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From Joe: This actually makes sense, especially if the Eagles pick him in the draft.
The most closely watched player in the Texas Rangers’ camp will not be the reigning MVP, Juan Gonzalez, or the returning high profile free agent, Rafael Palmeiro. It will be a minor leaguer — guy by the name of Ricky Williams. The Rangers would love to give the Heisman Trophy winner a long look and then send him to Class A Savannah. But to do that they need to work out a deal with Philadelphia, which lost him in the Rule 5 draft.
That deal is proving to be difficult. The Phillies want someone who will play in the big leagues but the Rangers only offered a fringe prospect. To complicate matters, the Phillies have been in contact with the Eagles, who may take Williams with the second pick in the NFL draft. If that’s what the Eagles have in mind, the Phillies want Williams back so he can pursue a two-sport career in the same city — just the same way Deion Sanders once did in Atlanta.
This originally appeared here

Several Ranger Team awards were announced last week. Here they are:
* Juan Gonzalez: Texas Rangers Player of the Year, American League 1998 BBWAA Most Valuable Player
* Rick Helling: Texas Rangers Pitcher of the Year
* Mark McLemore: Harold McKinney Good Guy Award
* John Wetteland: Jim Sundberg Community Achievement Award, Texas Rangers Fireman of the Year
* Nolan Ryan: Special Hall of Fame presentation from Rod Carew
* Ben Grieve: Texas Baseball Personality of the Year
* Larry Parrish: Mark Holtz Texas Rangers Alumni Award
* Shawn Gallagher: Tom Grieve Texas Rangers Minor League Player of the Year
* Jeff Zimmerman: Nolan Ryan Texas Rangers Minor League Pitcher of the Year

From Joe: One Year deal, eh? Probably a hedge against his career stats, which aren’t THAT great. I don’t think Sele deserved 6.25 mil (he made $2.85 in 98). He got 19 wins, but doesn’t seem like that dominating of a pitcher. Discuss this on the forums..
UPDATE: The news services are reporting the contract is for $5,525,000. In addition to his base salary, Sele can earn a pair of $50,000 bonuses: $50,000 for making the American League All-Star team and $50,000 for pitching 115 innings.
sele1.jpg (15501 bytes)ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — Righthander Aaron Sele, who had the best year of his career last season, today agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Texas Rangers, avoiding arbitration.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Coming off a 19-win season, Sele was seeking $6.25 million while the Rangers were offering $4.8 million, with a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Sele, 28, made $2.85 million in 1998, when he went 19-11 with a 4.23 ERA in 33 starts, helping the Rangers win their second American League West title in three years. He led the staff with 167 strikeouts and added three shutouts and two complete games as he made the All-Star team.
Last season was Sele’s first with the Rangers. He spent parts of his first five seasons with the Boston Red Sox and has a career mark of 57-44 with a 4.37 ERA in 141 starts. He missed nearly all of 1995 with arm trouble and also was on the disabled list in 1996.
Sele was acquired with pitcher Mark Brandenburg and catcher Bill Haselman for outfielder Damon Buford and catcher Jim Leyritz on November 6, 1997.
The Rangers have 29 of their 40 roster players under contract, none of whom are eligible for arbitration.

