Those of you who like to stand in the ballpark and flap your arms like a bird when Marlon Byrd is up will be happy about this one. He and the Rangers came to terms tonight on a contract for 2009. His case was the last possible arbitration case the Rangers had on their plate. Actually, he would have been a Ranger in 09 anyway, it was just down to money.
Marlon had asked for $3.6 Million, and the Rangers countered with $2.7 million. They settled on $3.06 million, which is pretty much in the middle.
With the Byrdman signed, that resolves the arbitration possibilities for this offseason, keeping intact our record of not having gone to an actual hearing in about nine years now, the last being Lee Stevens.
Winter Carnival Story
Saw a story in the current Dallas Observer about the Texas Rangers, a fan, and the winter carnival. Along with the usual comments about “what about the pitching?”
The thrust of most of the article is about the fan Paige Skinner, and her (I assume it’s a girl) presumed slight by the players when she was at last season’s finale. Here’s a quote from the article:
“It was supposed to be Fan Appreciation Day,” Skinner says. “But the players didn’t toss us a ball, a batting glove, not even a smile or a wave. In fact, a security guard hopped up on the dugout and told us to go home. They treated us like we suck, and we’re the ones who’ve supported them through all these losing seasons. Without us, they’d have nothing. I was furious. Ticked beyond belief.”
While I do agree with her about security guards – they tend to be a bit overzealous in the “Get out” mantra (that should be worked on, really). I have an issue with the thrust here that the players seemingly owed her something. Particularly the comment “they treated us like we suck”. Using the words “They treated us” means there was an intentional desire on the players to make the fans feel like “they suck”. Somehow I doubt that. The specific comment was also made about not getting an item thrown to them. I don’t think so. Just because you attend a game, doesn’t mean you have the RIGHT to have something given to you. Even on Fan Appreciation Day.
There’s another comment that one could make about the fact that if you can afford to sit in the seats down by the dugout, you don’t need (much less deserve) freebies like that. Buy your own. If the players REALLY wanted to foster goodwill, take the balls and gloves and stuff up to Section 345 where poor families have to sit because they have zero chance of ever being able to sit in the seats down at the bottom and be “slighted” by the players.
Those fans would be far more excited I think over a freebie from the players than those who can afford to sit in the first few rows of Sections 31-35.
Thoughts on the MLB Network
I have to say, once I got past my major irritation at not being able to get MLB Network on Time Warner in Garland, I have to say the channel is a major home run. I’ve really been enjoying the heck out of it. They recently announced their upcoming programming for the month of February, so I decided that I’d say something now that they’re reaching the end of the first month of programming.
I don’t watch everything there, as I’d have a hard time doing anything else in my life. As it is the nightly baseball news show is a season pass on my TiVo. It’s called “Hot Stove” (although that will change to “MLB Tonight” once games start). It’s basically four guys at a desk (from a rotating crew of guys) with some support staff in studio talking about the issues of the day, and other things like commentary on free agents, things of that nature. It’s similar in feel to Baseball Tonight in that regard – but this “feels” somewhat different. I’m not sure how to describe it. Perhaps it’s because the MLBN program is on at a time when Baseball Tonight is not – they generally are off once the World Series stops, so we shall see how viewing habits go once BBTN gets rolling again. Anyway, “Hot Stove” has segments where they interview players and other baseball related folks. I’ve seen real major league players in there, I saw Scott Boras in there, John Hart once, Nolan Ryan, and even Batting Stance Guy. A lot of times on Baseball Tonight, I tend to skip the “segments”, but on MLBN I generally don’t. That’s not to say I haven’t – if I’m particularly disinterested in a guest, I’ll skip over it, but for the most part, I’m interested in Hot Stove from front to back. Maybe it’s the personalities, who knows? I admit Victor Rojas is a major draw for me, and I’ve always thought BBTN made a mistake by dumping Harold Reynolds. There’s been a rotating crew of other guys (Al Leiter, Mitch Williams), and whatnot. Really have enjoyed the “feel”. I still think the set behind them is a little too busy with video screens, but I can live with that. This show is “new” on Monday through Friday at 6PM here in Dallas. It’s repeated SEVERAL times during the day to help fill the 24 hours of programming, so even if you don’t have a TiVo you should be able to catch it.
