A tough loss, but we did get pretty decent pitching again, which was nice to see. I really hope that holds up over the course of the season.
Mark Clark is really starting to look like another good pickup for Doug Melvin – I thought that when we first got him, but it’s nice to be seeing Clark prove that theory correct. We’re starting to become more focued, it seems, and that’s good, I’d like to hit opening day with a good stride.
We pitched against Justin Thompson, someone I’d love to have here in Arlington, but unfortunately, he’s the ace of Detroit, I don’t see that ever happening. :) Actually, I traded for him on my computer baseball game (I love to play Hardball 6), so he’s a Ranger in my mind. :)
More errors (OK, only one) today. It seems that every game that goes by has some sort of error, and it’s starting to irk me. We had a big problem with that in 97, and it didn’t get a whole lot better in 98. I hope we can get a lid on this soon.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Ah, another spring weekday, another day without the Rangers on the radio. The Rangers lost a tough one on Monday 3-2 to the Detroit Tigers.
Despite the loss, the Rangers’ pitching continues to improve. This is the 3rd straight ballgame that the Ranger hurlers have pitched well. Mark Clark gave up 3 runs in 5 innings, but it appears wasn’t hit hard. He only walked one. His control has been excellent this spring – and throughout his career. He’s a true control pitcher.
Juan Gonzalez just keeps hitting. Today he rapped out a couple of singles and drove in another 2 runs. Last year Gonzalez was in great shape and stayed off the disabled list. They say this year he’s in even better shape. Perhaps being in such great shape will again keep him healthy all year.
Justin Thompson, the lefty who will be the opening day starter for Detroit when they meet the Rangers in two weeks, pitched well for Detroit. Let’s hope the Rangers have his number when they meet again.

The injury report: Today’s Dallas Morning News is reporting that Wetteland might start the season on the disabled list, and today’s radio broadcast wasn’t so gloomy, but they didn’t sing praises about his recovery, either. He’s been ordered not to pitch for four days in order to give his body some time to heal. Johnny Oates was worried he was overcompensating, and gave him some extra rest. The radio guys also said that Luis Alicea was going to have an MRI tomorrow morning to determine what’s going on with him.
On the plus side, Ruben Mateo came back in the game today after missing some, and hit a pinch hit two run home run, which was way cool to hear (would have been nicer to see, but we finally get pre-season TV baseball next weekend). Also, the guys were saying that Raffy has set a date to return to game play for next weekend. Let’s see.
This sounded like a very well rounded team game (for the most part). Aaron Sele pitched by far his best game of the spring so far, only allowing 1 hit (unfortunately, that hit was a home run). He struck out six Reds in the five innings he pitched. They were all called strikeouts. That could have been due to the umpire in question. I remember this guy from my time listening to Phillies games in the National League. Still, Sele sounded like he was sharp today Patterson, though, didn’t do the same. He pitched one inning, and gave up a couple of runs. He didn’t sound like he had it in control at all. Jonathan Johnson, on the other hand, did! He pitched two perfect innings, which is always great to hear. Eric Gunderson came in and got a save, too.
There was some nice hitting today, including the aforementioned HR by Mateo, and several doubles. Milt Cuyler also sounded really sharp today, which was nice to see, as I have a gut feeling we’ll need some extra depth this year. Great game!
Commentary by Jim Weeks:
The Rangers erupted for 4 runs in the sixth inning Sunday and dyed the Reds, 5-3. The Rangers scored 2 of their runs in the inning when pinch-hitter Ruben Mateo slammed a 2-run shot off Dennis Reyes. Mateo is now 9 for his last 16 (.563) with 3 homers, a double, 4 walks and 8 RBIs. He’s also hit in his last 8 straight exhibition contests, the longest such streak by any Ranger this spring.
The story of the game however, was the greedy pitching of Aaron Sele, who limited the Reds to just one hit over 5 innings, while striking out 6. As good as Helling was on Saturday, Sele was even moreso on Sunday.
Eric Gunderson picked up a save and continued pitching well this spring. Gunderson’s probably had one of the lefty jobs in the bullpen all along, as long as he pitched decently. By all accounts, he’s pitched pretty well.
The Rangers limited the Redlegs to just 5 hits overall and was by far the best pitched game they’ve had all spring. This is very encouraging sign, especially after the good performance yesterday by Helling.
The Rangers have now won 2 in a row and are 9-7-1, despite starting off the spring 1 and 4.

