Under a constant threat of rain, the Rangers won their first game in 1999 at the Ballpark in Arlington. I was there – Section 225, row 1. It was cool being close to the TV & radio guys. I even asked Eric & Vince if the kettle corn thing they were talking about all the time in Spring Training was real. They said it was. Eric said it was popcorn covered with something – couldn’t hear them very well.
Mark McLemore pulled something in his hamstring in the first inning going after a foul ball, he was pinch hit for in the first inning (he was slated to lead off). Overall it was a good feel for the Rangers, even though they didn’t win by a whole lot. Pudge had a triple, which was cool, and of course, when they announced Palmiero, the place went nuts. There did seem to be a bunch of people up from Houston in Astros garb. Ruben Mateo did play, but I didn’t know it as it wasn’t announced – he pinch ran for Raffy after a double Raffy had gotten.
I’m still on vacation, so I won’t say much, but there is some new stuff at the Ballpark. Mainly advertising. There is a new third rotating sign in left field, and the TX lotto ad to the right of the manual scoreboard is gone. There are two new ads on the outfield wall, both for Dodge trucks, and the ad on the back wall of the Rangers bullpen is now a very noticeable white ad (I forget who it is at the moment). Also, the high outfield wall ads by the Coke scoreboard have changed slightly. There is one all the way to the right that I think is different, and the Radio Shack ad with the lighted ball for Home Runs is still there, but it has a Channel 39 logo on it instead of the Radio Shack ad.
But the one totally NEW thing that I liked was a new scoreboard that shows speed of pitch and type of pitch. It’s located in left field to the right of the already existing dotpanel scoreboard (that shows out of town scores and updates during the game).
Well, I ended up writing more than I thought – sorry I didn’t write much about teh game itself – check out Jim’s commentary.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers edged the Astros 6-5 Friday in Arlington, scoring 3 runs off Houston pitcher Scott Elarton late in the game.
Rusty Greer and Jon Shave each had two runs batted in and Pudge Rodirguez and Royce Clayton has two hits each.
Mark Clark had his final tune-up of the spring and while he wasn’t overpowering, he was effective (3 ER in 6 IP with 6 SO).
Texas plays their final exhibition Saturday versus the Mets.

I’m out on vacation, and found 10 minutes to update this page – no commentary from me today. However, I am going to the game at the Ballpark tonight (Friday 4/2). Should be fun!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers beat the Red 6-4 to close out their Grapefruit portion of the exhibition season Thursday, but more importantly, they got some great news from the rehab department.
John Wetteland, who’s been shelved for most of the spring with a bum ankle, started the game for Texas and pitched one scoreless inning. I have no idea how good his velocity was or anything, since the game with AWOL as far as radio goes, but the Rangers obviously had him facing the top of the Cincy lineup for a purpose – a test. It appears as though he’s passed it. He’s pitched on consecutive days (yesterday, he pitched an inning in a minor league game). This is tremendous news for the Rangers.
The good news didn’t stop there. Rafael Palmeiro, down with 2 seperate knee injuries all spring, made his Grapefruit League debut Thursday and hit a home run, serving as the DH. While he’s not running at 100%, he says in two weeks he thinks he will be running full speed. Batting fifth, it’s his bat that the Rangers froth over, not his speed.
Aaron Sele pitched decently for Texas. All in all, he’s had an acceptable spring training – much like Rick Helling, Mark Clark and John Burkett. Nothing to write home about, but with this Texas offense, you don’t have to be Cy Young, you just have to be Mike Young.
It was good news day all around in camp and with the final two exhibitions switching to Arlington, the entire team must be pretty excited about the health of Wetteland and Palmeiro.
The final roster spots are still on the table…who will be the utilty infielder? Will Ruben Mateo make the team or will Melvin insist he be sent to AAA? Will Johnny Oates take Zimmerman over Mike Munoz or perhaps Eric Gunderson in the bullpen? We’ll soon find out. Opening Day is just 4 days away!

