Frank Francisco was sentenced to a work program and anger mangement classes today. Interesting timing in the “Rogers Rage” case that’s going at the moment.
There’s still a suit pending from the {sarcasm}totally innocent and angelic fans{/sarcasm}, the Buenos. That’s a private suit, which is also against the Rangers, Doug Brocail, & Carlos Almanzar.
This is about what I thought would happen in this case. I didn’t think any of the more drastic things (like deportation) would happen. It’s still going to be till the middle of next year before we can see him pitch anyway, but it’s nice this part has worked out. I suspect the other will too – probably a payoff somewhere.
Here’s a news story about this:

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As is all over the news tonight, Kenny Rogers freaked out and attacked a couple of local cameramen. Here’s a story.
Dallas Morning News site story with video
From what I’ve seen of the video so far, the injuries to the camera guy who now claims neck pain back pain and wrist pain seem a bit overblown. To have his head rendered immoble on a stretcher seems a bit much based on what we saw happen to him in the video on the local news tonight.
After seeing the video numerous times on Chs 4, 5, ESPN, & FSSW, I can see where the Ch 4 cameraman might have a hurt wrist, as his hand was mostly still attached to the camera when Kenny tried throwing it to the ground a couple of times, and when he kicked the camera. The rest of it (including the neck brace), I can’t see from the footage we saw. Now granted, I’m a moron to think I know everything that happened, but this didn’t look like the kind of thing that would result in a guy being in a neck brace.
The attack was definitely unwarranted from what I can gather – it did seem that the camera folks weren’t “in his face”. Nothing was shown that would indicate the camera people did anything directly to provoke Kenny. I think some sort of suspension & fine is in order. Not sure exactly what, mind you. But something needs to happen, and that doesn’t even begin to cover any possible legal issues that might arise from this.
I’ll have more to say about this on Thursday. Hicks was on TV tonight saying the Rangers will issue a statement about it tomorrow. I watched a lot of coverage of this both local and national and it seems that no immediate decision is coming tonight.
I wonder how Scott Boras will try and spin this. I’d be utterly amazed and shocked if Boras comes out and admits it was totally Kenny’s fault – I expect Boras will try and place the blame elsewhere (Rangers, perhaps?).

Looks like Kenny Rogers still had a little of Kevin Brown’s influence in him recently..

Manager Buck Showalter said Kenny Rogers, the team’s most dependable starter this season, fractured the fifth metacarpal, the bone below his pinky finger, in his right, or non-throwing, hand after he punched a water cooler in the Rangers’ dugout shortly after leaving his start June 17.

That’s the quote from a DMN newsflash. Lovely. Probably not appearing in the All Star game then. Even assuming it’s not a problem that causes him to miss more than one start, one might think he’d intentionally rest it just in case. We shall see.

In a move that I don’t think will bother much of anyone, Pedro Astacio was designated for assignment today. To replace him, we purchased the contract of Oklahoma righthander Jason Standridge. I don’t know much about Standridge personally, but there was some clause in his contract that said we’d have to release him if he wasn’t brought to the majors by a certain point. I forget the date, but it’s close. I looked up his stats, he’s 5-3 with a 4.5 ERA. Not great, but not as bad as Astacio. In 76IP, he’s got 83 hits, and 36 walks. That’s rather a lot, IMO.
Astacio had moments where he was good, but overall he wasn’t. He was 2-8 with a 6.04 ERA. Here’s the rest of his stats if you’re interested.
A few notes about this:
1) I guess that means the “Vote Pedro” signs won’t be showing up anymore.
2) Chan Ho Park is still in our rotation.

The 2005 Rangers HOF inductees were announced this afternoon. This year there’s just two inductees. One player, and one “non player”. The inductees are:
The late Mark Holtz
John Wetteland
I don’t think any Ranger fan can argue with Holtz. An excellent choice, in fact I think some people probably thought he deserved to go first, although I further think no one can argue about Johnny Oates being the first “non player”.
As for John Wetteland, I admit to being surprised he was the only player. On one had it’s nice they’re slowing it down – I don’t know if a single player was a concious effort, as you don’t want to burn through all your great players too quickly. But I figured some of the other guys from the 70’s & 80’s would have been inducted before him. The odd thing about me writing this is that I’ve voted for John Wetteland in all the years the Rangers have been running this program. I wanted him there, and now it feels odd he’s gotten it. :)
The induction ceremony will be Friday August 5th. I’m sure to be there, I’ve seen all the rest of them. :)
There’s more about the electees in this story on the Rangers site.

