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Rod Barajas

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 20, 2006 at 9:31 am

In a bit of good news for the Rangers, it appears Rod Barajas has signed a one year deal with the Phillies.
This is a good move for the Phillies, as they have some stud kid catchers, but they’re not mature enough to handle the full time job. So a one year is good for the Phillies in that regard, as Carlos Ruiz and a kid with the last name of Jaramillo are apparently the (somewhat near) future.
This is a good move for the Rangers, as it puts to rest that rumour from a few days back that the Rangers were thinking of brining him back. While I liked Rod when he was here (my fav moment was that home run to beat the Yankees at home – I was there), I felt it was time to part. Laird deserves the job, and we don’t need him back as a backup, nor do I think he’d want that.
This is a bad move for Rod Barajas, as he… well… He probably screwed himself with the deal in Toronto, that was probably a better deal in terms of years and stature, I would think. As much of a Phillies fan as I am, I would think it would have been better for Rod in Toronto. Of course, I’m just a guy at a keyboard in Garland Texas, I’m not the actual player. :)

Filed Under: Former Rangers News

Gagne

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 19, 2006 at 3:14 pm

  • P Eric Gagne signed to a 1 year contract [ Link ]

Filed Under: Transactions

Barry Zito

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 19, 2006 at 12:47 pm

Here’s some proof that the world of baseball blogging tends to fold in on itself. I was reading Athletics Nation today, and they have a piece up talking about whether they want Barry Zito to end up in the NL, or with the Rangers so they could see him all the time. They reference back Adam Morris’ article over at lonestarball from this past Sunday where he references Zito as “a younger Kenny Rogers”; the perfect pitcher for TBIA.
My personal thoughts is that the Rangers won’t get outbid on dollars per year, but it could come down to years. All things being equal, my gut says New York. I’ve seen several biographies on Zito over the years, and I always got the impression he wasn’t the kind of personality that would stand up well in New York. I don’t think it would be as disastrous as Rogers was up there, but my gut feeling is that Zito is more suited to a market that wouldn’t do news stories on every single fart he has, claiming it’s some sort of sign. Heck, I saw a TWIB story on him saying he travels on the road with a Teddy Bear. Is that the kind of guy who seems well fit to deal with a media market like New York? For the record I love teddy bears. :)
As a Rangers fan, sure I want to see him here. But I think the only way he comes here is if he gets the most $ from Hicks. Yeah, there’s those stories about him being 11-1 here in his career. If he had Arlington as his home park, I’m sure those numbers wouldn’t be as gaudy.

Filed Under: Rangers News

The site layout and IE7 – UPDATED

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 18, 2006 at 9:20 am

I just noticed the other day that the site layout here looks kind of odd if you’re using Internet Explorer 7. If you use IE6 or Firefox (like you should), then you don’t see the problem, but IE7 has issues with the css work that comprises this site’s layout. I took the css work from a contest the software’s manufacturer had for people to design free layouts. I’ve already contacted the person who made the css about this issue, and she’s agreed to look into it and let me know.
So in the meantime, if you’re using IE7, and the site looks like this, please be aware it should be looking like this, and it’s being looked into. Sorry about that.
UPDATED: This appears to be fixed. I got a css change from the original design author this morning, and all appears to be well again. If you view the site via IE7, can you please confirm? It works for my IE7, but I wanted to make sure some other people are seeing the same thing. Thanks a ton to Carrie for sending the fix; much appreciated.