I’m pretty busy getting ready for a short vacation while I have some relatives in this weekend, so I am not writing much today. It was nice to see the offense back, even though it was only against the Twins.
No errors again, which is nice to see. Without looking it up, there’s been a few no error game since the obscene 5 error game last week.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Rangers’ righthander Rick Helling hurled 7 innings Wednesday and the Ranger bats were once again alive and well, as the Rangers shelled the Twins 11-4.
Helling gave up two 2-run homers to Ron Coomer (surprisingly, his 5th and 6th homers of the spring) in back-to-back innings but that was the extent of the Twinkies’ damage. Helling’s outing was the longest by any Rangers’ pitcher this spring to date.
Tim Crabtree and Eric Gunderson each had a scoreless inning of work. Gunderson has been especially effective as of late and Crabtree seems to be bouncing back now after a poor outing last week.
Offensively, the Rangers banged out 17 hits with Roberto Kelly, Juan Gonzalez and Royce Clayton doing the major damage. Kelly hit a 3-run shot and Gonzo and Clayton added a couple hits each. The team collected 6 extra base hits. Every Rangers’ hitter got a hit except Milt Cuyler (0 for his last 19) an it appears he’s lost any chance he had to make the team.
The Rangers did not commit an error on Wednesday, the 3rd time in 4 games they have gone errorless.

Rangers signed Rafael Bournigal this morning. He played a morning practice game, and hit a home run, and was in uniform for today’s MLB game, but will be sent to AAA. No errors last season – batted around .250. The Rangers site hasn’t had any media notes in over a week now. Hope that gets going again once the new season starts up.
We gave up a run very quickly in the first inning – it was weird, they had scored and got three outs on a foul sacrifice fly, which is pretty rare. The runner was a fluke bloop double. The second run seemed like a Loaiza manufactured run, as he fell behind hitters, and then gave up a double and then a single for a few more runs. And then a few more runs… Ugh… I think today shows that Loaiza is out of the starting rotation. Loaiza went 5 innings, gave up 5 runs. Munoz went two innings and gave up two runs. Johnson & Patterson each went 1 inning, giving up nothing.
At the start of the 6th, Bournigal came into the MLB game at shortstop. At this point, we were losing 5-1. The 1 was thanks of a Juan Gonzalez home run the inning before. Bournigal got his first Ranger at bat and got a hit for it, so he’s batting 1.000 so far with the Rangers. :)
The 7th run by the Red Sox was a squeeze play, which you don’t see very often, and you didn’t get to see it here either, as this was a radio only game. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers lost their 5th game in their last 6 tries Tuesday. If there ever was a question since last Wednesday who the Rangers’ fifth starter was, it was answered in this game.
Esteban Loaiza continued his terrible spring, giving up another 5 earned runs in 5 innings (bringing his spring ERA ever closer to 9.00). Mike Morgan will be the 5th starter, there’s no doubt, barring injury. Loaiza just might find himself traded, if the Rangers can find the right deal, allowing Jeff Zimmerman to make the staff.
The Rangers’ offense was missing for the 2nd day in a row. Only Juan Gonzalez (who homered in the 4th) and Lee Stevens (a double) managed extra-base hits. The Rangers had only 8 hits and no player had more than 1 hit.
It’s almost time to play for keeps, so this team had better wake up soon or it’s going to be a long season.

I didn’t know today’s game was on the net via the Devil Rays audio feed. I turned it on and the first thing I heard was “Devil Rays bat around and score 7″… Oh my god! :( It never got any better – the Rangers only scored one run the whole game, and the audio feed was spotty for me, I kept getting dropouts.
After Burkett got shelled for 7, he was still in teh game the next inning, which surprised me. But then again, it didn’t, as they wanted to get him his innings, I suppose. Bobby Witt looked decent for the Devil Rays – I hope he manages to get on their rotation.
Kind of busy here at work today, I’m not going to be able to write a lot about this game. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
I listened to the game Monday via RealAudio on Tampa’s WFLA radio station and the announcers are actually quite good, although somewhat boring in their approach.
Starter John Burkett gave up 8 runs in his 5 innings Monday as Tampa Bay bedeviled the Rangers, 8-1. Burkett didn’t pitch poorly; he was victimised by a host of sharply-hit ground balls that made their way through the infield. He didn’t exactly pitch like Tom Seaver either, as the Rays banged a couple of doubles to the gaps. However, the 7 run third inning was the nail in his coffin.
Jon Shave and Scott Sheldon anchored the infield’s left side and just couldn’t get to most of the shots driven their way. Sheldon however, who played 3rd base, made two exceptional back-to-back plays in the 2nd inning (saving 2 runs at least) or the game would have been even more lopsided. This probably greatly helped his cause for making the ballclub.
Meanwhile, other balls had seeing eyes; one ball bounced over Lee Stevens’ head at first base in the 3rd. The inning began ominously enough when Juan Gonzalez made a three-run error on a ball hit right to him and it bounced off his glove…it just seemed to be one of those days for the Rangers.
The lone bright spot today was the Rangers’ achilles heel yesterday; the bullpen. Eric Gunderson and Danny Patterson each pitched with the normal authority we expect.
Bobby Witt started and won the game for Tampa Bay and pitched extremely well. He’s a shoe-in for a spot on their rotation. Offensively, the Rangers were powerless against him. The Rangers just managed 6 hits, one being a double in the 9th with two out by Ruben Mateo (who collected a base hit earlier) for the Rangers’ lone extra base hit. Tom Goodwin also had 2 hits.

