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I think everyone expected the Rangers to not go into 2009 carrying four catchers. That logjam was relieved somewhat early this morning when Gerald Laird was traded to the Detroit Tigers.
In return, we got two minor league pitching prospects. Their names were Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo. Stats and writeup about minor leaguers I’ve never heard before are not my strong point, so I’m going to shamelessly rip off what Scott Lucas (of the Newberg Report) wrote about them.

Used mostly as a starter, the 25-year-old, 6’1″ righty walked eight and struck out 50 in 34.2 innings with a 3.12 ERA in AA Erie. Earlier in 2008, he posted a 2.42 ERA in 52 high-A innings. As Jamey mentioned, Moscoso was recently named Detroit’s #10 prospect by Baseball America. He’s presently pitching for Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League, where he has an 8.36 ERA in 14 relief innings.
In addition to Guillermo Moscoso, Texas will receive 6’3″ RHP Carlos Melo, a native of the Dominican Republic. Melo made his professional debut in the Dominican Summer League in 2008, posting a 5.14 ERA in 49 innings. Per Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press, Melo “is known for an electric fastball that averages well over 90 miles per hour.” Melo struck out 61 of 187 batters faced (33%) and walked 20 (11%) in the DSL.

While I’m sure these guys are pretty decent prospects, I do have to admit to being disappointed that we didn’t get anything major league ready (or at least close to it) in return. Catcher was one of our rare really strong points, and I do have to say I really wanted something back that would show an immediate impact in Arlington. From what I’ve read online, that’s neither of these guys. We’ve had way too many trades over the last several years that would fall under “bag of magic beans” category, and while I can’t say that about the two new inbound prospects, I can’t get over that feeling of “Oh great, here we go again”.
I always felt Laird got the shaft when he got hurt, and lost his job here to Rod Barajas at the time. Given our catching logjam wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, perhaps it’s best to send him somewhere that he’ll get a chance to play. It’s mildly interesting that Laird will become the regular catcher in Detroit, replacing their last regular catcher, a former Rangers catcher who famously wore #7 during his time here (yeah, I know he was with the Yankees at the end of the season, but you know what I mean).
This will immediately make Saltamacchia and Teagarden the major league catching team in Arlington, with Max Ramirez going to AAA, I would wager. I’d also expect us to sign a journeyman veteran catcher to play with Ramirez in AAA (A Guillermo Quiroz / Adam Melhuse kind of guy). Laird was our best “game calling” catcher, so hopefully Saltamacchia can step that up. The biggest plus for Laird was his superior defense. Hopefully the guys who we will go to battle with in 09 can pick it up, as Laird’s gundown rate was pretty darned good.
Also, ESPN’s MLB site is currently running a poll asking which is the best remaining catcher the Rangers have? I’ve embedded the poll here on my site below:
Edit: They’ve changed the poll to something else, but when I last looked at it, Jarrod Saltamacchia was leading with a 72% vote.

I received a flyer from the Rangers yesterday for 2009 full and half season ticket plans. Unless I win the lottery, I’m not doing THAT. But, it does have one thing in it I had not seen before. 2009 ticket prices. One would think that with the economy in the toilet, that they wouldn’t raise any prices. Not so. Almost all of them are going up in some capacity. The majority of the increases are small (on the order of a dollar), and almost all of them are in the “Premium Game” group. Still, I broke out a 2008 pocket schedule, and compared it to the 2009 flyer. Here’s what I found:
Changed ticket prices:

Section	2008	2009	2008P	2009P	Change
Cuervo Club (the leather seats in the bar)	$125	$125	$134	$140	0 / +$6 (P)
Premium Infield (18-34 First 1/3 of rows, – the first 2-3)	$75	$80	$84	$95	+$5 / $15 (P)
Lexus Club Infield (222-230)	$70	$70	$79	$85	0 / $6 (P)
Lower Infield (18-34 The rest of the rows)	$60	$65	$69	$80	+$5 / +$15 (P)
Lower Box (14-17, 35,38, 115-136)	$50	$50	$59	$60	0 / +$1 (P)
Lexus Club Box (217-221, 231-235)	$45	$45	$54	$55	0 / +$1 (P)
Corner Box (10-13, 39-42, 112-114, 137-139)	$33	$33	$42	$43	0 / +$1 (P)
Lower Reserved (3-9, 44-49)	$25	$25	$29	$30	0 / +$1 (P)
Lexus Club Terrace (201-216, 236-245)	$25	$25	$29	$30	0 / +$1 (P)
Upper Home Run Porch (246-252)	$15	$15	$19	$20	09 is "Guess" – see notes
Upper Box (316-335, Rows 1-12)	$20	$20	$24	$25	0 / +$1 (P)
Bleachers (50-54)	$16	$16	$20	$21	0 / +$1 (P)
Upper Reserved (308-315, 336-338, 316-335 Rows 13 & Up)	$15	$15	$19	$20	0 / +$1 (P)
Grandstand Reserved (301-307 (SUN!), 339-345)	$6	$6	$10	$11	0 / +$1 (P)

A few notes. The Commissioner’s Box and the VIP Infield sections are listed as N/A. That’s presumably because you can’t buy them on the fly, they’re usually dignitaries, or are already gone, so I’m not surprised those aren’t listed.
The Upper Home Run Porch has N/A as it’s prices in this chart, which I find odd, as that never sells out – unless the entire game is sold out. Not even close. Given the prices I’ve seen in this comparison, I have to imagine it’s the same as the others. The regular price is the same, and the premium is up $1. That’s why I have “guess” in the chart above.
The Premium games are listed as:

• April 6 (Indians – Home Opener)
• May 16 (Angels, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• May 25-27 (Yankees)
• June 13 (Dodgers, Saturday Interleague game)
• June 27 (Padres, Saturday Interleague game)
• July 18 (Twins, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• July 20-22 (Red Sox)
• August 1 (Mariners, Saturday game, not sure why this one)
• August 14-16 (Red Sox)

I’m sure if this gets covered at all in the press, the Rangers response will be something like “90% of the tickets are going up only $1 and only for 16 games”. They’re right mostly – the majority of people won’t be affected too much.
But still. This is just more evidence that the team still doesn’t GET IT. They want less empty seats? Either win, or cut your prices. Don’t sneak tiny price hikes out there like this.
Bet you beer goes up another quarter, too.

