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Colby Lewis

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Most Rangers fans remember Colby Lewis, the hard throwing pitcher the Rangers had for awhile in the majors from 2002-2004. We lost him on a waiver claim to Detroit, and I recall there being a lot of fans up in arms about that at the time. He’s not done much since then, in fact, he spent all of 2005 injured with the Tigers, and in 2006, he appeared in three games with the Tigers before being DFA’ed in mid September 2006. I wonder if he got a share of the World Series money with the Tigers. Anyway, I digress.

The Washington Nationals fan site Capitol Punishment just published an article on Colby. Colby was picked up by the Nats this past November 6th on a minor league deal. The CP article on Colby had this to say:

It’s hard to say what the Nats should expect from Lewis. He’s clearly got a solid track record in the minors, and he showed an ability to adapt post-surgery, but we’re left with an ungodly track record of performance in the majors.

Kind of sounds like the same feelings a lot of Ranger fans had when he was here. Great potential, couldn’t seem to put it together in the bigs. Check out the article. Also, I have several other teams’ fan blogs listed below. Check out the menu on the right side of the page, and scroll downwards. I have some links in there you might want to check out.

Desi Relaford

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  • IF Desi Relaford signed to a minor league contract [ link ]

2007 Spring Training Radio & TV Dates

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I haven’t seen this published in any of the newspapers or on the Rangers site, so I emailed Victor Rojas and asked if the 2007 Spring Training radio dates had been decided upon. He wrote me back with a schedule for spring that included this info. Here are the dates that are being broadcast on radio, along with two listed TV dates.
Fri Mar 02 – Royals
Sat Mar 03 – Royals
Sun Mar 04 – Royals
Sat Mar 10 – Giants (Scottsdale)
Sun Mar 11 – Dodgers
Sat Mar 17 – Mariners (Peoria)
Sun Mar 18 – Rockies
Fri Mar 23 – Brewers
Sat Mar 24 – A’s – Also on FSN
Mon Mar 26 – Mariners – Also on FSN
Fri Mar 30 – Brewers (Frisco)
Sat Mar 31 – Brewers (Arlington)
Almost all of these are in Surprise. Only a couple are not, and those cities are noted above. Thanks to Vic for the info.

Second, third, and home plate

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Anyone catch the new ad campaign by the Rangers? Just read about it on their site today. Here’s an image with one of the slogans…

“First base has nothing to do with kissing”. I find it fairly funny personally. I just look at that and wonder how many parents are going to be irritated that they will now have to answer questions like “What’s that mean, Mommy?”, or “If First base is about kissing, what are second, third, and home plate for Daddy?”. As a parent of a 22 month old, these things cross my mind a lot. :)
A far cry from the ad campaign of a few years back with the slogan “Your friendly neighborhood baseball team”. :)

And so it begins

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The equipment truck leaves Arlington this morning to head to Surprise, Arizona! :)
Also, Yahoo Fantasy Baseball opens up again on February 15th, so I’ll be setting up leagues then.
UPDATE: There’s a story up on the official Rangers site with the annual picture of the truck sitting at the loading dock at The Ballpark in Arlington before it heads out to Arizona. Check it out if you’d like to read something else other than Anna Nicole Smith stories this morning.

10 signed

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  • The following players all signed to a 1 year contract: INF Joaquin Arias, RHP Omar Beltre, RHP Scott Feldman, OF Freddy Guzman, LHP A.J. Murray, RHP Alexi Ogando, RHP Josh Rupe, C Chris Stewart, RHP Robinson Tejeda and RHP Edinson Volquez. [ link ]

New Managers

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There’s an article up on mlb.com which talks about the new managers this year. Specifically it gets into who the author thinks will have the most impact on their new clubs. Obviously, there’s a section on Ron Washington. Here’s all the managers discussed:
Lou Piniella (Cubs)
Bruce Bochy (Giants)
Manny Acta (Nationals)
Bob Geren (A’s)
Fredi Gonzalez (Marlins)
Bud Black (San Diego)
Ron Washington (Rangers)
That’s 7 of the 30 managers being new, and of those seven, five of them are first timers to boot. Check out the article, some nice reading.

Bruce Chen

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  • P Bruce Chen signed to a minor league contract with a spring training invite. [ Link ]

Rangers sign Bruce Chen

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From the “throw a lot of crap against the wall and see what sticks department” comes the news that the Rangers have signed home run specialist Bruce Chen to a minor league contract for 2007. He also got an invite to spring training.
Is anyone as excited about this move as me? He had a somewhat respectable season in 2005, but he’s been the definition of journeyman. Since he broke in, he’s been with:
Atlanta (1998-2000)
Philadelphia (2000-2001)
NY Mets (2001-2002)
Montreal (2002)
Cincinnati (2002)
Houston (2003)
Boston (2003)
Baltimore (2004-2006)
And now Texas
All I can say about this is given the sheer volume of candidates for the fifth starter position, if Chen (or anyone else for that matter) makes the club, then he will have earned it, given the sheer number of people going for the same thing around him.

Rick Helling Retires

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Former Ranger Rick Helling retired on Monday. Rick was a great guy, and was someone I was sad to see go after the 2001 season. He came back briefly for a cup of coffee in our minor league system in 2004, but bounced around quite a lot since leaving after Arod’s first year in Texas. Rick was with us for a few seasons, making his debut in 1994, and then being traded in 1996 for John Burkett who was instrumental in the 1996 championship team. We reacquired Helling again in 1997, and he remained through 2001, producing these years the second time around.
1998: 20-7, 216.3 IP, 4.41 ERA, 4 complete games, two shutouts
1999: 13-11, 219.3 IP, 4.84 ERA, 2 complete games
2000: 16-13, 217.0 IP, 4.48 ERA
2001: 12-11, 215.7 IP, 5.17
While his ERA and wins didn’t keep up with his 1998 campaign, he certainly was durable, putting in a consistent number of innings. In fact, of all his seasons, these were the only four with more than 200 innings pitched. In fact, since leaving the Rangers in 2001, his travels were to the Diamondbacks (2002), Orioles & Marlins (2003), Twins & Rangers again (2004), Brewers (2005 & 2006). He actually signed a minor league contract with the Phillies on Jan 29, 2007, but retired Monday, about a week after that, claiming he wanted to be with his family. I can understand that.
So good luck to Rick in whatever he does in the future, to me the Rangers uniform #32 will always be Rick’s.