The Washington Nationals open up their new park tomorrow night on ESPN for what is the “real” (if not technically official) opening of the 2008 season. Saw a short video tour of the inside of it. Thought you might like to see it.
ST30: Rangers lose to Chisox in OKC, 5-4
Friday brought the Rangers and the Southsiders from Chicago to Oklahoma City for an exhibition game.
Michael Young led our offense, having a phenomenal spring which we’d all be talking about if it wasn’t for Josh Hamilton. Michael went 2-3 and raised his average to .403. Ben Broussard also went 2-3, and has his average recovered quite nicely from his early spring slump (it’s at .298). Hank Blalock doubled off of former Rangers farmhand John Danks, as did Ben Broussard off of Mike MacDougal. The rest of our hits for the game (nine of them) were all singles. No longballs, so the “chicks” were disappointed. ;) All of the regulars/starters had at least one hit, so that was very nice to see. Always like a more balanced attack. Ironic then that all of the guys subbed in for the starters did not get any hits at all. Milton Bradley’s first inning single was worth two RBI’s, and his numbers are small, but that’s because of his late start.
Pitching wise, the Rangers ran out there nine relievers. No starters in this one. Each guy pitched a single inning. C.J. Wilson (4th) and Josh Rupe (7th) were the only guys to give up any runs (Wilson 2, Rupe 3). All the other guys put up blanks in the run column. Fukumori & Benoit still have ERA’s of zero for the spring, and Franklyn German has a very un-Franklyn German ERA of 0.90.
Our pen looks good this season, which is why the trade announced last night was a bit of a head scratcher. The Rangers acquired reliever Dustin Nippert from the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday evening. It was quite the day for Dustin, as his wife gave birth to their second child earlier in the day. Quotes in the evening from Rangers brass say the final spot was down to Nippert & Robinson Tejeda. Tejeda, who is out of options will be DFA’ed. You wish you could hang onto that in case he figures it out, but it’s the old options thing. Nippert comes into the organization also out of options (which is why he was available), and goes straight into the pen. His career (and spring 08 numbers) don’t seem to indicate he’s a “Oh my GOD – WE HAVE TO HAVE HIM” kind of pitcher, so it definitely falls under the category of head scratcher to me. If you want to read more in depth on Nippert, check out Jamey Newberg’s entry on the trade. Good details there.
One spring game left, and it’s against the Frisco Roughriders in Frisco. It doesn’t technically count in the spring training standings.
I’m not entirely sure what the official deadline is to submit our 25 man roster, but I believe it’s a day before your first game, which would mean we have to submit it sometime tomorrow. That means a bomb of transactions all at once.
Just about there, and then the fun begins. Last year, the season just cropped up on me, and I didn’t have much in the way of anticipation for it. This year I admit to actively looking forward to it, which is odd, given I’ve made the conscious decision to not attend all that many games this year (mostly because of cost, but also because I’ve donated that money to my church in a capital campaign we’re having to build a new church).
I’m also working on an article on the 2008 Home Parking situation which I’ll be posting either Sunday or Monday. If you know the parking at the Ballpark, prepare to have your world rocked – if you’ve been keeping up with what they’re doing out there.
Several Releases & Nippert
- P Dustin Nippert acquired via trade from Arizona Diamondbacks for P Jose Marte
- P John Rheinecker placed on 60 day DL [ Link ]
- The following players were released: OF Kevin Mahar, P Broc Coffman, P Kevin Altman, P Scott Shoemaker, P Bear Bay, 1B Mike Hernandez, IF Chad Ogden, C Brian Valichka, & Pat Arlis
- The following players retired: OF Steve Marquardt & IF Kenny Smith.
Marte
- P Justin Nippert acquired via trade from Arizona Diamondbacks for P Josh Marte [ Link ]
Doug Davis has thyroid cancer
It’s one of the uglier words in the English language. CANCER.
Former Ranger pitcher Doug Davis apparently has thyroid cancer. I won’t try and get in the way with my own words, I’ll just copy a few wire stories I read here and here. I will say this, I’ll make sure and lift him up in prayer, so I urge the rest of you who are Ranger fans to do the same. Even if you’re not a Rangers fan, do it anyway. Doug was one of the nicer guys ever to throw a ball for us.
