Last week, it was announced that the Ballpark in Arlington would be getting some video board upgrades. This is something that has been long since overdue. The changes are a mixture of additions and replacements, plus a couple of subtractions. Since I have a wealth of pictures of the place I’ve taken over the years, I’ll enhance with my own pictures showing the current status, as well as a few words of my own.
Given this will end up being a long article (due to my inclusion of pictures), I’m splitting it off onto its own page. If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you’ll have to visit my site to get the whole article.

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I was expecting to have to brace myself to say goodbye to Victor to see him go to the Padres. Not to Northern New Jersey. Victor was hired by the MLB Network to do both in studio stuff as well as play by play. I will really miss him. I’ve really enjoyed Victor in the years here was here. There’s donut I can think of to say about him in a negative light.
While I will really miss him on Rangers broadcasts, I expect MLB Network to be a daily staple in my house anyway, so I won’t miss him TOO much.
Now, as to the issue of his replacement with Eric Nadel..

IF THAT HAPPENS, THE RADIO WILL NEVER GET TURNED ON AGAIN FOR A RANGERS GAME! COUNT ON IT. Put Steve Busby there. Or heck, get radical. Hire Jamey Newberg. Put him in the booth.
Makes me wonder what will happen if Josh Lewin is hired by the Padres now. Bring back Scott Franzke from Philadelphia, perhaps? Will make next season look quite different.

Since the Winter meetings have started in Vegas, I’ve seen a lot of names tossed around connected to the Rangers. I’ll weigh in (like you were really waiting to hear what I’d say anyway) with some thoughts on these.
First off, I’m seriously glad we haven’t heard the phrase “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” more. That’s another one of those phrases that’s worked its way into the American lexicon that needs to go away. That out of the way, here’s what I think of:
Kerry Wood: There was a bunch of talk about Kerry Wood coming here. I know early on his career he was one of those guys you’d give up the farm to get here. Local boy playing for the Rangers would make for a great feel good story. He’s turned it around lately as a closer. I would have liked if he came here for the touchy feely aspects (I did like the Jason Jennings sign for the same reason). However, if he came here, he’d be the defacto closer, pushing CJ and Frankie backwards in the innings slots. Still, I don’t think the world would have ended had he come here. Reports today say he’s signing with the Indians anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, I suppose.
Randy Johnson: This is probably a Nolan Ryan thing. Bet you that if he wasn’t the team president, this wouldn’t be an option. I keep thinking about that famed meeting between Johnson & Nolan back in Seattle ages ago where supposedly Ryan turned around Johnson. If he came here it would be for a back end of the rotation guy as well as the famed “mentor” tag. This wouldn’t make me jump up and down with excitement if it happened, but I probably wouldn’t be too mad about it either. Depended on money, I suppose as to what my level of excitement would be. We’ve heard that we can’t make certain moves without doing things like moving Blalock for salary room, so if we sign him to $8 million, I’m not buying the “move salary” excuse for anyone else.
Ben Sheets: The obvious connection here is our new pitching coach, Mike Maddux. Maddux being Sheets’ pitching coach in Milwaukee for awhile. There’s also the local story going on here, as Sheets is from this area. This probably would be an OK signing, but again – contract. I would love a kick the tires contract, but that’s unlikely to happen. Keep him on the field, and he’d probably be pretty decent. But that’s the kicker, keeping him on the field. We’ve taken a lot of fliers on guys in recent years who couldn’t stay on the field (Jason Jennings, Adam Eaton, and of course the king of this department, Justin Thompson). I’m indifferent towards this idea, but at the same time realizing it could work.
Gary Sheffield: Haven’t we been down this path before with Carl Everett, Milton Bradley, and to a lesser extent, John Rocker? Of all these “tempramental, but could work if the stars align” players we’ve signed or looked at over the years, Sheffield excites me the least. He’s way on the decline, and I would go nuts watching that bat waggle 162 games. Ugh. Pass. Hope this doesn’t happen.
Eddie Guardado: I wrote this last summer when we traded Eddie to the Twins, I wrote the following about the move..

Eddie Guardado was traded to the Twins today, his original organization. Eddie was one of those guys that when we first signed him back in January, I thought “What the heck are we doing?” Turned out Eddie was a great guy, pitched pretty well, if not spectacular, and had a fire in him that you wished more guys had. Still, we’re not going anywhere, and if he can help the Twins, I wish him well.

I still agree with that. He was a great move for us last year. If he can do the same thing in 2009, I wouldn’t mind having him here at all. I’d be behind this move. Speaking of Eddie, whatever happened to Mark Hamburger (the guy we got from the Twins for Eddie)? I can’t recall hearing his name uttered since the trade, tell you the truth.
GOING THE OTHER WAY:
Hank Blalock: I still think he’s going to be moved before the season starts. I can’t give you facts, or a reliable link. It’s just a gut feeling. My unscientific, and unlinking rambling says that it’s the Giants.
Michael Young: When I saw the reports that we were “quietly shopping” Michael Young, I did actually utter “what?” at my computer screen. Mostly because I couldn’t see us moving him this soon after signing that huge extension. The only moving I see him do is to third base (or back to second). It’s not one of those blind fan things like “You can’t trade him! I love Michael!!!!!!!”. It’s more a “who would want that contract”, and it’s not like he’s a bad player, either.
Jarrod Saltamacchia: With Laird off to the Motor City, I have a hard time seeing that we’ll move one of our remaining guys now. The current situation is a split (I think) between Salty and Teagarden, with Ramirez in AAA. If we moved Salty, it had better be for a big return – meaning something major league ready, as it would leave our catching team as Teargden and Ramirez, and feeling suddenly thin again pretty quickly after being too deep. There’s talks that Florida wants Salty, but the Rangers aren’t interested unless we include 22-year-old right-hander Chris Volstad. There’s also talk that the Marlins are kicking the tires on Pudge again.

