The Rangers are home. We’ve left spring training behind (well, in Arizona, anyway) for another year. This penultimate game of spring training went the way that a lot of Rangers games go. All of our offense was on the longball. Brad Wilkerson, Mark Teixiera, & David Dellucci all had homeruns. That was all of our offense for the game.
Phil Nevin and Hank Blalock both went 2 for 3, but didn’t have any RBI’s. We had a total of 8 hits in the game – a fairly well pitched game from Florida overall, although starter Brian Moeheler didn’t have a great line (5IP, 4ER, 8H).
Kameron Loe went only four, but did pitch well, allowing only a single solo home run for all of Florida’s offense. Fabio Castro, Erasmo Ramirez, Joaquin Benoit, Antonio Alfonseca, & Francisco Cordero all pitched in this game, and all combined for 5 innings of shutoutball on just three hits.
The game was on the radio, but I didn’t get a chance to listen to most of it, as I was doing daddy duties, and then ended up helping out my wife by dealing with dirty dishes, and washing baby bottles. With the water running, it was hard to hear the radio unless I blasted it, and I didn’t want to wake up my daughter. :)
The final game of spring training is at home in Arlington on Saturday evening. I’ll be there

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Well, Thursday was the last day in Arizona. The Rangers broke camp today. We leave Arizona with a 10-16-1 record and we skip town on a four game losing streak. Only the White Sox (8-19) did worse in Cactus League play. Not terribly worried. It’s the time of year when you hear “they don’t count” a lot, and then people like me say “but you still want a winning record”. I think I said this same thing last year, too. :)
The biggest disappointments out of camp for me have to be the Eaton injury and the lack of any of the candidates to take a real solid hold of the #5 spot. Dickey got it, but it seems to be based on one extremely good outing, I can’t recall any of his others being that stellar. Due to the Eaton injury, Juam Dominguez gets called back to be the #5, now that everyone else is bumped up one game. My gut tells me he won’t grab a hold of this opportunity, either.
Oh yeah, this game. Padilla started, and went 6, giving up four runs. Not great at all, but not horrendous, either. Two home runs I believe accounted for all the runs, so overall he pitched “fair”, only one walk. Cordero’s appearance was a bit more disturbing, giving up two runs in his one inning on three hits.
Offensively, Mark Teixeira’s home run was the big deal for us, givng us three of our four runs. Kevin Mench now has an eight game hitting streak, and he looks like our hottest player coming out of the gate.
Friday night we have an exhibition game in Frisco, then one in Arlington on Saturday that I’ll be at. Still have some roster decisions to make, I wonder when the big flood will come down.

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No time to write at the moment. Bummer about Eaton. :(

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Juan Dominguez has probably pitched himself out of the starting rotation with his performance today. He went 4 innings, gave up four earned runs on 5 hits with three walks. Not the stuff a guy looking to earn a spot needs to put up. If you’ve been following the Rangers recently, you’ll know that Dominguez is one of those “lots of talent, can’t put it together for long” type of guys. The team from what I can gather was hoping he’d step up and win a job. Doesn’t look like it will happen, he continues to fail to grab a hold of the opportunities in front of him.
Scott Feldman, who is a dark horse to make the club, but did well in his 05 appearances, threw a shutout frame. R.A. Dickey, who is likely to be the #5 guy went 2IP, and gave up a couple of runs. Not lights out either, but he’s been way more consistant than Dominguez has been. Antonio Alfonseca also gave up a run in his inning, but I don’t think he’s a serious candidate to make the club, anyway.
Read a story tonight where the Rangers lead all spring training clubs in home runs. What a shock that is. That’s all we do, really. :) We had two more in this game, one by Mark DeRosa, and another by Phil Nevin. In fact, we only had 6 hits in the whole game, and outside of the home runs, Adam Hyzdu had two of the remaining four hits. Not a lot there.
We’re getting closer, I’d expect to see some big moves made in the next day or so, as we break camp on Thursday, I believe.

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Well, it was a big Rangers TV night. There was a 2006 Season preview show, the regular half hour pregame show, and then the game was on TV. A good night for Rangers on the TV.
However, Edinson Volquez stunk up the joint in the first inning. He gave up a six spot there, and while that’s never good, he wasn’t really hit around hard. A few bloopers, a call on the field that didn’t go our way. I’m not trying to absolve hium, but it’s not like he was murdered either.
However, in the bottom of the first, Gil Meche walked the bases full, and had Laynce Nix down looking silly with some curveballs. He then inexplicably grooved Nix a fastball down the middle, and Nix wailed it for a grand slam, to make it 6-4 in the first inning. The game went on like that for awhile, back and forth (with more home runs by Dellucci, Mench, and another one from Nix) until the 8th when it was tied up 9-9. We then gave up a run in the 9th and couldn’t get a run across in the bottom of the ninth.
Was nice seeing all this offense – the key word being seeing – I liked seeing the Rangers on TV again. This is the last game I’ll see on TV though until Tuesday the 4th of April, as I’ll be at the Sat Apr 1 and Mon Apr 3 (Opening Day) games. :)

