Rangerfans.com

Getting ready for the season

Posted by on at

As pitchers and catchers report on Saturday (which is about 25 minutes from when I’m writing this), I figure I better get my duff in gear and get various sections of the website ready for the upcoming season. The Rangers Official site posted a few pieces of information that I was waiting for them to post. The information they’ve posted tonight is:

  • The uniform numbers of everyone who is coming to camp
  • The TV schedule for 2007

Regarding the first one, I’ve gone and updated the uniform number history of my website with all the numbers they posted. Now the uniform numbers change daily once games get started. Or at least they did under camp Showalter. They would call 3-6 guys over from minor league camp daily, and give ’em really bizarre numbers in the 90’s usually. Those you can’t adjust until they happen, but the roster as it exists going into camp is now reflected in the uniform number history section of my site. Only minor blip to that is that they did not post the coach numbers. A few are holdovers from last year, but there’s several new guys I don’t know the numbers for – if you do, please let me know. These coaches are: Art Howe, Jose Vazquez, & Gary Pettis.
As for the TV schedule, I still need to get my 2007 schedule online and completed anyway, so I should have that finished shortly. The Rangers site has a story up about that. I’ll have more to say about the schedule once I get mine posted.

Camp starts tomorrow

Posted by on at

2007camp.jpg

Saw this picture online today. w00t! First picture from Rangers camp 2007. No clue who is in the picture, but who cares? Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow (officially)!

Colby Lewis

Posted by on at

Most Rangers fans remember Colby Lewis, the hard throwing pitcher the Rangers had for awhile in the majors from 2002-2004. We lost him on a waiver claim to Detroit, and I recall there being a lot of fans up in arms about that at the time. He’s not done much since then, in fact, he spent all of 2005 injured with the Tigers, and in 2006, he appeared in three games with the Tigers before being DFA’ed in mid September 2006. I wonder if he got a share of the World Series money with the Tigers. Anyway, I digress.

The Washington Nationals fan site Capitol Punishment just published an article on Colby. Colby was picked up by the Nats this past November 6th on a minor league deal. The CP article on Colby had this to say:

It’s hard to say what the Nats should expect from Lewis. He’s clearly got a solid track record in the minors, and he showed an ability to adapt post-surgery, but we’re left with an ungodly track record of performance in the majors.

Kind of sounds like the same feelings a lot of Ranger fans had when he was here. Great potential, couldn’t seem to put it together in the bigs. Check out the article. Also, I have several other teams’ fan blogs listed below. Check out the menu on the right side of the page, and scroll downwards. I have some links in there you might want to check out.

Desi Relaford

Posted by on at

  • IF Desi Relaford signed to a minor league contract [ link ]

2007 Spring Training Radio & TV Dates

Posted by on at

I haven’t seen this published in any of the newspapers or on the Rangers site, so I emailed Victor Rojas and asked if the 2007 Spring Training radio dates had been decided upon. He wrote me back with a schedule for spring that included this info. Here are the dates that are being broadcast on radio, along with two listed TV dates.
Fri Mar 02 – Royals
Sat Mar 03 – Royals
Sun Mar 04 – Royals
Sat Mar 10 – Giants (Scottsdale)
Sun Mar 11 – Dodgers
Sat Mar 17 – Mariners (Peoria)
Sun Mar 18 – Rockies
Fri Mar 23 – Brewers
Sat Mar 24 – A’s – Also on FSN
Mon Mar 26 – Mariners – Also on FSN
Fri Mar 30 – Brewers (Frisco)
Sat Mar 31 – Brewers (Arlington)
Almost all of these are in Surprise. Only a couple are not, and those cities are noted above. Thanks to Vic for the info.

Second, third, and home plate

Posted by on at

Anyone catch the new ad campaign by the Rangers? Just read about it on their site today. Here’s an image with one of the slogans…

“First base has nothing to do with kissing”. I find it fairly funny personally. I just look at that and wonder how many parents are going to be irritated that they will now have to answer questions like “What’s that mean, Mommy?”, or “If First base is about kissing, what are second, third, and home plate for Daddy?”. As a parent of a 22 month old, these things cross my mind a lot. :)
A far cry from the ad campaign of a few years back with the slogan “Your friendly neighborhood baseball team”. :)

And so it begins

Posted by on at

The equipment truck leaves Arlington this morning to head to Surprise, Arizona! :)
Also, Yahoo Fantasy Baseball opens up again on February 15th, so I’ll be setting up leagues then.
UPDATE: There’s a story up on the official Rangers site with the annual picture of the truck sitting at the loading dock at The Ballpark in Arlington before it heads out to Arizona. Check it out if you’d like to read something else other than Anna Nicole Smith stories this morning.

10 signed

Posted by on at

  • The following players all signed to a 1 year contract: INF Joaquin Arias, RHP Omar Beltre, RHP Scott Feldman, OF Freddy Guzman, LHP A.J. Murray, RHP Alexi Ogando, RHP Josh Rupe, C Chris Stewart, RHP Robinson Tejeda and RHP Edinson Volquez. [ link ]

New Managers

Posted by on at

There’s an article up on mlb.com which talks about the new managers this year. Specifically it gets into who the author thinks will have the most impact on their new clubs. Obviously, there’s a section on Ron Washington. Here’s all the managers discussed:
Lou Piniella (Cubs)
Bruce Bochy (Giants)
Manny Acta (Nationals)
Bob Geren (A’s)
Fredi Gonzalez (Marlins)
Bud Black (San Diego)
Ron Washington (Rangers)
That’s 7 of the 30 managers being new, and of those seven, five of them are first timers to boot. Check out the article, some nice reading.

Bruce Chen

Posted by on at

  • P Bruce Chen signed to a minor league contract with a spring training invite. [ Link ]