ST29: Rangers win final Arizona game; 8-5 over Royals
This will be a short one. :)
Jason Jennings was decent (5.1 IP, 6H, 2BB, 2ER, 4K). Marlon Byrd & Nelson Cruz doubled. Kevin Mench doubled twice, Hank Blalock & Milton Bradley homered,
Rangers won. Coming back to the Metroplex. Goodbye Surprise for another year.
Bring on the real stuff. I’m ready.
ST28: Rangers club Padres, 12-7
Josh Hamilton continues to be the story of the spring. He went 2-5 today with a double and a home run. Two RBI’s, scored twice. Great day. I know it’s spring, and I know I’ve been let down by too many players wearing the Texas uniform, but dammit, it’s hard not to get excited about him. if he can stay healthy.. Man, will that be an awesome move, even if Edinson Volquez stays in the Reds lineup and does well.
Games that have nineteen runs scored usually mean one thing. Not a lot of good pitching. Funny thing is, if you go down the list of San Diego pitchers, four of the seven of them didn’t give up any. However, the other three did, and two of them alone combined for ten of the twelve runs. I find it odd that one of them was Jake Peavy. Jake gave up four earned runs in three innings, making his spring ERA 9.39. Bleargh!
On the other side, Vicente Pidente joined Peavy on the “Bleargh Train” by putting up some stink worthy numbers of his own. Six innings, ten hits, one walk, five earned runs.
Some other highlights from this one were doubles by Mike Young & Ben Broussard (who certainly seems to have picked it up lately), a stolen base by Gerald Laird, and a 3-5 day by Michael Young. (Yeah, I know he’s in that list twice).
This was a National League game, so the box score has about 8 guys in the 9 hole. Getting ready to write some of these about real games. Almost done.
Released
- The following players were released: C Chris Stewart, IF Edgar Alfonso, & P Jason Davis
XM Radio & MLB Home Plate
I signed up for XM Radio back in the Spring of 2005. The reason I did it was because of their 24 hour baseball talk channel, dubbed “MLB Home Plate”. They run several things on that channel. Primarily it’s various talk shows. But the biggest bugger has been that it’s not on the XM Radio online service. If you’re an XM subscriber, you can login with your account, and listen online anywhere. This is particularly helpful to me, as my office is a cave. It’s in the middle of the building, I work in, and while it’s a small one story building, it’s still got no windows, and I cannot get reception for my XM Radio. I’ve tried with signal repeaters at various windows in the building – no go. This is an issue for me, because the online version of XM has to date not included the MLB Home Plate channel.
I’ve written to several producers and folks at XM, and they have told me the reason they have not been allowed to put it online is MLBAM themselves. You see, one of the things they do on MLB Home Plate is include “live lookins” when something cool happens in a game. I don’t particularly use that feature on the shows they have, but I could understand (if not agree with) why MLB didn’t want a competing product available online like that. So I’ve missed a lot of programming I’ve wanted to hear because I couldn’t listen online.
Well, that’s finally changed. I saw a story today on Orbitcast (Satellite news) saying that as of Saturday the 29th, XM will FINALLY MAKE HOME PLATE AVAILABLE ON THEIR STREAMING ONLINE SERVICE. This is such good news, I think it warrants an appearance from “w00t guy!” :)
Seriously, this is extremely good news. I’ve wanted this channel online for ages, so I can listen during the day. I love the talk shows here, but I haven’t been able to listen because I’ve been unable to get a signal in my office during the day, and they haven’t had it. w00t indeed! Anyway, here’s some of the shows on the channel (all times below are Central):
Baseball This Morning: This show’s hosts are Mark Patrick & Buck Martinez. Mark Patrick knows baseball, but seems to be less “serious” than some of the other show hosts. One of their producers goes by the nickname of “The Godfather”, and Patrick himself goes by the nickname of “The Big Chair”. While their baseball talk is fine, they seem to be more into the “show” and “character” aspect of being on radio. When it originally launched, there was a third host, that being Larry Bowa. Bowa stayed there until he got a job with the Yankees as a coach, and was replaced by Orestes (“The Latin O”) Destrada, who stayed for awhile until he left last year. They did not replace O, and I think they gave up on the idea of three hosts, which I liked, since it tended to keep the focus more towards baseball with three on this show. Anyway, this show runs from 5AM to 8AM, and then immediately repeats from 8AM to 11AM.
