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Juando in the Cards

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ESPN writer Tim Kurkjian yesterday wrote an article about Juan Gonzalez’s comeback attempt with the Cardinals. It’s an interesting read. As a Rangers fan who remembers all the “stuff” he did (pointing at the official scorer, the HOF game/baggy pants thing/general moodiness), I wonder how well this will play in St. Louis.
The article says his swing was still there, being described as “long, smooth, georgeous”. I wonder if said swing is still susceptible to the low and away slider like it always was. When asked why he was attempting a comeback, he said this:

“I have goals in mind, I came back to finish those goals — 500 home runs is a goal [he has 434]. But the No. 1 reason I’m [in camp] is to make this team.”

It would be interesting to see him come back, because at his prime, he was someone I did like. It just seemed like there were too many “issues”, though. Be interesting to see if he’s back in the majors.

Kinsler signed through 2012 [UPDATED]

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Ian Kinsler was signed to a five year contract extension, with a team option for 2013.
This effectively voids the $400k contact he signed the other day as it goes into effect now. The total dollar value is $22 million for the five years. The sixth year is a $10 million option with a $500k option.
More details as they come in.
UPDATE: I’ve got a breakdown of the 5 year guaranteed stuff. It does replace the $400k contract for 2008.
Signing Bonus: $1 Million
2008: $500,000
2009: $3 Million
2010: $4 Million
2011: $6 Million
2012: $7 Million
2013: $10 Million club option w/ $500k buyout

Strange Rules

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In reading things leading up to Spring Training I ran across a couple of articles about some bizarre rules in baseball. Things you never would think of much, if at all. One is a “ground rule triple”, and one other one I thought was interesting was the 23 ways you can get a man on first base. Most are obvious, but some are fairly obscure. Here’s the list:

  1. walk
  2. intentional walk
  3. hit by pitch
  4. dropped 3rd strike
  5. failure to deliver pitch in 20 seconds
  6. catcher interference
  7. fielder interference
  8. spectator interference
  9. fan obstruction
  10. fair ball hits ump
  11. fair ball hits runner
  12. fielder obstructs runner
  13. pinch-runner
  14. fielder’s choice
  15. force out at another base
  16. preceding runner put-out allows batter to reach first
  17. sac bunt fails to advance runner
  18. sacrifice fly dropped
  19. runner called out on appeal
  20. error
  21. four illegal pitches
  22. single
  23. game suspended with runner on first, that player is traded prior to the makeup; new player is allowed to take his place

It does technically say Twenty-three ways to get a man (any man) on first base, which would cover things like pinch runner. Some of the others are the 16 ways a balk can be made, how to get six strikeouts in an inning, and how a pitcher can get a win without ever throwing a pitch.
These were a couple of good entries. I suggest you go read them. You can reach them here and here over at the “Hardball Times” website. Good stuff.

My Roster Pages Updated

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Something I try to do every year to bring the site up to speed is update my roster pages. I started this site in December of 1998, and unless a player is a “cup of coffee” guy, I create a roster page for them. As they move to other teams (and even other countries), I try and keep them up to date. The problem is that as the years have gone on, and I’ve amassed more and more former player pages, it becomes harder to make a pass through them. I have a total of 226 pages at the moment. I try and keep all the links the same, so two years ago when I decided to add a Wikipedia link to the roster pages, I had to go through and edit all the pages for that. A few years I never made it through the “pass”, but this year I did.
I’ve gone through all my roster pages, and updated everyone. There were bunch of players from last season I never created pages for, and they’re all up to date now, too. As is the case during spring training, I don’t add pages for everyone, since most of the guys in camp aren’t breaking camp with the big club, and they’ll likely not be seen again, or won’t be seen for awhile anyway.
So at this point unless we trade for a major player who has a guaranteed major league contract, or sign a guy who will be on the big club, I’m not adding any more pages until the 25 man roster is set in late March.
One thing though – all the current player pages I’ve added a new widget thing from ESPN – it has individual stats and news on players. Here’s an example of two: They’re free, so I figured why not. :)

