Last week, it was announced that the Ballpark in Arlington would be getting some video board upgrades. This is something that has been long since overdue. The changes are a mixture of additions and replacements, plus a couple of subtractions. Since I have a wealth of pictures of the place I’ve taken over the years, I’ll enhance with my own pictures showing the current status, as well as a few words of my own.
Given this will end up being a long article (due to my inclusion of pictures), I’m splitting it off onto its own page. If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you’ll have to visit my site to get the whole article.

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I was expecting to have to brace myself to say goodbye to Victor to see him go to the Padres. Not to Northern New Jersey. Victor was hired by the MLB Network to do both in studio stuff as well as play by play. I will really miss him. I’ve really enjoyed Victor in the years here was here. There’s donut I can think of to say about him in a negative light.
While I will really miss him on Rangers broadcasts, I expect MLB Network to be a daily staple in my house anyway, so I won’t miss him TOO much.
Now, as to the issue of his replacement with Eric Nadel..

IF THAT HAPPENS, THE RADIO WILL NEVER GET TURNED ON AGAIN FOR A RANGERS GAME! COUNT ON IT. Put Steve Busby there. Or heck, get radical. Hire Jamey Newberg. Put him in the booth.
Makes me wonder what will happen if Josh Lewin is hired by the Padres now. Bring back Scott Franzke from Philadelphia, perhaps? Will make next season look quite different.

Since the Winter meetings have started in Vegas, I’ve seen a lot of names tossed around connected to the Rangers. I’ll weigh in (like you were really waiting to hear what I’d say anyway) with some thoughts on these.
First off, I’m seriously glad we haven’t heard the phrase “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” more. That’s another one of those phrases that’s worked its way into the American lexicon that needs to go away. That out of the way, here’s what I think of:
Kerry Wood: There was a bunch of talk about Kerry Wood coming here. I know early on his career he was one of those guys you’d give up the farm to get here. Local boy playing for the Rangers would make for a great feel good story. He’s turned it around lately as a closer. I would have liked if he came here for the touchy feely aspects (I did like the Jason Jennings sign for the same reason). However, if he came here, he’d be the defacto closer, pushing CJ and Frankie backwards in the innings slots. Still, I don’t think the world would have ended had he come here. Reports today say he’s signing with the Indians anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, I suppose.
Randy Johnson: This is probably a Nolan Ryan thing. Bet you that if he wasn’t the team president, this wouldn’t be an option. I keep thinking about that famed meeting between Johnson & Nolan back in Seattle ages ago where supposedly Ryan turned around Johnson. If he came here it would be for a back end of the rotation guy as well as the famed “mentor” tag. This wouldn’t make me jump up and down with excitement if it happened, but I probably wouldn’t be too mad about it either. Depended on money, I suppose as to what my level of excitement would be. We’ve heard that we can’t make certain moves without doing things like moving Blalock for salary room, so if we sign him to $8 million, I’m not buying the “move salary” excuse for anyone else.
Ben Sheets: The obvious connection here is our new pitching coach, Mike Maddux. Maddux being Sheets’ pitching coach in Milwaukee for awhile. There’s also the local story going on here, as Sheets is from this area. This probably would be an OK signing, but again – contract. I would love a kick the tires contract, but that’s unlikely to happen. Keep him on the field, and he’d probably be pretty decent. But that’s the kicker, keeping him on the field. We’ve taken a lot of fliers on guys in recent years who couldn’t stay on the field (Jason Jennings, Adam Eaton, and of course the king of this department, Justin Thompson). I’m indifferent towards this idea, but at the same time realizing it could work.
Gary Sheffield: Haven’t we been down this path before with Carl Everett, Milton Bradley, and to a lesser extent, John Rocker? Of all these “tempramental, but could work if the stars align” players we’ve signed or looked at over the years, Sheffield excites me the least. He’s way on the decline, and I would go nuts watching that bat waggle 162 games. Ugh. Pass. Hope this doesn’t happen.
Eddie Guardado: I wrote this last summer when we traded Eddie to the Twins, I wrote the following about the move..

Eddie Guardado was traded to the Twins today, his original organization. Eddie was one of those guys that when we first signed him back in January, I thought “What the heck are we doing?” Turned out Eddie was a great guy, pitched pretty well, if not spectacular, and had a fire in him that you wished more guys had. Still, we’re not going anywhere, and if he can help the Twins, I wish him well.