My wife and I were out this afternoon doing some shopping, and I totally forgot the game was on the radio – I didn’t get to listen to any of it, unfortunately. By the time we remembered it was on, it was 3:30, and the game was already over. :(
Fortunately, we have Jim’s commentary to back me up here. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers won today for the first time in their last 3 exhibition games, led by a Juan Gonzalez 3-run homer and the pitching of Rick Helling.
It was Gonzo’s 2nd homer this spring. He’s been hitting extremely well but not for much power. The two-time AL MVP also added a single.
Rusty Greer remains hot, going 3 for 3 today. It’s good to see the 3 & 4 guys in the lineup hitting so well with just a little over a couple weeks until the season starts. Tom Goodwin added a couple of hits as well.
Helling surrended 2 runs and 2 walks in 5 innings, which for any Texas pitcher is good news. The way this team scores, if the starters’ ERA can stay around 4.50, they’ll pick up a lot of wins.
Hyped rookies Mike Zywicka and Kelly Dransfeldt have played a lot this spring but both have done virtually nothing offensively. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both in AAA camp by the next cut. I do think Ruben Mateo will make that cut however, and who knows how long he will be around after that.

As I watched the score on this game come in over the sportswire, I saw that we managed to put together a comeback, which was cool. I was thinking that comebacks are cool, but I hate to rely on them, as you generally get disappointed when you have to come back all the time. Then I saw we were going in to the bottom of the 9th, and then D’oh!, extra innings. Watched them go by, and once it got to the 12th, I figured there wouldn’t be any more. There weren’t, the game ended in a tie in the middle of the bottom of the 12th, but for a slightly different reason. According to the newswire, THE GAME WAS CALLED A TIE AFTER BOTH TEAMS RAN OUT OF PITCHERS. I thought that was pretty funny. I know things like that happen in pre-season, but it was still silly to see it reported that way. :)
Three hours and 38 minutes is a long time for a spring training game! It was nice to see several of our guys keep a hot streak going (where was that in the playoffs? ). Hope Venafro isn’t hurt too bad, but I would have been surprised if he made the club anyway. The erratic Loaiza showed up today, it seemed. I know it’s only three runs, but with all the stink the Rangers are making about Loaiza “stepping it up” this year, I don’t think they’ll put up a lot with the “really awesome pitching one day, crappy the next time” stuff that he’s known for.
On a seperate note, the Rangers site hasn’t been updated with Media notes in the last couple of days. Hopefully they get that rolling again soon.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers and Phillies tied a spring contest today 6-6. The game wasn’t on the radio (this is not a recording!) again, so I just waited for the boxscore like a good little boy and tried to stay out of trouble in the meantime.
It looks like the Rangers ran out of pitchers in this 12 inning affair after lefty Mike Venafro took one off the arm. I hope he isn’t too seriously injured, although his chances of making the team dim everyday.
Gregg Zahn, Ruben Mateo, Juan Gonzalez and Rusty Greer all continued their hot streaks and it’s good to see Mark McLemore get a couple of hits. He’s a big key for the Rangers this year and if he doesn’t get on base like they expect him to, it might mean the Rangers will be forced to make a move for one until Kelly Dransfeldt is ready. Royce Clayton also had a couple hits for the good guys.
Esteban Loaiza, who reportedly pitched well in his last outing despite bad numbers, looks to have pitched pretty poorly today, considering he walked a couple of batters and gave up 3 runs in 3 innings.
Danny Patterson, Eric Gunderson, Tony Fossas and Venafro all had scoreless outings. Eric Gunderson seems to be locking up one of the lefty spots in the bullpen. Jeff Zimmerman pitched today as well and despite giving up a run, he still looks to have a hold of one spot in the pen. He might be the last cut of the spring.
The Rangers are hitting well as a team, as they are hitting about .296 after this game.

