Last night the Rangers were on the radio. I was listening to our guys call the game while I was doing dishes in the kitchen. Exciting stuff, but you need something to do, eh?
Offensively, this game was clearly led by Hank Blalock. Hammer went 4-4 with three RBI’s, and a run scored. The big moment was a two run home run in the first inning. Ian Kinsler and Frank Calanotto both had two hits each (one of Ian’s was a double). The interesting thing about this game is there was only one other hit the entire game by the Rangers that was NOT off the bat of Blalock, Kinsler, or Catalanotto. That was Milton Bradley. Bradley tripled in the first inning, and from the sounds of it, stumbled a bit coming around second but still made it.
The Rangers ran out there what could be considered a regular season lineup. Everyone but Catalanotto (the DH) was subbed out at some point. So that was 17 different Rangers hitters. Only four of them got hits. While we had enough to win, it bothers me it was so bunched up. A win is a win – and I know that. But you like to see more balanced attacks. I know I do.
The Rangers were hiding their regular starters, as we’ll see Seattle in a week. So this was a game of relievers. Kaz Fukumori started the game, and threw two scoreless innings. In fact, his spring ERA is zero – very impressive. Kam Loe followed Kaz, and gave up the only run Seattle got (as well as three of the five overall hits). Loe seems like he will end up in AAA (to me), and while his outing today wasn’t great, some of the other moves we heard about seem to imply that Kam and his snake will be headed for Oklahoma City. The other three relievers that took the mound for Texas were Franklyn German (who made the club), Josh Rupe (probably not), & Wes Littleton (not sure, probably not). All pitched scoreless frames. Our pitching staff, what that it is, seems to be coming together.
As much as I seem to be dumping on Kam Loe, make no mistake, I like the guy, but you have to go with what you see. He did contribute to a really great pitching performance as a team. Rangers pitchers combined went nine innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits. Too many walks though (five), and not enough strikeouts (four). But you can’t argue with the bottom line in this game.
We did get to Miguel Batista, who at one point I thought would be great, but now seems to be a “meh” pitcher. Still tosses well against Texas though, although this time he did not. Five innings, six hits, three walks, three k’s, and four earned runs.

I’m going to skip this one, as it was another “didn’t hear it at work” game.
Didn’t like Gabbard’s line (yeah, I know most of it was in the first, but it still counted).

Sunday was the second of the two televised spring training games. Unlike Saturday’s game, I did get to see this one – well, most of it. I was again doing some church stuff (it was Resurrection Sunday after all), so I didn’t get to see it until late. Which means I sometimes fall asleep on it if I don’t get to start watching until after 10PM like I did this one.
Still, it was nice to see the Rangers play well. Granted, it is the Giants, who probably won’t threaten a team made up of current and former Rangers beat writers for the various local newspapers, but there was some nice stuff in this game. Several great defensive plays, including two guys thrown out at home.
You can tell we’re reaching the end of spring training. The same nine guys who started for the Rangers also finished. Even the pitching roster we sent out there seemed fairly normal. Mendoza went 5, Francisco went 1, Littleton went 2, and Rupe finished up and got the save. Which brings up another point. I’m starting to get mildly concerned that CJ Wilson has not yet appeared in any games lately. I know what the team is saying, but if he’s going to be the closer, he should be getting “A” work.
Speaking of “A” work, Michael Young seems in fine shape in terms of his stats. He went 3-3 yesterday, and raised his average to .388. Josh Hamilton, the darling of spring took an ofer, and his average dropped below .500. Jarrod Saltamacchia seems to have gotten it together a bit. He’s now batting .276 after going 2-3 on Sunday. Ben Broussard, who seemed in low gear for most of March is doing better. He’s now at .267.
A couple of other guys are not doing that great; and they’re on the roster. Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, & Frank Catalanotto are all under the Mendoza line. Not good for guys we’re counting on.
Luis Mendoza pitched well again which will be good if he remains in the starting rotation. Five shutout innings. Speaking of pitchers, I was quite surprised to see how young Tim Lincecum was. Good Lord, he looked like he belonged in High School. Given the comments that Tom & Josh had about him, I have to say that is not an uncommon remark.
In a fairly useless note that might make Rob Neyer proud, our 7/8/9 batters on Sunday may have set some sort of record for letters in their surnames combined. Between Catalanotto, Saltamacchia, & Broussard, that’s 32 letters. Not bad for the bottom part of the lineup. :)

The first televised game of the season came against something that I thought was far more important, going to my daughter’s Easter egg hunt on Saturday afternoon. Jamey’s spent a bunch of time talking about his kid lately, so I thought I’d use my site to give my offspring a mention. :)

Seeing THAT was far more important than any other Texas Rangers game I’ve ever seen or will see. I did get to see the top of the first inning, where we scored two runs and Blalock got picked off first, but that was all I actually saw. By the time we got home from the egg hunt, and spent family time, I had to attend an Easter Eve service at church, so it was too late to start watching the rest of the game. So this was a box score only game for me, even though it was on TV (and radio for that matter).
Ian Kinsler and Michael Young had great days. Both went 3-3. Kevin Mench was 2-3. Hank Blalock was 2-3. Jason Botts was 2-5. Lots of hits. Eighteen in all – six of them were doubles. No home runs, however. Kind of surprised we didn’t have more runs than we did with all those hits. Of course, pickoffs to end an inning don’t help much in that regard.
Eric Hurley started the game and got a bit torched. 4.1 innings, ten hits, two walks, and five earned runs. The rest of our pitching staff (Rowe, Wilson, Benoit, Wright) didn’t give up any runs at all.
Nice to beat a division rival like that.