We had some more movement regarding transactions on Sunday. Here’s what happened:
* – P Ricardo Rodriguez recalled from AAA
* – P John Wasdin purchased from AAA
* – P Joaquin Benoit placed on 15 day DL
* – OF Andres Torres designated for assignment
My gut feeling is that Ricardo Rodriguez will be OK given he gets enough time to stay here and prove he can still pitch. He was great last year until he got hurt, and this is his first chance since then to pitch in the majors. I hope he does well.
Wasdin? Despite a great first outing of 2005 yesterday afternoon, I can’t help but believe this guy is NOT any kind of long term answer.
Joaquin Benoit seemed to be doing well in the pen before he got hurt again – this is his what, 50th trip to the DL in the last two years or something? Given his history, if he does come back, he’ll be bad, cause us to get to the point of releasing him, make one miraculous start, and save his ass again. Cut him. Enough.
I felt Andres Torres was fabulous in spring training. The problem up here is that he’s a fifth outfielder, and wouldn’t get enough playing time to be comfortable. He was DFA’ed in a roster squeeze on Sunday. I’d love to keep him, but if we can’t, I hope he goes somewhere and starts (Kansas City?). He’s a good player I think, but we are fairly deep in the OF, so I don’t think the world will end if we lose him.

Well, first off, Ryan Drese is formally no longer a Ranger – he was picked up on a waiver claim by the Washington Nationals. Good luck for him, I hope he gets it going there again. That makes 2/5 of the Nationals’ rotation former Rangers, as Esteban Loiaza pitches for them, too.
In current Rangers news, some more moves made before today’s game. Here’s the details:
P Juan Dominguez recalled from AA
P C.J. Wilson purchased from AA
P Nick Regilio placed on 15 day DL
P Michael Tejera optioned to AAA
We’re supposed to be starting Ricardo Rodriguez in Sunday’s finale in Miami, so there will be more coming over the weekend, too!
I need to get off my duff and update my roster page, there’s too many guys now w/o pages! :)

We’ve had some big roster moves over the last few days. Not all of them are huge players, but there was a lot of movement the last few days. A summary..
On Monday (our offday), we optioned Nick Regilio back to AAA, and purchased Michael Tejera from AAA. To make room for that, Carlos Almanzar was moved from the 15 day to the 60 day DL. Not entirely sure what this move was about – I don’t see Tejera as a big upgrade over what Regilio is doing at the moment. Still, I don’t have a complaint about this.
On Tuesday, Marshall McDougall was purchased from AAA to be a utility infielder as we’re in National league games for the next several games. OK, that’s a useful move. To make room for him, we designated Chad Allen for assignment. I’m not going to lose sleep over that, but I thought Chad was doing a decent job in his role. I hope we can keep him in AAA.
On Wednesday Ron Mahay was placed on the 15 day DL. Nick Regilio was recalled after having just been sent down two days ago. Gary Matthews was activated from the DL. All were injury moves. However..
A major bombshell of a roster move also happened today. We’ve apparently designated Ryan Drese for assignment. That’s a major stunner. I know he hasn’t been doing well this year, but oh my. He’s signed through 2006. His salary for this year was $700k, and for 2006 he was signed for $1.75Mil. There also was an option for 07 with a $50k buyout (07 Salary was 3 Mil). But wow – this is a surprise to me. I wonder if there isn’t more to this move. I’m writing this at 4:20PM, so hopefully the broadcasts tongiht will have some more insight. The official release on the Rangers site doesn’t have any insight into this other than just stating his record.

From the transaction wire..
The Rangers traded AAA pitcher Vladamir Nunez to the St Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later.
My thoughts: Is my dinner ready?