Again, we’re not on KRLD (grrr), so there’s little to talk about (from my standpoint, anyway) that is game specific. I did kind of watch the line score developing off the sports ticker, and it was 1-0 for the longest time, I thought pitching was doing well. Then I turn in and see a big 6 spot for the Twins. Burkett was tagged for the loss, even though four of the Twin runs came off a slam against Wetteland. Burkett did pretty good, pitching five innings and allowing only one run and three hits. Kind of a shame then that he got tagged for the loss, as our runs didn’t come until after Wetteland allowed six friggin runs in one inning! Wetteland isn’t doing that great so far this spring. Of course, he’s coming off a surgery, so he has more of an excuse than some others who are struggling this spring.
We did have a couple of home runs by our guys (Mateo & Clayton), but that was all the offense. We also had another error today. I haven’t actually sat down and counted them, but it really seems like we’re making far more errors than we did last year, and last year wasn’t that great. :( I know, I know, it’s still Spring Training, but I still don’t like to see them, anyway.
Other: Boy, Kerry Wood sure is taking a beating. Out all of 99, and could conceivably miss 2000 as well! Yikes!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers came up losers 7-2 to Minnesota Thursday in the first game of a rare spring doubleheader, ending a 5 game win team streak. I can only think of one other time that the Rangers ever played a spring doubleheader and that was several years back.
This game was only played to a 7 inning conclusion, since travel by bus is the norm in the spring, the Twins obviously didn’t want the hassle of fighting alligators *and* old ladies all night long on some God-forsaken Florida highway to Fort Myers (I can say that since I live only 150 miles from Fort Myers). This game wasn’t on radio anywhere, so you’ll have to forgive me if my accounts from the box score aren’t very accurate. I got stuck listening to the only all-AL Grapefruit game on the web today; Boston and Tampa Bay. It was bad anough listening to those Beantown announcers yesterday and today I got a second-helping. Oh well.
Rangers’ starter John Burkett came up with a good outing, throwing 5 strong innings and giving up just 1 run on 3 hits. This is his first good outing this spring and it’s without-a-doubt the strongest outing by a Rangers starter all spring.
Unfortunately, John Wetteland looks like he was shelled again. In his last 2 outings (2 IP) this spring, he’s given up a hefty 12 runs on 11 hits and 2 homers. Makes me wonder if his ankle and elbow really are ok. If they aren’t, the Rangers will have another large problem on their hands other than the disabilities of Mike Simms and Rafael Palmeiro.
Ruben Mateo continues to have an auspicious spring. In this game, the young Dominican went 1 for 1 with a homer and an RBI. In his last 5 games, Mateo is 5 for 9 with 2 homers, 2 doubles and 3 RBIs.
Rusty Greer had a couple of hits for the Rangers and Pudge Rodriguez had 2 as well, including a double. Royce Clayton hit a HR in the final frame but also commited his third error of the spring.

Oh great. Another big inning against us. We were up 1-0 for awhile, and then in the fifth inning, we give up five runs. This is starting to become a disturbing pattern. We made a run at it towards the end of the game, and closed the big gap (at the time 8-1) to 9-7, but we still lost. A bit busy this afternoon – I don’t have the time to write much here. However, we did have another error. :( Mike Morgan is starting to look like someone who will stick, which is odd considering this would be his 11th team. :)
Was nice to see a rally in the making, makes we wish we had two more innings. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Argh! If there’s one thing I have learned in all the years I have been a fan of the Rangers, it’s that losing two games in one day is no fun. The Rangers fell again to the Twins in the second half of today’s double-dip 9 to 7 (another 7 inning game).
There’s not a whole lot good to say about this game. It’s safe to say that Mike Morgan not only has a job for his 11th team (a MLB record) but that the Rangers will be counting on him to get them out of a lot of fires this year. Really good teams have a guy in the pen like Morgan, a guy who can come in and start when he is needed or break out the fire extinguisher in the 5th inning of a ballgame. Plus he can pitch almost anytime he’s needed. His nickname is “Rubberarm”. It looks like he pitched well again today and I’m not surprised.
The spring pyromaniacs (the scrapple from the bullpen who probably aren’t going to make the team) were at it again in game two. Matt Perisho, Jonathan Johnson and Mike Munoz all need to get out of the first-aid kit for their burns.
Hopefully, Perisho (who’s coming off arm surgery) and Johnson (who’s not coming off of anything but another lousy year in the minors) will probably be pining away at the AAA camp in a week or so. Who knows about Munoz; he’s someone Johnny Oates has said good things about in the papers, despite his rather lousy performances.
Gregg Zahn, who hit under .200 last year in Florida, remains hot, belting another homer today. Ruben Mateo remains red hot too, whipping out another couple of hits and knocking in another couple of runs. You know, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Mateo captures the imagination of Oates and Doug Melvin this spring and makes this ballclub. I read that there was serious talk in the winter about releasing Tom Goodwin outright, because Melvin was assured by the people at Tulsa that Mateo was ready to play in the big leagues. He might struggle offensively at first, but would he struggle any worse than when Tom Goodwin struggles? It’s something that Oates and Melvin will have to go over carefully in the next couple of weeks. My guess is that Mateo goes to AAA and if Goodwin struggles at all, then Goodwin will be benched or traded.

