Saw a few minutes ago some official roster moves were posted to the Rangers site.
The first one was dated last night, but I was pretty positive I hadn’t seen that earlier this morning when I looked. The first one had Frank Francisco optioned to AAA, and Eric Hurley reassigned to AAA.
The second one came this morning, when Kameron Loe and Jarrod Saltamacchia were optioned to AAA. I touched on the “why” earlier this morning, but Kam was still a possibility for the pen. Not now, he’s been dispatched to Oklahoma.
None of these moves affect the 40 man roster, though. Just shuffling of existing 40 man players.
One other note. My roster page is being updated when these moves are officially made. As such, I still have guys like Adam Melhuse in the minors, even though they’ll be on the 25 man. Once these moves are all officially made by the Rangers, I’ll be updating my roster pages.
Loe, Salty down
- P Kameron Loe optioned to AAA
- C Jarrod Saltamacchia optioned to AAA [ Link
Minor admin note
If you read my site on an RSS reader, you might notice some repeat entries. This was because I discovered this morning that I forgot to cover a game last week, and as such, my game count was off. I had to adjust the “game numbers” for about 5 game recaps, and as such, it changed the URL’s for a few entries, and put them back into the RSS feed. Sorry for the confusion.
Several moves announced
Before the game last night, several announcements regarding the roster were announced. They weren’t formally made, however, so the roster (officially) remains as it was. But several things were announced:
C.J Wilson was named the closer: This one is the most obvious. I know officially anyway, there was talk that Eddie Guarardo was going to challenge Wilson, but I don’t think anyone really believed that was a true competition. CJ seems like he could do the job after going 12-14 in save opportunities last year late. He doesn’t strike fear in people at this point though (like Papelbon, Mariano Rivera at his prime, and Ugueth Urbina when he wasn’t in jail), but he seems to be able to do the job. Hopefully he stays healthy and performs. It’s been a few years now since we haven’t had to change closers during a season.
Franklyn German makes the club: From the spring he’s had, this isn’t a huge surprise. He’s done a nice job, and assuming this isn’t a flash in the pan in spring training, this should be a good move. Hard to argue with giving a job to a guy whose ERA is 1.00. He has previous major league experience after being up with the Marlins in 2006, as well as with the Tigers from 2002-2005.
Jamey Wright makes the club: No huge surprise here. He did well for us in the pen last year, and that’s where he’s headed again. Should help out, assuming he doesn’t regress.
Frank Francisco to minors: Ever since the chair throwing incident, he doesn’t seem to have regained his total dominance he showed for awhile there. Shame, as I wanted him to succeed if for no other reason than to give the middle finger to Craig Bueno.
This leaves the bullpen with this roster: C.J. Wilson, Joaquin Benoit, Kaz Fukumori, Eddie Guardado, Franklyn German and Jamey Wright. There’s still two open spots. My guess for those spots are Robinson Tejeda (because of the options thing)
Some other announcements:
Jason Botts makes the club: Jason has had a decent enough spring, and reports seem to indicate he’s improved on his defense enough where he’s earned himself a spot. I think this is probably his last chance though – if he blows this, I doubt he’ll get through waivers.
Nelson Cruz to be DFA’ed: Several reports say that the Rangers will try and get Cruz through waivers, but I don’t think anyone expects that to happen. He has one of the better throwing arms, and even though given multiple chances, has not grasped the role of regular, because his offense is so all over the place.
Kevin Mench to minors: In another move that I think surprised nobody, Kevin Mench will start the season in AAA. His contract stated he would agree to that, so once that clause was in there, I think he realistically became “the insurance policy”. He would have had to have been miles above anyone else to make the club’s opening day 25 man. Still, it would not surprise me to see him up here before too long, unless everyone stays healthy.
Jason Ellison to minors: Jason Ellison was also told he won’t make the club, which doesn’t seem like much of a surprise. I wasn’t hearing his name a ton in reports and all that.
Catching:
Salty to AAA: This one came in right when I started writing this article, so I had to include it. According to TR Sullivan this morning, it was decided that Adam Melhuse would make the club as the backup to Gerald Laird, with Jarrod Saltamacchia going to AAA to get regular work. There also was some talk that Jon Daniels might still be trying to move Gerald Laird before the start of the season, but wants to get good value. He better, as while I don’t think Laird is the seriously long term answer, he does appear to be a good catcher, so you don’t want to just give him away.
A few notes, though. Franklyn German, Jamey Wright, and Adam Melhuse are NOT on the 40 man roster, and since ours is full, room will have to be made for them. The obvious candidate is Nelson Cruz, who is reported to be dfa’ed. That’s one. The others will probably be guys moved to the 60 day DL.
None of these roster moves were officially made, my guess is we see a big bomb of transactions all at once right before the actual deadline when we have to get down to our starting 25.
ST27: Rangers beat Mariners late, 5-1
Last night the Rangers were on the radio. I was listening to our guys call the game while I was doing dishes in the kitchen. Exciting stuff, but you need something to do, eh?
Offensively, this game was clearly led by Hank Blalock. Hammer went 4-4 with three RBI’s, and a run scored. The big moment was a two run home run in the first inning. Ian Kinsler and Frank Calanotto both had two hits each (one of Ian’s was a double). The interesting thing about this game is there was only one other hit the entire game by the Rangers that was NOT off the bat of Blalock, Kinsler, or Catalanotto. That was Milton Bradley. Bradley tripled in the first inning, and from the sounds of it, stumbled a bit coming around second but still made it.