I still agree with that. He was a great move for us last year. If he can do the same thing in 2009, I wouldn’t mind having him here at all. I’d be behind this move. Speaking of Eddie, whatever happened to Mark Hamburger (the guy we got from the Twins for Eddie)? I can’t recall hearing his name uttered since the trade, tell you the truth.
GOING THE OTHER WAY:
Hank Blalock: I still think he’s going to be moved before the season starts. I can’t give you facts, or a reliable link. It’s just a gut feeling. My unscientific, and unlinking rambling says that it’s the Giants.
Michael Young: When I saw the reports that we were “quietly shopping” Michael Young, I did actually utter “what?” at my computer screen. Mostly because I couldn’t see us moving him this soon after signing that huge extension. The only moving I see him do is to third base (or back to second). It’s not one of those blind fan things like “You can’t trade him! I love Michael!!!!!!!”. It’s more a “who would want that contract”, and it’s not like he’s a bad player, either.
Jarrod Saltamacchia: With Laird off to the Motor City, I have a hard time seeing that we’ll move one of our remaining guys now. The current situation is a split (I think) between Salty and Teagarden, with Ramirez in AAA. If we moved Salty, it had better be for a big return – meaning something major league ready, as it would leave our catching team as Teargden and Ramirez, and feeling suddenly thin again pretty quickly after being too deep. There’s talks that Florida wants Salty, but the Rangers aren’t interested unless we include 22-year-old right-hander Chris Volstad. There’s also talk that the Marlins are kicking the tires on Pudge again.

I think everyone expected the Rangers to not go into 2009 carrying four catchers. That logjam was relieved somewhat early this morning when Gerald Laird was traded to the Detroit Tigers.
In return, we got two minor league pitching prospects. Their names were Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. Stats and writeup about minor leaguers I’ve never heard before are not my strong point, so I’m going to shamelessly rip off what Scott Lucas (of the Newberg Report) wrote about them.

Used mostly as a starter, the 25-year-old, 6’1″ righty walked eight and struck out 50 in 34.2 innings with a 3.12 ERA in AA Erie. Earlier in 2008, he posted a 2.42 ERA in 52 high-A innings. As Jamey mentioned, Moscoso was recently named Detroit’s #10 prospect by Baseball America. He’s presently pitching for Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, where he has an 8.36 ERA in 14 relief innings.
In addition to Guillermo Moscoso, Texas will receive 6’3″ RHP Carlos Melo, a native of the Dominican Republic. Melo made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2008, posting a 5.14 ERA in 49 innings. Per Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press, Melo “is known for an electric fastball that averages well over 90 miles per hour.” Melo struck out 61 of 187 batters faced (33%) and walked 20 (11%) in the DSL.

While I’m sure these guys are pretty decent prospects, I do have to admit to being disappointed that we didn’t get anything major league ready (or at least close to it) in return. Catcher was one of our rare really strong points, and I do have to say I really wanted something back that would show an immediate impact in Arlington. From what I’ve read online, that’s neither of these guys. We’ve had way too many trades over the last several years that would fall under “bag of magic beans” category, and while I can’t say that about the two new inbound prospects, I can’t get over that feeling of “Oh great, here we go again”.
I always felt Laird got the shaft when he got hurt, and lost his job here to Rod Barajas at the time. Given our catching logjam wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, perhaps it’s best to send him somewhere that he’ll get a chance to play. It’s mildly interesting that Laird will become the regular catcher in Detroit, replacing their last regular catcher, a former Rangers catcher who famously wore #7 during his time here (yeah, I know he was with the Yankees at the end of the season, but you know what I mean).
This will immediately make Saltamacchia and Teagarden the major league catching team in Arlington, with Max Ramirez going to AAA, I would wager. I’d also expect us to sign a journeyman veteran catcher to play with Ramirez in AAA (A Guillermo Quiroz / Adam Melhuse kind of guy). Laird was our best “game calling” catcher, so hopefully Saltamacchia can step that up. The biggest plus for Laird was his superior defense. Hopefully the guys who we will go to battle with in 09 can pick it up, as Laird’s gundown rate was pretty darned good.
Also, ESPN’s MLB site is currently running a poll asking which is the best remaining catcher the Rangers have? I’ve embedded the poll here on my site below:
Edit: They’ve changed the poll to something else, but when I last looked at it, Jarrod Saltamacchia was leading with a 72% vote.

