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Well, the final game of the spring happened, and it was down in Round Rock against the Express. I went down to Round Rock with three other Ranger bloggers..

Patrick McCullough from rangersfanradio.com, Joshua McMurray from IrishP1, & Jonathan Collander from NolanWritin.com. We were part of a promotion with Chevrolet called the “Chevy Line Drive to Round Rock”. We drove down there in 2011 Chevy Equinox cars. Was quite nice, even if the OnStar nav blew it trying to get to Southside Market & BBQ. I didn’t drive it, but it was comfortable, quiet, and we got some great gas mileage. We almost made it all the way to Round Rock and back to Dallas without refueling.

We got there about an hour before the game, and had some pre-game promotional stuff to do with Chevy. Filmed a video interview, which I believe will turn up online shortly. Once I find out for sure where that is, I’ll post about that. Once we got in, though the game got underway shortly. We missed batting practice due to the video interview, but that was OK, was fun talking about the team on camera. Oh, most of us tweeted from the game. If you want to see what we were saying DURING the game, get on Twitter, and check out the hashtag #ChevyLDTRR.

Derek Holland started for the Rangers and went five innings. Six hits, and a couple of walks. Allowed one run. However, watching him live, his stuff looked better than that.

Bush, Pedro Strop, & Darren O’Day followed. Bush was OK. Strop looked quite good. Darren O’Day did NOT. He was quite hittable, including a home run. Three hits, two earned runs. He was credited with a blown save, and the loss. He deserved it. Looked bad. He’s been pretty awful most of the spring, and I have to say I have zero confidence in him now.

On the other side, it was a lot of Rangers players we know anyway, so it was amusing to see the “regulars” against other guys who have also been on the big club, and have been (to some extent) regulars themselves. The biggest thing along these lines clearly had to one of the weirder things in this game, and there were several weird things in this game.
Click through to read the weird stuff. :) [Read more…]

CCC? Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The team in Myrtle Beach that’s owned by now former Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg. One of the last two games of the spring where the big club was to play the minor league teams owned by (then) co-owners Chuck Greenberg & Nolan Ryan. Only Greenberg was pushed out resigned after that was set up, so this was an interesting appearance for sure.
I’m not going to write much about this one, except to say that we BETTER have won this game, playing against that level of ball.
Alexi Ogando, who was just named the fifth starter, due to Tommy Hunter’s injury started this game and went six innings. He gave up just one run, but a few too many walks (four).
That’s about all I wanted to say on this one.
I leave in the morning for Round Rock to go see the final spring training game. Can’t wait – will be fun!

The Rangers played their final spring game in Arizona, and packed up and took off. They left a player behind, though – Matt Treanor was traded to the Kansas City Royals earlier in the day. More on that in my end of spring post coming up later, but I’ll be sad to see him go.
This game featured a pitching staff, which by several accounts was made up of guys who will be on the opening day 25 man roster.

• Matt Harrison – Lock. Went 4IP, 2ER, 2BB. Not bad.
• Mason Tobin – Rule 5 guy. Might be the final man added to the 8 man bullpen made possible by the trade of Treanor. He’s had a great spring. Threw a perfect inning this game, with two punchouts.
• Darren O’Day – In pen. He’s had a bad spring. His ERA is 8, although in this game he threw a scoreless inning.
• Neftali Feliz – Closer. Gave up one run this game, but overall has had a great spring despite the Rangers attempt to do with him what the Yankees have done with Joba Chamberlin. Fortunately, that will be confined to spring training.
• Pedro Strop – Probably in pen. He’s had a great spring, and while he gave up a run in his two innings of work, I hope they give him a solid look, and not the constant up/down he had last year between the big club and AAA

Combined the staff went nine innings, allowed nine hits and 4 earned runs. Walked four. Not dominating, but not really bad, either.
Offensively, there wasn’t a lot of power here. Three doubles (two by Moreland, one by German) and nine singles were our offense (with three walks thrown in).
The big deal here is that our offense came late. We tied the game 2-2 in the top of the 7th with a two run spot. Then going into the ninth, we were down 4-2. We came up big against Diamondback reliever Juan Guiterrez in the 9th, putting up a four spot to take the lead, and the win. One of the runs scored on a bases loaded hit by pitch (Doug Deeds). That’s not something you get a lot of.
On to Myrtle Beach to play the minor league club owned by Chuck Greenberg. I suspect that team won’t be our minor league property all that long based on Greenberg’s exit earlier this spring.

