This Friday afternoon brings a few more roster moves from new GM Jon Daniels. They’re mostly procedural, but still..
Pitchers Ryan Bukvich and Carlos Almanzar were both outrighted to Oklahoma after having cleared waivers. Almanzar however, decided not to accept the assignment and took his free agency. Both of them were on the 60 day DL, so it doesn’t affect the 40 man roster, which is still at 36.
Also, in a couple of minor league deals, we signed OF Ruddy Yan & P Jared Abruzzo to 1 year contracts for 2006.
Finally, the Oakland A’s rehired Ken Macha as manager, so if Orel Hershisher is going anywhere, it won’t be to Oakland.

Rangers reliever Carlos Almanzar who was a vital part of our 2004 bullpen, but was hurt all of 2005 was suspended by Major League Baseball today for violating the steroid policy. He will serve the suspension once he returns to the major leagues.
I don’t think the Rangers are planning on bringing him back anyway, so I don’t think this affects us for 2006, but I believe that makes two Rangers suspended for steroids (the other being Augstin Montero), and a former Ranger (Rafael Palmeiro).

It appears that the Rangers are going to announce this afternoon that John Hart will step down as GM, and will be replaced by Jon Daniels. Daniels is 28 years old, and I believe now becomes the youngest GM around, replacing the Sox’ Theo Epstein.
This is breaking news, as I type this, no details are available yet, I’ll have more to say later.

The Rangers called up four players from AAA now that their season is over. They are:
Jason Botts (#44)
R.A. Dickey (#45) – who will start on Tuesday
Esteban German (#4)
Josh Rupe (#59)
Also, Nick Regilio was transferred from the 15 day to the 60 day DL.
A few quick remarks about these moves:
1) I seriously dout we’ll see Richard Hidalgo again.
2) Phil Nevin will probably get more pissed off.

This is a pretty cool move. I saw this little note in today’s press notes.

The Rangers are offering free tickets to Louisana, Mississippi, & Alabama residents for the rest of the season who may be in the area to escape Hurricane Katrina and it’s aftermath. Residents of those states may present their drivers license at the box office to receive complimentary tickets for their families.

That’s a nice gesture. I wonder if it will get any notice in the press.

This text comes from Jamey Newberg’s mailing list.

A shift is underway. T.R. Sullivan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Rangers have purchased the contracts of lefthander Justin Thompson and righthander Scott Feldman, clearing space in the bullpen by optioning Kevin Gryboski to Oklahoma and designating righthander James Baldwin for assignment.

Justin Thompson after all this time, eh? Wow. I mean, WOW.

Word just came down that the MLB arbiter reduced Kenny Rogers’ suspension from 20 games to 13. This means he’s eligible to rejoin the team tomorrow, and I believe will probably pitch.
Here’s a news story detailing the reinstatment, and Here’s a response from Bud Selig over the matter.
According to the DMN, Kenny’s fine was not reduced, but it was converted to a “charitable donation”, although it wasn’t said which charity.
As I just found out about this about 2 minutes before I posted this, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet.

The Ft Worth Star Telegram today published an article saying the Rangers have gotten a preliminary version of the 2006 schedule. The article posts some highlights, some of which are:

• We open the season at home for the first time in several years – Apr 3, 2006.
• The Home Interleague games are Padres, Diamondbacks, & Astros.
• The Away Interleague games are Giants, Rockies, & Astros.
• We’re home on the 4th of July again

There’s some negative things, too:

• The Home Opener oppponent is the Red Sox, which means we’ll have a bunch of annoying opposing team fans – the Sox fans are almost as annoying as the Yankees fans now. They were more tolerable before they won.
• Two Yankees series. There’s some games I won’t go to, I hate going to Yankee games – same reason; obnoxious fans.

