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Soriano to the Cubs?

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Adam Morris over at lonestarball.com has an article up where he talks about a trade between the Rockies & the Nationals.
He theorizes that the Cubs were one of the people after Preston Wilson, and with Wilson off the market, they might be interested in trading for Soriano.
I wonder what we’d get from the Cubs for Soriano. Any thoughts?

G83: Rangers lose to Sox again, 7-4

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I’m writing this on Friday, as I’m trying to wrap up a bunch of things at work for the weekend, so I don’t have much recollection of this game. I didn’t think Chan Ho Park pitched all that bad, though.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Mark Teixeira is in the Home Run Derby

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Tex was selected to be in the 2005 All-Star Home Run Derby as the United States representative. They’re changing the format a little this year. Still has 8 players, but they’re from a different country.
Tex is the US rep. Apparently it was initially offered to Derrek Lee of the Cubs, who is having a spectacular season, but he bowed out as he just got hurt yesterday, so it falls to Tex, who appears to be really relishing the chance, according to this article over on the DMN site.
Pudge is in the Derby as well – hopefully Pudge will do better than the one HR he got the last time he did this back in Atlanta. I’m sure Pudge will be the favored guy, as the All Star game is in Detroit. Would be nice to see Pudge take it for the “local boy” factor of it.
The guys that I know of are Andruw Jones (ATL), Bobby Abreu (PHI), Mark Teixeira (TEX), Jason Pay (PIT), Ivan Rodriguez (DET), David Ortiz (BOS), Carlos Lee (MIL). That’s 7. Not sure who the other guy is at the moment – if you know, please add a comment. Thanks.

Kenny Rogers apologizes

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Well, Kenny finally talked. He apologized for his tirade against various cameras and media members. According to this article on the Texas Rangers site (which includes a link to an audio clip of what he said), he still hasn’t made up his mind about the All-Star Game.
Personally I think he should sit out. Yes, the rules state that he’s allowed to go pending an appeal hearing, but it’s kind of tacky. You know if he’s there, he’ll get it from the media during press day. They’ll be talking about it on TV when he’s there. While I don’t condone what he did, I’d rather folks stop talking about it. The story needs to go away, and his being at the All Star game will likely bring up a fresh round of all this.
Saying he “failed miserably” is a bit of an understatement, especially since violence was involved. I still think the ban should be more than 20 games because he’s a pitcher. Would he have been suspended just 4 games if he was a position player? No – pitchers should be suspended an equal number of games, I think it should be about appearances. However, if anything, the number will go down after the appeal – it always does.
Let’s see if this apology has any impact on his current perception in the media.

G82: Rangers get slammed out, 7-4 on Tuesday

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Well, I only superficially was paying attention to this game, as I needed to do a few things related to baby care. When I came back to peek at the score, and saw it was 7-0 starting the fourth, I turned it off. I find as my attention is demanded elsewhere more often I have less patience to watch games that we get bombed early in.
We did come back to make it at least respectable, 7-4. but it felt like it was 70-4. Always is with Wakefield. You either blow him out with 8 runs in the first 1.2 IP, or he does what he did, make you look stupid.
We looked stupid last night.
One thing I did like, even if it was at the Rangers’ expense was Manny Ramirez’ grand slam. That gives him 20 for his career, and he’ll break the all time Grand Slam record held by Lou Gehrig (needs 4 to do that). I’ve always liked Manny. Don’t have a concrete reason. Manny’s also the only player who I have a foul ball from. About 6 years ago, when Manny was with Cleveland, he hit a foul off the hand of Aaron Sele, and I got it. My one foul ball in about 33 years of going to baseball games. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Jim Reeves’ Column

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I was reading Jim Reeves column in the Ft Worth Star Telegram today, and I felt like I wanted to say something about it. The article is about the Ryan Drese fiasco. The gist of the article is that Drese is making Ranger management look like morons for letting him go. Which I pretty much agree with. However, that’s not why I’m singling out this article. I loved this quote..

