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Vote for the 2005 Play of the Year

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All the various team sites are running their polls for the Play of the Year. The Rangers site is no different. If you head over there now you can vote on 6 plays nominated for the best Rangers play of the year. They are:

  1. Barajas’ Grand Slam – 4/20 at TB – Rod Barajas hit his first career grand slam in a 12-10 victory
  2. Teixeira’s All-Star game homer – 7/12 vs. NL – Mark Teixeira hit a home run at the All-Star Game in Detroit
  3. Blalock’s dribbler – 8/28 vs. MIN – Hank Blalock hit a walkoff dribber in the ninth inning to push Rangers to a 2-1 win
  4. Teixeira’s 100th homer – 9/6 at MIN – Teixeira hit a home run in the 10th inning, which made him just the fifth player in Major League history to hit 100 or more homers in their first three seasons.
  5. Mench’s winning RBI – 9/14 vs. BAL – Kevin Mench hit an RBI single in the 10th inning to propel the Rangers to a 7-6 victory.
  6. Young’s 200th hit – 9/15 vs. SEA – Michael Young became the 22nd player in Major League history to record three consecutive 200-hit seasons

If you haven’t done it already, head on over and vote. If nothing else, you can watch a video clip of the six plays and have a little Ranger baseball for now. ;)

Gillick named Philles GM

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In about half an hour from now, Pat Gillick will be named the new GM of the Philadelphia Phillies. I know this is a Rangers blog, but I wanted to say something about it.
I see it as a “status quo” move. I personally would have preferred Hunsinger (sp?) be the new GM, but it’s not like Gillick will be _BAD_. I just see it as a “OK, let’s set up Amaro to be GM in four years”. I don’t think you could do that if you brought in Hunsinger.
I suppose the thing we’ll see a bunch in the press covering the Gillick hiring is the Joe Carter clip that ended the 1993 World Seris. That’s the one baseball clip that drives a stake through my heart every time. Can’t watch it.
I have a friend who lives in Seattle, and I’ve asked him for some insight into Gillick, which is where he gets his “stand pat” nickname to see how true that really was. I’ll update when I hear back.

Arod & Poker

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I’m not quite sure what to make of the story that Arod frequents poker houses.
In one regard, he should be allowed to do that. I don’t know if I agree with Selig’s freaking out about it. Sending the wrong message? I think he should worry more about steroids and the fact that most kids and their families can’t afford to go to more than a game or two a season, it’s just too damned expensive.
I say let Arod play. Let’s see if he’ll be lining up with Pete Rose to sell autographs down the street from HOF induction ceremonies.

Doggie’s out, too

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That’s everyone. Richard Hidalgo filed for free agency on Tuesday.
Now all of our eligible free agents have filed.

Two more Rangers win post season awards

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Mark Teixeira & Kenny Rogers both picked up 2005 AL Gold Glove awards on Tuesday afternoon.
For Kenny Rogers, it’s his fourth. Say what you will about his camera fracas, but he could still field his position like no other player who has worn a Ranger uniform. He deserved that award.
Mark Teixeira won his first. And probably really far from his last. Again, we need to sign him long term. If we’re not willing to spend the money to lock up Teixeira, who will we be willing to spend the money on? 10 years, $125 Mil. :)
Here’s the complete list of AL Gold Glove winners.

More Rangers file for free agency

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In other Rangers news, a few more players have filed for free agency. They are:
Kenny Rogers (no surprise there)
Sandy Alomar Jr (I thought he wanted to stay in 2006)
Steve Karsay (no surprise there, either – would have been shocked if he stayed)
If I’m right, the Ranger players who can file for free agency and haven’t yet are Doug Brocail, Gregg Colbrunn, & Richard Hidalgo. I’d be STUNNED if Colbrunn & Hidalgo are back. Brocail wouldn’t surprise me, although I’d rather move in another direction there.
Edit: Later in the day Doug Brocail & Greg Colbrunn filed for free agency. That leaves Hidalgo by my research. He’ll file too.

About this site

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One of the hardest things in writing this blog is coming up with something to say about every game. There’s about 200 of them in a whole season if you count spring training. Since ths is a fan site, I do it for fun, and it’s obvious that when the team wins, or is winning in general, it makes things a lot easier to deal with. When they’re losing, or just generally stinking up the joint, it’s a pain to come up with another way to say “Well, they lost”. Regular visitors to my site over tme know that I seem to take a break of about a week once during a season.
Well, I’m apparently not the only one who feels the way they do about the grind of updating a fan site for an entire season. Check out this article over at the Wall Street Journal by a guy who does a Mets fan site. It has some really good insight into what it takes.
I bet you Jamey Newberg feels this way, too. :)

Tex & Sori win Silver Slugger Awards

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The 2005 Silver Slugger awards were announced today, and Mark Teixeira (1B) and Alfonso Soriano (2B) from the Texas Rangers won the awards in the American League. This is the second year in a row that both players have won the award, which is given to offensive “excellence” at each position on the field. Here are the final season stats for both players:
Mark Teixeira:
H: 194 2B: 41 3B: 3 HR: 43 RBI: 144 BA: .301 SLG: .575 OBP: .379 SB: 4
Alfonso Soriano:
H: 171 2B: 43 3B: 2 HR: 36 RBI: 104 BA: .268 SLG: .512 OBP: .309 SB: 30
Congratulations to both. There’s more to read about this situation over on the Rangers site here.

First Ranger files for free agency

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We have our first Ranger to file for free agency this offseason. It’s John Wasdin.
According to this link on mlb.com John Wasdin was one of 62 players to file on the first day of eligibilty, that being the day after the World Series.
And so it begins. I used to hate the offseason, but in the last 3 years or so, I’ve gotten to really enjoy all the movings around.

Bobby Jones returns as first base coach

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AAA Manager Bobby Jones has been promoted to the major league coaching staff. He will coach first base and work with the outfielders, replacing DeMarlo Hale who has gone to Boston.
Jones was our first base coach for a short while a couple of seasons ago – he was Hale’s predecessor, if I remember right.
Bobby Jones has been with the Rangers organization for a long time in various capacities, going back to the franchise’s time in DC as the Senators. He was drafted by the Senators originally in 1967, and finally broke into the big leagues with the Rangers as a September callup in 1974. He played here in 75 as well, and then went and played for the California Angels for a couple of years. He returned to the Rangers for the 1981 season, and stayed until 1986, when he finished his playing career. He’s been some sort of Rangers coach somewhere ever since.
The man is a Ranger. That’s for sure. :) Welcome back, Bobby!