2008 Contract Signings [UPDATED]

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The Rangers site has a press release stating that 14 players have been signed to 2008 contracts. These are all guys we control, so the numbers aren’t going to be bigtime here.
In fact, as I write this, only one number is out, that’s Ian Kinsler’s figure of $407,570.
Evan Grant thinks that this isn’t a big deal, and it probably isn’t. He even classifies it as a “good faith” move from Kinsler’s people about a 2008 contract. The list of folks who signed for 2008 today are:
Joaquin Arias – $391,000
Brandon Boggs – $390,000
Nelson Cruz – $398,150
Scott Feldman – $397,430
Kason Gabbard – $396,380
Josh Hamilton – $396,830
Matt Harrison – $390,000
Ian Kinsler – $407,570
Kameron Loe – $410,690
Luis Mendoza – $391,000
Max Ramirez – $390,000
John Rheinecker – $395,320
Josh Rupe – $392,000
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – $396,710
That leaves 11 other unsigned players.
UPDATE: The Ft Worth Star Telegram blog posted dollar values for all of them. I’ve updated my list.

Mass signing

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  • 14 players were signed to 2008 contracts. Dollar values and names are listed below. [ Link ]

Joaquin Arias – $391,000
Brandon Boggs – $390,000
Nelson Cruz – $398,150
Scott Feldman – $397,430
Kason Gabbard – $396,380
Josh Hamilton – $396,830
Matt Harrison – $390,000
Ian Kinsler – $407,570
Kameron Loe – $410,690
Luis Mendoza – $391,000
Max Ramirez – $390,000
John Rheinecker – $395,320
Josh Rupe – $392,000
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – $396,710

Former Rangers Around the League

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Tonight I decided to look around the various camps and see who was in camp that played for the Rangers.
These guys have played at least one game at the major league level with the Rangers. There are others who have been Rangers in the minors only, but I didn’t get into those guys (like Ryan Dempster, Aaron Harang, and John Danks who were all minor leaugers, or Glendon Rusch and Brian Anderson who were NRIs with us a few years back). This also covers guys like Terrmel Sledge or Freddie Bynum who were technically major league Rangers, but were really just ships passing in the night.
Guys who are non roster invites have (NRI) after their name. Everyone else listed is on that club’s respective 40 man roster. I believe I’ve gotten everyone that fits the parameters listed above. If you spot someone I missed, please let me know in the comments below, I’ll get the article updated.
AL West:
Anaheim: Darren Oliver, Gary Matthews
Oakland: Justin Duchscherer
Seattle: R.A Dickey, Brad Wilkerson
AL Central:
Cleveland: Aaron Fultz, Dave Dellucci, Travis Hafner, Rick Bauer (NRI)
Detroit: Armando Galarraga, Kenny Rogers, Pudge Rodriguez, Marcus Thames
Minnesota: Dennys Reyes, Mike Lamb, Craig Monroe
Chicago Sox: Nick Masset
Kansas City: Ron Mahay, Esteban German, Ken Huckaby (NRI)
AL East:
Boston: Bryan Corey, Doug Mirabelli, Dan Kolb (NRI), Michael Tejera (NRI)
NY Yankees: Alex Rodriguez
Toronto: Rod Barajas, Gregg Zaun, Matt Stairs
Baltimore: Jon Leicester, Guillermo Quiroz, Ryan Bukvich (NRI), Esteban Yan (NRI)
Tampa Bay: Carlos Pena
NL East:
Philadelphia: Fabio Castro, Adam Eaton, Jamie Moyer
NY Mets: Fernando Tatis (NRI)
Atlanta: Mark Teixeira, Ryan Drese (NRI)
Washington: Mike Bacsik (NRI), Rob Bell (NRI)
Florida: None
NL Central:
Chicago Cubs: Mark DeRosa, Alfonso Soriano, Andres Torres (NRI)
Milwaukee: Eric Gagne, Brian Shouse, Gabe Kapler, Laynce Nix (NRI)
St. Louis: Randy Flores, Ryan Ludwick, John Wasdin (NRI), D’Angelo Jimenez (NRI), Juan Gonzalez (NRI)
Houston: Doug Brocail, Carlos Lee, Victor Diaz (NRI)
Cincinnati: Francisco Cordero, Mike Stanton, Edinson Volquez
Pittsburgh: None
NL West:
Arizona: Doug Davis
Colorado: Kip Wells, John Koronka (NRI), Matt Kata (NRI)
San Diego: Chris Young (DAMMIT), Adrian Gonzalez, Marshall McDougall (NRI)
Los Angeles: Esteban Loaiza, Rudy Seanez, Chan Ho Park (NRI), Tanyon Sturtze (NRI), Danny Ardoin (NRI)
San Francisco: Victor Santos (NRI)
In looking over the rosters, I had to do a double take when I was looking at Houston’s. They have a 28 year old pitcher named Mark McLemore. I actually stopped, as I was not expecting to see that. :)

