Usually towards the end of the year, we always hear about how many players the Texas Rangers have used overall in any particular season. The Rangers are usually towards the high end of that list. Injuries, callups, usually make for a long list, and you tend to forget the guys who are here so quick that they don’t even have time for the proverbial “cup of coffee”.

I’ve done this for the last three seasons, and it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve also gotten some positive feedback on it, so I’m doing it again in 2011. For the record, if you’d like to see the final tallies for the other years I’ve done this, you can still see them here: [ 2008 | 2009 | 2010 ]

Anyway, this post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2011 (not guys like Teagarden & Davis that get called up 20 times a season). I am going to count guys who get called up, but don’t play immediately (or sometimes don’t play at all), as they will be part of the 25 man roster officially. So here goes. The most recent additions will be on the top of the list. The original opening day 25 man roster is not in any particular order.
In 2011, the Rangers have just one in the original opening day 25 that is making his major league debut (Mason Tobin), which is an increase over 2010 when we had nobody. We had one in 2009 (Elvis Andrus) and one in 2008 (Kaz Fukumori). We do have, however five guys making their Ranger debuts in 2011: Adrian Beltre, Dave Bush, Mike Napoli, Arthur Rhodes, Mason Tobin, and Yorvit Torrealba.

Total players in 2011: 44
Total pitchers used in 2011: 24
Total position players used in 2011: 20
Total players making major league debut: 5

#44 – Merkin Valdez (Sep 1 – Sep callup)
#43 – Esteban German (Sep 1 – Sep callup)
#42 – Matt Treanor (Sep 1 – acquired via trade)
#41 – Mike Gonzalez (Sep 1 – acquired via trade)
#40 – Leonys Martin (Aug 30) *
#39 – Mark Hamburger (Aug 30) *
#38 – Mike Adams (Jul 31 – acquired via trade)
#37 – Koji Uehara (Jul 31 – acquired via trade)
#36 – Scott Feldman (Jul 14, replace Darren O’Day who was optioned to AAA)
#35 – Omar Quintanilla (Jul 8, replace Andres Blanco who went to DL)
#34 – Yoshinori Tateyama* (May 23 – Replace Cody Eppley, optioned to AAA)
#33 – Endy Chavez (May 14 – Replace Julio Borbon who went to DL)
#32 – Craig Gentry (May 7 – Replace Nelson Cruz who went to DL)
#31 – Ryan Tucker (Apr 27 – Replace Darren O’Day who went to DL)
#30 – Cody Eppley* (Apr 23 – Replace Neftali Feliz, who went to DL)
#29 – Taylor Teagarden (Apr 20 – Replace Michael Kirkman, optioned to AAA)
#28 – Brett Tomko (Apr 20 – Replace Mason Tobin, who went to DL)
#27 – Michael Kirkman (Apr 15 – Paternity List leave for Colby Lewis)
#26 – Chris Davis (Apr 13 – Replace Josh Hamilton, who went to DL)
#25 to #1: Dave Bush, Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, Mark Lowe, Darren O’Day, Alexi Ogando, Pedro Strop, Mason Tobin*, Matt Harrison, Darren Oliver, C.J. Wilson, Arthur Rhodes, Derek Holland, Mike Napoli, Yorvit Torrealba, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Andres Blanco, Ian Kinsler, Mitch Moreland, Michael Young, Julio Borbon, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy

* – Making Major League Debut

Please note that 1 to 25 are in no particular order.

Was sent this pretty good link on Koji Uehara the other day. I still want to say something about the trades, but I wanted to get this link out there. Go read it, you’ll probably like it. :)
Thanks to Bill Chuck for sending me that.

I just got sent this press release by Fox Sports Southwest. Cool to read. Definitely cool!