I received a flyer from the Rangers yesterday for 2009 full and half season ticket plans. Unless I win the lottery, I’m not doing THAT. But, it does have one thing in it I had not seen before. 2009 ticket prices. One would think that with the economy in the toilet, that they wouldn’t raise any prices. Not so. Almost all of them are going up in some capacity. The majority of the increases are small (on the order of a dollar), and almost all of them are in the “Premium Game” group. Still, I broke out a 2008 pocket schedule, and compared it to the 2009 flyer. Here’s what I found:
Changed ticket prices:

A few notes. The Commissioner’s Box and the VIP Infield sections are listed as N/A. That’s presumably because you can’t buy them on the fly, they’re usually dignitaries, or are already gone, so I’m not surprised those aren’t listed.
The Upper Home Run Porch has N/A as it’s prices in this chart, which I find odd, as that never sells out – unless the entire game is sold out. Not even close. Given the prices I’ve seen in this comparison, I have to imagine it’s the same as the others. The regular price is the same, and the premium is up $1. That’s why I have “guess” in the chart above.
The Premium games are listed as:

• April 6 (Indians – Home Opener)
• May 16 (Angels, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• May 25-27 (Yankees)
• June 13 (Dodgers, Saturday Interleague game)
• June 27 (Padres, Saturday Interleague game)
• July 18 (Twins, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• July 20-22 (Red Sox)
• August 1 (Mariners, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• August 14-16 (Red Sox)

I’m sure if this gets covered at all in the press, the Rangers response will be something like “90% of the tickets are going up only $1 and only for 16 games”. They’re right mostly – the majority of people won’t be affected too much.
But still. This is just more evidence that the team still doesn’t GET IT. They want less empty seats? Either win, or cut your prices. Don’t sneak tiny price hikes out there like this.
Bet you beer goes up another quarter, too.

A few thoughts about a few things recently in RangerLandâ„¢. :)
Arbitration:
To no one’s surprise, Milton Bradley was offered arbitration. I think most everyone would like him to be back in 2009, but Milton made a lot of noise about retiring if he doesn’t get a multiyear deal. I don’t see THAT happening, but he’ll probably try. The arbitration offer will definitely call his bluff on the retiring thing. I really don’t know which way he’ll go on the decision, which is due on Sunday night at 11PM. Assuming he doesn’t take it, we’ll get a sandwich pick between Rounds 1 & 2 of next year’s draft.
The other players we had eligible for arbitration (Jamey Wright, Jason Jennings, & Ramon Vazquez) were not offered arbitration. I don’t see Jamey Wright coming back in 2009. Ramon Vazquez is being courted by a few teams in the National League, plus we have some other guys (Arias, Duran) who can play the super sub role. Jason Jennings will probably get a minor league deal. I’ve seen a few remarks in the last few days that both sides seem to want that, and is a “can’t hurt” kind of idea, since he’s off the 40 man.
Speaking of players not offered arbitration.. If Bradley doesn’t come back, I wouldn’t mind taking a flyer on Pat Burrell to replace his bat in the lineup. If Burrell doesn’t go back to Philly, he might want a one year “make good” contract, which could work here. Their numbers in 2008:
Games: Burrell 157, Bradley 126
AB: Burrell 536, Bradley 414
H: Burrell 134, Bradley 133
AVG: Burrell .250, Bradley .321
HR: Burrell 33, Bradley 22
RBI: Burrell 86, Bradley 77
BB: Burrell 102, Bradley 112
K: Burrell 136, Bradley 112
OBP: Burrell .367, Bradley .436
SLG: Burrell .507, Bradley .536
Burrell has a lower batting average, but the power numbers are somewhat better than Bradley – but he did also play more games. I’m not saying “GIMME BURRELL!”, but if he’s available on a decent short term deal, I wouldn’t be upset.
Spring Training Schedule Released:
The other day the Rangers announced the schedule for Spring training. I’ve updated my site’s schedule page with the 2009 schedule. I found the way I did it in 2008 was by far the easiest I’ve had in all my years doing this site (2009 will be the 11th season since I started this site). The biggest problem I’ve always had was doing the game update, and then having to do the index page. Last year I got some templates in place which allowed me to update the game, and then the schedule page would be updated with the result, and a link to my commentary. I’m doing the same thing for 2009. The hassle is in setting it up – it takes about two hours to set up one month’s page, it’s really tedious template work, but it pays off during the season with zero work to update. Anyway, check out my schedule.
A note about spring training this year. Traditionally the Rangers have only scheduled a single off day. This year there are four scheduled off days during spring training. I wonder if that’s any sort of concession to the World Baseball Classic. Radio and TV has not been announced for spring yet, but generally Saturday and Sunday games are on the radio (and the odd Friday game), and two games are on TV at the end of spring training. My guess is they’ll follow that pattern again, but I don’t have firm info on that yet.
Padres and our broadcasters:
There was a report not too long ago that the San Diego Padres are considering both Josh Lewin & Victor Rojas for their open TV broadcaster slot. I have to say I’ve grown to really like Victor Rojas, and would be bummed out if he left. Obviously, if he was offered the job, it’s a promotion for him, and that would be good for Vic. Bad for us. This is what I wish would happen.. The Padres hire Josh Lewin to be “Mr. San Diego”. As he’s already a broadcaster for the Chargers, it could work in that regard. You then promote Victor Rojas to be the play by play guy for the Rangers on TV. Then hire back Scott Franzke from the Phillies to be Eric’s radio partner. That’s unlikely to happen as Franzke is already on TV in Philly. Philly announcers do it differently than here – there’s no dedicated radio & TV guys. It’s just broadcasters, and after three innings or so, they switch from TV to radio, so you never have the same announcers for an entire game. So Scott would be unlikely to return. However, DO NOT PROMOTE MIKE OGULNICK FROM THE POST-GAME SHOW! (OR JIM KNOX FOR THAT MATTER) He is the reason I have stopped listening to the Rangers postgame show completely. If they put him on radio, I’d probably have to stop listening to that too – despite Nadel being there. Shudder.
So yeah, I don’t want Victor to go anywhere. Please.
Mariners Raid:
The Mariners hired Don Wakamatsu as their manager, and when he was signed, it didn’t occur to me that he might raid our staff. There’s widespread reports that Rick Adair, our minor league pitching coordinator as their new bullpen coach. On top of that, our former pitching coach Mark Connor is supposed to be named their pitching coach. I’m sure the Adair move will bug Jamey Newberg more than me, but I don’t see it as the end of the world. I guess because I haven’t seen a tremendous amount of success at the major league level with the guys that have come out of the minor leagues. Yeah, yeah – I know. There’s a million variables behind that, and it can’t be blanketed with a comment that easily.