Colby Lewis did on Sunday kind of what the Cubs starter did on Saturday. Gave up all of his runs in the first inning, then settled down. The Mariners put up a three spot in the first inning, making me not feel so good. We actually went up 1-0 early, but then were down 3-1 after the first. Colby, however, ended up going five as well, and all three runs came in the first. His total line was 5IP, 5H , 3ER, 1BB, 4K. He looked quite good from the second inning on.
Mason Tobin, Darren Oliver, & Dave Bush (who was told he was going to be on the club on Sunday) followed Colby. Bush gave up the other run the Mariners scored, which was the one that sent the game to extra innings.
After Bush were a couple of pitchers who will not be on the club (Derek Hankins & Mark Hamburger). Still, those guys did well, not allowing the Mariners to score in the 9th or 10th.
In what turned out to be his final game as a Texas Ranger, Matt Treanor had the only home run of the game, and his only one this spring training. I’ll write more about that in another post, but it was the biggest blow of our offense. However, we harnessed some old 90’s Rangers feel too by having five doubles.
Michael Young led the way, going 3-5 with 3 RBI’s, including the game winner in the 10th.
Adrian Beltre was 2-4 with an RBI, and it looked like everything he hit was a rocket ball. Haven’t ever watched Beltre up close a lot. But man, he can whomp the ball.
Was nice to pull out a win in the 10th inning. I usually dread those, as it seems like 99 times out of 100 we lose when we play exactly ten innings.
Only three more spring games left at this point. We’ve left Surprise, and I’ll be at the last one in Round Rock on Wednesday evening. Even with all the “uh-oh’s” cropping up at the end of camp, one still gets excited about opening day! :)

For all the excitement of a title defense the 2011 season brings, we’re certainly not going into it on a high note. Our record at this point is 11-16-1. Not exactly beating the doors down of spring training success, that’s for sure. Yeah, a lot is made out of spring training records, we all know the standard lines regarding “don’t worry about it”. But you can’t tell me that our pitching isn’t a little bit worrying. From the bad lines to the small nagging injuries? It just “feels” like 1997 at this moment. May not turn out that way, and it could really be nothing. But I remember the disappointment that the 1997 season was the year after we first got to the playoffs. I don’t want 2011 to be 1997 all over again.
What set me off there was the fact that this was billed as the final spring training start for CJ Wilson before he pitches this coming Friday on the home opener. He came out of the game after the second inning, and tossed in the bullpen. Why? Tight hamstring. That is NOT what you want to hear out of your opening day starter right at the end of the season. A lot was made afterwards about “precautionary”, and “no big deal”, but man.. HAMMY and opening day starter less than a week before the season starts leads bloggers to write what I wrote in the first paragraph! BAH!
That’s the biggest point of this game, except for the Cubs pitching. It was bloody awful in the first inning. We batted around, scored five runs, and would have kept going, if the third out wasn’t made on a baserunning blunder by Andres Blanco – who overran first too far, and then was picked off. We were just pounding the Cubs starter (Andrew Cashner) in the first.
However, after the first, we got virtually nothing. Without breaking out the scorecard, I believe we faced just one batter over the minimum after the first inning, with something like 14 or 15 batters in a row or something along those lines. Cashner ended up going five innings total. After the shellacking in the first, I was quite stunned he went back out. Let alone performed the way he did. Hats off to the Cubs pen.
Nelson Cruz and Endy Chavez had doubles in the first, and Mitch Moreland had a two run home run. But yeah. All in the first. Not going to win that way, generally.