This is a game I thought we had wrapped up, but then our usually stable bullpen threw a major boner and gave up 6 runs in the top of the seventh. We didn’t make any errors today, but our relief pitching wasn’t all that great. Mark Clark looked good today, which was nice, and Ruben Mateo had an absolute bullet in from right field. There was a play where he tried to throw out someone scoring (he didn’t), but the throw was something of beauty. From about mid-deep right field, he one bounced it to the plate – no one touched it, and the bounce was about 3/4 of the way from the pitcher’s mound to the plate. I can’t recall the last time I could see someone who threw like this. Scarbrough Green also made a few really nice defensive catches in center field, too. We were offensively crushed by the Pirates’ non roster player Ivan Cruz who was four for four with a home run and four RBI’s.
Johnny Oates said during the game that he feels that the positions still up for grabs are not going to be decided until after Saturday afternoon’s game (the final pre-season game). Quite frankly, none of the relief pitchers (except Jonathan Johnson) did anything to help themselves today.
There was a nice thing today and yesterday where the TV announcers were hooked up via wireless mikes to various coaches. Over yesterday and today, we got to hear from Johnny Oates, Dick Bosman, Jerry Narron, and one or two others. Gave some nice insight into what they think of the team, and what the first and third base coaches actually say to players when they’re on base.
Rusty Greer had a really nice home run when our first base coach was on the microphone that was really helped out by the wind which brought a very foul ball back in fair for a home run. Pudge also had a solo shot earlier in the game. Overall I felt the Rangers lookd good, especially Mark Clark – but the relief pitching let us down. We sort of mounted a comeback after we were down 11-6, but it wasn’t enough to come back and win the game.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Relief pitchers Al Levine, Tim Crabtree and Jeff Zimmerman blew a 3 run Rangers lead and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated Texas 11-9.
Mark Clark was the starter for Texas and even though he wasn’t terrible, he didn’t pitch well either (5 IP, 3 ER, 7 H). But it was the bullpen that lost the game Sunday.
Offensively, the Rangers banged out 12 hits and continue to smoke the ball this spring. Rusty Greer (2-3, 3 RBI) and Pudge Rodriguez each smashed homers. Rodriguez remains the American League’ top hitter this spring.
Todd Zeile and Lee Stevens added 2 hits each but the 9 runs the Rangers plated just weren’t enough.
The Rangers had only their 3rd errorless game of the spring.

Ranger TV is back! Yay! I kinda missed that Lin TV Ranger theme song that’s always on during the Ranger games. :) Unfortunately, it started with a totally sloppy game (7 errors for both sides, and 32 hits). The Rangers came out on top, and sometimes it’s fun to see a slugfest, but this game just felt really sloppy to me.
There was a really cool play on one of the errors. When Jon Shave (I think it was him) was playing third later in the game, he made a really wild throw to first base, and the ball went over the first baseman’s head. The ball didn’t go into the stands, it just bounced off the side of the fence and right back to first base. The Twin runner made a really REALLY slight move towards second base (but enough of a move to technically be “going towards second”), and then took his time getting back to first. The umpire saw that, and the Ranger catcher at the time (Hubbard) also saw it, and picked up the ball and tagged the runner out. It was one of those freak plays you don’t see happen very often. Two of the Ranger errors were really close calls, could have gone either way. Taking away both of those still leaves you with 3 errors, which I think is three too many.
On the big time positive side, Mac looked good on the field, and was on base, too. Glad to see him coming around after all the injuries. Got to see the Mateo cannon again throwing out a Twin trying to stretch a single into a double.
It was great to see a big win, and I missed our TV crew (nothing against our radio guys (I love them, too), but I usually watch more games than I listen to on the radio). Overall, the offense looked awesome, but then again, this is the Twins. However, a lot of it was against Brad Radke, who we had shown some interest in. Radke didn’t look all that good today, but then again, neither did Sele.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers banged out a spring-high 19 hits Saturday to double up the Twinkies, 10-5.
Starter Aaron Sele pitched horribly (4 IP, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 HR) but still managed a win. The Rangers bullpen pitched well however and held on to a Rangers outburst at the plate.
Tom Goodwin had 3 hits and Pudge Rodriguez, Todd Zeile, Roberto Kelly and Royce Clayton all added a couple of hits each.
The bad news is the Rangers committed 5 errors. Clayton now has 5 errors in his last 7 games. I didn’t see the game on TV, nor hear it on the radio, but let it be said that spring training fields are notoriously horrible. Whether these errors were throwing errors or not, I just don’t know.

