Tuesday’s DMN is running an article saying that there will be contact extensions given to the broadcast team (although they don’t mention the Spanish radio guys in this).
According to the article, Victor Rojas, Tom Grieve, & Josh Lewin will receive either three or four year extensions, depending on who it is. Eric Nadel will also get a deal that will make him a “Ranger for Life”. What that technically means, I guess we’ll find out later today. But it’s nice to see this. These are all “extensions”, so I’m not sure exactly when all their contracts run out. Kind of amsuing this popped up, as I was wondering what the contact status of these guys was anyway earlier on Monday. Also in the article is the note that Josh Lewin will increase his workload from 130 to 155 games a year. Quite frankly, I think it should be 162, I never liked the sub. Again, I have nothing against Bill Land, but Land broadcasts don’t have the same pulse as a Lewin broadcast. TOm Grieve seems to be a mirror of who is with him. When Bill Jones was the other seat, the broadcasts weren’t as lively, either. Josh Lewin really brings out “TAG”. And that’s a good thing.
The article also mentions that Eric Nadel will now be doing games for over 30 years. It’s nice to have that kind of continuity in a broadcaster. I grew up in Philly, and Philly baseball means Harry Kalas. It also means Richie Ashburn, but he’s been gone awhile now. Actually, Richie Ashburn equates to Tom Grieve pretty well. The only difference between Ashburn and Grieve is that Ashburn was never the GM of the club. They both played and both broadcasted for quite awhile after playing. Ashburn & Kalas mean a lot to this kid growing up in Philly. It’s nice to have Eric Nadel around – I get the same feeling from him. Whenever you hear Eric Nadel talk about broadcasters (and in particular Mark Holtz), he always downplays himself. Sorry Eric – you don’t have 28 years with a team and not be good. If you were as bad as you seem to make yourself out to be in speeches, you wouldn’t have been here this long. Eric is the same treasure to my baseball ears that Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn were.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out one of the lesser known pages on my site. It’s the broadcaster history page, which shows all the TV and radio broadcasters going back to 1972. There’s some big names in there which some people might not be aware broadcasted Rangers games. I speak of Don Drysdale, Tom Vandergriff, & Jon Miller.
UPDATE @ 2PM: The Rangers site has the official announcement about these extensions up now. You can read it here.
This morning I emailed Victor Rojas to congratulate him on the extension, and he told me his contract now runs through the year 2010. That’s a piece of info I did not see in either story (he said it wasn’t a secret, so that’s why I said it here).
Jason Botts for Kerry Wood
Quite a bizarre trade scenario. Would you do it? Yeah, I probably would. Especially if the Cubs picked up some of his salary. Check this out.
MLB.tv
Have any of you ever tried MLB.tv? I did for a month a year ago or so, but found it to be slow and the selection of games has the same limting feeling that the MLB Extra Innings Package does. These things might be more interesting if they allowed you to watch ANY game by ANY team with ANY feed you wanted.
There’s a great article about MLB.TV online today here; you should go check it out.
I’ve been a subscriber to Gameday Audio for as long as they’ve had it on MLB.Com now (about 5, maybe 6 years I think?) Anyway, it’s a great value – $15 for the whole season, all games, all feeds, plus archives. Yes, it’s audio only, but I have to recommend it over the TV option.
UPDATE Monday evening: Since I posted that article, this really cool article turned up on Baseball Prospectus, it’s about the future of MLB.TV. If they could solve the streaming problem, this could be really cool. It’d be perfect if there were no restrictions on what games I could watch. I understand local blackouts, but non local games? I should be able to see whatever I want – and I’m talking to you Peter Angelos and Comcast. Shame on you.
G51: It’s all about the Rhine
Eight & 1/3 innings pitched
Four hits allowed
Zero runs allowed
One walk allowed
One extremely huge standing ovations
First major league win
Twenty Seventh Birthday
I don’t know how my meager words could do justice to what John Rhinecker did on the mound Monday night. What a birthday present from him, and the shaving cream pie he got in the face from Kevin Mench in the post game show was a great moment. All I hope is that this performance doesn’t get him sent back to AAA. I think he should definitely be allowed at least one more start. I mean.. Wow.
Jarrod Washburn had a great game himself, going 7 innings, giving up just six hits and two earned runs. The runs were on his only real mistake, a home run by Mark Teixeira in the sixth inning, which barely cleared the left field scoreboard wall. But it was enough.
Freddie Bynum is hitting .222 with 2 HR & 6 RBI and 3 SB. Juan Dominguez is 4-5 with a 6.22 ERA in 10 games over 46.1 IP. I think all Ranger fans should send a thank you card to Billy Beane out in Oakland for this one. Does anyone miss Juan Dominguez at the moment? When does John Koronka pitch again?