This game was a mess. A ton of stuff happened.
First off, Derek Holland started, and has been generally good this spring. He WAS NOT on Friday night. No command, was pretty hittable. I’m a bit surprised he stayed in the game as long as he did. To be honest, it was’t all his fault. While the official box score shows no errors by the Rangers – man, there were a ton of mental errors.
Borbon misplayed a ball in center. Josh Hamilton lost a ball in the lights in left (and then fell down trying to play it – was kind of funny), Elvis Andrus threw a ball away at first (kind of casually). Ian Kinsler tossed a ball almost into the stands. Very sloppy game back there.
Holland was out there for 4.1 innings, and gave up THIRTEEN hits. Added three walks. Wow. Gave up EIGHT EARNED RUNS. It was pretty awful. Some of it could have been avoided with the guys behind him, but still. That’s a lot. Actually, in the second and third innings, he looked pretty decent. Most of that mess came in the first and the fourth. He got into the fifth, but was pulled.

Let’s see, what else happened…
Julio Borbon was pulled from the game after I think the second inning, and was shown to be sitting by himself in the dugout with noone anywhere near him. He appeared to be in the doghouse. Tom Grieve on TV speculated that the ball he misplayed (later referred to as a “teachable moment“) wasn’t completely Julio’s fault. Wouldn’t know it by the doghouse look he had. It’s starting to see more and more like he will lose the center field job. I’d be happy with Hamilton in Center, Murphy in left. We’ll see.
Also later on, Arthur Rhodes came in, and had to come out of the game with an injury. It was later referred to as tendinitis. He received a cortisone shot on Friday night, and it was said this wouldn’t affect his opening day roster spot. Still, he’s not 22, so I wonder how he’ll bounce back from that.
I watched most of this game – I stopped late. I also scored it for awhile, but once the Rockies made like six substitutions at once, including more than one that changed roster spots (man I hate NL spring training games), I gave up.
Rangers never got much together. Combined, they had just seven hits – six singles and a double (Cruz). The Rockies on the other hand had twenty hits. You’re not winning a game with those kinds of numbers. Not usually, anyway.
This was not a usual game.

I watched this game, and scored it for awhile, until I realized I was going to be too tired to finish. If you were following me on twitter, that’s why the game “ended” with a 2-2 score. :) I started watching very late, around 11PM, and even attempted to score. Should have known better.
Anyway, the game started off with another back and forth affair. In the first three innings, both teams scored each frame. Rangers added one in the bottom of the fourth. The scoring stopped there for awhile. At that point it was tied 4-4. Stayed that way until the 9th. More on that later.
The Rangers took on one of their old farmhands, Aaron Harang. Harang was traded with Ryan Cullen to the Oakland A’s on Nov 17, 2000 for Randy Velarde. Velarde didn’t last the year with the Rangers, then being traded on to the Yankees in August. If you remember, 2001 was our attempt to win with a bunch of older guys. Randy Velarde, Ken Caminiti, Andres Galarraga – all to go with Alex Rodriguez. :) Anyway, I get sidetracked. Harang has bounced around for awhile, but spent a decent amount of time with the Reds. He’s now in camp with San Diego, and pitched “eh” against the Rangers. 5 innings, 6 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB. Eh. In fact, all the Rangers runs came against him. The five Padres relievers all shut us down.
Our offense was spead out. Only seven hits in all, and just one guy (Chad Tracy) who had more than one. Michael Young, Doug Deeds, & Chad Tracy all had doubles. In fact, Tracy had two of them. Josh Hamilton added a solo home run as well. So, five of our seven hits were extra bases. Problem was that was it. Couldn’t put together more than four runs.
The outing here by Brett Tomko looked good, and could have helped him towards the fifth starter spot. It was cemented earlier in the day, then Hunter got hurt. It would not surprise me if we see Brett Tomko in there in that slot. It scares me given the way Tomko has performed at times in his past, but he’s done OK this spring. It could work.
Pedro Strop also looked good. Hopefully he gets a proper look this year, as opposed to the rubber banding he was doing last year between the big club and AAA.
We’ll see about the starter. Ugh.