Nomar – Nomar – Nomar – Blowout – Blowout – Blowout!
Ugh. I’m really glad I didn’t get to listen to this one on the radio, as it was such a blowout. And after hearing the rather boring Red Sox announcers last week, I’m glad I didn’t get to hear them talk about this! :) Boy was this a longball against the Ranger day. Four of them – including two by Nomar. Nomar is a great talent, and if I was a Red Sox fan, I’d probably be really into this, but I’m not, so… shit!
Unfortunately, there was yet another Ranger error. I should go back and look through the box scores, and see if there are any games without errors this spring. I really don’t like that we have so many of them – even when we win.
There wasn’t much good to talk about here, since I couldn’t hear the game on the radio, all I see are the glaring home runs in the line score. :) However, tomorrow’s game is on the TV – first of the season – I can’t wait!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers’ pitching staff was knocked around thoroughly and completely Friday as the Boston Red Sox hammered the Rangers, 10 to 3. The Sox hit 4 homers in the game, while the Rangers were almost completely inept offensively.
Starter Rick Helling was banged around for two of the homers, both coming off the bat of Nomar Garciaparra. Jeff Zimmerman and Tim Crabtree followed with a terrible inning each (1 IP, 3 earned runs each).
WIth the bat, Texas managed very little. Gregg Zahn had a double and an RBI for the lone Rangers’ extra-base hit.
Ruben Mateo’s hit streak was snapped at 11 games as he went 0-4, playing in right field.
Thre is a bit of good news to report, however. Luis Alicea played second base for about half the game. Alicea had been out about a week with an unknown wrist problem. He went 0 for 2 with the stick.

his has been a good back and forth game with the Yankees which was nice that we kept up with them.
Kosovo air strikes started right when Rusty Greer hit a single and drove in Mac to tie the game 3-3. They kept interrupting the Ranger game a few times to report on what was going on there. That included a report from over there, and we got to hear President Clinton, too. He talked over the entire top of the 5th inning.
Rangers blew a big chance in the 6th – Goodwin had a triple with one out, then Mac walked, and Greer & Gonzalez struck out (Gonzalez with his usual swing at something way out of the strike zone and low). Damn! Also, Jeff Juden of the Yankees could NOT find the strike zone. Walked a ton of people, including almost beaning Clayton. However, did not allow a run. That kind of stuff really bugs me. Not once, but twice having an excellent opportunity, and doing nothing.
After a pretty decent game, the Rangers put in the guys who were going to be AAA anyway, Sheldon & Gallagher starting making errors, giving the Yankees a larger lead (3).
And then Ruben Mateo cracks another big Home run to tie the thing. Boy, this really is a back and forth game. Oh man!
And then the friggin errors do us in at the end. We gave up a couple runs in the top of the ninth primarly due to errors, and then we lost the game. Was nice to see us hang in there though – but I’m really starting to get annoyed by all the miscues. :(
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Finally, another game on the radio. I listened via Broadcast.com. Due to a server malfunction on their part, I missed most of the first and some of the 2nd innings. Paul Harvey was piped in for a while from some Oklahoma City station…so it wasn’t a total loss…..goooood day!
Anyway, the big “pitch-off” today was really nothing more than another crummy performance by Esteban Loaiza and an average Mike Morgan outing. Loaiza developed a blister and had to leave early. He was behind just about every hitter. I think he had 3 balls on 5 different hitters but wound up walking just one. Morgan sailed along his first 4 innings, then he gave up some hard hits and a couple of earned runs. The Rangers made two costly errors in the infield behind him.
As far the “pitch-off” goes, Morgan won easily. despite that bad inning before he left the game.
Ruben Mateo continues to play very well. He homered in his only at bat, a two-run smash that tied the game late. He’s now hit in 11 straight spring contests. You’d think he’s slated for AAA, but the kid can flat-out play baseball. I’m very excited about his progress. Oates says never say never, so he’s leaving his mind open about the young Dominican. How can he not? Mateo has been the story of the Rangers’ spring.
Mark McLemore seems to be making great strides, as he stole a couple of bases and made at least two outstanding plays at second base (according to the radio guys). I would have given him up for retirement after last year. Can you believe he’s just 34? With his past ailments, it seems he’s 54.
Anyway, the Rangers lost. The games seem to mean less and less this time of the spring, as now the blood curdles for the season to start. The team is off tomorrow, but I might write a commentary anyway, so look for it. :)

