The first official spring training game was against, who else. The Kansas City Royals. We have traditionally opened against them several times in a row since we’ve moved spring operations to Surprise, AZ. So the next couple of reports will probably have the same names in it. But that’s the most exciting part about doing a recap for Friday’s game. It’s all we get. I enter the 9th season doing this website, and the one thing I’ve said many times in the past is I hate these games where all we get are the recap sheets. Can’t hear ’em can’t see ’em. Now that I’ve got my regular annual gripe about that out of the way…
I’m thoroughly embarrassed I missed all this earlier. I do websites for a side business, and was dealing with some server issues relating to one of them, and the fact we were starting games completely slipped my mind. Not that it would have made much difference due to it being a “box score only” game, but still – I should have said something. :)
The “A” game was a loss to the Royals by the score of 8-6. This game can be summed up in a couple of words – “John Koronka got bombed”. In a performance worthy of Chan Ho Park or Mark Clark, John gave up a six spot in the fourth inning (after pitching a shutout third). That was essentially the game there from the Royals offensive standpoint. In fact, Alex Gonzalez for the Royals was the only guy to get more than a lone hit (two). The only other Ranger pitcher to give up a run was Wes Littleton (1). Willie Eyre also gave up one, but it was unearned. Kameron Loe, Edinson Volquez, & Jack Benoit all pitched shutout ball. Take out Koronka, and it was a decently pitched game.
Offensively, we had the same thing as KC did. Of our 10 hits, only one player had two (Catalanotto, two doubles), the rest were scattered. However, two of those were home runs, by Guillermo Quiroz & Victor Diaz.
Fresh off his contract, Mike Young committed one of the two errors the Rangers made this game (yeah, yeah – I know. But I still got a chuckle out of it).
There was also a B game earlier in the morning where Kevin Millwood made his spring debut, as did Sammy Sosa. You never get box scores for B games, so I can’t find Millwood’s line. Although of course, the press reported that Sammy Sosa went 0-3 with a walk and a couple of strikeouts. Couldn’t pass up that info, eh? :)
Still, it’s nice to get the juices flowing again – nice to be writing again.
Couldn’t find a combined box score/recap at MLB’s site, the line/box score is below. I’ll only do that for games that I can’t find a combined recap/box score link at mlb.com for during spring training.
Mike Young
- SS Michael Young signed to a 5 year extension (through 2013) [ Link ]
4 signed
- The following players signed to a 1 year contract: OF Jason Botts, INF Ian Kinsler, LHP John Koronka, and LHP C.J. Wilson. [ link ]
Michael Young and Carlos Guillen
Found an interesting link on one of the other team blogs I read, “Tiger Blog“. They are basically taking the slant that Michael Young’s contract would drive up the price of Carlos Guillen’s contract extension. They specifically make this statement:
Young is one year younger then Carlos Guillen and you can argue that both are pretty comparable players
I decided to look up their numbers for the last couple of seasons:
| Young | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | AVG | SLG | OBP |
| 2006 | 162 | 691 | 93 | 217 | 52 | 3 | 14 | 103 | .314 | .459 | .356 |
| 2005 | 159 | 668 | 114 | 221 | 40 | 5 | 24 | 91 | .331 | .513 | .385 |
| 2004 | 160 | 690 | 114 | 216 | 33 | 9 | 22 | 99 | .313 | .483 | .353 |
| 2003 | 160 | 666 | 106 | 204 | 33 | 9 | 14 | 72 | .306 | .446 | .339 |
| Guillen | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | AVG | SLG | OBP |
| 2006 | 153 | 543 | 100 | 174 | 41 | 5 | 19 | 85 | .320 | .519 | .400 |
| 2005 | 87 | 334 | 48 | 107 | 15 | 4 | 5 | 23 | .320 | .434 | .368 |
| 2004 | 136 | 522 | 97 | 166 | 37 | 10 | 20 | 97 | .318 | .542 | .379 |
| 2003 | 109 | 388 | 63 | 107 | 19 | 3 | 7 | 52 | .276 | .394 | .359 |
One thing that just leaps off the page is durability. In just the sampled years, the number of games played is a major difference. Number of hits is also a big difference. In fact, as you go down the line, the only number that seems pretty consistently the same is batting average. Before I looked up the numbers, I thought that Guillen had more home runs, but even then Mike Young’s got him beat over time.