Fantasy Focus: Hosted by Jeff Erickson of rotowire.com, this show runs one hour (from 11AM to noon), and focuses (as you’d guess by the name) on fantasy baseball. There’s less talk about baseball news on this show, and a stricter reliance on discussions specifically relating to fantasy baseball. This is my least favorite show of the lineup. Not that it’s bad, but the fantasy aspects of baseball discussion are of less interest to me.
Baseball Beat: To me, by far the best show on the channel. This is hosted by Dodgers broadcasters Charley Steiner. What I like most about this show over all the other show – and this is a big one for me – NO CALL INS! At least not from the general public. He does take calls, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s from beat writers for specific teams, hence the name of the show. They’ve had Evan Grant on several times, and they talk to other local writers for teams. I absolutely love that, you get to hear from people who actually cover teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Kansas City Royals. I mean, will ESPN do big deals on those? Hell no, they want to suck on the gob of the Yankees and Red Sox. So I love the fact they talk about other teams, and with people who know what they’re talking about. Unlike the usual callers who call in to these shows and ask a litany of stupid questions, which make me want to scream and turn off the radio. I love this show – no public call ins! YAY!
The Show: Hosted by former Ranger manager Kevin Kennedy and Reds pitcher Rob Dibble. This one I get to listen to the least, as it runs from 2PM to 5PM, and I’m usually at work then. From what I heard, this is the more opinionated show on the slate, and that’s likely due to the personality of the hosts. Or at least Rob Dibble. That’s the reason I garner he disappeared from ESPN’s Baseball Tonight – strong opinions. Which is fine. When I listen, I like the show, but I hear this the least based on timing.
XM on Deck: This show runs for an hour between 5 and 6, and will preview the games coming up that evening. During the offseason, it’s just a general talk show.
MLB Live & MLB Live Late Edition: These shows combine to run from 6PM to midnight. They consist mostly of live look ins to games in progress. There’s also a healthy dose of talk too when nothing is going on in terms of things to “look in” on.
Other things that run on the channel are classic games on the offhours, and there’s some other shows that don’t run as regularly. Like Baseball Confidential where they talk to an individual for an hour. There’s also some weekend only shows, like “Minors & Majors” with Grant Paulsen and “Ripken Baseball” with the Ripken brothers. If you like talking baseball, this is the channel for you. Yeah, I realized I turned this post into essentially an ad for XM Radio, but the fact that I will be able to FINALLY listen to Home Plate online while I’m at work is a MAJOR huge deal for me.
And on top of that, they have all the games broadcast during the season too. If you’re a hockey fan, that’s a bonus, as they have a 24/7 NHL channel, too (as well as the NHL games in a similar fashion).
If you don’t have XM, you should consider getting it. They have a trial signup you can get for two weeks via the website to listen to the streaming version – which after Saturday will include Home Plate, the entire reason I bought XM in the first place.
It’s about time, guys.
Official Roster Moves
Saw a few minutes ago some official roster moves were posted to the Rangers site.
The first one was dated last night, but I was pretty positive I hadn’t seen that earlier this morning when I looked. The first one had Frank Francisco optioned to AAA, and Eric Hurley reassigned to AAA.
The second one came this morning, when Kameron Loe and Jarrod Saltamacchia were optioned to AAA. I touched on the “why” earlier this morning, but Kam was still a possibility for the pen. Not now, he’s been dispatched to Oklahoma.
None of these moves affect the 40 man roster, though. Just shuffling of existing 40 man players.
One other note. My roster page is being updated when these moves are officially made. As such, I still have guys like Adam Melhuse in the minors, even though they’ll be on the 25 man. Once these moves are all officially made by the Rangers, I’ll be updating my roster pages.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 189
- 190
- 191
- 192
- 193
- …
- 521
- Next Page »