There are several other series on here. Shows about ballparks, specific “years” in baseball history, classic games, and all kinds of things. But one other thing I’m glad is on here is “Ken Burns’ Baseball”. I saw this originally when I rented the flicks from Netflix some time ago. As with a lot of people, I got my first taste of Buck O’Neill and the Negro Leagues from this show. Oh, I knew about the Negro Leagues before that, but it was a bunch of “black guys” playing baseball to me before I got to see more detail. I’m grateful to Ken Burns for bringing this to the light for me. I haven’t seen this in awhile, and they’ve been running it every Tuesday night – this past Tuesday was Episode 4, talking about the 20’s and Babe Ruth, mostly. Fantastic show if you’ve never seen it. Of particular interest is the fact that they have Ken Burns in studio with a recorded clip to go with each episode. It’s him talking for about 5-10 minutes or so about the particular episode on that night. It’s nice to have this new insight. But the best part was the news that they’re doing a new episode. When the series first aired, it was right after the players went on strike in 1994, so that’s roughly where that series ended. The new episode will pick up where the series left off, and go through 2008, so I’m glad to see a new one of those coming up.
But one show I am looking forward to is one that will started on February 20th, called “30 Clubs in 30 Days”. It will be a one hour series detailing a preview of the upcoming season for that team. I expect this will be a good way to learn about teams that we might not know a lot about otherwise. I’m not sure if I’ll watch all 30 of them, but I will definitely catch more than just my hometown Phillies, and my adopted team the Rangers. :) I did look ahead on their programming, and it appears the Texas Rangers episode will air on Wed March 18th at 5PM Central Time.
This 30 Clubs show speaks a lot to why I like this network so much. It’s not like ESPN where they seem to have an affinity for just the Yankees & Red Sox. Last week they spent 20 minutes talking about the Royals, saw the Giants another night, and the Indians yet another. Sometimes I think ESPN forgets there’s more than just Boston & the Bronx.
If you aren’t watching this channel, you should be. Especially if you’re stuck with Dish Network.
Benoit out?
Saw a few minutes ago where it appears that Joaquin Benoit had surgery which will knock him out for all of the 2009 season. Shame if true, as he’s developed a nice career as a reliever, now that he’s finally figured out what works.
He’s the elder statesman on the Rangers roster, nobody’s been here on the active roster longer than he has.
I bet you it means we might get some movement regading the bullpen and the “Hot Stove”. Who would you bring in to replace him, or just use another kid from the farm?
New 2009 Uniforms
The first year Buck Showalter was here, I attended a Winter Carnival before he had managed a single game. The date of this was February 1, 2003. I had gotten into a Q&A session with Buck which was held in that auditorium room behind the museum. So I get in there, take my seat, and wait for things to get started. I wasn’t doing much of anything, and it was then I realized that Buck himself had come over to me. I looked up, and Buck introduced himself to me with a handshake, saying “Hi, I’m Buck Showalter, Rangers manager”. I thought a second and said “Hi, I’m Joe Siegler… uh… FAN!” :) Anyway, Buck asked me if I preferred the red Rangers hats to the blue. I said I far prefer it to the blue, to which Buck said “Well, the coaches will be wearing the red hats in spring training, hopefully to give Mr. Hicks a few ideas”.
These ideas took a long time to take hold. Buck’s coaches did wear them in Spring Training, and I thought it was distinctive. You could spot a coach easily, since they were the only ones on the field wearing red hats.
Well, in 2009 we finally have red back in the uniforms. Oh, there’s been some minor red in trim areas, but let’s face it, red hasn’t been a real uniform color for years. There was a press conference today where the Rangers unveiled several new uniforms. It appears that every one has been changed up somewhat. I’ll get into the individual uniforms below. Just as a reminder, this was what the uniforms looked like the last time red was the primary color:
Here’s a quick refresher on the last couple of times there were any kind of uniform change or addition. If you’re reading this on an rss feed, you’ll need to click over to my website to see the rest of this story (it’s long, and I didn’t want that huge of a story on the front page).
Looking into Age 40+ Rangers Players
With the signing of Omar Vizquel this week to a minor league contract, it occurred to me that he might have been the second oldest player to sign with the Rangers. The oldest would be Nolan Ryan of course, but I thought Omar might be second, so I decided to look it up.
