They say it comes in threes. First it was Frank Francisco, then it was Carlos Almanzar. Now it’s Ryan Bukvich. He needs Tommy John surgery, and will be out for the year.
Hopefully this garbage will stop now.

Wow – what a bad season for Carlos. First he has the personal problems in his life, then he comes back, is ineffective, goes on the DL, and now we find he needs Tommy John surgery. He goes under the knife on Friday, and will be out obviously for the rest of the season.
If the usual recovery times for TJ surgery apply, he’ll start the next season on the DL, as well. We now have lost two of the major players from last year’s bullpen success. Both Frank Francisco & Carlos Almanzar are out for the year. Our bullpen this season so far as been a liability. If we’re going to make a move for the playoffs, I think we’re going to have to do a lot better than what we have going now.
There’s more in this news story on the Rangers site.

In a move that isn’t terribly surprising to Ranger fans who follow the team regularly, Alfonso Soriano was named AL Player of the Week. From the press notes on it..
In six games last week, Soriano batted .458 (11-24), leading the league with five home runs, 13 RBI, and nine runs scored. The second baseman also led the A.L. in total bases with 28, while finishing third in slugging percentage at 1.167 and fifth in on-base percentage at .500. Soriano became the first Rangers’ player in three years with back to back multi-homer games on May 6th and May 7th against Cleveland. The three-time All-Star finished the week with a five-game hitting streak to help the Rangers go 5-1 and jump into second place in the A.L. West. This is the fourth career Player of the Week Award for Soriano and his first as a member of the Texas Rangers.
Alfonso se ardía la semana pasada! That’s for sure. Good for him, I wonder if it will get him over his sulking on having to bat fifth in the lineup.

To help shore up the bullpen, Kameron Loe was called up from AAA this afternoon. I saw him pitch a few times in Frisco last year, he looked like he had some good pop the times I saw him. I always thought he was a starter, but we appear to need more pen help now than in the rotation, surprising as that sounds.
Matt Riley was designated for assignment to make room on the 25 man roster. He was removed from the 40 man roster too, which leaves us with 39 men on the 40 man now. I don’t see removing Riley from the majors as a big deal – he didn’t do much for us this season, allowing 14 runs in 12.2 innings.
Riley was obtained from the Orioles late in spring training for Ramon Nivar.

Before Wed night’s game, the Rangers made a roster move. R.A. Dickey was placed on the 15 day DL, and Nick Regilio was recalled from AAA.
Dickey had to leave Tuesday night’s game with an injury that seemed to come out of nowhere, he was on the pitcher’s mound down in pain. Reminded me of Tony Saunders a few years ago, but nowhere near as intense. Nick Regilio is up, but I suspect only because Carlos Almanzar isn’t ready to be activated from the Bereavement list. I suspect that when Almanzar is actived, Regilio will go back down to AAA.

Before Saturday’s game, Nick Regilio was optioned to AAA to make room for Pedro Astacio, who was activated from the DL.
This is no surprise as most of the bullpen guys have been pouring gas on the fires lately, and Regilio’s line when he was sent down was:
H: 3
R: 4
ER: 3
HR: 1
BB: 1
SO: 1
ERA: 81.00
Those kind of numbers will get anyone demoted. Yeah, it’s just one third of an inning, but still..

I’ll have a more in depth piece on this later, but I have ot run out the door in a few minutes to attend a church service. Here’s the Starting 25 for opening day:
Pitchers (12): Carlos Almanzar, Doug Brocail, Ryan Bukvich, Francisco Cordero, Ryan Drese, R.A. Dickey, Ron Mahay, Chan Ho Park, Matt Riley, Kenny Rogers, Brian Shouse and Chris Young.
Catchers (2): Sandy Alomar, Jr. and Rod Barajas.
Infielders (6): Hank Blalock, Mark DeRosa, Adrian Gonzalez, Alfonso Soriano, Mark Teixeira and Michael Young.
Outfielders (5): Chad Allen, David Dellucci, Richard Hidalgo, Gary Matthews, Jr. and Kevin Mench.
Here’s all the moves that had to be made to get the roster to look this way:
• Optioned catcher Gerald Laird, outfielder Laynce Nix and RHP Nick Regilio to Triple-A Oklahoma.
• Assigned outfielder Andres Torres, infielders Ian Kinsler and Cody Ransom, and pitchers Vlad Nunez and Keith Stamler to the club’s minor league camp.
• Purchased the minor league contracts of infielder Mark DeRosa and outfielder Chad Allen.
• Designated RHPs Travis Hughes and Agustin Montero for assignment.
• Placed the following players on the disabled list (all retroactive to March 25) – RHP Pedro Astacio (groin strain), RHP Joaquin Benoit (shoulder), RHP Frank Francisco (elbow) and LHP Erasmo Ramirez (tendon strain in left middle finger).
• Placed INF Greg Colbrunn (right wrist) on the disabled list retroactive to March 29.
There’s one exception to all this. Carlos Almanzar’s mother died earlier today, and because of this Carlos was placed on the bereavement list. Nick Regilio, who was technically sent to AAA, was technically recalled and will be with the club on Tuesday in Anaheim.

Darn. I was really hoping we’d add Ian Kinsler to the roster. Mark DeRosa was added to the 40 man roster on Thursday. There is a quote by John Hart about Kinsler saying “This does not mean he does not make the club,” Hart said. “Things can still happen.”
I’d be surprised if DeRosa & Kinsler make it.
I believe this move hasn’t formally been announced since DeRosa has to take someone’s roster spot, so that’s being worked out.

This evening, the following events happened on our roster. As spring training winds down, there will be a lot more of these. :)
We acquired a non roster infielder named Cody Ransom for “future considerations”. That usually means we won’t have to send much of anything, and if it is it’s not much. Cody was a career minor leaguer with the Giants until this spring. He signed with the Cubs, and then came here today.
Jason Conti, Manny Alexander, & Esteban German were assigned to minor league camp. I don’t think there’s any surprises here. German made some noise this spring, but I think it would have been a major surprise if he was on the 25 man roster.
Additionally, Ricardo Rodriguez was optioned to AAA. This one is a surprise to me, as I was figuring he was going to be one of the starting five. To me, Rodriguez’ optioning probably means that Chan Ho will make the roster. Oh joy. If I had to guess now, I’d say our starting 5 will be Rogers, Drese, Park, Chris Young, and Pedro Astacio.
Any chance Orel will come out of retirement and pitch? :)

The Rangers have announced that they have acquired lefthander Matt Riley and catcher Keith McDonald from Baltimore for outfielder Ramon Nivar. I personally don’t know much about these guys, but Jamey Newberg seems to be excited about Matt Riley. As for another catcher, I wonder what Gerald Laird thinks about that. :) Probably just a depth move, though.
This is probably a good move for Ramon Nivar, as he seems to have been squeezed out of the plans, I doubt he ever would have made an impact here, as there seems to be plenty other folks who can do what he does in the organization now.
There’s further details available on this story over at the Rangers site.