Shrek is back

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As has been reported the last couple of days, Kevin Mench has signed a minor league deal with the Rangers that includes an invite to spring training. Let’s hope this repeat appearance of Shrek is better than the most recent repeat appearance of Shrek in the movies. Blech.

Several stories in the last few days said that the Rangers were asking for a guarantee that he would accept an assignment to AAA should he not make the club. The Dallas Morning News is reporting that was part of the deal, but it’s not indefinite. That’s because there is a reported condition that if he’s not added to the major league roster by June 1st, he can request his release from the club. Kevin doesn’t strike me as someone who is beyond his days to be stuck in AAA going downwards. I suspect he could hook on with someone if he’s not here past June, so I expect he’ll be gone if he’s not in the majors. The deal calls for a $600,000 salary if he’s on the opening day roster, although it doesn’t say how much he gets if he gets called up later; probably a prorated number from that salary.

It makes the competition for the OF a bit more crowded. I would see his main competition being David Murphy ( who was wearing Kevin’s old uniform number last season), Jason Botts, & Nelson Cruz. Cruz is probably on his last straw with the Rangers, and Botts probably isn’t serious competition, as he’s not the best outfielder around.

Be nice to have him around again. I wouldn’t mind seeing the commercial with him and Rangers Captain back on the airwaves – that was one of the funnier ones around. Actually the Rangers site says it’s available, but since mlb.com switched to a new media player, a lot of their older clips like this are all broken. Figures.

This is really a no risk move for the Rangers. My gut feeling is that he doesn’t break camp with the club, though.

Mench Signed

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  • OF Kevin Mench signed to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training [ Link ]

Uniform Numbers

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As we get closer to the fun starting again on Thursday with pitchers and catchers, I’ve been working behind the scenes on my site to get some things done. Not terribly obvious to you, but this one might be.
One of the features on my site that I don’t think I’ve seen on any other Rangers site is a history of Rangers uniform numbers. I’ve got all the Texas Rangers years covered, and some Senators years, too. I’ve been keeping up with all the changes for the last 5 years or so as that’s when I started tracking it. Information going backwards is not as complete, but still pretty accurate. What I mean by that is guys who were up for just one game or something in say 1977 aren’t likely to be in here. I do have info for the numbers in the Senators years, but I haven’t found the time to put that stuff in there. Hopefully soon.
Anyway, I’ve gone through and updated it for 2008 based on the published spring training rosters that are out and about. A couple of minor things which I don’t have an answer for:

  • Our new third base coach this year is Matt Walbeck. The official Rangers site doesn’t list a number for him, so if you know what his number is, please tell me.
  • It’s been in several papers that old schoolers like Mark McLemore, Rusty Greer, Steve Buchele and others will be in spring training to coach the current players – possibly even in uniform. If anyone has seen assignments for these guys, let me know.
  • If anyone has numbers for some of the other guys who are in uniform (bullpen catcher, some of the other folks in the dugout who aren’t on the field coaches), let me know that, too.

Thanks, and I hope you get a kick out of my uniform number section of the site.