Filed Under: From Joe's Mind

My thoughts on recent happenings

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 13, 2006 at 3:52 pm

Well, there’s been a lot of movement lately, so I figured I’d catch up with some the various events, and throw in my two cents on what’s happened. Some of this I’ve touched on before, so I might be repeating myself on a few points.
1) We have a new manager: Now this one I know I’ve talked about before, but the more I think about Ron Washington, the more I think that we’ve made the right move. He’s got that infectious feel about him. Not the kind of ultra serious feel you got with Buck Showalter. My guess is he gets a huge ovation when his name is announced on April 6th.
2) Buck Showalter & the Indians: Buck Showalter was hired by the Cleveland Indians as one of those “special advisers”. The non title job. I don’t doubt he’ll help Cleveland, but I’ve always wondered exactly what guys like this really do. Does anyone think John Hart is active with the Rangers? I mean we’re still paying him for one of those undefined jobs.
3) Barry Zito seems like a real possibility: As I’m sure a lot of Ranger fans have said, when Zito came out and said that he’d consider coming to Texas they (as I) viewed it as what’s happened before. “Use Texas”. That wasn’t helped by the fact that Zito’s agent is Scott Boras. So it’s with some rolling of the eyes I’m sure that most of us thought “Yeah, yeah, Zito REALLY wants to come HERE.” Well, Zito is still out there, and while a bunch of names have been assocated with Zito, the two strongest appear to be the Mets & the Rangers. I’m still surprirsed we haven’t heard much from the Yankees on Zito, but if they’re not interested, that can only help us. Now that it appears that Matsusaka is going to sign with the Red Sox, Boras will probably get some movement on Zito. It would be nice to bring him here – he’s 11-1 I believe in our park, and while I think his overall ERA would take a hit here, he can pitch. If he does sign here (or even moreso if he does not), except to hear the $50,000 story about his original drafting by the Rangers again a few times. :)
4) Padilla resigns for 3 years: One of the things that the Rangers have always lacked is solid starting pitching. We have Kevin Millwood for another several years, and the resigning of Padilla is a good solid signing. Given the insanity that some of the contracts have been like this off season, Padilla’s 3/33.7 seems rather frugal (snicker). Provided he doesn’t relax too much under the wieght of guaranteed money, he’ll probably do fine. As a Phillies fan, it’s kind of amusing to me that we have so much of our future based on 2/5 of the former Phillies rotation that didn’t get it done there. :)
5) Rangers sign Marlon Byrd: The Rangers have signed former Phillies centerfield phenom Marlon Byrd (link). I recall hearing a lot about him when he first came up, and there was a lot of positive on Byrd. He actually reminds me a bit of Ruben Mateo. When he first showed up, he was going to be the next uber stud outfielder, and didn’t deliver, and started bouncing around. Byrd went to Wasington, and now to Texas. We’ll see how much he’s able to contribute, as I don’t believe he’ll be our #1 choice out there in the outfield. If he is, something bad has likely happened.
6) Mark Mulder visits Rangers: There’s also this possibility that two thirds of the A’s 90’s trio of pitchers could also be a Ranger. Mark Mulder has been in talks to sign with the Rangers. Everyone says that if he does sign, he wouldn’t be one of those guys who would be able to contribute until around the All Star break or something along those lines. It feels like the same thing we went through with Adam Eaton, only this time we woudln’t have to trade anyone away to get Mulder. I’m sure it would be a good thing to sign him. The key would be for how long. I’m not sure I’d like a 1 year deal there, in case he does come through, and then have him walk after 07.
7) Rangers sign Kenny Lofton: In a move that I don’t think surprised anyone, we signed Kenny Lofton to a one year deal. After the Angels severely overpayed for Gary Matthews Jr, we needed someone to play CF, as we don’t have any top line player ready to go in CF. Oh sure, we have kids as options, but my gut feeling is that we needed some sort of vet out there. I think everyone is expecting the Rangers to make a run at Torii Hunter or Vernon Wells for 2008, so we needed someone to play CF for a year. There were talks about trading for Aaron Rowand from the Phillies, but Kenny Lofton was brought in. He’s probably the oldest available option, but he still has some wheels on him. He’s probably not the strongest throw, or the fastest guy, but he’s been around for awhile, so he’ll be a good solid player. Given the remarks made about the other guys in 08, I think everyone’s looking forward to Kenny Lofton for a year. Kenny will most likely be our leadoff hitter, as he’s got a good OBP, something you need in the #1 slot (at least the Sabrematic people think so ).
8) Rangers sign Eric Gagne: This one was a bit of a surprise for me. Ignoring his recent injury situation, we don’t appear to have a “need” for him. We have a decent pen, and we already have our established closer. I was’t expecting us to sign an extablished closer. That is unless they plan on moving Aki back to the 8th inning setup guy he was when we first brought him here. Or we flip Aki to another team for a more established starter, which could be a backup plan if we don’t land Zito. There’s the issue of his health – he’s thrown something like 25 innings total over the last two years. If he’s healthy, I have zero doubt he can help us, but signing a guy who that low of an IP stat, and that much cash – there’s talk it’s $6 million, which is a lot for a non closer. There’s also talk there’s an additional $5 million in incentives. If he reaches all of that, it means he’s the closer, and yikes – $11 million for a closer. That’s a lot of dough for a gamble on a reliever. Again, if healthy, I’m sure he can help us, but wow is it a gamble.
9) Non Tendered contacts: Of all of our eligible guys, we only non tenedered one guy a contract, that was righthander Mike Wood. I didn’t even know he was up for that, so that’s not one I’ll probably miss much. The other guys were all tendered, so we’ll be retaining them (or at least their rights as a tradeable commodity for the 2007 season). They are: Brad Wilkerson, Akinori Otsuka, Rick Bauer, & Jack Benoit. Benoit is an interesting case actually. There’s been several springs where we’ve been so frustrated, we’ve wanted to get rid of him, but he’s still here. He’s developed into a good reliever, I think it’s when we try to think of him as a starter, the troubles arise. If Jack remains a reliever, I think he can stick for awhile longer.

