Apparently Phil Nevin has been traded to the Cubs. No further details available. What little is known at the time I type this is available here on the Dallas Morning News site.
UPDATE: Phil has been traded to the Cubs with $ for Jerry Hairston Jr. There’s a brief story about it on the Rangers site here. There’s also a wire story about it here.
UPDATE #2: Here’s a Cubs fan take on the trade.
G52: Rangers survive 4 errors, win 6-4 on Tuesday
I didn’t see much of this game, as I had some household responsibilities tonight. I did see some of it, and from the Rangers point of view, I saw the most important inning, the third. I wasn’t happy at the top of the third when we were down 3-0, as Millwood seems to continue his streak of not pitching well in Arlington.
But then the bottom of the third Mike Young jacked a ball into the bullpen which put us within a run, we were down 3-2 at the time. Then Mark Teixeira singled. Hank Blalock followed up with another single, and then Mark DeRosa walked, loading the bases for Brad Wilkerson. Wilkerson hit what he says he thought was a sac fly to right, but it kept carrying and carrying and it cleared the wall for a grand slam. That put us up 6-2, and it felt good.
But then we tried to give it away from that point on. We had a total of four errors tonight. We hung on, and for the second night in a row, Carl Everett ended the game. Last night it was a fly to right, tonight it was a called strikeout that brought out just a tad of the Boston era Carl Everett. Course Raul Ibanez did his best Boston Everett impression in the first after being called out on a strike.
The Mariners seem again to be a “not much going on” team. They just look lethargic. If you want to see what Mariner fans are thinking, check out the USS Mariner site. They’re practically in complete revolt over there.
I don’t have much else to add to this, not having seen most of the game, but a win is a win. We’ve now won three in a row, and have a 28-24 record, and were technically 4.5 games up in the West at the end of the game. However, before we get all excited about that, it’s the worst record of a division leaader of the six divisions. A division lead is always a good thing, but when you’re the lowest seed in that department it doesn’t fare well for the playoffs, IMO. If you take the Rangers record and plop it into the other divisions, this is where they’d stand.
AL East:
Fourth place, behind Boston, New York, & Toronto, 2.5 games back
AL Central:
Third, behind the Tigers & White Sox, 6 games back
NL East:
Second, behind the Mets, 2.5 games back
NL Central:
Tied second with Reds, behind Cardinals, 5 games back
NL West:
Third, behind Diamondbacks & Dodgers, 2.5 games back
While it’s fun to say we’re in first place, it’s not the greatest first place. If we were 10 games over 500 or something I might be more excited about it. It’s a cautious excitement for now.
Also, congrats to Chris Young, who came close to a no hitter, taking it into 8 tonight against the Rockies.
Eric Nadel a Ranger For Life
Tuesday’s DMN is running an article saying that there will be contact extensions given to the broadcast team (although they don’t mention the Spanish radio guys in this).
According to the article, Victor Rojas, Tom Grieve, & Josh Lewin will receive either three or four year extensions, depending on who it is. Eric Nadel will also get a deal that will make him a “Ranger for Life”. What that technically means, I guess we’ll find out later today. But it’s nice to see this. These are all “extensions”, so I’m not sure exactly when all their contracts run out. Kind of amsuing this popped up, as I was wondering what the contact status of these guys was anyway earlier on Monday. Also in the article is the note that Josh Lewin will increase his workload from 130 to 155 games a year. Quite frankly, I think it should be 162, I never liked the sub. Again, I have nothing against Bill Land, but Land broadcasts don’t have the same pulse as a Lewin broadcast. TOm Grieve seems to be a mirror of who is with him. When Bill Jones was the other seat, the broadcasts weren’t as lively, either. Josh Lewin really brings out “TAG”. And that’s a good thing.