Back in early November, Jamey Newberg had this in one of his email reports:

According to MLB.com, right-handed reliever Kazuo Fukumori signed a minor league contract to return to the Rangers.

I find that odd, as his original contract was a one year deal with team options for 2009 & 2010. He had a $1.4 Million salary for 2008, and the same in 2009 and $1.75 Million in 2010. Both 09 & 10 were team options with $200k buyouts each. If they resigned him to a minor league deal, that tells me that they bought out the two option years, and resigned him. I’ve not seen anything about this anywhere online – and Jamey didn’t know anything about it, either.
Does anyone reading this know what happened with the Fukumori option years – officially? If so, pass along a link or something in the comments. Danke.
UPDATE: I found a link on the Sporting News Canada website that says the Rangers technically released him back on May 11th, which would have meant a buyout of his options (plus presumably payment of the remaining 2008 salary). Still kind of surprised I never saw this get any news reporting until now – and even then only because I went and dug for it.

Yesterday afternoon, Michael Young got some vindication when he won the 2008 AL Gold Glove award for shortstop. This has been a bone of contention between Rangers fans and the uh “National media”, who always seemed to slag Young on defense. There were always these really strange sabre-metric things which showed Young at the bottom of the barrel defensively, that other guys are better shortstops if you apply these strange numbers and conditions (like what compass direction a digested twinkie is moving in your digestive system). But you just had to watch Young to know he was a good shortstop. If you’re one of these people who rely on strange numbers to prove anything, I think you’re missing the point. Use your eyes, not your head – Young is a great defensive shortstop. Now I don’t make a case that he’s the best ever, but he’s certainly up near the top of the game. I think by the time his career is over, he’ll have amassed a huge number of individual awards beyond the ones he already has. Will he have a ring to go with it? Hopefully. :)
His 2008 numbers were quite good. He had a .984 fielding percentage, which was second in the majors (behind only Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies). He lead all shortstops by being involved in 113 double plays (which is more of a team stat than an individual stat, really), and ranked second in assists and total chances. I think he’s pretty deserving, and yeah, I’m a Rangers fan, so I’m bound to say that. But show me someone in the AL who is better this past year. Unless you’re going to play the homer vote for your own team, you can’t, really.
The other thing I wanted to talk about is Hank Blalock. As I type this sentence at 12:46PM on Friday, the Rangers have not yet picked up Blalock’s option. Several local media outlets have said that it’s a foregone conclusion he will, so I’m writing this as if they already have. If for some reason they do not, I’ll have to re-edit this story later today. :) Anyway, with Blalock’s option picked up for 2009, he’s on the books for $6.2 Million. Apparently, the reason it hasn’t been picked up so far is the Rangers wanted to talk to him face to face, and tell him what they have planned. Which, according to several published reports is to trade him for pitching. If we kept him, it wouldn’t be awful, but would create a logjam. Blalock probably can’t effectively play third anymore, so he’d be either at first or at DH. Being at first puts a block on Chris Davis. Now Davis can go play third, but he’s better at first. I also personally have never liked the concept of a dedicated DH. I always felt that the DH should be an open position that someone who is hurt, or needs a day off can go bat, and not strain themselves too much on the field. I think Blalock will be moved somewhere in the offseason, Chris Davis will open at first.
