The Rangers made it official today, bringing Eddie Guardado back for the 2009 season. It’s a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. I’m pretty sure he’ll be in the pen when the season starts. I have no facts there – just a gut feeling.
I wrote about why I thought it was a good (if not exciting) move a couple of days ago, so I won’t repeat that. I will say this, though. It makes the Rangers one of just two teams to not sign a single player to a major league contract this offseason.

Just saw an announcement a few minutes ago that the radio coverage for the Texas Rangers is changing for 2009. All Rangers games have been on AM KRLD 1080 since 1995. That’s not going to be the case starting this season.
Effective with the 2009 season, all weekday Texas Rangers games will be on 105.3 FM (aka “The Fan”. According to the press release on the Rangers site, it is only weekday games (Monday through Friday) that are here. Saturday and Sunday games will continue to be on KRLD 1080 AM as they have been since 1995. The reason for this is unspecified “anticipated schedule conflicts”. The schedule lists 110 games on 105.3, and 52 on 1080.
This probably isn’t a big deal in the long run when you compare it to the confusion of TV coverage (given all the possible channel choices there), but it does take away that tagline KRLD has used for ages… “All the games, all the time”. Still, it does seem easy enough to wrap one’s head around. “OK, M-F is 105.3 FM, and Sat-Sun is 1080 AM – Got it”. I will be curious to see how the better fidelity plays out. On top of that, I wonder if the broadcasts will be geared towards HD-Radio, as KRLD-FM is an HD-Radio channel, from what I’ve read today.
One other bonus is that this will really increase the radio schedule for spring training games. Generally, spring training games were only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I asked aout that a few years ago, and was told that KRLD didn’t want to piss off the “Dr. Laura” audience by replacing that show with Rangers games. This apparently will bypass that limitation. The number of spring training games is now 18, versus the 12 it has been for awhile now. 16 of the 18 are on 105.3. Check out the Rangers press release for a list of the dates of the Spring Training games (I’ll have my site’s schedule page updated shortly).
UPDATE: I’ve updated my site’s schedule pages with the radio dates during spring training.

TR Sullivan is reporting this afternoon that the Rangers are likely to close a deal in the next day or so for Eddie Guardado to return to the Rangers for 2009. This is probably a move that isn’t likely to light any fires when it happens. It certainly didn’t last off season.
But he was pretty darned serviceable for us last year, and if he pitches in 2009 like he did in 2008, it should help. Will probably be a low dollar amount signing, so yeah, it’s probably a decent move to make.
This was probably pushed a little faster by the Benoit news from last week. Despite the fact that Eddie is a lefty, and Jack is a righthander, one has to figure that Benoit’s going down moved this forward, even a little. There was also rumblings about Eddie signing again before this, so who knows?

Those of you who like to stand in the ballpark and flap your arms like a bird when Marlon Byrd is up will be happy about this one. He and the Rangers came to terms tonight on a contract for 2009. His case was the last possible arbitration case the Rangers had on their plate. Actually, he would have been a Ranger in 09 anyway, it was just down to money.
Marlon had asked for $3.6 Million, and the Rangers countered with $2.7 million. They settled on $3.06 million, which is pretty much in the middle.
With the Byrdman signed, that resolves the arbitration possibilities for this offseason, keeping intact our record of not having gone to an actual hearing in about nine years now, the last being Lee Stevens.

Saw a story in the current Dallas Observer about the Texas Rangers, a fan, and the winter carnival. Along with the usual comments about “what about the pitching?”
The thrust of most of the article is about the fan Paige Skinner, and her (I assume it’s a girl) presumed slight by the players when she was at last season’s finale. Here’s a quote from the article:

“It was supposed to be Fan Appreciation Day,” Skinner says. “But the players didn’t toss us a ball, a batting glove, not even a smile or a wave. In fact, a security guard hopped up on the dugout and told us to go home. They treated us like we suck, and we’re the ones who’ve supported them through all these losing seasons. Without us, they’d have nothing. I was furious. Ticked beyond belief.”

While I do agree with her about security guards – they tend to be a bit overzealous in the “Get out” mantra (that should be worked on, really). I have an issue with the thrust here that the players seemingly owed her something. Particularly the comment “they treated us like we suck”. Using the words “They treated us” means there was an intentional desire on the players to make the fans feel like “they suck”. Somehow I doubt that. The specific comment was also made about not getting an item thrown to them. I don’t think so. Just because you attend a game, doesn’t mean you have the RIGHT to have something given to you. Even on Fan Appreciation Day.
There’s another comment that one could make about the fact that if you can afford to sit in the seats down by the dugout, you don’t need (much less deserve) freebies like that. Buy your own. If the players REALLY wanted to foster goodwill, take the balls and gloves and stuff up to Section 345 where poor families have to sit because they have zero chance of ever being able to sit in the seats down at the bottom and be “slighted” by the players.
Those fans would be far more excited I think over a freebie from the players than those who can afford to sit in the first few rows of Sections 31-35.

Saw a few minutes ago where it appears that Joaquin Benoit had surgery which will knock him out for all of the 2009 season. Shame if true, as he’s developed a nice career as a reliever, now that he’s finally figured out what works.
He’s the elder statesman on the Rangers roster, nobody’s been here on the active roster longer than he has.
I bet you it means we might get some movement regading the bullpen and the “Hot Stove”. Who would you bring in to replace him, or just use another kid from the farm?