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No time for game commentary, but it was a great game. Plus it was on TV.
The game was really great, nice close one, however these “corporate guests” during spring training broadcasts have to go. I mean, does anyone care to hear what the rep from Reliant Energy has to say? Who cares, talk baseball, please – and not do an ad piece for your sponsor company. Can’t wait until we get Lexus touting how great it is to be involved with the Rangers. Sigh. Thank God for TiVo, so I can skip over these extended advertisements.
Rangers Captain knawing on Chuck Morgan’s head was funny, though.

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No time for commentary on this game.

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I was listening to this game as I was doing a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Draft. I did something I know is against just about every piece of advice. Never draft a player based off of something they’re doing in a game you’re listening to. But it was a Rangers Fan League, so I had to do the homer thing. When Kevin Mench jacked a home run in the game, he was my next pick in the draft. I’m so ashamed. :)
Rod Barajas also added a second home run later in the game to go with Mench’s. That was really all we needed, but we also had an RBI contribution from Laynce Nix to go with the two each from Mench & Barajas. Actually, we didn’t have a lot of offense either. Our total hits were 7. 3 from Mench, 2 from Barajas, and one each from Nix & Teixeira.
The Cubs threw their ace, Carlos Zambrano, who took the loss. He did, however, go 6 innings, giving up 6 hits, and 4ER on one walk, and 5 K’s. He was hurt by the longball – if it wasn’t for the two jacks, he would have an awesome line.
R.A. Dickey had a better night. He went six (being the first Ranger pitcher to go at least 5 innings), and gave up ZERO runs on 3 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. A very nice line for him. Very nice. Probably helps him in the race for the fifth starter. However, the Rangers site mentions that we have some talks going on with the Braves (who want bullpen help) for former Ranger John Thomson (FA after 06). While I think RA helped himself last night, he needs to do that four or five times in a row – he’s been pretty inconsistant his entire career (to me, anyway).
I also direct you to this article by John Vittas over at MVP Network on last night’s Rangers game, RA Dickey, John Thomson, and a bunch of issues on the health of our players. Was a good read.

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The wrong direction streak continues. We lost our third in a row to the Chicago White Sox this afternoon, 5-4. We’re now 8-11-1 in spring training. It’s about now when we start hearing that it doesn’t really matter – but let’s face it. Who wants to have a losing record in spring training – really?
The big catalyst for the Sox today was former Ranger farmhand Scott Podsednik. Pod went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Gustavo Molina (is he related to the other three?) also teamed with Pod going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s as well. Between the two of them they covered just about all the “important” offense for the White Sox.
Three of those runs were against Kevin Milwood, who gave ’em up in 4.1 innings. The other two were against Fabio Castro, who finally melts down and gives up some runs. Francisco Cordero and Akinori Otsuka also pitched, but didn’t give up any runs. Combined, our staff went 9IP, giving up 13 hits, 5ER, 6K, & 3BB. 2 to 1 walk ratio isn’t bad, but I’d prefer less walks still. Zero would be nice. :)
Offensively, we had three solo home runs. One each by Kevin Mench (his fifth), Ian Kinsler (fourth), & Mark DeRosa (his first). Botts went 2 for 4, and Blalock & Young both went 2 for 3, so our offense was a little more “bunched”.
Hey guys – weekend TV games coming up! There’s one on Sunday afternoon, and then Monday night, there’s a half our “2006 Season preview”, as well as a half hour Rangers pregame show, and then a game on TV with Josh & Tom – so get ready. :)

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Well, we’ve turned into a pretty streaky team trying to tread water in spring training. We lose again, 10-5 to the Brewers to drop to 8-10-1 overall. The two pitchers we were hoping would grab onto the fifth starter position really both stunk up the joint.
Edison Volquez went 2 innings, gave up 5ER on 5H, 0K, & 3BB – one home run.
Juan Dominguez went 3.1 innings, gave up the other 5ER on 6H, 0K, & 3BB – two home runs.
Not good at all. For guys that should be getting into their game given the opportunity, I’d expect more. Moreso from Dominguez who has had a small taste of success at the majors already. Volquez I’ll cut some slack to given how meteoric his rise was through the system last year.
Offensively, the big “standout” was Mark DeRosa, who went 2 for 3, with an RBI and 2 runs scored. Laird, Jimenez, & Durazo scored our other runs. Given I was finishing up my big project at work, I didn’t get to pay any attention to the game, so I don’t know how any of it really “felt”.

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