After looking at the numbers, I do not believe that Guillen matches up with Young in all those phases. I don’t think Guillen needs to worry about Young’s contract impacting his. Guillen isn’t a $15 a year guy.
Michael Young is. Thank you Doug Melvin.
It’s 5 years, 80
It hasn’t been announced yet, but it appears that the extension for Michael Young is 5 years, 80 million. Add in the $4 million option for 2008 ($5 with incentives), and its an average of about $14 million a year.
A lot of dough yes, but it’s probably worth it for Young.
What will it take for Tex? 7 or 8 years at $20 million a year, I’d guess.
Victor Rojas is blogging
Got an email a few minutes ago from Victor Rojas. He informed me that he’s now blogging over at mlblogs again. His new one is entitled “The Spoils”, and can be reached here:
http://thespoils.mlblogs.com.
Vic’s a funny guy, so it’ll be nice to have some regular thoughts by him as the season goes along. Just don’t stop in mid stream, Vic! :)
Gary Matthews Jr and steroids?
Saw this story over at bizofbaseball today about Gary Matthews possibly being involved an an Internet sale of steroids problem.
That’s a bit of a surprise. No further commentary at this time.
6 signed
- The following players signed to a 1 year contract: OF Nelson Cruz, OF Victor Diaz, C Gerald Laird, RHP Wes Littleton, RHP Kameron Loe and RHP Brandon McCarthy. [ link ]
I haven’t laughed this hard in ages
I was googling for something the other day (can’t remember what now), and happened upon an article over at USS Mariner (probably the best Mariners fan site if you haven’t seen it) entitled, “Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever“.
It is an extremely funny “real life” check on the old 1946 cartoon “Baseball Bugs“. They break down the cartoon in such a way as to nitpick the events of it (talking about stadium capacity, realities of injuries sustained in the comic animation, etc). Oh dear, I haven’t laughed this hard in ages. It was originally published right about a year ago, and I obviously missed it. Being this funny, I would have remembered it. I haven’t laughed this hard in ages. This article is one of the best fan baseball things I’ve ever read on any site.
Here’s a couple of examples from the piece:
The Gorillas score 42 runs in this inning alone by drilling single after single right at the pitcher. By keeping the pace of the game extremely fast, they kept the pitcher in the game, presumably because he had a low pitch count and was not tired, but also there was no pitcher warmed up to relieve him, and the Gorillas scored so quickly that they drove the score up before one could even be told to begin stretching. There is an additional psychological effect to be considered, as well: faced with a team that can score 42 runs in an inning, the opposing manager must have been so stunned by the offensive onslaught that he was unable to make a move, and further that his coaches and other staff were similarly disabled.
It’s a further testament to the addled mental condition of the Teatotallers during this drubbing that they were unable to take advantage of the congested baserunning by fielding any ball and throwing it to any base, where it would have immediately forced out three runners and ended the inning.
Why such a game would be scheduled remains unclear. Efforts to find contemporary promotional material for insight into fan motivation or how the game was marketed have proved fruitless.
Seriously – if you haven’t read this piece over there, you need to go do so. The cartoon is available as part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets. This particular toon is on Volume 1 (they have four as of the writing of my piece here). Click on the dvd image to order it from Amazon.com.
UPDATE: I noticed the entire cartoon is available on Google video. You should buy the DVD set, you get so much more, and a really good quality copy, too. :)
Whither Jason Botts?
I know if you read my site, you’re also going to read all the other fan sites for the Rangers. I hold no illusions – my site is not a bastion of originality or extreme wordiness when it comes to Rangers news. I post when the moment strikes. :)
Anyway, having said that, I wanted to point out an article over at “Baseball Time in Arlington” by their new writer, Joe Matschulat. It talks about our DH situation, and a lot about Jason Botts, as well as the rest of the outfielders who are likely to spend some time in the DH slot. I got a major kick out of the first line of the article..
If only John Hart hadn’t dealt Travis Hafner.
Isn’t that the truth. :) Anyway, as I said above, if you’re reading this, I’m sure you would have seen his piece anyway, but I still wanted to draw attention to it, as it was a well written article.
UPDATE: Guess it would help if I did something useful like post the link!
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