The Texas Rangers’ season-opening three-game sweep over the Boston Red Sox was a television ratings hit on FOX Sports Southwest. The regional cable sports network recorded its best-ever rating for an Opening Day telecast and had it topped two days later, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Rangers’ 9-5 victory opening the 2011 season on Friday, April 1 averaged a 5.5 Nielsen household rating in Dallas-Fort Worth, a 161% increase over last year’s 2.1 Opening Day rating against the Toronto Blue Jays. It surpassed FOX Sports Southwest’s previous high for a first-game Rangers telecast of 3.9 set on April 6, 1999 against the Detroit Tigers and was the best Opening Day rating for a Rangers broadcast in 12 years since KXAS-TV recorded a 6.5 on April 5, 1999 versus Detroit.
The Opening Day rating was bested on Sunday, April 3 with a 5.7 household average. Saturday’s (April 2) game on FOX Sports Southwest averaged a 4.4 household rating.
An average of 141,700 households in Dallas-Fort Worth tuned in on Friday to watch the Rangers begin their defense of the American League championship, while an average of 115,200 homes watched Saturday’s game, and 147,900 homes tuned in to watch the Rangers complete the sweep on Sunday.

This morning when I got up, the first news story I saw was about Chuck Greenberg and the Rangers. I read a bit about that, and then was planning to write about it.
Then I read about the Earthquake & tsunami in Japan, and to be honest, I don’t feel like writing about Chuck Greenberg at the moment. I will, but there’s more important things to think about at the moment than Chuck Greenberg’s departure from the Rangers.
In the meantime, I suggest checking out what Joey M had to say over at Baseball Time in Arlington about it. I’ll have my own opinions later in the day. There’s also this story with a few reactions from Rangers players.
I’ll just say this for now. Last year we had the drama in spring training with Ron Washington and cocaine. This year it’s the Chuck Greenberg thing. Distraction yes. But if what I’m reading about “overstepping bounds” is accurate, then I can understand it.
More later once I have a chance to mentally digest it.

A few minutes ago, I got a press release saying that Sunday’s TV debut of the Rangers for 2011 has moved from Fox to Fox Sports Southwest. Here’s the press release.

Sunday’s (March 13) Texas Rangers-San Francisco Giants Spring Training game from Surprise, Ariz. at 3:00 PM CT will be carried on FOX Sports Southwest Plus in Dallas-Fort Worth and other Southwest television markets. The game was moved to FOX Sports Southwest Plus when FOX Sports Southwest recently added the Los Angeles Kings-Dallas Stars NHL game originally scheduled to air nationally on NBC.
FOX Sports Southwest Plus is a channel used by FOX Sports Southwest to simultaneously show multiple events on two channels, giving viewers another option to follow their favorite teams.
FOX Sports Southwest Plus is available in Dallas-Fort Worth on Time Warner Cable channel 960, Charter Cable channel 300, DirecTV channel 677, Dish Network channel 451, AT&T U-Verse channel 756, and Verizon Fios channel 77.
Other markets that will offer the Rangers-Giants game on FOX Sports Southwest Plus include Abilene-Sweetwater; Amarillo; Ft. Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale; Little Rock-Pine Bluff; Lubbock; Monroe-El Dorado; Odessa-Midland; Sherman-Ada; Shreveport; Tyler-Longview; Waco-Temple; Wichita Falls & Lawton.
Visit http://www.foxsportssouthwest.com/pages/tvlisting_foxsportsplus/0 for channel information.
All other Southwest markets will carry the game live on FOX Sports Southwest. The game also will be replayed on Sunday at 8:00 PM CT in all markets on FOX Sports Southwest.
– FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST –
www.FoxSportsSouthwest.com

Much to nobody’s surprise, the Rangers named CJ Wilson as their opening day starter for 2011. With Cliff Lee out of the picture, it pretty much was down to Wilson & Colby Lewis.

It’s an interesting case, as before last year, both of those guys weren’t starters. Well, Lewis was, but he was off in Japan, having “ended up” there due to his failures in the major leagues. CJ Wilson was a reliever. The battle for the 2011 Opening Day starter was between two guys who weren’t starters for the Rangers a year ago. Well, Lewis technically was, as he had signed by then, but you know what I mean. :)

Don’t think you would have gone wrong either way, but let’s home the pressures of opening day starter don’t get to CJ Wilson. He feels in much the same position to me as Scott Feldman was going into last year. And Feldman tanked. There’s a lot of talk about how the increased workload on Wilson could impact him in the upcoming season. Hope not. Be nice to get one of these things to go right long term, eh?

