Rangerfans.com

In my quest to get the site in shape for the new season, I started working on the schedule pages. The first thing I did was check out the Rangers site to see what the schedule looked like. Looking for weird events that I need to keep track of, etc…
For the last few years, the Rangers deal has been with Fox TV. Certain really high profile games (like opening day) were on Fox 4. The majority of the games are on Fox Sports Southwest, as the team makes more money with them on cable. Since the deal was with Fox, the free OTA games were on KDFI Channel 27. That is not a surprise, since they’re all Fox.
However, today when I went to look at the schedule I noticed that the OTA games were on KTXA-21. It’s not a huge deal, but that’s a CBS station. Did something change with the TV deal that I’m not aware of? There wasn’t any sort of announcement that I recall.
Does anyone have any information on this? I wonder if there was some unannounced deal where the TV contract was renegotiated in order to help Hicks get some more coin.
Additionally, while it hasn’t been said, I’m hoping we can get a “100% of the games in HD” this year. Last year there was a huge deal made out of the fact that they had a rather large percentage of the games in HD. I’d love for all the games to be in HD. It’s so much sweeter that way.

As we creep closer to the start of spring training (it’s THIS MONTH!), I’ve finally started bringing my website up to speed. I’m unfortunately still unemployed from last May, and I found, despite the free time, I wasn’t always in the mood to work on my websites. That’s a feeling that only recently returned to me, and to that, I updated my website’s uniform number history section for 2010. The Rangers finally posted their roster for spring training, and with it come all the uniform number assignments for the 40 man roster as well as all the NRI’s (plus coaches).

A few observations.. The Rangers have had for awhile Zack Minasian as the home clubhouse manager for the last 16 years. After the 2009 season, he was let go (we never really heard much about that story, actually). One of Zack’s “things” from the past was that if there was some “important” Ranger who was with the club, and then was not, their number was not given out for a year after that. Some examples from the past were when Pudge left after 2002, nobody wore #7 in 2003 (until Eric Young got it in 04). Same goes for Juando’s departure after 1999. Nobody had #19 in 2000, but Gabe Kapler had it in 2001. Also Rafael Palmeiro. He had #25 in 2003, then nobody in 2004, until Marshall McDougall had it in 2005.

We have several numbers for departed Rangers that are unassigned in 2010. Now I don’t know who the new equipment manager is, but he appears to be holding up that tradition too. Anyway, the numbers are 8 (Rudy Jaramillo), 9 (Hank Blalock), 33 (Kevin Millwood), & 53 (Joaquin Benoit)

One other amusing thing to me (perhaps only to me, as I don’t think anyone else cares to this level) is the number 21. 2010 will be the first year in a row that the same player has worn number 21 since 2001. That is the most inconsistent number. Check this out:

2000: Ruben Mateo
2001: Ruben Mateo, Craig Monroe
2002: Pat Borders, Reynoldo Garcia, & Todd Hollandsworth
2003: Ruben Sierra, Jason Jones
2004: Jason Jones (only in camp, was released before opening day)
2005: Esteban German, Steve Karsay
2006: Adam Eaton
2007: Sammy Sosa
2008: Milton Bradley
2009: Jarrod Saltamacchia
2010: Jarrod Saltamacchia

The last player who wore #21 for two complete full seasons in a row was Warren Newson, who carried that number in 96, 97, & 98.

Oh, and Johnny Narron (Josh Hamilton’s “life coach”) switched from 73 to 23. :)

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 Ruben Mateo 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. :)

A lot has been made, and will be made until the Chuck Greenberg group formally gets the keys to the barn about how much our salary will be. My friend Maury Brown over at bizofbaseball.com posted the latest in his salary series, this time covering the Texas Rangers. I decided to cover that story here too with my own commentary.
Now that Scott Feldman came to terms last night, all of our arbitration eligible players are under contract, continuing a streak the team has in avoiding things like this. Here are the currently under contract players for 2010, and the values of their salaries.

• Michael Young – $16,000,000
• Rich Harden – $6,500,000
• Vladimir Guerrero – $6,500,000
• Ian Kinsler – $4,000,000
• Frank Francisco – $3,265,000
• Josh Hamilton – $3,250,000
• C.J. Wilson – $3,100,000
• Darren Oliver – $3,000,000
• Scott Feldman – $2,425,000
• Colby Lewis – $1,750,000
• Brandon McCarthy – $1,300,000
• Chris Ray – $975,000
• Khalil Greene – $750,000
• Dustin Nippert – $650,000
• Esteban German – $600,000

That’s a total of $54,065,000 for 15 players. 15 players does, of course, not make a full team, so there’s more to come. Six more are insufficient service time players, meaning we can renew them if no agreement is reached. Those guys are:

• David Murphy – $414,820
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia – $410,890
• Brandon Boggs – $408,540
• Nelson Cruz – $408,070
• Chris Davis – $406,620
• Luis Mendoza – $406,210