I think everyone expected the Rangers to not go into 2009 carrying four catchers. That logjam was relieved somewhat early this morning when Gerald Laird was traded to the Detroit Tigers.
In return, we got two minor league pitching prospects. Their names were Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. Stats and writeup about minor leaguers I’ve never heard before are not my strong point, so I’m going to shamelessly rip off what Scott Lucas (of the Newberg Report) wrote about them.

Used mostly as a starter, the 25-year-old, 6’1″ righty walked eight and struck out 50 in 34.2 innings with a 3.12 ERA in AA Erie. Earlier in 2008, he posted a 2.42 ERA in 52 high-A innings. As Jamey mentioned, Moscoso was recently named Detroit’s #10 prospect by Baseball America. He’s presently pitching for Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, where he has an 8.36 ERA in 14 relief innings.
In addition to Guillermo Moscoso, Texas will receive 6’3″ RHP Carlos Melo, a native of the Dominican Republic. Melo made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2008, posting a 5.14 ERA in 49 innings. Per Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press, Melo “is known for an electric fastball that averages well over 90 miles per hour.” Melo struck out 61 of 187 batters faced (33%) and walked 20 (11%) in the DSL.

While I’m sure these guys are pretty decent prospects, I do have to admit to being disappointed that we didn’t get anything major league ready (or at least close to it) in return. Catcher was one of our rare really strong points, and I do have to say I really wanted something back that would show an immediate impact in Arlington. From what I’ve read online, that’s neither of these guys. We’ve had way too many trades over the last several years that would fall under “bag of magic beans” category, and while I can’t say that about the two new inbound prospects, I can’t get over that feeling of “Oh great, here we go again”.
I always felt Laird got the shaft when he got hurt, and lost his job here to Rod Barajas at the time. Given our catching logjam wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, perhaps it’s best to send him somewhere that he’ll get a chance to play. It’s mildly interesting that Laird will become the regular catcher in Detroit, replacing their last regular catcher, a former Rangers catcher who famously wore #7 during his time here (yeah, I know he was with the Yankees at the end of the season, but you know what I mean).
This will immediately make Saltamacchia and Teagarden the major league catching team in Arlington, with Max Ramirez going to AAA, I would wager. I’d also expect us to sign a journeyman veteran catcher to play with Ramirez in AAA (A Guillermo Quiroz / Adam Melhuse kind of guy). Laird was our best “game calling” catcher, so hopefully Saltamacchia can step that up. The biggest plus for Laird was his superior defense. Hopefully the guys who we will go to battle with in 09 can pick it up, as Laird’s gundown rate was pretty darned good.
Also, ESPN’s MLB site is currently running a poll asking which is the best remaining catcher the Rangers have? I’ve embedded the poll here on my site below:
Edit: They’ve changed the poll to something else, but when I last looked at it, Jarrod Saltamacchia was leading with a 72% vote.

I received a flyer from the Rangers yesterday for 2009 full and half season ticket plans. Unless I win the lottery, I’m not doing THAT. But, it does have one thing in it I had not seen before. 2009 ticket prices. One would think that with the economy in the toilet, that they wouldn’t raise any prices. Not so. Almost all of them are going up in some capacity. The majority of the increases are small (on the order of a dollar), and almost all of them are in the “Premium Game” group. Still, I broke out a 2008 pocket schedule, and compared it to the 2009 flyer. Here’s what I found:
Changed ticket prices:

A few notes. The Commissioner’s Box and the VIP Infield sections are listed as N/A. That’s presumably because you can’t buy them on the fly, they’re usually dignitaries, or are already gone, so I’m not surprised those aren’t listed.
The Upper Home Run Porch has N/A as it’s prices in this chart, which I find odd, as that never sells out – unless the entire game is sold out. Not even close. Given the prices I’ve seen in this comparison, I have to imagine it’s the same as the others. The regular price is the same, and the premium is up $1. That’s why I have “guess” in the chart above.
The Premium games are listed as:

• April 6 (Indians – Home Opener)
• May 16 (Angels, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• May 25-27 (Yankees)
• June 13 (Dodgers, Saturday Interleague game)
• June 27 (Padres, Saturday Interleague game)
• July 18 (Twins, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• July 20-22 (Red Sox)
• August 1 (Mariners, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• August 14-16 (Red Sox)

I’m sure if this gets covered at all in the press, the Rangers response will be something like “90% of the tickets are going up only $1 and only for 16 games”. They’re right mostly – the majority of people won’t be affected too much.
But still. This is just more evidence that the team still doesn’t GET IT. They want less empty seats? Either win, or cut your prices. Don’t sneak tiny price hikes out there like this.
Bet you beer goes up another quarter, too.