Today I called up the Rangers and ordered the 10 voucher ticket pack for 2007 like I had for 2006. Ordering early gets you a couple of free Stars tickets. I like the voucher packs, as they offer a bit more flexibility than an actual mini plan. This has worked well for me the way my life has been since my daughter has arrived.
Anyway, when I called up, I added on a “pack” of parking vouchers. There’s no discount for doing that, but I like having the pre-paid parking. Anyway, the cost for that was $60. Last year it was $50, and it came with 5 passes.
My immediate response was “Oh, so parking’s $12 next year”? The ticket guy said yeah, I’m sorry about that, but you know how it is. He also said “… at least $12 for next year”. That sounded more scary. However, if they tried to take cash parking from $10 to $14 in one year I think there would be a revolt.
Thought I’d pass along this bit of information, as I’m sure fans will “love” it.

Well, the big “meeting” apparently has ended with Buck Showalter out.
This is breaking news now, so my story will probably stay in flux until all the info is out. Here’s the stories on it so far:

• Ft Worth Star Telegram
• Texas Rangers Site
• ESPN/AP Story – with video
• Dallas Morning News | DMN Rangers blog
• The Biz of Baseball.com
• Baseball Musings.com

This news actually forced me to listen to the ticket (ugh, at least Norm’s on), and they said that Wakamatsu will be the replacement.
My personal opinion? I wasn’t part of the lynch mob who wanted him out, I wasn’t grabbing my pitchfork. On the other hand, the talk about people bitching and the big name players not liking him might make them stick around more. I guess this might make for a happier clubhouse if the reports are true.
Now how about announcing the long term contract for Gary Matthews? Resigning Mark DeRosa? That’s the kind of news I’d like to hear.
Anyway, who would you want as a replacement? Leave a comment here with your thoughts.
UPDATE @ 12:50PM: According to this, Buck was asked to resign and refused, so he was fired. Be interesting to see what’s said in the press conference this afternoon.
UPDATE #2 @ 2:30PM The ESPN story now has some video of the Baseball Tonight crew talking about the firing. Link.

It was announced today that infielder/outfielder Eric Young was signed to a minor league contract for the remainder of the 2006 season. This is the same Eric Young who batted .288 (99-344) with 55 runs, 14 stolen bases and 27 RBI in 104 games with the Rangers in 2004.
The way I personally perceive this is he’s here as a bench / guiding kind of person in September as we make a run for the playoffs. I never wanted Eric Young to leave in the first place, although his spot (more or less) was taken by Mark DeRosa. I can’t imagine he’ll still be with the club in 2007, but it’s probably a good pickup for the stretch run.

2:50PM. Fox Sports is reporting that Kip Wells is coming to Texas. The word is that minor leaguer Jesse Chavez is going back to Pittsburgh.
Update: This is official, apparently, as the Rangers site has posted the announcement.
Update #2: Here’s Kip Wells’ financial status.
1 year/$4.15M (2006), plus $0.27M in incentives
* $0.27M in incentives
o $50,000 for 195 IP
o $100,000 each for 200 & 205 IP
o $25,000 for 210 IP
Once all the fallout from the deadline is over, I’ll update my roster & transactions page, as I’m sure some other subsequent moves will probably have to be made relative to the 25 man roster.

Just saw this come across the ESPN website. It’s just happening, so I’ll have more to say later.
Power ball: Lee headed to Rangers
The Brewers are trading Carlos Lee to the Rangers as part of a multi-player deal, ESPN’s Keith Law has learned. Texas also will get Nelson Cruz and a player to be named for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix.
Update: ESPN has a story on it now. Link.
Update #2: It’s now on MLB.com as well. Link.
Update #3: Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports weighs in on the trade, calling it one that can “impact both leagues”. Link.
Update #4: Aaron Gleeman from Rotoworld weighs in on the trade, calling the inclusion of Nelson Cruz “the most surprising part of this deal.” Link.
Update #5: Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline has an article with a similar slant to Ken Rosenthal’s. Link.
Update #6: TR Sullivan has a lot more to say in this story on the Rangers site. In it, talks about Cruz as a key to the deal, even so far as to having JD call him “our right fielder for some time”. This same link now has a 10 minute audio interview with TR Sullivan with the guys from MLB Radio, so check that out, too.
You can discuss this subject on this thread on our forums here.