A few thoughts about a few things recently in RangerLandâ„¢. :)
Arbitration:
To no one’s surprise, Milton Bradley was offered arbitration. I think most everyone would like him to be back in 2009, but Milton made a lot of noise about retiring if he doesn’t get a multiyear deal. I don’t see THAT happening, but he’ll probably try. The arbitration offer will definitely call his bluff on the retiring thing. I really don’t know which way he’ll go on the decision, which is due on Sunday night at 11PM. Assuming he doesn’t take it, we’ll get a sandwich pick between Rounds 1 & 2 of next year’s draft.
The other players we had eligible for arbitration (Jamey Wright, Jason Jennings, & Ramon Vazquez) were not offered arbitration. I don’t see Jamey Wright coming back in 2009. Ramon Vazquez is being courted by a few teams in the National League, plus we have some other guys (Arias, Duran) who can play the super sub role. Jason Jennings will probably get a minor league deal. I’ve seen a few remarks in the last few days that both sides seem to want that, and is a “can’t hurt” kind of idea, since he’s off the 40 man.
Speaking of players not offered arbitration.. If Bradley doesn’t come back, I wouldn’t mind taking a flyer on Pat Burrell to replace his bat in the lineup. If Burrell doesn’t go back to Philly, he might want a one year “make good” contract, which could work here. Their numbers in 2008:
Games: Burrell 157, Bradley 126
AB: Burrell 536, Bradley 414
H: Burrell 134, Bradley 133
AVG: Burrell .250, Bradley .321
HR: Burrell 33, Bradley 22
RBI: Burrell 86, Bradley 77
BB: Burrell 102, Bradley 112
K: Burrell 136, Bradley 112
OBP: Burrell .367, Bradley .436
SLG: Burrell .507, Bradley .536
Burrell has a lower batting average, but the power numbers are somewhat better than Bradley – but he did also play more games. I’m not saying “GIMME BURRELL!”, but if he’s available on a decent short term deal, I wouldn’t be upset.
Spring Training Schedule Released:
The other day the Rangers announced the schedule for Spring training. I’ve updated my site’s schedule page with the 2009 schedule. I found the way I did it in 2008 was by far the easiest I’ve had in all my years doing this site (2009 will be the 11th season since I started this site). The biggest problem I’ve always had was doing the game update, and then having to do the index page. Last year I got some templates in place which allowed me to update the game, and then the schedule page would be updated with the result, and a link to my commentary. I’m doing the same thing for 2009. The hassle is in setting it up – it takes about two hours to set up one month’s page, it’s really tedious template work, but it pays off during the season with zero work to update. Anyway, check out my schedule.
A note about spring training this year. Traditionally the Rangers have only scheduled a single off day. This year there are four scheduled off days during spring training. I wonder if that’s any sort of concession to the World Baseball Classic. Radio and TV has not been announced for spring yet, but generally Saturday and Sunday games are on the radio (and the odd Friday game), and two games are on TV at the end of spring training. My guess is they’ll follow that pattern again, but I don’t have firm info on that yet.
Padres and our broadcasters:
There was a report not too long ago that the San Diego Padres are considering both Josh Lewin & Victor Rojas for their open TV broadcaster slot. I have to say I’ve grown to really like Victor Rojas, and would be bummed out if he left. Obviously, if he was offered the job, it’s a promotion for him, and that would be good for Vic. Bad for us. This is what I wish would happen.. The Padres hire Josh Lewin to be “Mr. San Diego”. As he’s already a broadcaster for the Chargers, it could work in that regard. You then promote Victor Rojas to be the play by play guy for the Rangers on TV. Then hire back Scott Franzke from the Phillies to be Eric’s radio partner. That’s unlikely to happen as Franzke is already on TV in Philly. Philly announcers do it differently than here – there’s no dedicated radio & TV guys. It’s just broadcasters, and after three innings or so, they switch from TV to radio, so you never have the same announcers for an entire game. So Scott would be unlikely to return. However, DO NOT PROMOTE MIKE OGULNICK FROM THE POST-GAME SHOW! (OR JIM KNOX FOR THAT MATTER) He is the reason I have stopped listening to the Rangers postgame show completely. If they put him on radio, I’d probably have to stop listening to that too – despite Nadel being there. Shudder.
So yeah, I don’t want Victor to go anywhere. Please.
Mariners Raid:
The Mariners hired Don Wakamatsu as their manager, and when he was signed, it didn’t occur to me that he might raid our staff. There’s widespread reports that Rick Adair, our minor league pitching coordinator as their new bullpen coach. On top of that, our former pitching coach Mark Connor is supposed to be named their pitching coach. I’m sure the Adair move will bug Jamey Newberg more than me, but I don’t see it as the end of the world. I guess because I haven’t seen a tremendous amount of success at the major league level with the guys that have come out of the minor leagues. Yeah, yeah – I know. There’s a million variables behind that, and it can’t be blanketed with a comment that easily.

Back in early November, Jamey Newberg had this in one of his email reports:

According to MLB.com, right-handed reliever Kazuo Fukumori signed a minor league contract to return to the Rangers.

I find that odd, as his original contract was a one year deal with team options for 2009 & 2010. He had a $1.4 Million salary for 2008, and the same in 2009 and $1.75 Million in 2010. Both 09 & 10 were team options with $200k buyouts each. If they resigned him to a minor league deal, that tells me that they bought out the two option years, and resigned him. I’ve not seen anything about this anywhere online – and Jamey didn’t know anything about it, either.
Does anyone reading this know what happened with the Fukumori option years – officially? If so, pass along a link or something in the comments. Danke.
UPDATE: I found a link on the Sporting News Canada website that says the Rangers technically released him back on May 11th, which would have meant a buyout of his options (plus presumably payment of the remaining 2008 salary). Still kind of surprised I never saw this get any news reporting until now – and even then only because I went and dug for it.