The article also mentions that Eric Nadel will now be doing games for over 30 years. It’s nice to have that kind of continuity in a broadcaster. I grew up in Philly, and Philly baseball means Harry Kalas. It also means Richie Ashburn, but he’s been gone awhile now. Actually, Richie Ashburn equates to Tom Grieve pretty well. The only difference between Ashburn and Grieve is that Ashburn was never the GM of the club. They both played and both broadcasted for quite awhile after playing. Ashburn & Kalas mean a lot to this kid growing up in Philly. It’s nice to have Eric Nadel around – I get the same feeling from him. Whenever you hear Eric Nadel talk about broadcasters (and in particular Mark Holtz), he always downplays himself. Sorry Eric – you don’t have 28 years with a team and not be good. If you were as bad as you seem to make yourself out to be in speeches, you wouldn’t have been here this long. Eric is the same treasure to my baseball ears that Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn were.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out one of the lesser known pages on my site. It’s the broadcaster history page, which shows all the TV and radio broadcasters going back to 1972. There’s some big names in there which some people might not be aware broadcasted Rangers games. I speak of Don Drysdale, Tom Vandergriff, & Jon Miller.
UPDATE @ 2PM: The Rangers site has the official announcement about these extensions up now. You can read it here.
This morning I emailed Victor Rojas to congratulate him on the extension, and he told me his contract now runs through the year 2010. That’s a piece of info I did not see in either story (he said it wasn’t a secret, so that’s why I said it here).
Jason Botts for Kerry Wood
Quite a bizarre trade scenario. Would you do it? Yeah, I probably would. Especially if the Cubs picked up some of his salary. Check this out.
MLB.tv
Have any of you ever tried MLB.tv? I did for a month a year ago or so, but found it to be slow and the selection of games has the same limting feeling that the MLB Extra Innings Package does. These things might be more interesting if they allowed you to watch ANY game by ANY team with ANY feed you wanted.
There’s a great article about MLB.TV online today here; you should go check it out.
I’ve been a subscriber to Gameday Audio for as long as they’ve had it on MLB.Com now (about 5, maybe 6 years I think?) Anyway, it’s a great value – $15 for the whole season, all games, all feeds, plus archives. Yes, it’s audio only, but I have to recommend it over the TV option.
UPDATE Monday evening: Since I posted that article, this really cool article turned up on Baseball Prospectus, it’s about the future of MLB.TV. If they could solve the streaming problem, this could be really cool. It’d be perfect if there were no restrictions on what games I could watch. I understand local blackouts, but non local games? I should be able to see whatever I want – and I’m talking to you Peter Angelos and Comcast. Shame on you.
G51: It’s all about the Rhine
Eight & 1/3 innings pitched
Four hits allowed
Zero runs allowed
One walk allowed
One extremely huge standing ovations
First major league win
Twenty Seventh Birthday
I don’t know how my meager words could do justice to what John Rhinecker did on the mound Monday night. What a birthday present from him, and the shaving cream pie he got in the face from Kevin Mench in the post game show was a great moment. All I hope is that this performance doesn’t get him sent back to AAA. I think he should definitely be allowed at least one more start. I mean.. Wow.
Jarrod Washburn had a great game himself, going 7 innings, giving up just six hits and two earned runs. The runs were on his only real mistake, a home run by Mark Teixeira in the sixth inning, which barely cleared the left field scoreboard wall. But it was enough.
Freddie Bynum is hitting .222 with 2 HR & 6 RBI and 3 SB. Juan Dominguez is 4-5 with a 6.22 ERA in 10 games over 46.1 IP. I think all Ranger fans should send a thank you card to Billy Beane out in Oakland for this one. Does anyone miss Juan Dominguez at the moment? When does John Koronka pitch again?
Oh, and Jamey, I’m not forgetting the PTBNL. I want to steal someone else. We have two steals in this three team trade, let’s go for the trifecta. Let’s get greedy. ;)
Oh yeah, we won 2-0. :)
Littleton, Rhinecker
- P Wes Littleton optioned to AAA
- P John Rheinecker recalled from AAA
G50: Rangers beat A’s Sunday night, 4-3
Well, I was tired yesterday from doing a bunch of yardwork in the morning, so by the time the game rolled around I was pretty tired. I fell asleep duing the game, and missed most of it – I woke up, and saw the score, so most of what happened I didn’t see.