Here’s a few thoughts by me on the outgoing Rangers players (other than the minor league pitcher Julian Cordero, who I don’t know anything about):
Mench: I always liked Kevin, the goofy fun attitude worked for me. However, we all know it never rubbed well with Showalter. Also, Mench developed into a rather streaky hitter, with more trips on the slump side than the hot side. Probably fell out of favor due to a combination of both of those.
Nix: Even moreso than Mench. Definitely tried hard enough, but always seemed to not get much above the Mendoza line when he had a chance to grasp the CF job. Could really power a home run. Nix was the only guy I ever recall (besides Carlos Delgado) who hit a home run to right field that went OVER section 251 (last in upper home run porch) and into the walkway back there.
Cordero: We all know what happened to him and his closer’s job. Looks like Otsuka is set now, we’ll probably sign him to at least 2007, I would imagine. Cordero was the final link to the big Juan Gonzalez Tigers trade some years ago. All the players from that are out of the system now.
As far Carlos Lee, he’s (in my opinion) a more reliable stick than any of the current outfield options we have at the moment, so that will be an upgrade. He’s only under contract for 2006, he had an $8.5 Million 2006 option excersized by the Brewers in the last offseason, so he can be a free agent after this year. Be curious to see if we try and keep him especially if we try and make a run at Vernon Wells in the offseason. I also don’t know much about the other inbound player, Nelson Cruz, so I don’t have anything to add there, either.
Anyone know if Lee will be in uniform tonight in Texas?
As I said in one of the updates, TR Sullivan has some good stuff to say. Read this article over at the Rangers site. This article also says that Josh Rupe is being called up to take Cordero’s empty roster spot, but how the actual bullpen jobs break down is as of yet unknown. This same link now has a 10 minute audio interview with TR Sullivan with the guys from MLB Radio, so check that out, too.

I didn’t think Alfonseca was pitching that bad that he needed to be DFA’ed, but that happened this afternoon. Antonio was DFA’ed to make room for Bryan Corey who was brought up from AAA. Here’s some text from the Rangers press release about Corey:

After signing as a minor league free agent before the season, Corey has pitched in Double- and Triple-A this season. At both levels this season he combined to appear in 25 games and was 1-0, 2.23 with 15 saves.
He began 2006 at Double-A Frisco where he was 1-0, 2.08 with seven saves in 13 games. He threw 17.1 innings and allowed 16 hits, seven runs (four earned) while walking six and striking out 19, holding opponents to a .242 average. After being promoted to Oklahoma, Corey, 33, was 0-0, 0.60 (1 ER/15.0 IP) with eight saves and 16 strikeouts over 12 appearances.
He has a career minor league record of 50-47, 4.06 (342 ER/759.0 IP) with 84 saves and 538 strikeouts over 485 appearances/29 starts. Corey made his major league debut on May 13, 1998 with Arizona vs. Milwaukee. He has made four major league appearances going 0-0, 7.20 (4 ER/5.0 IP) with both the Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Here’s Bryan’s page on baseball-reference.com. He has only four previous major league appearances. One in 2002, and three in 1998. Definitely seems like a career minor leaguer to me. I wonder how long he’ll stick here.

Apparently Phil Nevin has been traded to the Cubs. No further details available. What little is known at the time I type this is available here on the Dallas Morning News site.
UPDATE: Phil has been traded to the Cubs with $ for Jerry Hairston Jr. There’s a brief story about it on the Rangers site here. There’s also a wire story about it here.
UPDATE #2: Here’s a Cubs fan take on the trade.

