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My Tour of all 30 Ballparks

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Something I’ve always wanted to do is to visit all 30 MLB Ballparks. Part of the problem is that is stupid expensive. That would have to be a “win the lottery” thing I’d do. Especially now that I have a daughter, so I’d have to pay for three. :)
Until I win the lottery, I’ve had to settle for the next best thing. I’ve gone and done a fly-by tour of all 30 Major League Baseball parks with the software “Google Earth“. It’s free software that gives you satellite views of pretty much everywhere. It has the ability to do “tours” of lists of coordinates. One night a week ago when I was bored, I went and created one for all 30 Major League Baseball teams. If you don’t have Google Earth, it’s free, so click on the link above to grab it, install it. And then click on this link, and it will show you the tour.
https://www.rangerfans.com/stuff/MLBBallparks2005.kmz
If you check this out, and enjoy it, please come back and let me know. Always curious when people use things I create. Thanks.

The Ballpark in Arlington

DeRosa & Shouse signed

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  • 2B Mark DeRosa signed to a 1 year contract for 2006, avoiding arbitration
  • P Brian Shouse signed to a 1 year contract for 2006, avoiding arbitration [ link ]

Rangers re-sign DeRosa & Shouse

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This evening it was announced that the Rangers have signed Mark DeRosa & Brian Shouse to one year contracts for the 2006 season. Both were eligible for arbitration, so this brings the number of players now eligible for arbitration for the 2006 season to seven. They are: Rod Barajas, Joaquin Benoit, Gary Matthews Jr., Kevin Mench, Vicente Padilla, Mark Teixeira and Brad Wilkerson.
The $ amounts are not out yet, but I’ll have that as soon as I find out. Here’s the story from the Rangers site about it.
Both are good signings. Yeah, they were arbitration eligible, and would have likely been here anyway. But I still like it from a baseball move. DeRosa ddn’t play much at all most of 2005 until the back end of the season,when he was pretty reliable in several different positions. He could be our regular 2B if Kinsler doesn’t work out, or management decides he’s truly not ready yet. And Shouse has been pretty good out of the pen, too. Plus he’s a left handed reliever, you want to keep them. :)
UPDATE @ 12:15AM Tue: I’ve since found out the value of the two contracts. DeRosa got $675,000 and Shouse got $725,000 plus $50k in incentives. Shouse will get $25,000 if he appears in 60 games, and another $25k if he appears in 70.
UPDATE 2 @ 2PM Tue: I also found out that DeRosa gets contract incentives, too. He gets $25,000 each if he makes 350, 400, & 450 plate appearances.

Rangers acquire Vicente Padilla

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The Rangers have acquired Vicente Padilla from the Phillies for a player to be named later.
Padilla has one year left of arbitration eligibility (according to my brother who follows the Phils and lives in Philly). He made $3.2 Million in 2005. His 2005 stats:
9-12, 4.71 ERA, 27 G, 27 GS, 147 IP, 146 H, 79R, 77ER, 74 BB, 103 K, 22 HR
Not wonderful, but at this point, we need what we can get. He wore uniform #44 in Philly, which was last worn by Jason Botts, so Padilla will probably have that in 2006.
The more I think about this, the more it’s probably a good idea for us. I’m sure we won’t be giving up anything of value. PTBNL’s never are. Padilla isn’t the greatest – he had some promise a few years back, but doesn’t seem to follow through. However, when healthy, he’s at least an innings eater, and that alone should help. It’d be awesome if he could turn it around, and have a 3 era with a 1 whip. :) But that isn’t likely. The Ballpark in Arlington and Citizens Bank Park are both launching pads, so I don’t think his numbers will jump all that much, really.
The word in the news stories I’ve been reading is that the return for Padilla won’t be anyone on the 40 man roster, which is probably good. I’m also pretty sure it won’t be any of our non 40 man roster blue chip guys. Assuming the Phillies want pitching back, these are some names I see possibly going up there:
Oklahoma (AAA)
Ryan Bukvich
Matt Riley
Tulsa (AA)
Wil Rodriguez
Agustin Montero (was banned for steroids)
Ron Mahay (middle reliever)
We shall see. If they get Mahay, that would be three former Ranger pitchers the Phillies would have (the others being Julio Santana & Aaron Fultz).
News stories:
Texas Rangers site story
MLB.com news article
Padilla’s roster page on Phillies site
Dallas Morning News Story
Ft Worth Star Telegram Story
My roster page for Padilla
Phillies Fan Blog Perspective on Trade
Mlbtraderumors.com take on move

Roster Transaction

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  • P Vicente Padilla acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies for PTBNL

The ego of baseball players

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I don’t know how many of you read Jim Evans’ Baseball Daily blog, but he had a good piece on Sunday about how players seem to be running the show. He talks about Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, Jeff Kent, & Milton Bradley. Soriano & Roger Clemens get a mention, too.
It’s a really good piece, and you should check it out. Good read.

Sandy Alomar signs with Dodgers

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Sandy Alomar Jr today signed a one year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to backup their young catcher Dioner Navarro. I thought Sandy did a great job with us in the 2005 season. He hit well when called upon, and seemed to be great in the clubhouse. I was really hoping we’d resign him for another year. I’m not going to lose sleep that our 39 year old catching backup is gone, but I wasn’t scared when the backup catcher came in for us; some of the backups we’ve had have been less than awe-inspiring. He even got a $100k raise with the Dodgers over what the Rangers paid him, although that probably goes right back out the window with the California tax rates. :)
I hope he does well out there in LA – the Dodgers are due for a comeback, it’s been awhile since they’ve been really good. Here’s a story on mlb.com about his signing with LA.

[Read more…]

Roster Transaction

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  • P Jayson Duroscher signed to a 1 year AAA contract and given an invite to Spring Training
  • P Jose Silva signed to a 1 year AAA contract and given an invite to Spring Training [ Link ]

Miguel Tejada? Oh, now this is interesting

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Miguel Tejada wants out of Baltimore.
Should we go get him? Oh hell yes. What would it take? Probably Joaquin Arias, one of Danks/Diamond, and probably Hank Blalock. I wonder if the Orioles would try and tack on Javy Lopez to that. It probably won’t happen, but oh man would that be cool.
Mike Young has already said he’d go back to second base if the right situation presented itself. I think Miguel Tejada would be the right situation. :)
Busy day for me. I just realized this was my eighth entry of the day here. 9th in the last 24 hrs if you count the Soriano trade story from last night. I’m not sure I’ve been that prolific before, but then again today’s been a busy day in Rangerland. :)
Feel free to use the comments system here to respond to anything I’ve said.

Rule 5 stuff

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Read on the DMN site where the Rangers lost no players in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft today. We did, of course end up with Fabio Castro via the Royals (via trade for Esteban German). That’s good, as I was worried we’d lose some of our good players. We did add and lose some in the minor league phase, though. I’ll quote from Jamey Newberg‘s report on that one.
In the AAA phase of the draft, Texas lost utility man Cameron Coughlan to Oakland and added three players: outfielders Alexi Ogando and Jayce Tingler and lefthander Estelin Soto. Unlike the big league phase of the draft, the minor league phases don’t carry any roster requirements, and so Coughlan is lost to the A’s and Ogando, Tingler, and Soto are now Ranger property.