I also need some more players on my fantasy teams. Please see the signup information. It’s free. Thanks.

The Texas Rangers edition of “30 Clubs in 30 Days” on MLB Network airs on Mar 3 @ 7PM EST. Hopefully it’s not all about Michael Young. :)
This is a great series. I usually end up watching several of these. The complete schedule is available on MLB’s site here:
http://www.mlb.com/network/promotions/30_in_30.jsp

As we get closer to the start of spring training, I decided to do some work on my site. Last night I brought the uniform number history page up to date. If you’ve never visited that part of my site, it’s one of the two totally unique features my site has that no other Rangers site/fan blog has.

What it is is a history of each number from zero through 85+ from 1961 through 2011 (including, obviously the Senators years). I started doing this about 10 years ago, so for the most part I have all the fiddly details from then onwards for guys who were up for just a day or two and never returning. It’s one of those things I enjoy keeping track of, and as everyone has become more connected, I find it’s easier to find out what people’s numbers are. Shout out to Anthony Andro for putting up with my requests about unif numbers during press conferences. Thanks, dude. :)
Anyway, the Rangers have posted uniform numbers for all their 40 man roster guys, so I decided to go update 2011 with that. However, the spring training invite guys don’t have their numbers posted, so I’ll update with them later on. The guys we have right now as NRI’s to spring training are:

• P Zack Jackson
• P Seth McClung
• P Ryan Tucker
• C Kevin Cash
• IF Brian Barden
• IF Esteban German
• OF Endy Chavez
• OF Doug Deeds

Now, German has been here for a few years as a end of the 40 man hanger-on, and has had the same number (6) all that time, so I’d say it’s a safe bet he’ll have 6 again in 2011, as it’s otherwise untaken.

There is one thing I was hoping fans could help me by contributing. If you’ve ever looked at my uniform number history page, I’ve gathered over the years pictures of the various numbers being worn on players. I’ve posted some of them on the bottom of each number’s page as an “example” of that number. The Bo Porter picture above is one of those. But check out the pages, and look at the bottom. I think it makes for a nice little archive of pictures.

The part you can help with is with pictures. Take a look. If you have pictures of any of the players who I do not have a picture of, I’d love it if you could send me the picture for inclusion on these pages. I’m specifically looking for ones that show the player’s name along with the number. Not just the front where the number is, I really want one with the player’s name and number from the back being shown. I know a ton of you have picture archives (I’ve seen ’em on Facebook & Picasa Web Albums), but I’m sure there’s a ton more I haven’t seen.

Please take a look at what you have, and if you have something useful for this project, let me know, I’d love to get it online. Danke. Here’s some of the ones I’ve collected. It’s the guys who are only up for 2-3 games in a season and then never to return are the hardest to get shots of. I’ve started taking pictures off the TV of guys like that – with everything in HD now, it makes for an “ok” picture once reduced in size to about 450 pixels on that page. But it’s not the same as a real pic of a guy in action. So if you have any, I’d really like to hear from you.

Danke, and thanks for visiting.

MLB Network ran a show tonight on the top 50 prospects in baseball. Wanted to mention the Ranger players they had there (Feliz was #7 on last year’s list). They had a countdown that was mosty put together by writer Jonathan Mayo. He had a few rules about the players. They are:
Player must have rookie status.
Based on input from scouts and front office personnel
Ties broken by Jonathan Mayo.
They also had John Hart to do commentary too (which seemed lke some more detail on Rangers players). Anyway, the Rangers players on the list are:
#43 – Tanner Scheppers
#23 – Martin Perez (compared him to Johan Santana & Ron Guidry)
3 was Bryce Harper (WAS), 2 was Jeremy Hellickson (TB), 1 was Mike Trout (ANA).
A bit surprised we only placed two out of 50. A lot of guys we moved out the last few years weren’t in there, either.