The Rangers ran out there what could be considered a regular season lineup. Everyone but Catalanotto (the DH) was subbed out at some point. So that was 17 different Rangers hitters. Only four of them got hits. While we had enough to win, it bothers me it was so bunched up. A win is a win – and I know that. But you like to see more balanced attacks. I know I do.
The Rangers were hiding their regular starters, as we’ll see Seattle in a week. So this was a game of relievers. Kaz Fukumori started the game, and threw two scoreless innings. In fact, his spring ERA is zero – very impressive. Kam Loe followed Kaz, and gave up the only run Seattle got (as well as three of the five overall hits). Loe seems like he will end up in AAA (to me), and while his outing today wasn’t great, some of the other moves we heard about seem to imply that Kam and his snake will be headed for Oklahoma City. The other three relievers that took the mound for Texas were Franklyn German (who made the club), Josh Rupe (probably not), & Wes Littleton (not sure, probably not). All pitched scoreless frames. Our pitching staff, what that it is, seems to be coming together.
As much as I seem to be dumping on Kam Loe, make no mistake, I like the guy, but you have to go with what you see. He did contribute to a really great pitching performance as a team. Rangers pitchers combined went nine innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits. Too many walks though (five), and not enough strikeouts (four). But you can’t argue with the bottom line in this game.
We did get to Miguel Batista, who at one point I thought would be great, but now seems to be a “meh” pitcher. Still tosses well against Texas though, although this time he did not. Five innings, six hits, three walks, three k’s, and four earned runs.
Francisco & Hurley
- P Frank Francisco optioned to AAA
- P Eric Hurley reassigned to AAA camp [ Link
ST26: Rangers lose to Cubs in bottom of ninth, 7-6
I’m going to skip this one, as it was another “didn’t hear it at work” game.
Didn’t like Gabbard’s line (yeah, I know most of it was in the first, but it still counted).
John Patterson
- P John Patterson signed to a 1 year AAA deal. [ Link ]
ST25: Rangers win again; beat Giants 5-2
Sunday was the second of the two televised spring training games. Unlike Saturday’s game, I did get to see this one – well, most of it. I was again doing some church stuff (it was Resurrection Sunday after all), so I didn’t get to see it until late. Which means I sometimes fall asleep on it if I don’t get to start watching until after 10PM like I did this one.
Still, it was nice to see the Rangers play well. Granted, it is the Giants, who probably won’t threaten a team made up of current and former Rangers beat writers for the various local newspapers, but there was some nice stuff in this game. Several great defensive plays, including two guys thrown out at home.
You can tell we’re reaching the end of spring training. The same nine guys who started for the Rangers also finished. Even the pitching roster we sent out there seemed fairly normal. Mendoza went 5, Francisco went 1, Littleton went 2, and Rupe finished up and got the save. Which brings up another point. I’m starting to get mildly concerned that CJ Wilson has not yet appeared in any games lately. I know what the team is saying, but if he’s going to be the closer, he should be getting “A” work.
Speaking of “A” work, Michael Young seems in fine shape in terms of his stats. He went 3-3 yesterday, and raised his average to .388. Josh Hamilton, the darling of spring took an ofer, and his average dropped below .500. Jarrod Saltamacchia seems to have gotten it together a bit. He’s now batting .276 after going 2-3 on Sunday. Ben Broussard, who seemed in low gear for most of March is doing better. He’s now at .267.
A couple of other guys are not doing that great; and they’re on the roster. Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, & Frank Catalanotto are all under the Mendoza line. Not good for guys we’re counting on.
Luis Mendoza pitched well again which will be good if he remains in the starting rotation. Five shutout innings. Speaking of pitchers, I was quite surprised to see how young Tim Lincecum was. Good Lord, he looked like he belonged in High School. Given the comments that Tom & Josh had about him, I have to say that is not an uncommon remark.
In a fairly useless note that might make Rob Neyer proud, our 7/8/9 batters on Sunday may have set some sort of record for letters in their surnames combined. Between Catalanotto, Saltamacchia, & Broussard, that’s 32 letters. Not bad for the bottom part of the lineup. :)
ST24: Rangers slug out Mariners, 8-5
The first televised game of the season came against something that I thought was far more important, going to my daughter’s Easter egg hunt on Saturday afternoon. Jamey’s spent a bunch of time talking about his kid lately, so I thought I’d use my site to give my offspring a mention. :)
Seeing THAT was far more important than any other Texas Rangers game I’ve ever seen or will see. I did get to see the top of the first inning, where we scored two runs and Blalock got picked off first, but that was all I actually saw. By the time we got home from the egg hunt, and spent family time, I had to attend an Easter Eve service at church, so it was too late to start watching the rest of the game. So this was a box score only game for me, even though it was on TV (and radio for that matter).
Ian Kinsler and Michael Young had great days. Both went 3-3. Kevin Mench was 2-3. Hank Blalock was 2-3. Jason Botts was 2-5. Lots of hits. Eighteen in all – six of them were doubles. No home runs, however. Kind of surprised we didn’t have more runs than we did with all those hits. Of course, pickoffs to end an inning don’t help much in that regard.
Eric Hurley started the game and got a bit torched. 4.1 innings, ten hits, two walks, and five earned runs. The rest of our pitching staff (Rowe, Wilson, Benoit, Wright) didn’t give up any runs at all.
Nice to beat a division rival like that.
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