Broke out baseball-reference.com which lists the age of players in a calendar year. As I started looking into it, I found some interesting stats about the ages of Rangers players. Here’s some bullet points (this also assumes Vizquel will play in Arlington in 2009):
- The oldest player period was Nolan Ryan. He was 46 years, roughly 7.5 months when he threw his last pitch in 1993.
- Omar Vizquel was the second oldest signee for a first time Ranger at 41 years, 9 months.
- If Omar Vizquel plays as a Ranger on his birthday, he will be just the third second player to play at age 42 (the first being Charlie Hough, the second being Nolan Ryan). If he wants to overtake Hough, he’d have to play as a Ranger in 2010, which is unlikely, as Hough was 42 yr, 8 mo, 3 weeks old when he played his last game as a Ranger on Sep 28, 1990.
- The number of players who have played in a Rangers uniform at age 40 or older is smaller than you think. Just eleven. I thought it’d be more than that.
- There were a couple years with more than one 40+ Ranger at a time. Not surprisingly, they all involved Nolan Ryan. They were 1992 (Nolan/45 & Brian Downing/41), 1991 (Nolan/44, Downing/40), 1990 (Nolan/43, Hough/42), & 1989 (Nolan/42, Hough/41),.
- The first player ever to play as a Ranger at 40 was Gaylord Perry in 1980 when he was 41.
- When the team was the Senators, there was never a 40+ player.
- The “youngest oldest player” was aged 34. This happened in four seasons (66-68 & 71). Oddly enough, they were all years in Washington. The Rangers have never had a 34 year old be the oldest player
- Some notable names that appeared on my research as “Top 3 Oldest Players for that Year” are.. Minnie Minoso (37, 1963), Don Zimmer (34, 1965), Frank Howard (35, 1972), Rico Carty (33, 1973), Toby Harrah (37, 1986), Goose Gossage (39, 1991), Mickey Tettleton (36, 1997), Mike Morgan (39, 1999), Sammy Sosa (38, 2007)
- Sandy Alomar Sr (34, 1978) & Sandy Alomar Jr (39, 2005) are the only father/son duo on this age list. :)
Here is the complete list of players who have played as a Ranger at age 40 or higher. Again, this assumes that Omar Vizquel will play as a Ranger after April 23rd.
46 – Nolan Ryan (1993)
42 – Omar Vizquel (2009)
42 – Charlie Hough (1990)
41 – Brian Downing (1992)
41 – Gaylord Perry (1980)
40 – Kenny Lofton (2007)
40 – Kenny Rogers (2005)
40 – Andreas Galarraga (2001)
40 – Tony Fossas (1998)
40 – Rick Honeycutt (1994)
40 – Tom Paciorek (1987)
A caveat about the above information. While bbr is the source for my data below, it doesn’t seem to take into account the age of a player if his age changed in the season. I just went with the bbr number, as it would have been far too much work to see what the birthdate of every Rangers player was and figure it out that way. :)
Click through to the full story, as I included the complete research data from the entire franchise here. I chose the top 3 ages for each season, because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. :) If you’re reading this on a feed reader (or one of those sites that steals rss feeds to make their own stories), then you need to visit my site to get the whole thing.
CJ Wilson Signed
- P CJ Wilson signed to a 1 year contract, avoiding arbitration [ Link ]
The Angels are vulnerable?
Saw an article on ESPN by Jayson Stark. In it he talks about the A’s additions this off season (pretty much Giambi & Matt Holliday). It should definitely help their offense.
However, the teaser for this article on the ESPN site has this text:
The A’s added both Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday, hoping to not only improve an offense that was 27th in runs but also close the gap on the vulnerable Angels in the AL West.
Vulnerable? The loss of Frankie Rodriguez is a big one for sure, but I don’t see them as “vulnerable”. Do you?
A Fantasy Baseball Question
Those of you who follow my site know that I put together an annual Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League. I will be doing that again this year. However, Yahoo has not opened up signups yet. So I have a question to those visitors of mine who participate.
Would you prefer a draft date as early as possible, or something closer to the start of the actual season, or something in the middle. Let me know ASAP, as I expect these things to open up for the 2009 season shortly.
Francisco Signed
- P Frankie Francisco signed to a 1 year contract, avoiding arbitration [ Link ]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- 160
- …
- 521
- Next Page »