I personally would have liked to have seen Philadelphia come down here, since we went up there last year. Plus we played in Florida two years in a row, so I would have liked to have seen more of the NL East before we moved out of that division and back to the AL West.
If anyone reading this finds a copy of the full schedule somewhere, let me know, as I’d be really eager to hear if the Rangers are at home on April 16th or August 20th.

On Tuesday afternoon, less than 12 hours after RicRod’s stinkfest in Beantown, he was placed on the 15 day DL (although initial reports said he was demoted to AAA). We recalled Erasmo Ramirez to take his roster spot, although this doesn’t address the status of the rotation at all.
Still waiting to hear if Kenny Rogers appeal will be successful or not. But as the days drag on, it’s getting to the point that it doesn’t much matter whether it’s shortened or not, does it?

The Rangers re-signed former pitcher Aaron Sele this past Saturday. He obviously enjoyed the best part of his career here with Texas during the late 90’s. He’s now pitching for us in AAA Oklahoma, and made one start. He went six innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks. Not exactly setting the world on fire mind you, but then again, neither is anyone else on the major league level.
What I think should happen now is that we bring up Sele, send CJ Wilson back down, and move someone like Greg Colbrunn to the 60 day DL to clear a spot on the 40 for Sele.
Someone on my forums posted this over the last couple of days:

i wanna know why isnt that Diamond kid pitching in the show yet?

Here’s what I wrote about that..
What makes me irritated is how everyone automatically just says “Bring up the stud” like this. It’s not all about that. There’s a lot more to consider than just “bring ’em up” without examining the entire picture.
Read this – all of it – it was from today’s Jamey Newberg’s report.

I suppose we can assume that whatever Texas decides from this point forward with regard to the rotation will have 2006 in mind at least as much as 2005 — but it’s not as if the list of candidates changes that much between the two objectives. If Volquez weren’t still sidelined with that oblique strain, maybe he’d be on the immediate radar, but that’s about it. It would be shocking to see Texas bring John Danks or Thomas Diamond to the big leagues at any point this season, as neither needs to be added to the 40-man roster for another 15 months. Why does that matter?
It’s not so much because of 40-man roster spots right now. Though the roster is full, Texas can clear space easily by transferring Frankie Francisco or Nick Regilio or Laynce Nix or Greg Colbrunn to the 60-day disabled list.
It’s not so much because of concerns over options. Bringing one of those two up now would probably mean neither would return to the farm this season (Frisco’s season will end in less than four weeks), so their first option wouldn’t be exhausted until April (assuming they wouldn’t stick with the big club then). And it’s unlikely that Danks or Diamond will need three years of options, though you don’t want to treat that issue flippantly.
The real issue is what giving Danks or Diamond a look this season would do to the roster this winter. If either is brought up, it would take up a spot on an off-season 40-man roster that will need lots of work. The Rangers will need an influx of several veterans to come in and play significant roles. And the club tends to add three to five Rule 5-eligible prospects to the roster every winter. This winter the eligibles include pitchers Volquez, Hudgins, Wil Rodriguez, Scott Feldman, Kelvin Jimenez, Wes Littleton, A.J. Murray, and Chris Jaile; catcher Lizahio Baez; infielders Ian Kinsler, Joaquin Arias, Drew Meyer, and Nate Gold; and outfielders Ruddy Yan, Vincent Sinisi, Juan Senreiso, and Anthony Webster.
If the plan today is to add five of those players to ensure they aren’t lost in the Rule 5 draft, you don’t want to bring Danks or Diamond up, even for a spot start — because then the plan becomes adding only four draft-eligibles from the above list, and exposing one more prospect to the draft than you have to.
There are some non-roster players whom we’ll likely see in Texas before this season ends, but I’m going to strongly suggest neither Danks nor Diamond will be among them.

I have to say I agree with Jamey on this issue completely – as he wrote this far better than I could, I just used his text. And since I used it, I’ll plug his site – go check out http://www.newbergreport.com and get his newsletter if you aren’t already getting it.