Hi gang. I’m caught up with the games since last Wednesday now. I had family in town this past weekend (I’m in Texas, my family is all in Pennsylvania) for my daughter’s christening this past Sunday. It was great having them all in, but it severely restricted my time for watching Rangers games. I only saw bits and pieces of all the games, so my commentary on them wasn’t as great as I would have liked. Still, one has to take care of what’s important first. Having said that, there’s been a few events since my last update, so I’ll have a few words on each.
1) Matt Riley: Riley didn’t do a lot for me before he was DFA’ed. Apparently he didn’t do a whole lot for the other 29 teams either, as he cleared waivers on the 11th, and was assigned to AAA. His ERA was pretty atrocious when he was up with the big club. Hopefully he can get it together and be a useful piece. Although I’ll take being a useful piece of the bullpen from just about anyone right now.
2) Rangers sign Steve Karsay: Steve Karsay was signed to a minor league contract, and was assigned to AA Frisco to pitch for the Rangers. Karsay hasn’t pitched much this season in the majors, pitching just six innings over a total of six outings for the Yankees, with an ERA of 6.0 :) He’s been around for awhile, making his debut in 1993 with the A’s. Since then, he’s pitched for the Indians, Braves, & Yankees. It’s probably his time with the Indians and John Hart that convinced him to come to Texas. From 1999 through 2004, he’s had a pretty good ERA – the highest it was during that period was 3.76 (in 2000). He had a terrible start in 2005, but not totally awful if you look at his numbers. I Know I just said this about Riley, but I hope he can come up and do well for us, if for no other reason than you can stick it to the Yankees. :) Given we are only on the hook or a pro-rated portion of his 2005 salary (the Yankees pay the rest), this is a pretty good move for us, I would think.
3) Matthews to DL, Torres up: On Sunday Gary Matthews was placed on the DL with an apparent hamstring problem. I didn’t see it happen, but the reports say he came up gimpy holding his hamstring after running across first. I’ve seen that happen several times in the past, and it’s never good. I think he’ll probably be out for awhile. I’m saying that without seeing any medical updates, but I’ve seen that “pulling on the back of his leg running across first” enough in my years watching baseball to know that’s never good. I feel bad for Gary, as this was the first year he really seemed to find a home, got it together and all that. I hope he comes back soon, and comes back well. In the meantime, we’ve called up Andres Torres to take his place on the roster. Torres was a big spring training surprise, with an obscenely high batting average (I forget the number at the moment, but it was around 375 or something I think). He will probably do pretty well, although being a fifth outfielder means you don’t get a WHOLE LOT of playing time.
4) Steroids again: I have always felt that the drug testing plans we’ve had in place recently have been too weak. The first set was a joke, having to get busted a few times before you’re suspended. The current one is a little better, but still is weak when it comes to REAL penalties. I mean does a 10 day suspension really have that much impact on a player? Not really. So it was with great anticipation that I read Selig’s proposed new changes to the drug testing rules; a “three strikes and you’re out” policy. First offense, a 50 game suspension. Second offense, a 100 game suspension. Third, you’re permanently banned for life. I rather like that. I think that has a few balls, although I feel if it gets passed with those numbers, I see the union (more to the point union leadership, not so much the players) whining and putting in place an appeal system that will de-teeth it. But the other day, I was QUITE STUNNED to read where the government is talking about putting some sort of thing in place of their own where if you’re caught using the stuff, you’re given a TWO YEAR suspension from the sport, and the second offense is a permanent ban. Now I think that’s a little TOO MUCH going the other way, but I think just the fact that this thing is out there might push Fehr and the union to adpot Selig’s idea of 50/100/gone when they might not want to. Selig is saying that if they can’t negotiate an update with Fehr over his 50/100/gone idea, he’s open to the government’s idea, which really puts the pressure on Fehr and the union leadership. I have to say, I’m rather enjoying seeing the player’s union leadership being pushed into doing something they obviously don’t want to be doing because of ego and posturing. Screw ’em. This needs to be in there. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for these clowns who use this stuff, and as a new father, I have a different insight on this. Once my daughter is old enough to understand these things, I hope all this has been taken care of so I can put it in a nice little box and say “There was a problem with people cheating, but it’s been dealt with”. Although I probably shouldn’t put that much faith in the folks running baseball to help out the parents of America that well.
So as of now, I’m all caught up. My daughter however, doesn’t seem to want to respect my update schedule, so if I miss a game or two here and there, that’s probably what’s done it. Lack of sleep causing a desire not to want to update. Hopefully that goes away soon. :)