Those numbers are their 2009 salaries. While their 2010 salaries are unknown, Maury theorizes that giving the players a 6.5% pay increase would make the overall salary demand for these six players a total of $2,614,735.
Add that to the previous total, and the salary is now at $52,614,735. We still have four roster spots to fill, so the actual number will be a bit higher. Actually the “four spots” remark comes from Maury. He uses all these players listed above as players to be on the 25 man roster, and as a Rangers fan, I know they won’t all be. Putting all those names above in “slots”, here’s what I come up with:
C Jarrod Saltamacchia
1B Chris Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
3B Michael Young
SS
LF Josh Hamilton
CF
RF Nelson Cruz
DH Vlad Guerrero
BN David Murphy
BN Khalil Greene
BN Esteban German
BN Brandon Boggs
SP Rich Harden
SP Scott Feldman
SP Colby Lewis
SP Brandon McCarthy
SP Dustin Nippert
CL Frank Francisco
RP CJ Wilson
RP Darren Oliver
RP Chris Ray
RP Luis Mendoza
RP
RP
RP
This shows five “slots”, but.. We know who our starting shortstop will be (Elvis Andrus), and we are expecting Julio Borbon to be the starting centerfielder. Neither of these guys were on Maury’s list. On top of that, there’s no backup catcher in this mix (Teagarden, Ramirez, Toby Hall?) either, so that will bump one of the guys on this list to AAA.
Elvis made $400,000 in 2009, and Julio Borbon has a major league salary too. He signed a 4 year major league deal that started in 2007. 2010 is the final year of that. The total value of that contract is $1.3 Million, but the breakdown of that is unknown to me. A straight breakdown of Borbon’s contract is a $325,000 payment, but I find it hard to believe that would be his 2010 salary, as it’s under minimum.
I also find it unlikely that Brandon Boggs & Esteban German will start the year with the big club, and probably Luis Mendoza, too, so the “holes to fill” is probably larger than that. I know their salary counts towards the total club salary obligations, but I believe Maury’s article talks totally about 25 man opening day roster, not total obligations.
As long as we’re talking about obligations, we do have some dead money on the books this year. Most of it is for actual players playing elsewhere that we owe money to somewhat. They are:

• Kevin Millwood – The Rangers are picking up $3 Million of his 2010 salary in Baltimore.
• Frank Catalanotto – Who just today signed with the Mets, we owe $2 million for a buyout of his contract.
• Vicente Padilla – $1.75 Million for his contract buyout

And then there’s Alex Rodriguez. Lest you think his optout from a couple of years ago removed our obligation to him, think again. All that relieved us from was the money we’d have to send to the Yankees for the opted out years of the contract (of which 2010 would have been the final year had it still be in play). No, there’s a still a messy (and it’s messy to figure out) issue of deferred money.
The best I can figure, we owe Alex Rodriguez $3 Million in 2010 as part of deferred money. I know a lot of the Rangers’ obligation went away when he voided the last year of his original contract (which would have been THIS season), but at the time there was some noise made about us still owing some small amount from the voided years (not the years that had happened in TX & NYY). There is still the deferred money from the original years which we’re on the hook for. The original payout plan for that was for it to not be over until 2025, but in looking at it now, I think that deferred money came due earlier, and I think – but am not 100% positive that 2010 is the last year we have to pay for Arod. It’s confusing, because Texas owed deferred money from the original years of the voided contract. When he was traded to NY, the terms were rejiggered a bit to reduce the load on deferred money TX owes. When the contract was voided, I’m a little unclear as to whether the years we owed deferred money was changed (to us being done in 2010), or if there are two separate piles of deferred money Texas is paying on. I think, but am not sure, that the voided years also had deferred money that were attached to them that are owed, despite the base salary not being owed.
Having said ALL of this, our salary looks to be right about what it was last year on opening day, which was $68,178,798. Maury’s article says our 2010 opening day payroll will be $3.25 million less than 2009, but if you add the dead money for Alex Rodriguez into the mix, it’s pretty much a wash.
We’ll find out before opening day how it all plays out, obviously. But it’s still confusing somewhat. :)

Hopefully this is nothing, but… read this tonight over at Maury Brown’s excellent bizofbaseball site on the Rangers sale.
While I expect this is just one of those legal bumps, one can never quite tell truthfully. I’ve seen so many fans around the metroplex hail what was announced over the weekend as the endgame. A lot of it reminded me of the rather boneheaded move Dubya made some years ago with his “Mission Accomplished” speech. Fans are saying “here comes the money” and doing dances, claiming Ben Sheets is coming right behind this announcement. These seem like the same kind of fans that call in to post game shows and go “when are we getting some pitching in here?” Where’s Steve Busby when you need him?
Anyway, I won’t get truly excited about this until the keys are handed over.

For the majority of Texas Rangers fans, the statement from Hicks Sports Group saying that a sales agreement between HSG and a group of investors headed by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan was a sign that the end had finally come, new owners were on the way.
But, in a case where Hicks Sports Group debt is still hanging over the heads of the Rangers, there’s a chance that the deal may not meet the muster of HSG’s biggest lender.
One of the final steps in the process includes approval from the 40 creditors that HSG is in debt to before approval from MLB. As reported by Daniel Kaplan of the SportsBusiness Journal, Monarch Alternative Capital, a hedge fund that now owns $100 million of the $525 million of debt that Tom Hicks has incurred may be a deciding factor in the sale. Monarch Alternative Capital is known as a “distressed debt buyer” or in more unflattering terms, a “predator” that looks to “buy debt at a discount from banks that hold defaulted loans and then hopes to make more by selling the assets.”
Because Monarch is in the business of extracting as much of a profit as possible in these types of deals, they could have a considerable say in the matter. As reported by the SBJ:

Monarch saying no to a deal that guarantees it a sure amount of cash could be considered an unlikely scenario, but sources are painting a picture of Monarch as being willing to go to the mat if it thinks it is not getting every penny it should.

It has been reported from multiple sources that the bid from Houston businessman, Jim Crane, was higher than the Greenberg-Ryan bid. It is unknown if Crane would be allowed back into the bidding process, should Monarch Alternative Capital not approve of the deal that the Greenberg-Ryan group has on the table.