This evening, the following events happened on our roster. As spring training winds down, there will be a lot more of these. :)
We acquired a non roster infielder named Cody Ransom for “future considerations”. That usually means we won’t have to send much of anything, and if it is it’s not much. Cody was a career minor leaguer with the Giants until this spring. He signed with the Cubs, and then came here today.
Jason Conti, Manny Alexander, & Esteban German were assigned to minor league camp. I don’t think there’s any surprises here. German made some noise this spring, but I think it would have been a major surprise if he was on the 25 man roster.
Additionally, Ricardo Rodriguez was optioned to AAA. This one is a surprise to me, as I was figuring he was going to be one of the starting five. To me, Rodriguez’ optioning probably means that Chan Ho will make the roster. Oh joy. If I had to guess now, I’d say our starting 5 will be Rogers, Drese, Park, Chris Young, and Pedro Astacio.
Any chance Orel will come out of retirement and pitch? :)
Roster Transaction
- 2B/OF Ramon Nivar traded to Baltimore Orioles
for P Matt Riley & C Keith McDonald [
link ] - P Cody Ransom acquired via trade from the
Chicago Cubs for "future considerations" [
link ] - P Ricardo Rodriguez optioned to AAA
- The following players were assigned to minor
league camp: OF Jason Conti, IF Manny Alexander, IF Esteban German [
link ]
Ramon Nivar traded to Orioles
The Rangers have announced that they have acquired lefthander Matt Riley and catcher Keith McDonald from Baltimore for outfielder Ramon Nivar. I personally don’t know much about these guys, but Jamey Newberg seems to be excited about Matt Riley. As for another catcher, I wonder what Gerald Laird thinks about that. :) Probably just a depth move, though.
This is probably a good move for Ramon Nivar, as he seems to have been squeezed out of the plans, I doubt he ever would have made an impact here, as there seems to be plenty other folks who can do what he does in the organization now.
There’s further details available on this story over at the Rangers site.
ST27: Rangers blow it big time to Padres, 13-12
Well, that was a mess. About the only good thing is that Chan Ho Park gave up 9 hits and 8 runs in 5 innings. And today is decision day on the roster according to the local press. Look at the line score. It was brutally ugly going back and forth.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E - - - - - - - - - -- - - - TEXAS 0 1 2 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 12 15 1 SAN DIEGO 4 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 3 13 16 1
You can view the rest of my update on this game here.
Andres Galarraga Retires
After trying to catch on this spring with the New York Mets (why a NL team, wouldn’t it have been easier in the AL), Andres Galarraga announced his retirement this afternoon.
His time in Texas wasn’t the best period in the team’s history, but I always liked him. With his cancer issues over the years, and from what I can tell his general likability, he was someone I wanted to see succeed, even when he was playing for the hated Braves.
This spring, Galarraga hit .235 in 17 games, with a double, three home runs and seven RBI. Over his entire career, he was a .288 hitter, playing in 2,257 games. He had 1425 RBI’s, and 399 home runs, just one short of the 400 club.
There’s more details in a press release by the Mets here.
You can also view my old roster page for Andres here.
Roster update
A quick note.. John Wasdin was reassigned to minor league camp this afternoon. John wasn’t on the 40 man roster, so no change in that regard. With that move, there are 40 players still in camp, according to the Rangers press release on this move.
ST26: Rangers lose tight one to Giants, 2-1
As I write this, the game has ended, but I haven’t seen any box scores on the game. But with a score of 2-1, you can be pretty assured of one thing. There was a lot of pitching and defense. There always is in a 2-1 score. Was definitely a crisp moving game, coming in at only 2:13.
The linescore is in, and that alone tells me a few things. Chris Young pitched well. The two runs he gave up were in the first and the sixth. The run from the first was a home run to JT Snow, and the Rangers tied it up in the fourth with our only run, a solo home run by Gary Matthews Jr (who seems more and more to be not just a backup outfielder). But that was it for Rangers offense. We did have seven hits all told, but the only one that mattered was Matthews’ jack. Chris Young was a hard luck loser today. :(
Our old buddy Al Levine, who is with the Giants (I wasn’t aware of that) got the save. Nice to see him hanging around. I rather liked him when he was a Ranger awhile back.
Ryan Drese named opening day starter
On Saturday afternoon, Buck Showalter named Ryan Drese the opening day starter for the 2005 season. I suppose it’s technically opening “night” starter, as we open the season on the road again against the Angels.
This is pretty cool for Ryan, and I’m happy with it. Last year, Ryan had by all accounts a stellar year (I’m starting to detest the term “breakout”). He went 14-10 with a 4.20 ERA. Struck out 98, and walked 58. Total of 207.2 IP. A decent season (by today’s inflated stats).
So yeah, he’s probably deserving of this based on how much better he was in 2004 than before. I will freely admit, I was part of the “Dump Drese” contigent to start the season. I didn’t much care for him, he kept getting lit up, and I wanted to put someone else in there. But I will also admit I was wrong on this. He seems to have figured it out, and doesn’t seem to be afraid of our own ballpark, which is a good thing.
I’m hoping he continues to do well in 2005, and I’m looking for another good season. I get a good vibe from him. He’s never going to be a Nolan Ryan type that totally dominates people, but he certainly now looks like a good, servicable pitcher for the rotation.
Also, Kenny Rogers was named the pitcher for the home opener on April 11th.
Roster Transaction
- P John Wasdin assigned to minor league camp [
link ]
ST25: Rangers slug it out to win against Brewers Sunday, 10-6
This game started off pretty much like one would want it to. The starting pitcher was great, we got off to a lead early, and it held up. Kenny Rogers went 4 strong innings, giving up just one hit, one walk, and had six strikeouts, for no runs. The guys who followed for the next 3 innings (Montero, Bukvich, & Feldman) all gave up a total of no runs and 2 hits (both by Feldman). It was looking like a walkway win, a great one with great pitching.
Then we hit the eighth inning. RA Dickey came on for the eighth, and after some glowing praise by Josh Lewin (might have been Tom Grieve, I can’t remember now), he proceeded to not only let the Brewers back in the game (at that point, we were winning 4-0), but let them tie and then TAKE the lead by giving up an ugly six spot. After the top of the 8th, we were losing 6-4. Dickey was totally ineffective in this game, and even gave up a balk.
That was pretty disheartening. But in an inning that had shades of last May against the Tigers, we managed to pull off our own six spot in the bottom of the frame to retake the lead, and the game. I believe we had 7 straight singles at one point – although at least one of them probably should have been an error. It was nice to see the team (although at this point, the regulars were all out of the game) come back. Laynce Nix was a later inning replacement, and went 2 for 2 with 2 RBI’s. In fact, two was the number of the day, as several of our guys had two hits.. Soriano, Mike Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Teixeira, & Kevin Mench. A pretty nicely balanced attack.
The bonus for me was that this was the first Rangers game on TV with Josh & Tom. There were two games on ESPN earlier in the spring, but we didn’t have our guys in the booth. This time we did. It’s likely going to be the only spring TV game I get to see, as there are two this weekend, but my brother will be in visiting, so I doubt I’ll be watching much Ranger baseball.
You can view my full update for this game here.
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