I’m getting really annoyed about not being able to hear the Rangers on the radio. I know it’s less than two weeks, and they’ll all be there, but dammit, I want Eric & Vince! :) If anyone’s actually reading these things, don’t forget, the Rangers are on TV in the Metroplex this Friday and Saturday for the first time.
After yesterday’s tough loss, it was nice to bounce back and get a tight win. Again our pitching looked pretty decent (even though we gave up 4), and Burkett had a decent outing. I hope there’s more good ones than bad ones for Burkey this year.
David Wells pitched really good against us again, which was shades of the 98 playoffs. I like David Wells because of his musical tastes, but dammit, he doesn’t have to pitch against us quite so good, does he? But, we got a balk out of him, though. :) We had some back to back longball today from Pudge & Todd Zeile, and
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The pitching of the Texas Rangers continues to improve day-by-day, as proven in the game Tuesday. The Rangers won the game, 4 to 3 over the Blue Jays. But just like the three days prior, the big news is that four of the men in the five man rotation are pitching well.
Rangers’ starter John Burkett, who was terrible most of last year and in his first two outings this spring, pitched his second consecutive effective outing. Here’s a look at his last two spring outings:

         IP H R ER BB SO HR
03-18-99 5  3 1 1  1  2  0
Tuesday  5  3 2 2  0  6  0
-----------------------------
totals   10 6 3 3  1  8  0

Have a look at the last 4 games by the Rangers’ starters:

              IP  H R ER BB SO HR
Rick Helling   5  7 2 2  2  2  0
Aaron Sele     5  1 1 1  0  6  1
Mark Clark     5  6 3 3  1  2  0
Burkett        5  3 2 2  0  6  0
--------------------------------
totals        20 17 7 8  3 18  1

Those last 4 starts have an earned run average of 3.60. While that’s not earth-shattering, it’s impressive news for fans of the feeble-armed Rangers.
There continues to be trouble with one spot in the rotation however; the one belonging to Esteban Loaiza. He’s been just plain bad in his last two outings: (5.2 IP, 9 hits, 6 earned runs). Johnny Oates, who had declared Loaiza the starter before spring play ever began, declared yesterday that on Wednesday Loaiza will be pitching for his rotation life. On the horizon is veteran Mike Morgan, who’s been nothing short of spectacular this spring. Tomorrow, they will duel in a “pitch-off”, with the winner getting the #5 spot in the rotation, according to an article in Tuesday’s Dallas Morning News. There’s even talk of the Rangers possibly trading Loaiza, so it’s apparent the Rangers are unhappy with the way he’s performed.
Meanwhile. lefty Mike Munoz has really stepped it up the last couple of weeks. At first, he didn’t look all that impressive according to the stats. However, his last 6 outings have been a completely different story:

              IP H R ER BB SO HR
outing 1      2  2 0 0  0  2  0
outing 2    1.1  1 0 0  1  1  0
outing 3     .1  0 0 0  0  0  0
outing 4      1  2 1 1  0  3  1
outing 5      2  2 0 0  0  1  0
outing 6      2  2 0 0  0  0  0
----------------------------------
ERA 1.04)   8.2  9 1 1  1  7  1

On the offensive side, which rarely is a worry, Ivan Rodriguez and Todd Zeile hit back-to-back homers today, the first for Pudge, and the second for Todd. Rodriguez added 2 RBI’s as well.