Well, the World Series is over, and my home town Phillies won. It was quite a surreal feeling, my franchise is not used to winning. Yeah, you heard a lot about how we won in 1980, and that was awesome. I was 15 at the time. I thought it was great! Then the years went on, we got teased in 1983 with the Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, & Tony Pena mostly Reds Phillies team. We got teased again in 1993 (Friggin Joe Carter can TOUCH THIS!).. But overall, the Phillies are a historically bad franchise. They lose. A lot. So when I sat there on Wednesday night watching the three and a half inning game, I didn’t know what to feel. I couldn’t go much of anywhere, since I”m confined to a recliner or the bed due to my surgery, but at least I got to experience the World Series in High Definition (save for game 1, which was in a hospital bed). The parade is going on now as I write this. ESPNNEWS is carrying parts of it, but not the whole thing, which disappointed me. Hopefully the eventual DVD of the World Series will have the whole parade on it. To finish up on that, I’ll quote a sign I saw in the stands right after the game was over. “Mitch, we forgive you!” :)
Anyway, now that the World Series is over, the other stuff starts. The off season. As with every Rangers off season, we’ll be looking to shore up pitching. That seems to be the story every season. I’m sure we’ll also hear a lot about how bad the Rays were last year, and they went to the World Series. While of course, anything can happen, I can’t see the Rangers doing that. The Rays seemed to have a better foundation of pitching. We have too many holes to fill. Oh sure, a perfect storm of pitching would be great, but I can’t see it happening.
Yesterday, the first batch of Rangers filed for free agency. I’ll say something about them below. My gut feeling is no big name comes in here, if we do have any inbounds, it will probably be a name like a Joe Blanton that the Phillies got – no name that will set the world on fire, but someone who is “good”. Might be via Blalock, who knows. Here goes, the Rangers who have filed for free agency:
Hank Blalock: I must not understand the technicalities of free agency filing, as the Rangers hold an option on Blalock. I was under the impression that he isn’t a free agent unless we decline his option, which is unlikely to happen. I think everyone in the world expects the Rangers to pick up his option for 2009. After that, who knows – but I think there’s a decent chance he’ll get traded in the offseason for some sort of startng pitching. However, if Bradley doesn’t return, it could make Blalock more attractive to keep – put him at DH, and play Chris Davis at first.
Milton Bradley: Milton has been making a lot of noise about how he will retire unless he gets a multi-year deal. Yes, he had a career year in 2008, and I have to admit, I liked him when he was on the field. But that’s his big question mark. He missed a decent (if not a lot) amount of time on the field, and there was a scramble at the end of the season for him to get qualifying at bats. That is not the mark of a truly healthy player. I would love to have Bradley back, but the only way I see him back here now is if nobody will give him a multi-year deal. I could see us offering him a one year with a team option, but my guess is his ego won’t allow him to accept that. Shame.
Bradley was also declared a Type B Free Agent on Friday. That’s not as good news for the Rangers, as they were hoping for an A I’m sure. The Type B means that the Rangers wouldn’t get a good pick if someone else signed him after we offered arbitration. As a Type B, the Rangers would get a supplemental pick only. Oh well.
Ramon Vazquez: He has been fantastic for us here, and the only way I see him returning would be if they decide to play him as a regular third baseman under the Chris Davis scenario I mentioned above. If his slot would be utility guy, I can’t see that happening – he won’t want to do that again, I’m sure, and he deserves a better spot. Plus we have some other guys who can do the utility thing a lot cheaper (Joaquin Arias, German Duran). I don’t see him back. In memory of the 2008 season, I’ll take one last lift of the finger under my nose in his honor.
Jamey Wright: Jamey has been a decent, if not spectacular reliever for us. However, it’s always been on a minor league deal that he’s made the club on last cut. I don’t have any hard numbers or facts to back this up, but my feeling is that he won’t be back in 2009, they’ll want to take a chance on something or someone different.
Jason Jennings: Well, that didn’t work. Guy was hurt all the time, made just six starts. Hard to judge. The local boy makes good story was a good touchy feely thing, but it didn’t do squat on the field. Major unknown – I could see them offering him a minor league deal pretty easily.
That’s about it for the first wave of moves. I’m going to try and be more forthcoming with my thoughts this season. I said that going into 2008, and I stuck with it for awhile, but kind of fell off. I guess with guys like Adam, Joey, & Jamey out there, I sometimes feel my little opinions aren’t worth much.
But the reason I’m giving it a try is the folks who wrote me during my surgery and said they liked my site, and had been reading for awhile, enjoying what I do. Thanks to all who wrote in during my recovery, and a big thanks to all who prayed for me. I’m a big believer in the power of prayer, so to have random folks I don’t really know that well pray for my recovery… it’s a great blessing. Thank you.