Filed Under: Rangers News

Lofton signed

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 12, 2006 at 4:34 pm

  • OF Kenny Lofton signed to a 1 year contract [ Link ]

Filed Under: Transactions

This and that

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 12, 2006 at 4:01 pm

Here’s the two second version. I swear I’ll write more at length shortly. :)
We signed Marlon Byrd to a contract, probably will be a backup outfielder. We signed Kenny Lofton to play CF for 2007, and we signed (apparently) Eric Gagne today for the pen.
Finally, some movement on the transactions chart.
I also saw today that our old friend Gabe Kapler has retired. He had that horrific injury a year ago or so, and I thought he was done, but he came back in 06 with the Red Sox. He’s apparently going to stay in the Sox organization in an undetermined capacity. Liked him when he was here, shame he never rose to his potential. The Sox have given him a job as the manager of one of their A level teams (link).

Filed Under: Rangers News

Ouch

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 12, 2006 at 11:21 am

I know a lot of small fiddly stuff has happened in the last few days. I’ve meant to write about it, but my mind has been elsewhere. Had a root canal surgery this morning, so my mind is not completely with it due to the happy pills they gave me. :)
When my head clears, and my teeth aren’t aching, I’ll play catch up – I do have a lot of thoughts on what’s going on, buit haven’t found the time to get them out of my head and into the keyboard.

Filed Under: From Joe's Mind

Padilla resigned

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 9, 2006 at 4:31 pm

  • P Vicente Padilla signed to a 3 year contract with a 1 year team option [ Link ]

Filed Under: Transactions

Vicente Padilla signing made official

Posted by Joe Siegler on December 9, 2006 at 1:26 pm

The Vicente Padilla signing was made official today.
I know I’m behind the times with the latest developments, had a lot going on the last few days. Will catch up with my thoughts shortly.

Filed Under: Rangers News

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About Site

This is a Texas Rangers fan site run by Joe Siegler. From 1999 through 2013 I used to do daily game updates, but got burnt out on that and stopped.

The site lives on as my favorite section to update I’m still very interested in. That is the Uniform Number history pages, which I’m quite proud of. Plus Ill write the odd article here and there.

I mostly spend my time in this Facebook group talking about the Rangers these days.

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