This game wasn’t slated to be on KRLD, but it was available via a Real Audio Link to the Red Sox broadcast feed. At least I got to hear it. I missed most of the end of the game, as I listened at work, and got called away to do something else. Thanks to Fathacker for the Real Audio Link.
Red Sox announcers aren’t that exciting. Boy, do I miss Eric & Vince. At least I did get to hear the game, though. I hate this “no radio for most spring training games”. The two Red Sox announcers did spooge a lot over Ruben Mateo, mostly over his arm.
Nice 5 run inning early on. Pitching wasn’t that bad, only gave up three runs for awhile. I know it’s still Spring training, but I don’t like to see more than 3 runs given up in a game. There were no errors by the Rangers, which is always good. Mark Clark looks like he’ll be a good pickup for us. Hope it carries over into the regular season even better! This win makes it five in a row now. We’re two over .500 for spring training so far.
Speaking of that, what’s with the KC Royals? 11-1, I think? Yeesh! If they manage to carry that through the entire 99 season, it will throw a major monkey-wrench into the arugment the “have-not’s” are pushing now for a restructuring of the revenue sharing system in baseball.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Tom Goodwin and Lee Stevens led the Rangers to their 5th straight win in exhibition play Wednesday by defeating the Red Sox 7-5.
Goodwin was 3 for 5, doubled, walked once and scored twice. Stevens was 3 for 3, doubled and drove in 2 runs.
Stevens followed up a string of 5 straight singles with a 2-run scoring double in the second to put the game away.
Gregg Zahn continued his hold on the backup catcher slot going 2 for 4, while John Marzano got hit in the wrist in his only plate appearance.
On the mound Mark Clark started and was fairly impressive depsite giving up 3 runs in 4 innings. Most of the hits didn’t seemed to be that hard (on the radio). Jeff Zimmerman Tony Fossas, Eric Gunderson and Al Levine all had scoreless innings in relief. Rookie Corey Lee struggled in his only inning, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits.
The Boston radio announcers were impressed by the Rangers defense. In the 3rd, left fielder Rusty Greer made an “sensational diving catch” to rob Darren Lewis.
In the 4th, the Sox announcers were thoroughly suprised at rookie Ruben Mateo’s arm, as he made a very strong throw to 2nd on “what would normally be an easy double”. Mateo, who played most of the game in right field because Goodwin played center, also grabbed a ball in the deep right-center gap in the 4th. In the 6th the announcers also raved about his speed and his base-running and called him a “very good-looking, toolsy player” and “an impressive young man”.
The Rangers now are winners of 7 of their last 9 spring games.

Another game that isn’t on the radio. Didn’t get a chance to post this game the day it was played, so I don’t have anything to say about it. Was nice to see a win though. Three straight games with runs over 10. That’s nice, but I’d like to see the runs given up go down.

Another game that isn’t on the radio. In fact, there’s no more Rangers to be heard until Saturday! Arrrrrrrrrrrgh Wow – a slugfest! Would have been nice to have seen this as I’m from Philadelphia, and I was 15 when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. I would love to see some other teams down here at the Ballpark!
Anyways, it was nice to see the Rangers come back like this, but not nice to see them give up so many runs. Again, without being able to hear the game, there’s not much I can comment on. Was nice to get a win, though.

Rain, Rain, Rain! This game was delayed because of rain at the start – I tuned in an hour later, and they were just getting started, so I listened until the second inning when it got delayed by rain again!
McLemore is starting off with a bunch of walks in Spring training again, which is good as it was an important part of the fast start the Rangers got last year.
And then the rain came again. :) The game was postponed for good in the second inning. This time I saw on CNN Headline News that it was postponed for good. A thought occurred today. Do pre-season rainouts have to be made up?