course, it’s the Rangers, so he could go 1-16 all season, the 1 would be against us, naturally. Just like the Oakland days.
- Of the nine guys who batted this game, the lowest spring batting average at the end of the game was .258 (Blalock). The highest was Josh Hamilton (.384)
Chan Ho Park & the Phillies
My brother back in Philly just emailed me and told me that the Phillies officially named Chan Ho Park their fifth starter. Uh-oh. There goes their chance of repeating, which you know as a Phillies fan I really want to do. Screw the Mets. My brother actually told me this.. “He actually pitched very well in ST. Pitched the best out of all of the starters.”
However, as a Rangers fan, I expect to see a lot of this from Charlie Manuel.
Anyone seen the HD schedule? [ UPDATE ]
UPDATE: That is seriously funny timing. Two hours after I posted this, the HD schedule was released today. Here it is..
As I now have an HDTV, and this will be my first full season with one of those, I’m most interested in the HDTV plans for the Rangers. If you go to their website, this text appears on the “TV Broadcasts Page“…
FSSW High-Definition For the second consecutive season, the majority of Rangers games will be presented in high-definition on FOX Sports Southwest HD, KDFI My27 HD and KDFW FOX 4 HD where available. A complete Rangers HD schedule will be announced once it is finalized.
The actual broadcast schedule page has nothing about HD, just whether it’s Ch 27 or FSSW.
So my question is this. Where is the HD schedule? It’s now six days from the home opener, and five days from the overall season opening game on Sunday night. I find it hard to believe this schedule doesn’t exist. My TiVo has guide information til about April 15th or so right now, and so far, every game the Rangers are playing is on a HD channel.
Has anyone seen the actual HD schedule published anywhere? If so, where? Please tell me.
ST31: Rangers take Giants 7-5 in 10 innings
Sunday’s game featured four home runs accounting for nine of thirteen runs. Monday’s game featured four more home runs, this time accounting for all seven of the runs! Here’s Monday’s list…
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in the second inning off Matt Cain
Andruw Jones – Solo shot in the fourth off of Matt Cain
Justin Smoak – Solo shot in the ninth off of Luis Perdomo
David Murphy – Two run shot in the 10th to win the game off of Felix Romero
That’s eight home runs in two games accounting for 16 runs. That’s some nice power. But then again, that should be no surprise to anyone who follows Texas Rangers baseball. Overall, we’re looking at ten hits, of which four were home runs, one was a double, and the other half were singles. It was another scattered hits day, as only Andruw Jones had more than a lone hit (home run and double).
The pitching. We had six guys on the mound this game. Only one of them is actually on the 40 man roster right now (Josh Rupe). The last two innings were thrown by three guys who won’t be with the club when we break (Kasey Kiker, Beau Vaughn, & AJ Murray). Those guys gave up one run (Kiker) between them. The other guys have a realistic shot, although if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, the starter had zero chance, but seems to be pitching his way into contention. This of course is Mr. Anna Benson. However, we’ve seen this kind of NRI “bag of magic beans” before in spring training. If he does make the club, it had better not be for just two good starts, and cost us someone else off the 40 man roster (Doug Davis, anyone?) Anyway, Benson went six innings, giving up six hits and zero walks for three earned runs – a technical quality start. Not a bad performance, actually. Josh Rupe, who seems to be saving his spot, threw a scoreless inning, and Eddie Guardado had a blown save. He hasn’t been in 2009 what he was in 2008, his ERA is over 10 in the spring. Not exactly confidence building. If that doesn’t work out, call Mike Venafro. He’s not doing anything now. :)
What I found amusing tonight when I sat down to write this was the fact that it’s still March, and we played our thirty first spring training game. I know that’s because of the World Baseball Classic and all, but it still seems like a lot, even knowing that. Something else is I haven’t heard hardly anything about the WBC since the US was eliminated. I mean, I know it’s out there, but I’m not being hit in the face with it like I was before. When I wrote this paragraph, I didn’t even know who was in the finals, so I hit the site for the thing, and found out Japan won again. And it was a week ago. I didn’t even know it was over! Wow.
ST30: Josh homers twice as Rangers beat Angels 13-7
This game was all about home runs. There were quite a few of them.
Josh Hamilton – Two run shot in first inning off of Sean O’Sullivan
Josh Hamilton – Three run shot in second inning of of Sean O’Sullivan
Chris Davis – Solo shot in fifth off of Darren Oliver
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in seventh off of Marc Bulger
That wasn’t all the offense, mind you, but those four hits (of the 17 we had total) accounted for nine of the thirteen runs we had in total, so I’d say that was the game right there. While I didn’t hear or see it, the stories say that the home run by Chris Davis was probably the furthest hit of the spring. We don’t get distance calls in spring training (why not?), but the reports say it went totally over the berm and the party tent beyond that. Sounds like a titanic shot to me.
Two other hits were extra base jobs, both doubles (one by Chris Davis, one by Nelson Cruz). The remaining eleven hits were all singles. With seventeen hits total, you know there were several guys with multiple hits. A glance at the box score shows this to be true. Kinsler was 3-4, Young was 2-3, Hamilton was 2-5, Chris Davis was 3-4, even Elvis Andrus was 2-3. Everyone else had just one hit.
Brandon McCarthy started the game, and was OK. I’m unclear why he came out when he did (I can’t really figure that out by the box score), but he went four innings, gave up just two runs on six hits and no walks. Normally I’d pass that off on pitch count, but we don’t get that in spring box scores, either. Derrick Turnbow had the worst performance, giving up a three run home run to Torii Hunter in the sixth. Warner Madrigal & Frank Francisco each gave up a solo run in their respective innings. The only zeroes were CJ Wilson & Josh Rupe.
Nice to see the big sticks come out against a division foe. Hopefully that can continue into the regular season.
Dubya to throw out the first pitch on Apr 6
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. :)
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