Hi gang. I’m caught up with the games since last Wednesday now. I had family in town this past weekend (I’m in Texas, my family is all in Pennsylvania) for my daughter’s christening this past Sunday. It was great having them all in, but it severely restricted my time for watching Rangers games. I only saw bits and pieces of all the games, so my commentary on them wasn’t as great as I would have liked. Still, one has to take care of what’s important first. Having said that, there’s been a few events since my last update, so I’ll have a few words on each.
1) Matt Riley: Riley didn’t do a lot for me before he was DFA’ed. Apparently he didn’t do a whole lot for the other 29 teams either, as he cleared waivers on the 11th, and was assigned to AAA. His ERA was pretty atrocious when he was up with the big club. Hopefully he can get it together and be a useful piece. Although I’ll take being a useful piece of the bullpen from just about anyone right now.
2) Rangers sign Steve Karsay: Steve Karsay was signed to a minor league contract, and was assigned to AA Frisco to pitch for the Rangers. Karsay hasn’t pitched much this season in the majors, pitching just six innings over a total of six outings for the Yankees, with an ERA of 6.0 :) He’s been around for awhile, making his debut in 1993 with the A’s. Since then, he’s pitched for the Indians, Braves, & Yankees. It’s probably his time with the Indians and John Hart that convinced him to come to Texas. From 1999 through 2004, he’s had a pretty good ERA – the highest it was during that period was 3.76 (in 2000). He had a terrible start in 2005, but not totally awful if you look at his numbers. I Know I just said this about Riley, but I hope he can come up and do well for us, if for no other reason than you can stick it to the Yankees. :) Given we are only on the hook or a pro-rated portion of his 2005 salary (the Yankees pay the rest), this is a pretty good move for us, I would think.
3) Matthews to DL, Torres up: On Sunday Gary Matthews was placed on the DL with an apparent hamstring problem. I didn’t see it happen, but the reports say he came up gimpy holding his hamstring after running across first. I’ve seen that happen several times in the past, and it’s never good. I think he’ll probably be out for awhile. I’m saying that without seeing any medical updates, but I’ve seen that “pulling on the back of his leg running across first” enough in my years watching baseball to know that’s never good. I feel bad for Gary, as this was the first year he really seemed to find a home, got it together and all that. I hope he comes back soon, and comes back well. In the meantime, we’ve called up Andres Torres to take his place on the roster. Torres was a big spring training surprise, with an obscenely high batting average (I forget the number at the moment, but it was around 375 or something I think). He will probably do pretty well, although being a fifth outfielder means you don’t get a WHOLE LOT of playing time.
4) Steroids again: I have always felt that the drug testing plans we’ve had in place recently have been too weak. The first set was a joke, having to get busted a few times before you’re suspended. The current one is a little better, but still is weak when it comes to REAL penalties. I mean does a 10 day suspension really have that much impact on a player? Not really. So it was with great anticipation that I read Selig’s proposed new changes to the drug testing rules; a “three strikes and you’re out” policy. First offense, a 50 game suspension. Second offense, a 100 game suspension. Third, you’re permanently banned for life. I rather like that. I think that has a few balls, although I feel if it gets passed with those numbers, I see the union (more to the point union leadership, not so much the players) whining and putting in place an appeal system that will de-teeth it. But the other day, I was QUITE STUNNED to read where the government is talking about putting some sort of thing in place of their own where if you’re caught using the stuff, you’re given a TWO YEAR suspension from the sport, and the second offense is a permanent ban. Now I think that’s a little TOO MUCH going the other way, but I think just the fact that this thing is out there might push Fehr and the union to adpot Selig’s idea of 50/100/gone when they might not want to. Selig is saying that if they can’t negotiate an update with Fehr over his 50/100/gone idea, he’s open to the government’s idea, which really puts the pressure on Fehr and the union leadership. I have to say, I’m rather enjoying seeing the player’s union leadership being pushed into doing something they obviously don’t want to be doing because of ego and posturing. Screw ’em. This needs to be in there. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for these clowns who use this stuff, and as a new father, I have a different insight on this. Once my daughter is old enough to understand these things, I hope all this has been taken care of so I can put it in a nice little box and say “There was a problem with people cheating, but it’s been dealt with”. Although I probably shouldn’t put that much faith in the folks running baseball to help out the parents of America that well.
So as of now, I’m all caught up. My daughter however, doesn’t seem to want to respect my update schedule, so if I miss a game or two here and there, that’s probably what’s done it. Lack of sleep causing a desire not to want to update. Hopefully that goes away soon. :)