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G132: Rangers and Nelson Cruz beat KC, 9-4

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_08_25_texmlb_kcamlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Short commentary, I’m in catch up mode after a week of not doing updates..
The Rangers hit Kansas City, a town that despite how bad the Royals have been, it’s a town where the Rangers have issues winning. This time, however was different. Nelson Cruz finally made it to the majors this year, and continued his torrid pace in the minors this year. Cruz went 3-5 with three RBI’s, missing just the triple for the cycle. Was definitely his night.
Actually, given how many hits we had (19) you would have thought we would have scored more than nine runs. 19 hits usually means double digits in runs. Oh well, I’ll take the win, since we usually don’t get a ton of them in KC.
Scott Feldman got the win, going seven innings, giving up eight hits, but no walks. Two earned runs (three overall). Good win.

Padilla to DL

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  • P Vicente Padilla placed on 15 day DL, retro to Aug 25
  • P Kameron Loe recalled from AAA [ Link ]

Mendoza recalled

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  • P Gabe White optioned to A Bakersfield
  • P Luis Mendoza recalled from AAA [ Link ]

Eddie Guardado traded to the Twins

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Eddie Guardado was traded to the Twins today, his original organization. Eddie was one of those guys that when we first signed him back in January, I thought “What the heck are we doing?” Turned out Eddie was a great guy, pitched pretty well, if not spectacular, and had a fire in him that you wished more guys had. Still, we’re not going anywhere, and if he can help the Twins, I wish him well.
In return, we get minor league prospect Mark Hamburger. My first thought upon hearing that was not how well can he pitch, was “how badly can Josh Lewin go off on the obvious jokes there”? Since I’d never heard of him, I’m going to shamelessly steal from Jamey Newberg’s update about him (since Jamey seems to know everyone in every minor league team everywhere)…

The player Texas has acquired from Minnesota for Eddie Guardado is 21-year-old right-handed reliever Mark Hamburger, a Minnesota native who is 1-2, 4.17 with 13 saves in 14 tries for Elizabethton in the Short-Season Appalachian League. The lanky 6’4″ righty has held the league to a .250 average (righties have been particularly inept, hitting .221/.292/.305 off of him), striking out 40 and walking 13 in 36.2 innings while inducing 1.27 as many groundouts as flyouts. He posted a 1.20 ERA in 2007, logging 15 innings (12 hits, four walks, 12 strikeouts) after signing with the Twins as an undrafted free agent out of Mesabi Range Community College.

To take Eddie’s roster spot, the team purchased the contract of Bill White, who made a handful of appearances for the Rangers last year. Nine appearances with a little over 9 innings pitched, and an ERA of 4.82. Not the greatest numbers there, but by all accounts has been having a bangup year in 2008. Given that we’ve effectively tanked in August, we’ll probably see a lot more guys come up once the rosters expand next Monday.
The bigger question is – who will be the formal closer, or are we going to hear that phrase that ends in the word “committee” again?
UPDATE: The closer will be Frank Francisco. Probably not a terrible idea.
Also, the flip side of the Guardado trade is that Mike Lamb was designated for assignment by the Twins to make room.

Guardado traded

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  • P Eddie Guardado traded to Minnesota Twins for P Mark Hamburger
  • P Bill White purchased from AAA [ Link ]
  • OF Jason Ellison designated for assignment
  • OF Nelson Cruz purchased from AAA [ Link ]

McCarthy Up

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  • P Brandon McCarthy recalled from AAA
  • P Kameron Loe optioned to AAA [ Link ]

G129: Texas opens Indians series with 7-5 loss

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_08_22_clemlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

I did not see or hear any of this game. I was down at the Starplex watching Black Sabbath play (they currently go by the name Heaven & Hell, they’re with Dio again). Due to this, I’ll skip all commentary on the game, as I need to recover from the concert. :) I don’t know if you know, but I do Black Sabbath’s website too – you can see it here: http://www.black-sabbath.com. Doing that affords me the luxury of doing things like watching the gig from on stage. Here was my vantage point. :)

So yeah, I missed Hank Blalock’s debut at first base. I was busy backstage with the band after the show, so by the time I finally got back home, I was in no shape to start watching a Texas Rangers game. :)

Blalock Up

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  • 3B Hank Blalock activated from DL
  • 3B Travis Metcalf optioned to AAA [ Link ]