Tuesday’s DMN is running an article saying that there will be contact extensions given to the broadcast team (although they don’t mention the Spanish radio guys in this).
According to the article, Victor Rojas, Tom Grieve, & Josh Lewin will receive either three or four year extensions, depending on who it is. Eric Nadel will also get a deal that will make him a “Ranger for Life”. What that technically means, I guess we’ll find out later today. But it’s nice to see this. These are all “extensions”, so I’m not sure exactly when all their contracts run out. Kind of amsuing this popped up, as I was wondering what the contact status of these guys was anyway earlier on Monday. Also in the article is the note that Josh Lewin will increase his workload from 130 to 155 games a year. Quite frankly, I think it should be 162, I never liked the sub. Again, I have nothing against Bill Land, but Land broadcasts don’t have the same pulse as a Lewin broadcast. TOm Grieve seems to be a mirror of who is with him. When Bill Jones was the other seat, the broadcasts weren’t as lively, either. Josh Lewin really brings out “TAG”. And that’s a good thing.
The article also mentions that Eric Nadel will now be doing games for over 30 years. It’s nice to have that kind of continuity in a broadcaster. I grew up in Philly, and Philly baseball means Harry Kalas. It also means Richie Ashburn, but he’s been gone awhile now. Actually, Richie Ashburn equates to Tom Grieve pretty well. The only difference between Ashburn and Grieve is that Ashburn was never the GM of the club. They both played and both broadcasted for quite awhile after playing. Ashburn & Kalas mean a lot to this kid growing up in Philly. It’s nice to have Eric Nadel around – I get the same feeling from him. Whenever you hear Eric Nadel talk about broadcasters (and in particular Mark Holtz), he always downplays himself. Sorry Eric – you don’t have 28 years with a team and not be good. If you were as bad as you seem to make yourself out to be in speeches, you wouldn’t have been here this long. Eric is the same treasure to my baseball ears that Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn were.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out one of the lesser known pages on my site. It’s the broadcaster history page, which shows all the TV and radio broadcasters going back to 1972. There’s some big names in there which some people might not be aware broadcasted Rangers games. I speak of Don Drysdale, Tom Vandergriff, & Jon Miller.
UPDATE @ 2PM: The Rangers site has the official announcement about these extensions up now. You can read it here.
This morning I emailed Victor Rojas to congratulate him on the extension, and he told me his contract now runs through the year 2010. That’s a piece of info I did not see in either story (he said it wasn’t a secret, so that’s why I said it here).

There were of course a boatload of roster moves made, but the 25 man roster has been set. Unless I’ve missed something, this is what our roster will be like on Monday..
Starting Pitchers:
Kevin Millwood
Vicente Padilla
Kameron Loe
R.A. Dickey
John Koronka
Relief Pitchers:
Akinori Otsuka
Antonio Alfonseca
Brian Shouse
Fabio Castro
Francisco Cordero
Joaquin Benoit
Scott Feldman
Catchers:
Gerald Laird
Rod Barajas
Infielders:
D’Angelo Jimenez
Hank Blalock
Ian Kinsler
Mark Teixeira
Michael Young
Mark DeRosa
Outfielders:
Adrian Brown
Brad Wilkerson
Kevin Mench
Laynce Nix
DH:
Phil Nevin
Update: It was confirmed on the Rangers site a few minutes ago right after I posted this. Link.
Here’s a list of all the roster moves made to do all this.

• P John Wasdin signed to a minor league contract
• OF Gary Matthews Jr placed on 15 day DL, retroactive to Mar 24
• P Adam Eaton put on 15 day DL, retroactive to Mar 30
• OF David Dellucci traded to Philadelphia Phillies for P Robinson Tejeda & OF Jake Blalock
• P Robinson Tejeda optioned to AAA
• Purchased contracts of Antonio Alfonseca, Adrian Brown, & D’Angelo Jimenez
• P Erasmo Ramirez designated for assignment
• P John Rheinecker optioned to AAA
• OF Adam Hyzdu assigned to minor league camp
• P Omar Beltre put on the restricted list [ link ]

Since so much happened, I’ll need some time to digest it all. Kind of sad to see Dellucci go, I think he would have gotten a lot more playing time had he stayed a Ranger. I can’t see him breaking the OF group up there in Philly with any kind of regularity at all.

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