Rangerfans.com

G1: Rangers take the first one, 3-2

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_06_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap#gid=2012_04_06_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Here’s the official short recap of the game.

Ian Kinsler homered, Michael Young drove in the go-ahead run and Colby Lewis struck out nine over six innings to lift the Rangers to an Opening Day win. Chicago’s Adam Dunn tied a Major League record with his eighth home run in a season opener.

That sentence doesn’t do justice to it.  A little short story before I get to game stuff.  As I’ve mentioned the last few days, I was somewhat annoyed that the opening day was on Fox Sports only, and not on free TV like it has been for bloody ages.  Found out earlier this week that Ch 21 was going to replay the game at 7PM, so the challenge becomes avoiding the score until then – which isn’t easy in this totally connected world.  I did manage to do that, and around 5:40PM I noticed that mlb.tv had a replay of the game, so I started watching then.   Wish I didn’t have to do that, but I don’t really want to pay for cable TV anymore either – I’ve gotten quite used to regular broadcast TV, with a few expections (FSSW & Rangers plus MLBN).  Anyway, on to the game… [Read more…]

My thoughts on Game1 2012 25 Man Roster

Posted by on at

Wanted to say a little about the opening day 25 man roster this opening day.  This the fourth opening day of the season.   I’m reminded of the day when it was just the Reds who played early.  Now the first game of the year isn’t even played in this country!  That issue aside…

I don’t think anyone was surprised by the moves that were made earlier today to bring the 25 man roster into focus.   I’m going to include some 2011 stats, and their salary for 2012.  First off, the ones that don’t open on the 25 man.

  • Yoshi Tateyama – He starts the season on the DL.  We hadn’t heard much about him being hurt until the last few days, when it was realized we needed a roster space.  I’m not saying his DL stint is a lie, but it did come up out of nowhere fast.   He hasn’t pitched awfully, but I wonder about his long term future – he doesn’t instill much confidence to this fan.
  • Julio Borbon – He starts the season in AAA, and will share time with Leonys Martin in CF.   I think everyone was HOPING that Borbon would finally figure it out this spring.  I said early on that if he doesn’t start the year with the team, he’s probably gone some time this season.  Maybe not right away, but I would expect him to be packaged in a deal with someone else at this point.   An injury can change that, but I think he’s passed the time to earn it on his own, unfortunately.
  • Cody Eppley – He’s been up here and there before, so he’s not a stranger to Arlington.  But was a name you didn’t hear much of in discussions this spring.  He was DFA’ed in the roster dance today.  Given all the traffic in releases and cuts this time of year, I bet you we get him through waivers, and outright him to AAA.  I was wrong.  I wrote that text on Wed the 4th, and then he was claimed by the Yankees before I posted this on the 6th.  :)

Those are the ones I felt like saying something about that didn’t make the roster.  Here’s some remarks about the 25 guys who DID make the roster…

These are in no order on my end, I just cheated and used the list the players were listed in the Rangers 25 man press release.  Needed SOME order, I went with that.  :) [Read more…]

ST33: Rangers beat Frisco 6-1 in spring finale

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2012_04_04_texmlb_friaax_1>MLB.com Recap

The Rangers beat the Frisco Roughriders 6-1 in the final game of spring training.

Who cares about the details?  Bring on the regular season!

Umpires

Posted by on at

And here we go. Today is opening day, or at least a real opening day of sorts – not the fake ones we’ve had so far.

I get in the car and turn on turn on XM radio and listen to the baseball talk channel, and the first thing you’re talking about is blown calls in the Miami game last night.

The hosts were ragging on Angel Hernandez and an obviously blown call with Bud Selig sitting there. I’m thinking to myself it’s day one, we haven’t played the bulk of the games yet for “game one” and they’re already ragging on the umpires.

This will be an interesting season – it just feels like an home. :-)

25 Man Roster Set

Posted by on at

  • OF Julio Borbon optioned to AAA
  • P Yoshinori Tateyama placed on 15 day DL (retro to Mar 30)
  • IF Luis Hernandez assigned to AAA
  • P Robbie Ross purchased from AAA
  • IF Alberto Gonzalez purchased from AAA
  • P Cody Eppley designated for assignment
  • P Neil Cotts assigned to AAA
  • P Aaron Heilman signed to a 1 year minor league contract [ Link ]

Some remarks: None of these were a huge surprise, really.  We knew about pretty much all of these moves before the season started.  Given this is the 25 man roster, I’ll make a larger separate post about this separately.

ST32: Rangers wallop Mexico team 13-4 after day of tornadoes

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120403&content_id=27892696&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

I was originally planning on going to this game.  I was going to go early, and retake the photos for my seat selector feature here on this site.  The pictures are due to be retaken, especially due to all the changes in the park the last two years.  Then this happened:

[Read more…]

ST31: Rangers beat their own, 10-8 over Round Rock

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120402&content_id=27849000&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

This was an odd game.  It was technically the Texas Rangers vs the Round Rock Express.  However, after a few innings, it somewhat turned into a scrimmage game between Round Rock and themselves.  The Rangers starters played not too long, and subbed in guys who were either going to be in AAA, or were very recently in AAA.

A sloppily pitched game.  18 runs, and 28 hits will qualify for that.   If you want to read the details, go check out the mlb.com link above.

However, Josh Hamilton finally got a spring home run – his first.  Beltre homered as well.   Last year I went down to Round Rock via a Chevy promotion.  Was kind of hoping it would happen again, but it didn’t.   Had fun last spring.  Still, I might have to go down to Round Rock during the season for a game.  I miss that road trip.

ST30: Rangers beat Padres 5-3 behind Lewis win

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120401&content_id=27810132&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

I’m skipping commentary on this one – didn’t see or hear any of it, and I dont have the time to do a box score recap.

This was the final game in Arizona for the season.  The remainder of the exhibition games are in Texas!

ST29: Rangers beat Indians, 7-4 on Saturday

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_03_31_texmlb_clemlb_1&mode=box>MLB.com Recap

I’m skipping commentary on this one – didn’t see or hear any of it, and I dont have the time to do a box score recap.   Still, not thrilled at the “eh” outing by Neftali Feliz here.

ST28: Yu fans 11 in 5-3 win over Rockies

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120330&content_id=27774888&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex>MLB.com Recap

Yu Darvish looked quite good on Friday night against the Rockies.   Six innings pitched, six hits, one walk, but ELEVEN strike outs.  That was quite nice.  He did give up three earned runs, however two of them came on a two run home run to Jason Giambi, who is still playing (that surprised me).   In fact, Giambi was the only guy who Darvish didn’t have control over.   Giambi was 3-3.  Helton was 2-3.  Between those two, they had five of the nine hits that Colorado had for the entire game.

Darvish did pretty well, just not against those two.  :)

[Read more…]