A quick note.. John Wasdin was reassigned to minor league camp this afternoon. John wasn’t on the 40 man roster, so no change in that regard. With that move, there are 40 players still in camp, according to the Rangers press release on this move.

On Saturday afternoon, Buck Showalter named Ryan Drese the opening day starter for the 2005 season. I suppose it’s technically opening “night” starter, as we open the season on the road again against the Angels.
This is pretty cool for Ryan, and I’m happy with it. Last year, Ryan had by all accounts a stellar year (I’m starting to detest the term “breakout”). He went 14-10 with a 4.20 ERA. Struck out 98, and walked 58. Total of 207.2 IP. A decent season (by today’s inflated stats).
So yeah, he’s probably deserving of this based on how much better he was in 2004 than before. I will freely admit, I was part of the “Dump Drese” contigent to start the season. I didn’t much care for him, he kept getting lit up, and I wanted to put someone else in there. But I will also admit I was wrong on this. He seems to have figured it out, and doesn’t seem to be afraid of our own ballpark, which is a good thing.
I’m hoping he continues to do well in 2005, and I’m looking for another good season. I get a good vibe from him. He’s never going to be a Nolan Ryan type that totally dominates people, but he certainly now looks like a good, servicable pitcher for the rotation.
Also, Kenny Rogers was named the pitcher for the home opener on April 11th.

Well, our friend last year (the disabled list) was used on Thursday for the first time. The lucky recipient was Frank Francisco. He’s on there due to right elbow soreness. As I sit here and write this, I’m thinking he hasn’t pitched at all in a game. He might have, but I can’t recall at the moment.
Anyway, he’ll definitely start the season on the DL, which will jumble up our setup situation for a bit. I don’t think it will be the major impact that some people think it will. Sure, it will affect things, but I don’t think we’re going to completely fall apart over this. Not unless CoCo can’t go, either.
One interesting side note. If Francisco comes off after the actual 15 days, he’ll be activated early enough to make our first trip to Oakland, which is on Apr 17-19th. And when he does go back, you know we’re gonna have to see the chair tossing incident again. Or worse, the totally innocent cash grabbing opportunists fans who were hit by the chair talk about it. So there’s a little part of me that wants him to stay on the DL past our trip to Oakland. Unfortunately, it’ll happen eventually as we go there several times.

Since Tuesday’s game, the Rangers have made two roster moves.
They’ve optioned both Kameron Loe & Travis Hughes to AAA Oklahoma. That leaves us with 42 players in camp.
You can view my roster information here.

The Texas Rangers announced the following roster moves Saturday.
The club has reassigned RHP Jason Standridge, LHP Wilfredo Rodriguez and C Justin Hatcher to minor league camp.
The Rangers now have 44 players in camp, including 10 non-roster players.

If there’s one thing that the off season is good for, it’s online season previews. I’ve linked to the ones I’ve found in the past before, and this season is no different.
This is a story I will update and bump whenever I find a new season preview. The newest ones I’ve found will be listed at the top.

• MLB.Com’s Baseball Perspectives – Mar 18
• Scout.com – Feb 25
• Buster Olney’s ESPN Capsule – Feb 15
• Fanball.com – Feb 14
• Dallas Morning News Spring Training Preview – Feb 13
• NBC Sports (Feb 8 – although probably earlier than that; I just noticed it)
• FoxSports.com Rangers Team Report (Feb 7)
• MLB.com AL West Preview (Feb 5)
• MLB.com #2 (Feb 4)
• The Sporting News (Feb 2)
• MLB.com (Jan 4)

Additionally, I picked up the Sporting News Season preview magazine which usually hits stands around this time each year. In it, they pick the Rangers to finish last in the division again. Somehow I don’t feel the Rangers will finish last. Once Spring Training gets started, I’ll probably do my own season preview.

Greg Colbrunn was added to the 40 man roster today. His contractual situation said that he had to be added by the end of today, or he was to be given his release. There was some talk that the Rangers would try and talk him into letting them delay that decision for a week. Looks like that discussion failed.
Thing is, our 40 man roster was already full, so adding him meant we had to drop someone, but as of the writing of this article, that info hasn’t come out yet. Once it is, I’ll update.
UPDATE: The other roster move was that Jason Borgeois was designated for assignment. We now have 10 days to trade, release, or get him through waivers for reassignment to the minors.

Several players (mostly pitchers) were sent down to minor league camp on Sunday. Only one was a mild surprise, that being Juan Doninguez. I thought he’d last further until sent down, as he was someone who was a rotation candidate, if not a top one.
The complete list of players sent down:
P Thomas Diamond (to AA)
P Juan Dominugez (to AA)
P Lou Pote
P Rosman Garcia
OF Ruddy Yan.
In addition, catcher Robert Machado was given his unconditional release. View the complete list of roster transactions here.

Before today’s spring training game, several players were assigned elsewhere. The complete list (that I’m aware of):
2B Jason Borgeois was optioned to AA Frisco
The following non roster players were assigned to minor league camp:
SS Joaquin Arias, C Mike Nickeas, LHP John Danks, LHP Michael Tejera, RHP Jose Veras, and RHP Shane Bazzell.
This follows the move a couple of days ago of Justin Thompson being assinged to minor league camp, effectively ending his pursuit of actually pitching in a Rangers game. The Rangers apparently have offered him a minor league pitching instruction job if he decides to hang it up. The only other player to have been reassigned was Ryan Wing. Oddly enough, Thomas Diamond was not reassigned, while John Danks was. To me, those two seem to be attached at the hip. Probably doesn’t mean anything, though.
As far as I know, that’s every move made so far since the start of camp. If I’ve forgotten someone, please let me know.

I’m still sick as a dog, but I wanted to get a quick update. The Rangers have resigned Ryan Drese to a two year contract. According to reports, he gets:
$300k signing bonus
2005 – $400,000
2006 – $1.75 Million
2007 – $3 Million option or $50k buyout.
Additionally, the club renewed Laynce Nix and Kevin Mench, as is their right, but there’s chatter that talk will continue with both on something long term.