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That’s always an embarrassing headline to write. In theory, one should never lose to one’s own minor league team. Still, that’s what our Rangers did. Yeah, it’s the last game, yeah it doesn’t even count in the SPRING standings. But still, you don’t want to lose that for pride. But my guess is nobody will talk about it, since all the movement now is towards tomorrow in Seattle when the season opens for real.
Kason Gabbard had a real Chan Ho Park moment in this game. He started off with four perfect innings. Then he totally lost it, and gave up four runs in the fifth inning, then returned to pitch a scoreless sixth. When you five four perfect in a row, then just give it up like that, it just screams “MENTAL LAPSE” to me. Still, five out of six innings pitched with no runs is very encouraging. Kea Kometani & Bill White gave up the other three runs.
The Rangers offense was pretty non existent. Makes you wonder how hard they really tried against their AA team; perhaps they didn’t want to show them up? Who knows. Ian Kinsler (homer), Marlon Byrd (single), and Michael Young (single) were the only “regular” Rangers with hits. We had seven hits in all, but the other four were from subs (Jason Ellison, Casey Benjamin, Adam Melhuse, Joaquin Arias).
So that’s it. Another spring comes to a close. Our final spring training record was 17-11-2. A pretty decent spring, and we have several batters on tears, and our bullpen is looking pretty good. Starting pitching is a question mark, but when is it not, really?
Unless your name is Randy Galloway, you’ve got to have a decent feeling going into the 2008 season.

Friday brought the Rangers and the Southsiders from Chicago to Oklahoma City for an exhibition game.
Michael Young led our offense, having a phenomenal spring which we’d all be talking about if it wasn’t for Josh Hamilton. Michael went 2-3 and raised his average to .403. Ben Broussard also went 2-3, and has his average recovered quite nicely from his early spring slump (it’s at .298). Hank Blalock doubled off of former Rangers farmhand John Danks, as did Ben Broussard off of Mike MacDougal. The rest of our hits for the game (nine of them) were all singles. No longballs, so the “chicks” were disappointed. ;) All of the regulars/starters had at least one hit, so that was very nice to see. Always like a more balanced attack. Ironic then that all of the guys subbed in for the starters did not get any hits at all. Milton Bradley’s first inning single was worth two RBI’s, and his numbers are small, but that’s because of his late start.
Pitching wise, the Rangers ran out there nine relievers. No starters in this one. Each guy pitched a single inning. C.J. Wilson (4th) and Josh Rupe (7th) were the only guys to give up any runs (Wilson 2, Rupe 3). All the other guys put up blanks in the run column. Fukumori & Benoit still have ERA’s of zero for the spring, and Franklyn German has a very un-Franklyn German ERA of 0.90.
Our pen looks good this season, which is why the trade announced last night was a bit of a head scratcher. The Rangers acquired reliever Dustin Nippert from the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday evening. It was quite the day for Dustin, as his wife gave birth to their second child earlier in the day. Quotes in the evening from Rangers brass say the final spot was down to Nippert & Robinson Tejeda. Tejeda, who is out of options will be DFA’ed. You wish you could hang onto that in case he figures it out, but it’s the old options thing. Nippert comes into the organization also out of options (which is why he was available), and goes straight into the pen. His career (and spring 08 numbers) don’t seem to indicate he’s a “Oh my GOD – WE HAVE TO HAVE HIM” kind of pitcher, so it definitely falls under the category of head scratcher to me. If you want to read more in depth on Nippert, check out Jamey Newberg’s entry on the trade. Good details there.
One spring game left, and it’s against the Frisco Roughriders in Frisco. It doesn’t technically count in the spring training standings.
I’m not entirely sure what the official deadline is to submit our 25 man roster, but I believe it’s a day before your first game, which would mean we have to submit it sometime tomorrow. That means a bomb of transactions all at once.
Just about there, and then the fun begins. Last year, the season just cropped up on me, and I didn’t have much in the way of anticipation for it. This year I admit to actively looking forward to it, which is odd, given I’ve made the conscious decision to not attend all that many games this year (mostly because of cost, but also because I’ve donated that money to my church in a capital campaign we’re having to build a new church).
I’m also working on an article on the 2008 Home Parking situation which I’ll be posting either Sunday or Monday. If you know the parking at the Ballpark, prepare to have your world rocked – if you’ve been keeping up with what they’re doing out there.

This will be a short one. :)
Jason Jennings was decent (5.1 IP, 6H, 2BB, 2ER, 4K). Marlon Byrd & Nelson Cruz doubled. Kevin Mench doubled twice, Hank Blalock & Milton Bradley homered,
Rangers won. Coming back to the Metroplex. Goodbye Surprise for another year.
Bring on the real stuff. I’m ready.

Josh Hamilton continues to be the story of the spring. He went 2-5 today with a double and a home run. Two RBI’s, scored twice. Great day. I know it’s spring, and I know I’ve been let down by too many players wearing the Texas uniform, but dammit, it’s hard not to get excited about him. if he can stay healthy.. Man, will that be an awesome move, even if Edinson Volquez stays in the Reds lineup and does well.
Games that have nineteen runs scored usually mean one thing. Not a lot of good pitching. Funny thing is, if you go down the list of San Diego pitchers, four of the seven of them didn’t give up any. However, the other three did, and two of them alone combined for ten of the twelve runs. I find it odd that one of them was Jake Peavy. Jake gave up four earned runs in three innings, making his spring ERA 9.39. Bleargh!
On the other side, Vicente Pidente joined Peavy on the “Bleargh Train” by putting up some stink worthy numbers of his own. Six innings, ten hits, one walk, five earned runs.
Some other highlights from this one were doubles by Mike Young & Ben Broussard (who certainly seems to have picked it up lately), a stolen base by Gerald Laird, and a 3-5 day by Michael Young. (Yeah, I know he’s in that list twice).
This was a National League game, so the box score has about 8 guys in the 9 hole. Getting ready to write some of these about real games. Almost done.