We have a winner! The answer was 55. That’s a lot of players. Here is a complete list of all the players that were on the big league roster for the Texas Rangers in 2008. I kept track of this all season, and I intend on doing so again in 2009.

Total players in 2008: 55
Total pitchers used in 2008: 30
Total position players used in 2008: 25
Total players making major league debut: 13

• #55 – Brian Gordon (Sep 15 – Major League Debut)
• #54 – Bill White (Aug 25)
• #53 – Nelson Cruz (Aug 25)
• #52 – Brandon McCarthy (Aug 22)
• #51 – Joaquin Arias (Aug 18)
• #50 – Jason Ellison (Aug 7 – DFA Aug 25)
• #49 – Tommy Hunter (Aug 1 – Major League Debut)
• #48 – Ryan Roberts (Jul 29 – Major League Debut)
• #47 – Taylor Teagarden (Jul 18 – Major League Debut)
• #46 – Joselo Diaz (Jul 11 – DFA Jul 18)
• #45 – Matt Harrison (Jul 8 – Major League Debut)
• #44 – Warner Madrigal (Jun 28 – Major League Debut)
• #43 – Chris Davis (Jun 26 – Major League Debut)
• #42 – Max Ramirez (Jun 21 – Major League Debut)
• #41 – Eric Hurley (Jun 12 – Major League Debut)
• #40 – Kameron Loe (Jun 4)
• #39 – Elizardo Ramirez (Jun 3 – DFA Jun 8)
• #38 – Robinson Tejeda (May 30 – DFA Jun 15)
• #37 – Doug Mathis (May 11 – Major League Debut)
• #36 – Travis Metcalf (May 8)
• #35 – A.J. Murray (May 2)
• #34 – Brandon Boggs (Apr 29 – Major League Debut)
• #33 – Chris Shelton (Apr 29)
• #32 – Sidney Ponson (Apr 26 – DFA Jun 6)
• #31 – Jarrod Saltamacchia (Apr 25)
• #30 – Frank Francisco (Apr 22)
• #29 – German Duran (Apr 17 – Major League Debut)
• #28 – Wes Littleton (Apr 14)
• #27 – Scott Feldman (Apr 13)
• #26 – Luis Mendoza (Apr 12)
• #25 to #1: Joaquin Benoit, Franklyn German, Kazuo Fukumori (Major League Debut), Jason Jennings, Dustin Nippert, Kevin Millwood, Jamey Wright, Josh Rupe, Vicente Padilla, Kason Gabbard, Eddie Guardado (traded Aug 25), C.J. Wilson, Gerald Laird, Adam Melhuse (Released Apr 25), Hank Blalock, Jason Botts (traded Jun 4), Ben Broussard (Released May 15), Ian Kinsler, Ramon Vazquez, Michael Young, Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, Frank Catalanotto, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy

Caught the commentary on the Josh Hamilton book the other night watching the game, and looked into it. It’s coming out on October 16th, and is apparently more of Josh’s personal life story. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Click on the book cover here to get to Amazon.com’s pre-order page (which is currently selling the book for 32% off). There’s more about the book in this story over on the Rangers’ site.

I know I’m behind on games again, I’ll catch up at some point, but I don’t know when right now, as my company is releasing a new product tomorrow, so I’m really tied up with that.

The Ft Worth Star Telegram has an article online today talking about the tentative 2009 schedule. According to that article..

• The Rangers will open at home (against Cleveland)
• The Rangers will close the season in Seattle again
• Interleague Away: Astros, Giants, Diamondbacks
• Interleague Home: Astros, Padres, Dodgers

I personally would prefer games start at 7:35 again, but I’ve ranted enough about that.

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.
In return, we get minor league prospect Mark Hamburger. My first thought upon hearing that was not how well can he pitch, was “how badly can Josh Lewin go off on the obvious jokes there”? Since I’d never heard of him, I’m going to shamelessly steal from Jamey Newberg’s update about him (since Jamey seems to know everyone in every minor league team everywhere)…

The player Texas has acquired from Minnesota for Eddie Guardado is 21-year-old right-handed reliever Mark Hamburger, a Minnesota native who is 1-2, 4.17 with 13 saves in 14 tries for Elizabethton in the Short-Season Appalachian League. The lanky 6’4″ righty has held the league to a .250 average (righties have been particularly inept, hitting .221/.292/.305 off of him), striking out 40 and walking 13 in 36.2 innings while inducing 1.27 as many groundouts as flyouts. He posted a 1.20 ERA in 2007, logging 15 innings (12 hits, four walks, 12 strikeouts) after signing with the Twins as an undrafted free agent out of Mesabi Range Community College.

To take Eddie’s roster spot, the team purchased the contract of Bill White, who made a handful of appearances for the Rangers last year. Nine appearances with a little over 9 innings pitched, and an ERA of 4.82. Not the greatest numbers there, but by all accounts has been having a bangup year in 2008. Given that we’ve effectively tanked in August, we’ll probably see a lot more guys come up once the rosters expand next Monday.
The bigger question is – who will be the formal closer, or are we going to hear that phrase that ends in the word “committee” again?
UPDATE: The closer will be Frank Francisco. Probably not a terrible idea.
Also, the flip side of the Guardado trade is that Mike Lamb was designated for assignment by the Twins to make room.