I did however, get to see Jason Botts’ first career home run – a no doubter into the upper home run porch. I also saw Botts’ double. In all, Jason had two hits. Ian Kinsler, the other rookie playing this game also had two hits, going 2 for 4 with an RBI (a broken bat check swing at a ball about to hit his head). In fact, the entire rest of the team only had two more hits (Barajas/Blalock). We managed only 6 hits total, but made ’em count. We were outhit, yet won the game.
Both starters gave up all the runs (Padilla, 3, Saarloos – 4) Otsuka got his 8th save for the Rangers. Cordero did pitch before him, but was quite wild, giving up two hits and a walk, although not allowing anyone to score.
It was a nice game as everyone else in the division lost, so we’re now three games out in first over the A’s, and give over both the Mariners (whom we play tonight) and the Angels.
Juan Gonzalez
Not the minor league player we traded for recently, the one whose pants were too big at the HOF game some years ago. The one with four ex wives by the time he was 30. Yeah, that one.
Anyway, it looks like he’s trying to hook on with the Atlantic League Indepedant team, the New York Ducks. This after he backed out of a deal with the Red Sox earlier this season (as well as the A’s & Rockies, from what I read). Anyway, here’s a story on it.
Isn’t this the same team that John Rocker was with a couple of years ago? I really thought Juan had given it up – what’s his plan here – to prove he can still play? Good luck running to first on your one at bat. ;)
Seriously, though – it’d be nice for him to pick up the pace there, but I can’t see it happening – my gut feeling says he’s done for good.
G49: Rangers lose to Planet Zito, 6-3
Usually, when the Rangers are going up against Barry Zito, it means a loss. This game is no different. We lost to Barry Zito. Except for a short moment of wildness in the bottom of the sixth, he was pretty untouchable. If you take out the events of the bottom of the sixth, Zito’s line would be: 7.1IP, 3H, 0ER, 2BB, 7K. A pretty impressive line. Howerver, in the bottom of the sixth, Zito hit Teixeira, walked Blalock, and then gave up a three run home run to Phil Nevin. Other than that, Zito didn’t allow much at all. His actual line was 7.1IP, 4H, 3ER, 3BB, 7K. It felt way more impressive than his real line indicates. Zito was also helped out by some sparkling defense by Eric Chavez, who made some really REALLY impressive plays at third, and probably helped out Zito’s line.
Kameron Loe on the other hand was not impressive. He didn’t stink up the joint, but he left a lot of pitches up, and gave up way too many hits. Loe went just 5.2IP, but gave up eleven hits in all, walking 2, striking out two. He also gave up 6 runs, although 2 were unearned. That was generous I thought, because the play in question didn’t really look like a Blalock error, I thought it was a double, and it initially was ruled that, but was changed inbetween innings to an error, giving Loe just 4ER instead of 6. I’m sure Jay Payton didn’t appreciate that.
Our bullpen was quite good, going a total of 3.1 innings of shutoutball. Four relievers (Wilson, Feldman, Mahay, Bauer) combined for just one hit (Bauer in the 9th) with 2K and 2BB.
However, due to the generally bad Oakland bullpen, Ken Macha left Zito out there as long as he could. Zito, who finally ran out of gas in the 8th after going 7.1 innings with 126 pitches gave way to Houston Street, who tonight acted like the closer, and only gave up a total of one hit in his 1.2 inning save.
The way Loe was pitching, it felt like it could have been a whole lot worse. I credit Zito for this game’s outcome moreso than anything else that happened.
I wonder what that guy in the first row of Section 323 with the giant Rangers flag, and snakes all over the place thought of this? I sat behind him for a bit at last night’s game, and assumed he was the Kam’s Snake Pit guy, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Assuming that was him, I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled with the way Loe pitched tonight.
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