Drese is rapidly becoming general manager John Hart’s worst nightmare, somewhere between Randy Galloway and Kenny Rogers.

I actually laughed out loud at the Galloway & Rogers comparison. I’ve always believed that management will always withhold pieces of information. That’s their perogative. You can’t always tip your hand to the other teams, so I’m willing to accept that there’s pieces of info that aren’t meant for us. I’m good with all that. A lot of fans and press will say “They’re lying through their teeth about everything”. I can’t agree with that – a lot of it will fall under what I just said, withholding the real truth – we get a cliche instead. I’m still OK with that.
But the Ryan Drese thing – there HAS to be something more than their stated reason of “just performance”. Especially when you read that Connor & Hershisher wanted to keep him. As they’re the two pitching coaches, I would have to defer to their judgement.
This is the first time I’ve ever really questioned my own backing of Ranger management. Not a blind backing, but one that is willing to overlook a lot under the guise of “we don’t really know all the details, so I’m not going to automatically villify them” like a lot of folks do.
Anyway, thanks Jim – I enjoyed the laugh above. :)

G81: Rangers get a great walk-off win against the BoSox, 6-5 on July 4th

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I was at this game Monday night. I almost didn’t go, because I had a nice day with my wife and daughter. But I went, and I was glad I did, saw a great game, and a great win. I got to the park, and ended up having a nice chat with a fellow who doesn’t normally sit where my seat is about scoring the games. I was scoring on my PDA, and he on paper, so we had a nice chat about all that.
This game got off to a good start. We scored three runs in the bottom of the first and went up quickly. To beat Boston, I figured that was necessary. What was bothering me was the fact we left 7 men on base in the first few innings. Twice had the bases loaded and didn’t get anything – both times the final out was made by Hank Blalock, too. That wasn’t good. Something else that wasn’t good was the fact that Ricardo Rodriguez walked three batters in the third inning on the way to letting the Sox back in the game by giving up two runs. Even with that, I felt pretty good about the game. They tied it in the 6th on a double by Trot Nixon, and I still felt good. Felt like we had another crooked score inning on the way. However, that feeling went out the window when Manny Ramirez jacked an absolute titanic home run in the 8th inning to give the Sox a two run lead. At the park they said the home run went four hundred and fourty some odd feet, but it lookd a LOT more than that. The record in our park is 491, which was straight to the top of Green’s Hill by Paul Sorrento. This one wasn’t at the top, was about 2/3 of the way up and off to the right a bit by my eye. Given the wall is 400, and the top is 491, I would think 2/3 up would be more than 450 at least, plus it was angled a bit to the right, which would add a few more feet. 440 something isn’t enough, IMO.
Anyway you measure it, it’s a pretty deflating home run. We picked up one of the two on a two run double by Rod Barajas in the bottom of the 8th, but we were still losing, and I wasn’t feeling good about coming back, even given Keith Foulke’s recent struggles. But the rest is history, led by a Mike Young triple. A walk, hit batseman later set up the table for Kevin Mench to win it for the Rangers.
The Angels lost too, so we picked up a game in that regard. Go Twins! :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Rangers take 2 out of 3 in Seattle

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I had a nice weekend with my wife and kid, and decided I’m not going to do updates for the Mariners series. Was nice to take two out of three up there. A few notes from the series:
1) Not surprised to see Kenny Rogers booed when he took the field. I wonder what kind of reception he’ll get in Arlington his next start?
2) I was pretty surprised to see the Mariners DFA Bret Boone. I’ve never been a big fan of his, mostly because of his “bat flip” stuff – but he still struck me as a good player. I don’t want him here (not that there’s any room anyway), but I have to imagine someone will pick him up pretty quickly.
3) It’s a good thing the Rangers don’t have Safeco field as their home park – there were SEVERAL balls hit that were outs, which would have been home runs in our park. Hank Blalock got screwed out of two home runs in the same game that way.
4) Shame Kenny didn’t get a win on Sunday – he pitched pretty damn well, and deserved a win.