Milton Bradley took to the field in an official Cactus League game for the first time (as DH), and went 0-4. Not exactly thrilling. Bradley is a decent enough hitter, so I’m not worried, but no matter WHO the player is, you never like seeing ofers.
Ben Broussard and Frank Catalanotto had the best of the Rangers offense this game. Ben had three hits, and Frank had two (one a double; the only ebh of the game). Problem with the game in general is those two guys were 50% of our hits. The Rangers were definitely shut down offensively in this one.
We did pick up a run in the third, but that was it. Funny thing is that one run held up for awhile, as the Angels didn’t score until the sixth.
Pitching was good in this game. Sydney Ponson went three innings, and gave up no runs and just three hits. Franklyn German threw a scoreless inning. Kam Loe, who seems to be regressing in general, went three innings, giving up four hits and a walk, allowing two runs. Robinson Tejeda, who continues to be the engima he was in Philly went 1.2 innings, giving up three hits and a walk, and the other two runs the Angels got. Elizardo Ramirez mopped up Tejeda’s final inning, getting the last out.
Jered Weaver looked like he was in fine season form. He went 6.1 innings, giving up seven hits and a walk; striking out six. He allowed just the one run. The Angels pen didn’t allow anything either.
Was a pretty decently pitched game all around, except for Loe and Tejeda (who weren’t godawful either, but not that great).

When I followed Kevin Millwood in Philadelphia, the one that that always dogged him was that he wasn’t cut out to be the number one pitcher in a rotation. That his mental makeup wasn’t cut out to be the top dog, especially in a market that tends to devour its sports players. So he goes to Cleveland, and pitches one really good season, having a fantastic season in the ERA department, and signs a five year deal with the Rangers. He has a good first year, winning 16, if his ERA was up. 2007 was not terribly good for Kevin.
That brings us to 2008. Kevin Millwood makes his first official spring training start. He was looking good. From a pitching standpoint, this was a good outing. Kevin went five innings, giving up no runs on just three hits and walk; striking out five. This is the kind of pitching we need from him if we’re going to go anywhere. As for his makeup, well, he seems to fit in well here in Texas. We’re not as rabid (well, unless your last name is Galloway) as the press in Philly, and Kevin’s laid back demeanor seems to have a nice Texas fit to it. At least that’s my perception of it. So I continue to hold out hope that he really can be the number one pitcher we need him to be. As always, our pitching needs are great. Yeah, everyone always needs more pitching, but the Rangers always seem to need it more than others. Especially when you look at the other teams in our division (except maybe Oakland this year), our guys don’t seem to stand up. It’s where we need more of the type of pitching Kevin showed yesterday in Tuscon.
One of the other questions of this spring is the catching situation. In the offseason, a statement was made that Saltamacchia was named “the man” for 2008. That definitely seems to have changed, as a lot of local press is making it out to seem that it’s assumed now that Saltamacchia will be starting at AAA to get the regular job, while Laird will be the guy in the majors. Quite frankly, despite last year’s offensive dropoff, Laird is definitely a better defensive catcher. I don’t think anyone believes that Laird is the long term guy at catcher, but he is the guy now. The future is any number of names (Saltamacchia, Ramirez, Teagarden), so you keep Laird. Then there’s the mix of Broussard not doing well offensively at 1B, so he could go there, too. We’ll find out more in the next 7 days I imagine.
About this game itself, Saltamacchia muddled the offensive situation at catcher by going 2-4 with FOUR RBI’s, and a run scored on a home run. Hank Blalock also homered. However, Salty’s batting average is at .231, which is not great. Yeah, you could say that you need a larger sample than spring, and you hear a lot that spring numbers don’t matter as much. However, more jobs are won and lost based on the small samples in spring, so it definitely seems like Salty is going to AAA. At least for now. Things change much, and if you’re reading this site, you know that. :)
This game had a lot more extra base hits than singles. We had two home runs (Blalock, Salty), and three doubles (Blalock, Salty, & Josh Hamilton). Just two singles in there.
Wes Littleton had a bad outing, and doesn’t seem to be doing many favors for himself. He went just one inning, giving up five hits and one walk for four earned runs in all.
It’s almost time for big cuts to be made, and these bad performances like Littleton had tend to weigh rather heavy in the minds of the decision makers, who according to an article in the DMN today are going to be working out their roster in the next few days or so.