My thoughts on recent happenings

Well, there’s been a lot of movement lately, so I figured I’d catch up with some the various events, and throw in my two cents on what’s happened. Some of this I’ve touched on before, so I might be repeating myself on a few points.
1) We have a new manager: Now this one I know I’ve talked about before, but the more I think about Ron Washington, the more I think that we’ve made the right move. He’s got that infectious feel about him. Not the kind of ultra serious feel you got with Buck Showalter. My guess is he gets a huge ovation when his name is announced on April 6th.
2) Buck Showalter & the Indians: Buck Showalter was hired by the Cleveland Indians as one of those “special advisers”. The non title job. I don’t doubt he’ll help Cleveland, but I’ve always wondered exactly what guys like this really do. Does anyone think John Hart is active with the Rangers? I mean we’re still paying him for one of those undefined jobs.
3) Barry Zito seems like a real possibility: As I’m sure a lot of Ranger fans have said, when Zito came out and said that he’d consider coming to Texas they (as I) viewed it as what’s happened before. “Use Texas”. That wasn’t helped by the fact that Zito’s agent is Scott Boras. So it’s with some rolling of the eyes I’m sure that most of us thought “Yeah, yeah, Zito REALLY wants to come HERE.” Well, Zito is still out there, and while a bunch of names have been assocated with Zito, the two strongest appear to be the Mets & the Rangers. I’m still surprirsed we haven’t heard much from the Yankees on Zito, but if they’re not interested, that can only help us. Now that it appears that Matsusaka is going to sign with the Red Sox, Boras will probably get some movement on Zito. It would be nice to bring him here – he’s 11-1 I believe in our park, and while I think his overall ERA would take a hit here, he can pitch. If he does sign here (or even moreso if he does not), except to hear the $50,000 story about his original drafting by the Rangers again a few times. :)
4) Padilla resigns for 3 years: One of the things that the Rangers have always lacked is solid starting pitching. We have Kevin Millwood for another several years, and the resigning of Padilla is a good solid signing. Given the insanity that some of the contracts have been like this off season, Padilla’s 3/33.7 seems rather frugal (snicker). Provided he doesn’t relax too much under the wieght of guaranteed money, he’ll probably do fine. As a Phillies fan, it’s kind of amusing to me that we have so much of our future based on 2/5 of the former Phillies rotation that didn’t get it done there. :)
5) Rangers sign Marlon Byrd: The Rangers have signed former Phillies centerfield phenom Marlon Byrd (link). I recall hearing a lot about him when he first came up, and there was a lot of positive on Byrd. He actually reminds me a bit of Ruben Mateo. When he first showed up, he was going to be the next uber stud outfielder, and didn’t deliver, and started bouncing around. Byrd went to Wasington, and now to Texas. We’ll see how much he’s able to contribute, as I don’t believe he’ll be our #1 choice out there in the outfield. If he is, something bad has likely happened.
6) Mark Mulder visits Rangers: There’s also this possibility that two thirds of the A’s 90’s trio of pitchers could also be a Ranger. Mark Mulder has been in talks to sign with the Rangers. Everyone says that if he does sign, he wouldn’t be one of those guys who would be able to contribute until around the All Star break or something along those lines. It feels like the same thing we went through with Adam Eaton, only this time we woudln’t have to trade anyone away to get Mulder. I’m sure it would be a good thing to sign him. The key would be for how long. I’m not sure I’d like a 1 year deal there, in case he does come through, and then have him walk after 07.
7) Rangers sign Kenny Lofton: In a move that I don’t think surprised anyone, we signed Kenny Lofton to a one year deal. After the Angels severely overpayed for Gary Matthews Jr, we needed someone to play CF, as we don’t have any top line player ready to go in CF. Oh sure, we have kids as options, but my gut feeling is that we needed some sort of vet out there. I think everyone is expecting the Rangers to make a run at Torii Hunter or Vernon Wells for 2008, so we needed someone to play CF for a year. There were talks about trading for Aaron Rowand from the Phillies, but Kenny Lofton was brought in. He’s probably the oldest available option, but he still has some wheels on him. He’s probably not the strongest throw, or the fastest guy, but he’s been around for awhile, so he’ll be a good solid player. Given the remarks made about the other guys in 08, I think everyone’s looking forward to Kenny Lofton for a year. Kenny will most likely be our leadoff hitter, as he’s got a good OBP, something you need in the #1 slot (at least the Sabrematic people think so ).
8) Rangers sign Eric Gagne: This one was a bit of a surprise for me. Ignoring his recent injury situation, we don’t appear to have a “need” for him. We have a decent pen, and we already have our established closer. I was’t expecting us to sign an extablished closer. That is unless they plan on moving Aki back to the 8th inning setup guy he was when we first brought him here. Or we flip Aki to another team for a more established starter, which could be a backup plan if we don’t land Zito. There’s the issue of his health – he’s thrown something like 25 innings total over the last two years. If he’s healthy, I have zero doubt he can help us, but signing a guy who that low of an IP stat, and that much cash – there’s talk it’s $6 million, which is a lot for a non closer. There’s also talk there’s an additional $5 million in incentives. If he reaches all of that, it means he’s the closer, and yikes – $11 million for a closer. That’s a lot of dough for a gamble on a reliever. Again, if healthy, I’m sure he can help us, but wow is it a gamble.
9) Non Tendered contacts: Of all of our eligible guys, we only non tenedered one guy a contract, that was righthander Mike Wood. I didn’t even know he was up for that, so that’s not one I’ll probably miss much. The other guys were all tendered, so we’ll be retaining them (or at least their rights as a tradeable commodity for the 2007 season). They are: Brad Wilkerson, Akinori Otsuka, Rick Bauer, & Jack Benoit. Benoit is an interesting case actually. There’s been several springs where we’ve been so frustrated, we’ve wanted to get rid of him, but he’s still here. He’s developed into a good reliever, I think it’s when we try to think of him as a starter, the troubles arise. If Jack remains a reliever, I think he can stick for awhile longer.