Not the minor league player we traded for recently, the one whose pants were too big at the HOF game some years ago. The one with four ex wives by the time he was 30. Yeah, that one.
Anyway, it looks like he’s trying to hook on with the Atlantic League Indepedant team, the New York Ducks. This after he backed out of a deal with the Red Sox earlier this season (as well as the A’s & Rockies, from what I read). Anyway, here’s a story on it.
Isn’t this the same team that John Rocker was with a couple of years ago? I really thought Juan had given it up – what’s his plan here – to prove he can still play? Good luck running to first on your one at bat. ;)
Seriously, though – it’d be nice for him to pick up the pace there, but I can’t see it happening – my gut feeling says he’s done for good.
Johnny Oates Award Handed Out
Anyone who knows me knows I was a big Johnny Oates fan. Have been since long before he became the Rangers manager. Anyway, I ran across this story this afternoon about his former college team handing out the first winner of the “Johnny Oates Memorial Baseball Award”.
Nice to see his name pop up in the news today. Here’s Johnny’s page over at the Virginia Tech Hokies site.
Dominguez outta here
Well, I thought I had a handle on the rotation. Apparently not. Juan Dominguez has been traded. I haven’t read anything about this yet, so I’m just going to lift Jamey Newberg‘s update on this, which I just got.
Eric Nadel just announced on the Rangers’ game broadcast that Texas has traded righthander Juan Dominguez to Oakland for lefthander John Rheinecker and utility man Freddie Bynum, and then turned around and dealt Bynum to the Cubs for lefthander John Koronka (a former Rule 5 pick of the Rangers) and a player to be named later or cash.
There’s also a story about this on the DMN site here.
Soriano, Gonzalez, & the WBC
A couple of former Rangers are in the news the last few days.
First off is Alfonso Soriano. I seem to remember Soriano saying he didn’t want to play the outfield in New York. I know he said that when he was in Texas, but he’s now taking it to the extreme in DC. Soriano is refusing the play the outfield, a stance that put him on the bench Monday, and if he does it again Wednesday could put him on the disaqualified list. Saying “the player refused to take the field”, the Nationals believe that they will be within their rights to put Soriano on the disqualified list. The upside of that is that he wouldn’t get paid, and if that situaton ran it’s course the entire year, Soriano would not be a free agent, he’d still be Nationals property, as service time doesn’t accure if your’e disqualified. I cannot see how Soriano expects to win here, except possibly by forcing a trade. I don’t see that happening either – it’s a bit late in the game. Of course, anything can happen, but I see most clubs who could take his contract being set already. I’m really surprised he’s taking this stance, I can’t see how anything positive can come out of this. I have to say I’m glad he’s out of our hair if he’s gonna act like this.
The other player is former Ranger Juan Gonzalez, who signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox on Sunday. I look at that, and think wow – the Sox must really be hurting to sign Gonzalez. It’s been years since he’s had a full productive season, let alone two of them in a row. I can’t see where he’d be a regular starting player anymore. In the last four seasons, he’s had a total of 186 games combined. His appearances in Kansas City and Cleveland (05) were a joke, and his two years in his seocnd go around with the Rangers wasn’t that great, either. It’s not like I hate the guy, I’d love to see him have some success and put some numbers up, but I think he’ll have a hard time getting to 500 HR, which my gut tells me is the reason why he keeps going. He’s got 434 now, and he’d have to play I would think 3 years to get that, given I doubt he’ll ever be a full time 145-160 game a year player ever again. I used to rag him over the “Baggy Pants” fiasco in the Hall of Fame game several years ago, and his lack of hustle, really. I’m kind of over that – although I still think he’s more suspectible to the slider down and away than any other recent hitter I’m aware of.
It was a great sight seeing Sadaharu Oh tossed up in the air when Japan won the WBC tonight. Would the US have done that to Buck Martinez? No way. That’s why I like these other countries a bit more than the US, as they’re way more into it. The flavor of the latin teams is just something the US can’t match. It’s one reason why I really wished Chan Ho Park did well here – in his first year, entire sections at the Ballpark would be filled with Korean fans cheering him like you saw in the Venezuela & Dominican Republic games in the WBC. That’s the kind of fun that US baseball lacks. The joy that was evident in the Japanese players was great to see. Not that the US players (or any other team for that matter) wouldn’t have been happy – but the sheer joy of it is something you don’t see much in the US players – or at least I don’t.
Doug Brocail has heart surgery
Read this afternoon that former Ranger reliever Doug Brocail had heart surgery. Something like that is never good. He’s two years younger than me, so I don’t like hearing stuff like that. Don’t like hearing that stuff about people no matter what their age is. I’ll have a small prayer tomorrow at church for Doug and his family. If you’re so inclined, do that yourself, as he was a nice guy, even if he wasn’t our best pitcher most of the time.
Juan Gonzalez to the Cubs?
Read something pretty amusing tonight. The Cubs are interested in Juan Gonzalez apparently. According to this link I saw tonight, the White Sox & the Red Sox are also interested in him.
Cubs – Juando in the National League where he can’t hide behind the DH? I find it hard to believe anyone would take a flyer on him now. If he comes back and hits 40 home runs and drives in 125, I’ll say I’m wrong, but I really don’t think I will be wrong on that.
Soriano loses arbitration
From the “I really feel sorry for THAT” department, Alfonso Soriano lost his arbitration case with the Nationals, and will get ONLY $10 million instead of the $12 he asked for. That’s a record arbitration award anyway, beating the $8.2 that Andrew Jones of the Braves got in 2001.
More here.
Rangers to win AL West, Millwood to win Cy Young
The Texas Rangers are going to win the AL West.
Millwood will win the AL Cy Young
These are a couple of the 2006 predictions by Jim Evans over at Baseball Digest Daily. This is what he says about Millwood in his predictions article..
With all of Texas cheering him on, and Tom Hicks installing a giant fan to counteract the jet stream effect that occurred when he built a luxury box addition to Arlington Stadium, Millwood wins the Cy Young with an ERA of 2.98, and a 23 win season. Johann Santana fans cry foul again, as he leads the league in ERA and strikeouts, but wins 6 less games.
23 wins? 2.98 ERA at our field? A Ranger pitcher a Cy Young winner? Jim, I think you have some bad leftover Egg Nog there. That’s way out there. I’m a Ranger fan, and while I like the optimism, I’d be totally and absolutely stunned if anything like this actually happened. Plus the “giant fan” remark kind of makes the whole paragraph seem like a bit of a joke to me.
Minor rant aside, check out Jim’s article. Has some intersting names turning up in his predictions.
He also makes a remark about imported players like Ichiro & Jojima from Japan being ineligible for Rookie of the Year starting in 2007. That’s a good rule if true – I hadn’t heard of it before. Never felt those guys should be eligible for ROY in the first place. Nothing against them, I love Ichiro a lot as a player, but to call him a “rookie” is a bit of a joke.
Seattle signs Carl Everett
Seattle on Wednesday signed Carl Everett, the former Rangers outfielder. (Story)
I’ll take this chance to say that when he was dealt, he had turned around my opinion of him. He still was unsuited to play center field here, as he’s not fast enough for that position, but I ended up being in his camp when he left. One thing I still admire him about is his stance on his children. So many actors, sports guys, etc have no problem with divulging every piece of information about their family and kids. Not Carl. He has five children, but in every team he’s played for, he gives no information on their names, birthdates, etc. I admire him for trying to keep his personal life personal. I even wrote him a letter about that when he was playing here and told him so.
Good luck Carl, except the 19 times you play us. :)
Sandy Alomar signs with Dodgers
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.
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