Today is the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers. A couple of pictures have popped up of some of the new Rangers. Here’s pictures of Kevin Milwood & Akinori Otsuka during workouts today.

In an announcement that I think surprised no one, Kevin Milwood was named the opening day pitcher for the Texas Rangers. I’m also a Phillies fan, and I remember when he was brought there, he didn’t do well with that label. Hopefully it’s different here, as I really would like one of these signings to work.
Here’s the full story from Yahoo news.

I decided to look up the Rangers spring training broadcast schedule. THat’s not new, I’ve had it on the site already. But I knew the Rangers had about a dozen or so games on KRLD, and three on TV. I decided to check the opponent’s schedules to see what other games we could get coverage on.
MLB.Com for years now has had an excellent package called “MLB.com Gameday Audio” where you can get the audio feeds for all the teams, and all the games all season. It also includes spring training. Usually by now the annual package is avialable for sale, but with MLB pushing the World Baseball Classic they haven’t started selling the 2006 package. But when they do, you might want to invest in it. I don’t know what the price is this year, but in the past it’s either been $9.95 or $14.95. Hell, even if they increase it to $19.95 it’s still a good deal for all the games. You can also listen to the archives of older games too, which is nice.
Anyway, if you have that package, you can listen to the game feeds from the other teams who the Rangers are playing, and that’s where this comes into play. Here’s a list of the Rangers spring training games and whose radio if applicable the game is covered. Even if “none” is listed (there are eight such games), it still could be covered, as MLB.com does broadcasts of their own with their own people from two games a day (one from Florida, one from Arizona). The only problem with that is that their announcers spend way too much time talking aout everything else BUT the game they’re covering. They’ll take emails, and im’s and all that, and meanwhile two outs have happened in the game. That’s fairly annoying.
Anyway, here’s the spring training radio broadcast schedule for the Rangers with more than just the KRLD coverage:

Thu Mar 02 - vs Royals       - Royals Radio
Fri Mar 03 - @ Royals        - KRLD
Sat Mar 04 - @ Royals        - KRLD
Sun Mar 05 - vs Brewers      - KRLD
Mon Mar 06 - @ Diamondbacks  - None
Tue Mar 07 - @ Cubs          - Cubs Radio
Wed Mar 08 - vs Athletics    - None
Thu Mar 09 - vs Royals       - None
Fri Mar 10 - @ Padres        - Padres Radio
Sat Mar 11 - vs Rockies      - KRLD
Sun Mar 12 - @ Mariners      - KRLD
Mon Mar 13 - vs Royals       - None
Tue Mar 14 - @ Giants        - None
Wed Mar 15 - @ Angels        - Angels Radio
Thu Mar 16 - vs Giants       - None
Fri Mar 17 - @ White Sox     - White Sox Radio (also on CSN Sox TV)
Sat Mar 18 - vs Diamondbacks - KRLD
Sun Mar 19 - @ Cubs          - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Tue Mar 21 - vs Angels       - KRLD
Wed Mar 22 - @ Brewers       - None
Thu Mar 23 - vs White Sox    - White Sox Radio (also on CSN Sox TV)
Fri Mar 24 - vs Cubs         - KRLD
Sat Mar 25 - @ Rockies       - Rockies Radio
Sun Mar 26 - vs Brewers      - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Mon Mar 27 - vs Mariners     - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Tue Mar 28 - @ Athletics     - None
Wed Mar 29 - vs Padres       - Padres Radio
Thu Mar 30 - @ Royals        - Cubs Radio
Fri Mar 31 - vs Marlins      - KRLD (in Frisco, TX)
Sat Apr 01 - vs Marlins      - KRLD (in Arlington, TX)

While there’s been several news reports lately about folks reporting early, today is the formal date for pitchers & catchers to report. It’s always a good day. You’ve got to love this day. :)

Well, the 11AM deadline passed, and we had a flurry of signings on Tuesday. Mark Teixeira, Adam Eaton, & Brad Wilkerson all signed, avoiding having to file arbitration numbers. However, several other Ranger players did actually file numbers. Here’s the info for these players:
Gary Matthews Jr:
Player: $3M
Club: $2M
Kevin Mench:
Player: $3.05M
Club: $2.45M
Vicente Padilla:
Player: $4.8M
Club: $4.1M
Former Ranger Alfonso Soriano requested the highest dollar amount of any player who actually filed. He asked the Nationals for $12, with the Nats offering $10. Here’s a complete list of all the figures for every player.
The hearings are from February 1st to 21st, but I don’t know what the projected dates for the three cases the Rangers have before them are.

As a followup to the Teixeira signing news from earlier this morning. Word just came down that we avoided arbitration with Brad Wilkerson as well, giving him a $3.9 Million contract for 2006. Both he and Tex are Boras clients.
That leaves four. As I write this, it’s 11AM, which is the time that players and clubs have to submit their abritration figures.

In a good move, we signed Mark Teixeira to a two year contract this morning, avoid a REALLY ugly arbitration process. Of all the players we had eligible for arbitration, Tex’s one was the scariest, as these things are never good. If you’re a regular reader here then you likely know why they’re ugly, so I won’t get into that.
Anyway, the two year deal is worth $15.4 Million, which is what some people think he might have gotten for one year had he been on the open market with the kind of season he had in 2005. He gets $6.4 million in 2006, and $9 million in 2007. This doesn’t totally buy him out of arbitration, as he’ll be eligible again for that in 2008 (his final year before he can become an unrestricted free agent).
I don’t think there’s anyone that can rightfully say that this is a bad move. It’s a good move. Would have liked to have seen a 10 year $125 million contract or something like that, but I’ll take not going to arbitration nwo, giving us more time to get something longer done during the contract (although with Boras, that’s not always likely).
This leaves outfielders Brad Wilkerson, Kevin Mench and Gary Matthews Jr. and pitchers Adam Eaton and Vicente Padilla as the remaining arbitration eligible players.

Assuming the thing even happens thanks to the usual political nonsense…
Mike Young and Mark Teixeira were named to the Team USA roster yesterday evening, as managed by Buck Martinez, currently the host of XM’s morning baseball talk show. There’s talk that Michael Young will play second base again, as there’s a number of shortstops named already, although the only ones IMO that are good enough to start in place of Young are Derek Jeter & Jimmy Rollins. The rest shouldn’t be considered above Young. Still, it’ll be interesting to see him back at second base, if that’s where he ends up.
Other Rangers invited to participate are closer Francisco Cordero (Dominican Republic), right-handed reliever Akinori Otsuka (Japan), outfielder David Dellucci (Italy) and infielder Mark DeRosa (Italy).

No details as I get this, the news just hit. It’s a one year deal worth $3.2 Million. More later on.

Short story. Joaquin Benoit was signed for the 2006 season, avoiding arbitration. He resigned for $750,000 with an additional $50k in incentives. He gets $25k if he makes 55 appearances, and another $25k if he gets to 60 appearances.
I don’t think his resigning is a bad thing, but after the moves with Millwood and all that activity, it sems like an “eh” move.