The Rangers have now won five in a row, and are now in 3rd place in Cactus league play (out of 14 teams) with a 13-9 record. The did this behind an 11-5 pounding of the Colorado Rockies on Friday afternoon. Again, I was really busy with work, and couldn’t listen. Couldn’t even look at a box score, I didn’t know who won until the evening, right before I started watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica.
But I digress. Let’s get the bad news. Michael Young had to come out of the game with a quad injury, and is expected to miss a couple of games. It’s probably not a serious threat, but you never want a star player to go out at all. Hope that all goes well. Before he left, he was doing well at the plate, going 2-2.
Nelson Cruz also jacked his fourth home run of the spring, completely pushing out Andruw Jones. Cruz was not the only guy with a home run. Forgotten man Frank Catalnotto had a three run jimmy jack. But it was again a doubles team, we had six of them. 15 hits in all, a d eight extra base hits. That’s the Rangers for ya.
Matt Harrison started this one and was ok. Five innings, five hits, two runs and two walks. Nothing to really write home about, but there has been a lot worse. Another inning and it would have been a pretty decent outing. Overall, the pitching waspretty decent, although no performance really stands out. But I’ll take that over godawful like we’ve had a lot over the last decade or so.
I entered this entry through my new iPod Touch. While you can do it if you want, it’s a bit of a pain in the… I can’t recommend blog posts this way. :)
ST21: Rangers beat A’s 8-5 behind 6 run third
This game started off poorly. Kris Benson started the game, and went four innings, giving up five hits and a walk. This lead to four earned runs on his slate. All in the first inning. So we were in an immediate hole. A feeling Rangers fans should be used to, unfortunately.
Offensively we brought it back in the third with a six spot of our own. That was enough to win the game, actually right there. It reminds me of something a friend of mine said a few years back. That was he doesn’t mind lots of offense, but he prefers it be balanced out, and not in bombs like that. He said 12-9 games don’t bother him, but when you get like a 2-2-1-3-1 type of deal, not a 9 and a 3. Anyway, we had twelve hits in all, and the hits were pretty balanced. Everyone had just one, except Omar Vizquel who I think had his best day of the spring, going 3-5 with a run and an RBI. One of Omar’s hits was a double. We had two more of those (Murphy & B Harrison) as well as a triple (Boggs), and a home run (Marlon Byrd).
Byrd is doing pretty well, and has apparently pushed out Andruw Jones, as some quotes came out saying that Jones would not be added to our roster by Friday (first out day for him).
Yesterday and today were busy days for me at work, I didn’t even get to box score watch this game, and I probably shouldn’t be taking the time to write this little bit, but I didn’t want to take two mulligans in a row. That’s for an 8 or 9 game losing streak in August (which I hope doesn’t happen, mind you).
More Moves
- These players were optioned to minor league camp: John Bannister, Julio Borbon, German Duran, Greg Golson
- These players were assigned to minor league camp: Elizardo Ramirez, Justin Smoak, Joe Torres [ Link ]
ST20: McCarthy & Hamilton dominate in 9-4 win
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. I’m afraid to admit it after so many years of so many failed attempts at this… But I’m starting to get excited about Brandon McCarthy again. Today he was darn near perfect in the game against the Padres.
Brandon went four innings, gave up NO HITS, two walks, and struck out three. His spring ERA is (I believe) now at 1.80 and is 2-0. According to the radio guys, the only reason he came out at all was that other pitchers needed to get work, and Brandon continued to work down in the bullpen. I have a good feeling. Granted, being a Rangers fan having a good feeling about a pitcher can mean jack, but man it feels good, doesn’t it?
Josh Hamilton went 3-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Two of his hits were doubles, and he sounded good on the radio. Ian Kinsler also went 3-3 with two runs scored.
Joaquin Arias went 1-2 and kept his batting average at at stupid high rate (.522). Funny thing is it’s not as high as Adam Melhuse’s which is sitting at .615! Obviously that won’t stay, but it’s always amusing to see gaudy numbers like that.
Nelson Cruz got it going early with a three run home run in a part of the game I didn’t get to hear due to work. Cruz appears to have pushed out Andruw Jones, I can’t see where Jones fits now especially with Cruz doing so well.
Willie Eyre also threw a scoreless inning, striking out two in his comeback from Tommy John.
Nice to see such a dominating performance by Brandon McCarthy. Hopefully my saying he is the key a couple of days ago in a season preview was what he needed. :) hahahahaha
ST19: Rangers beat Indians big, 11-5
Time for another mulligan. Too busy at work today.
