A few thoughts about a few things recently in RangerLandâ„¢. :)
Arbitration:
To no one’s surprise, Milton Bradley was offered arbitration. I think most everyone would like him to be back in 2009, but Milton made a lot of noise about retiring if he doesn’t get a multiyear deal. I don’t see THAT happening, but he’ll probably try. The arbitration offer will definitely call his bluff on the retiring thing. I really don’t know which way he’ll go on the decision, which is due on Sunday night at 11PM. Assuming he doesn’t take it, we’ll get a sandwich pick between Rounds 1 & 2 of next year’s draft.
The other players we had eligible for arbitration (Jamey Wright, Jason Jennings, & Ramon Vazquez) were not offered arbitration. I don’t see Jamey Wright coming back in 2009. Ramon Vazquez is being courted by a few teams in the National League, plus we have some other guys (Arias, Duran) who can play the super sub role. Jason Jennings will probably get a minor league deal. I’ve seen a few remarks in the last few days that both sides seem to want that, and is a “can’t hurt” kind of idea, since he’s off the 40 man.
Speaking of players not offered arbitration.. If Bradley doesn’t come back, I wouldn’t mind taking a flyer on Pat Burrell to replace his bat in the lineup. If Burrell doesn’t go back to Philly, he might want a one year “make good” contract, which could work here. Their numbers in 2008:
Games: Burrell 157, Bradley 126
AB: Burrell 536, Bradley 414
H: Burrell 134, Bradley 133
AVG: Burrell .250, Bradley .321
HR: Burrell 33, Bradley 22
RBI: Burrell 86, Bradley 77
BB: Burrell 102, Bradley 112
K: Burrell 136, Bradley 112
OBP: Burrell .367, Bradley .436
SLG: Burrell .507, Bradley .536
Burrell has a lower batting average, but the power numbers are somewhat better than Bradley – but he did also play more games. I’m not saying “GIMME BURRELL!”, but if he’s available on a decent short term deal, I wouldn’t be upset.
Spring Training Schedule Released:
The other day the Rangers announced the schedule for Spring training. I’ve updated my site’s schedule page with the 2009 schedule. I found the way I did it in 2008 was by far the easiest I’ve had in all my years doing this site (2009 will be the 11th season since I started this site). The biggest problem I’ve always had was doing the game update, and then having to do the index page. Last year I got some templates in place which allowed me to update the game, and then the schedule page would be updated with the result, and a link to my commentary. I’m doing the same thing for 2009. The hassle is in setting it up – it takes about two hours to set up one month’s page, it’s really tedious template work, but it pays off during the season with zero work to update. Anyway, check out my schedule.
A note about spring training this year. Traditionally the Rangers have only scheduled a single off day. This year there are four scheduled off days during spring training. I wonder if that’s any sort of concession to the World Baseball Classic. Radio and TV has not been announced for spring yet, but generally Saturday and Sunday games are on the radio (and the odd Friday game), and two games are on TV at the end of spring training. My guess is they’ll follow that pattern again, but I don’t have firm info on that yet.
Padres and our broadcasters:
There was a report not too long ago that the San Diego Padres are considering both Josh Lewin & Victor Rojas for their open TV broadcaster slot. I have to say I’ve grown to really like Victor Rojas, and would be bummed out if he left. Obviously, if he was offered the job, it’s a promotion for him, and that would be good for Vic. Bad for us. This is what I wish would happen.. The Padres hire Josh Lewin to be “Mr. San Diego”. As he’s already a broadcaster for the Chargers, it could work in that regard. You then promote Victor Rojas to be the play by play guy for the Rangers on TV. Then hire back Scott Franzke from the Phillies to be Eric’s radio partner. That’s unlikely to happen as Franzke is already on TV in Philly. Philly announcers do it differently than here – there’s no dedicated radio & TV guys. It’s just broadcasters, and after three innings or so, they switch from TV to radio, so you never have the same announcers for an entire game. So Scott would be unlikely to return. However, DO NOT PROMOTE MIKE OGULNICK FROM THE POST-GAME SHOW! (OR JIM KNOX FOR THAT MATTER) He is the reason I have stopped listening to the Rangers postgame show completely. If they put him on radio, I’d probably have to stop listening to that too – despite Nadel being there. Shudder.
So yeah, I don’t want Victor to go anywhere. Please.
Mariners Raid:
The Mariners hired Don Wakamatsu as their manager, and when he was signed, it didn’t occur to me that he might raid our staff. There’s widespread reports that Rick Adair, our minor league pitching coordinator as their new bullpen coach. On top of that, our former pitching coach Mark Connor is supposed to be named their pitching coach. I’m sure the Adair move will bug Jamey Newberg more than me, but I don’t see it as the end of the world. I guess because I haven’t seen a tremendous amount of success at the major league level with the guys that have come out of the minor leagues. Yeah, yeah – I know. There’s a million variables behind that, and it can’t be blanketed with a comment that easily.

Back in early November, Jamey Newberg had this in one of his email reports:

According to MLB.com, right-handed reliever Kazuo Fukumori signed a minor league contract to return to the Rangers.

I find that odd, as his original contract was a one year deal with team options for 2009 & 2010. He had a $1.4 Million salary for 2008, and the same in 2009 and $1.75 Million in 2010. Both 09 & 10 were team options with $200k buyouts each. If they resigned him to a minor league deal, that tells me that they bought out the two option years, and resigned him. I’ve not seen anything about this anywhere online – and Jamey didn’t know anything about it, either.
Does anyone reading this know what happened with the Fukumori option years – officially? If so, pass along a link or something in the comments. Danke.
UPDATE: I found a link on the Sporting News Canada website that says the Rangers technically released him back on May 11th, which would have meant a buyout of his options (plus presumably payment of the remaining 2008 salary). Still kind of surprised I never saw this get any news reporting until now – and even then only because I went and dug for it.