From Joe: I’ve always said that if the United States ever makes Puerto Rico a state, you can bet your ass that someone will attempt to put a franchise in Puerto Rico. It may even happen if PR doesn’t become a state. Either Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, etc… On the flip side, with the general income in these areas not being the same, it’d be interesting to see if the economics that are needed to support a MLB team can exist in other countries.
NEW YORK — Baseball is looking to expand to another international frontier this year: Puerto Rico.
A three-game series between the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers in May might be moved to San Juan, according to officials in the commissioner’s office.
No final decision has been made, the officials said, adding there is a 50-50 chance the series will be moved. It currently is scheduled for May 10-12 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
For the first time, baseball is opening the season outside the United States and Canada. The NL champion San Diego Padres moved their home opener on April 4 to Monterrey, Mexico, where the Padres met the New York Mets two years ago in the first regular-season games ever played outside the United States and Canada.
In addition, baseball is considering a proposal to have the Seattle Mariners open the 2000 season in Japan.
AL Most Valuable Player Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez, among the top Puerto Ricans in the major leagues, make the Rangers the focal point for any games in Puerto Rico, the baseball officials said, speaking on the condition they not be identified.
However, Texas had the fourth-highest attendance average in the AL last year, 36,141, making the Rangers reluctant to give up any home games.
Chicago had the third-lowest attendance in the AL, averaging 17,609. As part of any agreement, the White Sox would be compensated for the lost home games, the officials said.
Sandy Alderson, the executive director of baseball operations in the commissioner’s officer, said there was a possibility of playing in Puerto Rico but declined to identify the teams involved. Others, however, confirmed the Rangers-White Sox series was the candidate.
“They haven’t contacted me at all,” White Sox general manager Ron Schueler said. “We haven’t heard anything.”
Rangers general manager Doug Melvin did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers agreed to terms on a one-year contract with Gregg Zaun on Tuesday, Jan 19, avoiding salary arbitration with the recently acquired backup catcher.
Acquired from Florida on November 23, Zaun batted .188 with five home runs and 29 RBI in 106 games with the Marlins last season. He hit .301 in 58 games as a backup to Charles Johnson in 1997, when Florida won the World Series.
The 27-year-old Zaun has 12 homers and 78 RBI in a four-year career with Baltimore, Florida and Texas and most likely will see limited duty behind perennial All-Star catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
The Rangers also agreed on one-year deals with five rookies on the major league roster, including outfielder Ricky Williams, the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Texas. Williams’ contract was purchased from the Montreal Expos on December 15.
Pitchers Brandon Knight, Corey Lee and Mike Venafro and outfielder Mike Zywica also signed for the 1999 season.
Texas has three players eligible for arbitration — pitchers Tim Crabtree and Aaron Sele and first baseman-designated hitter Lee Stevens.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — Lee Stevens avoided arbitration with the Texas Rangers today, agreeing to terms on a one-year contract after becoming the third lefthanded hitter in franchise history with multiple 20-home run seasons.
Financial terms were not disclosed for the 6-4 first baseman-outfielder, who collected $1.2 million in 1998.
For the second straight year, the 31-year-old Stevens provided the Rangers with a formidable lefthanded bat, hitting .265 with 20 homers and 59 RBI in 120 games. He joined Pete O’Brien and Rafael Palmeiro as the only Rangers’ lefties to have more than one season with 20 or more home runs.
Stevens excelled in 1997, his first full season with Texas, setting career highs in all offensive categories, including average (.300), homers (21) and RBI (74).
A first-round pick of the California Angels in 1986, Stevens showed potential in their chain from 1987-91, hitting at least 16 homers four times. But he floundered in 191 games at the major-league level and was dealt to Toronto in 1993.
Since then, Stevens has been released three times and signed by four teams, including the Blue Jays, Angels, Cincinnati and finally Texas. He also spent two seasons in Japan, hitting 43 homers in 222 games.
A veteran of just over four major-league seasons, Stevens is a .256 career hitter with 58 homers and 223 RBI.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — Texas Rangers righthander Tim Crabtree, one of the team’s top middle relievers in 1998, today avoided arbitration by agreeing to terms on a two-year contract through the 2000 season.
No financial terms were disclosed, although the deal includes a club option for the 2001 season. Crabtree made $290,000 last year.
Crabtree was acquired by the Rangers last March and had the best season of his four-year career. He was 6-1 with a 3.59 ERA in 64 relief appearances and ranked sixth in the American League with 85 1/3 relief innings, the most by a Ranger since 1987.
The 29-year-old Crabtree established career highs for wins, appearances, innings and strikeouts (60) while ranking second on the team in games. He limited lefthanded batters to a .230 average.
Crabtree originally was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the second round of the 1992 draft and reached the major leagues in 1995. But he was hampered by a shoulder problem during the 1996 season and was limited to just 37 games in 1997 due of surgery on his right elbow.
The Blue Jays gave up on Crabtree following a 1997 campaign in which he went 3-3 with a 7.08 ERA over 40 2/3 innings. He owns a lifetime record of 14-9 with a 3.83 ERA in 175 games.
Pitcher Aaron Sele and infielder Lee Stevens are the only Rangers who remain eligible for arbitration.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS (TICKER) — After tasting the postseason for the first time, Mike Morgan was given a chance to extend his career to a 19th season today by the Texas Rangers.
Morgan, 39, signed a minor-league contract with Texas’ Oklahoma affiliate in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League and was granted an invitation to spring training as a non-roster player.
Despite the right-hander’s long career, he had never played in the postseason until a trade from the Minnesota Twins to the National League wild card Chicago Cubs last season. He pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in two relief appearances in Chicago’s National League Division Series loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Morgan will be joining his 11th organization. Morgan, Ken Brett Tommy Davis and Bob L. Miller are the only others to play for as many as 10 different teams.
Morgan is 121-170 with a 4.08 ERA and three saves in 443 career games, including 381 starts. He started his career with the Oakland Athletics on June 11, 1978, a week after graduating high school.
He played for Oakland from 1978-79, the New York Yankees in 1982, Toronto in 1983, Seattle from 1985-87, Baltimore in 1988, Los Angeles from 1989-91, the Cubs from 1992-95 and again in 1998, St. Louis in 1995-96, Cincinnati in 1996-97 and Minnesota last season.
Morgan was 4-2 with a 3.49 ERA in 18 games with the Twins and 0-1 with a 7.15 ERA in five starts for the Cubs. He had two stints on the disabled list, the first with a strained abdominal muscle and later with a strained left rib cage.
Mike Morgan’s Page on baseball-reference.com