This comes from a story I just read called “C.J. Wilson is a pud. Ron Washington is a stud.” I don’t know if it’s as hostile as this guy makes it out to be, but kudos to Washington for not taking that. Kind of reminds me of the Tomo Ohka “turn his back” on his manager walking to the mound. You can’t let your players give you crap like that. I wonder if this thing with Wash will put to rest the fan perception that Wash has no control, or is a weak manager.

Well, OK, there isn’t such a thing. At least not officially. Anyone who watches the Rangers all the time knows this already. But it’s nice to see a Ranger get some national love. Of course with the numbers Kinsler has been putting up, it’s hard to truly ignore him.
ESPN’s Jayson Stark has handed out his first half awards, and he names Ian Kinsler the first half AL MVP. Which is a pretty deserving award, I’d say. Here’s what Jayson had to say:

If you’re one of those folks who hasn’t paid much attention to Ian Kinsler — which at least puts you in a group that includes just about everyone in America except Mrs. Kinsler — it would probably come as a shock to hear he’s even the MVP of his own team. But while Josh Hamilton is a more charismatic story and Milton Bradley’s 1.033 OPS makes him a sabermetric hero, it’s Kinsler who has really been the centerpiece of one of the best offenses in baseball.
You’ll undoubtedly be stunned to learn that Kinsler leads the league in batting, hits, runs, total bases, extra-base hits and multihit games. He’s in the top five in the league in nine major offensive categories. He has stolen 23 bases in 24 tries (with the only caught-stealing on a pickoff). He’s hitting .397 with men in scoring position. Only three of his 14 homers have been hit in that Texas home run paradise. He has run off separate hitting streaks of 23 and 19 games just since mid-May. And he has reached base in every game but one since May 16.
The only arguments against him come down to defense (16 errors) and the fact that his team hasn’t been closer to first place than six games since June 1. But the Rangers actually have more wins since April 24 (42) than the White Sox (41), Angels (41) and Red Sox (40). So every number on Kinsler’s stat sheet is relevant to his club’s revival. And that’s good enough for us.

I was cleaning up my bookmarks file this morning, and found a couple of Josh Hamilton links I can’t recall if I mentioned before. Posting them in case you haven’t, either.
1) Josh’s Sports Illustrated Cover article
2) Video interview with Josh by Harold Reynolds of mlb.com.

I was listening to “The Show” on XM Channel 175, and they had David Murphy on. Was nice to see him get some national love. He said the usual stuff you’d expect about his team and all that. But the thing he talked about which made me post this entry was rookie hazing.

He talked about how the Rangers last year had their rookie hazing – they took the rookies, and the vets with the most service time got to pick a rookie’s name and had them wear what they wanted. Murphy said that Brad Wilkerson had picked him, and the next day there was a Tooth Fairy outfit in his locker to wear. So Murphy had to wear that on the plane flight, and also to some party that night as well.

He pointed out that he’s probably going to have to do it again this year, because of the oddity that he’s still technically a rookie. To make it worse, he had to do this in 2006 as well after being up with the Red Sox in September of 2006 too! He didn’t seem genuinely mad about it, but seemed like “Oh boy, I get to do this a third time now”

On the positive side, Murphy did mention that the Red Sox did give him a World Series ring after being up with them for just three games in 2007.

I’ve been sending emails for the last few months to members of my congregation telling them about Josh Hamilton. I sent them a few emails about his baseball activities (since I’m sure most of my congregation don’t follow the team that closely), and also making them aware of his strength from God.

So I told them today about his winning the AL Player of the month for the first two months of the season (something that’s never been done before). Mentioned he’s now second in AL outfielders in the All-Star voting.

But one thing I noticed this afternoon which probably won’t get as much press was the fact that he changed his agents. SI reported this fact today. Here’s what they had to say:

Josh Hamilton’s negotiations for a long-term deal may be held up a little by his decision to switch agents during negotiations that appeared to be progressing. Hamilton, a born-again Christian after returning from bouts with his drug addiction, explained to friends that he wanted to be with a Christian stable, so he switched agents from Matt Sosnick to Michael Moye as he seemed to be closing in on a long contract.

I don’t suspect that will impact much. Somehow I don’t see Josh’s walk with God leading him to milk the Rangers for dumptrucks full of money – although he may end up with it, anyway.

As someone who also believes hard in Jesus & God, the fact that Josh is using baseball as a platform to push the Gospel is most refreshing for me.

I’m going to be at Saturday’s game. It will only be my second game of the year so far (after opening day). I’m getting a good one. The pitching matchup will be Vicente Padilla and Roy Oswalt. That should be quite good (assuming they both pitch like themselves). Just saw one thing come across the Ft Worth Star Telegram Rangers blog. Check this out:

The national anthem before the Rangers-Astros game at 6 p.m. Saturday will be played and sung live via satellite from Baghdad, Iraq. The anthem will be performed by soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division, which is based in Fort Hood. This is the first time the Rangers have had the anthem performed via satellite.

Normally, the National Anthem bores me. Not the message behind it, but the fact that most people who sing it make it their personal time to go “LOOK AT ME!”
However, having it come in from Iraq is a seriously badass idea. I can’t wait to see that.