Rick Helling now works for Donald Fehr
Former Ranger pitcher Rick Helling apparently now has a job in the MLBPA union with the always vague title of “Special Assistant to the Executive Director”. I saw this in a story over on bizofbaseball.com..
Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director, Donald M. Fehr, today announced that former Major League pitchers Rick Helling and Mike Myers are joining the Association’s staff. Helling and Myers join former Major Leaguers Bobby Bonilla, Phil Bradley, Stan Javier and Steve Rogers as special assistants to the Executive Director.
“Mike Myers and Rick Helling had long and successful Major League careers, during which they served on the Association’s Executive Board and represented the players as members of the negotiating committee in bargaining for our Basic Agreement and Pension agreements,” said Fehr. “They are very familiar with the interests and needs of the players, and understand intimately the job that the MLBPA does for its members.”
During his 13-year Major League career, Helling served as a member of the Executive Board from 1999-2007, and was the American League Representative in 2000 and Alternate Association Representative in 2003. He appeared in 301 games as a pitcher for Texas, Florida, Arizona, Baltimore and Milwaukee, with a record of 93-81 and 1058 strikeouts in 1526.1 innings pitched. Born in Devils Lake, North Dakota, Helling graduated in 1993 from Stanford University with a degree in economics.
No surprise here. As was pointed out, he has done a lot of union work before, being the player rep for the Rangers if I remember right. Just remember Rick, one is for sugar and two is for ketchup. :)
Another 2009 Season Preview
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. :)
MLB Trade Rumors Rangers Preview
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.
ST18: Rangers win slugfest against San Diego 10-7
A trio of Texas Rangers hit their first home runs of the spring. They are Joaquin Arias, Chris Davis, and Michael Young.
The big moment for Texas came in the fourth inning when we scored six, which included Chris Davis’ solo home run.
Kevin Millwood was better than the 10 run fiasco he had last time, but still wasn’t great. Five innings, six hits, one walk, four earned runs.
Joaquin Arias only had one at bat, but got a hit. He is now batting over .500 for the spring! Metcalf, Byrd, & Elvis all had two hits. )
Sorry for the lack of writing. I had forgotten one of my co workers was on vacation this week, and the time I would have spent writing was spent picking up some of his work.
Today the Rangers have a scheduled off day again – there’s a lot more of those this year than usual.
More Thoughts on MLB Network
I’ve talked about MLB Network a few times before, but I just got done telling my wife one of the reasons I enjoy watching the MLB Tonight show.
I’m watching the Seattle Mariners version of “30 Teams in 30 Days”, and the topic on the table was Ken Griffey Jr and how he would impact the 2009 edition of the Mariners. The guys talking at the table were Matt Vasgergian (sp!), Harold Reynolds, Sean Casey, & John Hart. As I’m sure you know, Reynolds played on the Mariners when Griffey came up.
The bit I really enjoyed was when Harold Reynolds was talking about Griffey, and the graphic that came up was one from Ken Griffey’s debut with the Mariners. Leading off that game was Reynolds, who the graphic said went 0-4 with a strikeout. That graphic came up, and Reynolds stopped mid sentence and said “What is this?”, which prompted Matt V to say “And Griffey batted behind a guy who went 0-4”. The other guys started laughing. It’s that kind of sense of humor between the show and it’s on screen talent makes this work for me. I laughed out loud when Reynolds said “What is this?” Hahahahaha.
The other thing I wanted to say was about the Rangers’ John Hart. Like most Rangers fans we were overjoyed when Hart was removed from the Texas GM job and booted upstairs. Since that happened, you almost never heard about or from him (the latter being the same behaviour as when he WAS the GM). Anyway, he’s usually the guy who comments on what team management’s perspective is on whatever the story at hand is. I have to say, I’ve rather enjoyed him as a commentator on MLB Network. There was some talk that he might be a candidate for the vacant GM job in Washington DC. If that happens, he’s off MLBN for sure, which would I feel be a loss for the commentating crew.
What would NOT be a loss is the departure of Sean Casey. He’s the first guy they’ve put on the network that I wished would not come back. I’d rather Al Leiter stay there all the time. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of Al for the “former player” perspective.
If you’re not regularly watching MLB Network, you should be. I don’t think I’ve watched more than 10 minutes of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight since BBTN has come back on the air early in spring training. Watch it.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- …
- 521
- Next Page »