That leaves a regular third base job open. The immediate thought would be Ramon Vazquez (they’d have to sign him for more than one year, and hand him third base to keep him), or Travis Metcalf. He can play third, but his long term bat is still a bit suspect, I think. We’ve been hearing the Rangers kick the tires of a few free agent third baseman, none of which really excites me. I’d rather take my chances with Metcalf, or resign Vazquez to play 3B.
As for Blalock, though, I always felt he’d be here for a long time, it’s a shame it appears he’s on his way out. Guess there will be no more Hank’s Homies. They’ve been gone as a regular game sight for awhile, but this would finish them off, I’m sure. That was quite fun when it was new.
Anyway, congratulations to Michael Young on his Gold Glove. Hopefully he wins some more hardware to go with that. Like one all of us can celebrate.
UPDATE @ 5PM Friday: Just noticed that Blalock’s option was officially picked up. No surprise there – I think the shock would have been if they did not. Of course, now the fun begins as to see what we do with him. I did find it funny that the Rangers official site used this headline on the site for this story. “Rangers bring back Blalock for 2009 campaign”. That’s not quite what they did. They picked up his option. Misleading headline there. :)

I meant to write about this the day it happened, but I was having a bit of a pain flareup, and was not in the mood to creatively write. Now I’m laying in my bed with my leg raised up on a pillow, and leaning to my site to write on my laptop after about seven hours of watching election returns. A quick note about that. I really enjoyed the returns on my HDTV with NBC’s coverage. The space on the side that you wouldn’t see on an old style TV was filled up with other info (recent state wins, electoral tally, etc) which was really cool to have while the main talking was going on. I enjoyed that.
Anyway, the other day the Rangers hired Mike Maddux to be their pitching coach. By all accounts, this is a great hire. There are a lot of numbers you can point at during his tenure in Milwaukee. Their ERA was great, several pitchers who left there tanked elsewhere. As a fan of the team, all the local fan website writers are all behind the move – and I am, too. This move should really help our team with one if its biggest problems – pitching. If you’re reading this site, you are no stranger to the numbers that comprise the Rangers pitching staff stats. 5.97 ERA last season, and while I don’t have them in front of me, they weren’t much better in any of the other recent years. Maddux’ pedigree says he should help improve our staff. You know it, I know it, Jamey Newberg knows it, and team management expects it.
Thats’ where my excitement about a pitching coach hire ends – because I think this is not the kind of hire that will excite the fanbase, really. Why? If you are reading this site, or any of the other Ranger fan sites (Baseball Time in Arlington, Lone Star Ball, Jamey’s site, etc, etc, etc..) then you know the value. But your average Joe Six Pack (yeah, had to work in another presidential thing) doesn’t really care about that. I’m talking about the doofuses who call in to post game shows and go “When are we going to get some pitching in here?” These are the guys who will look at the 2009 rotation of Millwood, Padilla, Feldman, Harrison, & ? and go “These are the same guys – they’re not doing aything!” Your average fan who is interested only in things like the all you can eat seats won’t give a rats spit about the coaches. They want wins. Obviously, we all want that, but unless you’re a fan who reads a site like mine, you probably don’t care whether the pitching coach is Dick Bosman, Orel Hershisher, Oscar Ocosta, Mark Connor, or Mike Maddux.
Having said that, I think the move is a good one, it should help us. I’d be surprised if it helps us in 2009, though. I’m sure we’ll see an improvement, but probably not an immediate dramatic one. It’s probably a good idea that we kept on Andy Hawkins on the staff. His familiarity will certainly help, I’m sure.
I still think we should have John Wetteland as a bullpen coach, however. Would LOVE to see that.