Oh, and Jamey, I’m not forgetting the PTBNL. I want to steal someone else. We have two steals in this three team trade, let’s go for the trifecta. Let’s get greedy. ;)
Oh yeah, we won 2-0. :)
Littleton, Rhinecker
- P Wes Littleton optioned to AAA
- P John Rheinecker recalled from AAA
G50: Rangers beat A’s Sunday night, 4-3
Well, I was tired yesterday from doing a bunch of yardwork in the morning, so by the time the game rolled around I was pretty tired. I fell asleep duing the game, and missed most of it – I woke up, and saw the score, so most of what happened I didn’t see.
I did however, get to see Jason Botts’ first career home run – a no doubter into the upper home run porch. I also saw Botts’ double. In all, Jason had two hits. Ian Kinsler, the other rookie playing this game also had two hits, going 2 for 4 with an RBI (a broken bat check swing at a ball about to hit his head). In fact, the entire rest of the team only had two more hits (Barajas/Blalock). We managed only 6 hits total, but made ’em count. We were outhit, yet won the game.
Both starters gave up all the runs (Padilla, 3, Saarloos – 4) Otsuka got his 8th save for the Rangers. Cordero did pitch before him, but was quite wild, giving up two hits and a walk, although not allowing anyone to score.
It was a nice game as everyone else in the division lost, so we’re now three games out in first over the A’s, and give over both the Mariners (whom we play tonight) and the Angels.
Juan Gonzalez
Not the minor league player we traded for recently, the one whose pants were too big at the HOF game some years ago. The one with four ex wives by the time he was 30. Yeah, that one.
Anyway, it looks like he’s trying to hook on with the Atlantic League Indepedant team, the New York Ducks. This after he backed out of a deal with the Red Sox earlier this season (as well as the A’s & Rockies, from what I read). Anyway, here’s a story on it.
Isn’t this the same team that John Rocker was with a couple of years ago? I really thought Juan had given it up – what’s his plan here – to prove he can still play? Good luck running to first on your one at bat. ;)
Seriously, though – it’d be nice for him to pick up the pace there, but I can’t see it happening – my gut feeling says he’s done for good.
G49: Rangers lose to Planet Zito, 6-3
Usually, when the Rangers are going up against Barry Zito, it means a loss. This game is no different. We lost to Barry Zito. Except for a short moment of wildness in the bottom of the sixth, he was pretty untouchable. If you take out the events of the bottom of the sixth, Zito’s line would be: 7.1IP, 3H, 0ER, 2BB, 7K. A pretty impressive line. Howerver, in the bottom of the sixth, Zito hit Teixeira, walked Blalock, and then gave up a three run home run to Phil Nevin. Other than that, Zito didn’t allow much at all. His actual line was 7.1IP, 4H, 3ER, 3BB, 7K. It felt way more impressive than his real line indicates. Zito was also helped out by some sparkling defense by Eric Chavez, who made some really REALLY impressive plays at third, and probably helped out Zito’s line.
Kameron Loe on the other hand was not impressive. He didn’t stink up the joint, but he left a lot of pitches up, and gave up way too many hits. Loe went just 5.2IP, but gave up eleven hits in all, walking 2, striking out two. He also gave up 6 runs, although 2 were unearned. That was generous I thought, because the play in question didn’t really look like a Blalock error, I thought it was a double, and it initially was ruled that, but was changed inbetween innings to an error, giving Loe just 4ER instead of 6. I’m sure Jay Payton didn’t appreciate that.
Our bullpen was quite good, going a total of 3.1 innings of shutoutball. Four relievers (Wilson, Feldman, Mahay, Bauer) combined for just one hit (Bauer in the 9th) with 2K and 2BB.
However, due to the generally bad Oakland bullpen, Ken Macha left Zito out there as long as he could. Zito, who finally ran out of gas in the 8th after going 7.1 innings with 126 pitches gave way to Houston Street, who tonight acted like the closer, and only gave up a total of one hit in his 1.2 inning save.
The way Loe was pitching, it felt like it could have been a whole lot worse. I credit Zito for this game’s outcome moreso than anything else that happened.
I wonder what that guy in the first row of Section 323 with the giant Rangers flag, and snakes all over the place thought of this? I sat behind him for a bit at last night’s game, and assumed he was the Kam’s Snake Pit guy, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Assuming that was him, I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled with the way Loe pitched tonight.
G48: Rangers beat A’s Friday, 5-3
Well, I did something Friday night I haven’t done in awhile, and that’s attend a game in person. In years past, I’d attend on average 20-30 games a year. But, the high cost of going to these games, has slowed that way down. In 2006, I don’t have season tickets for the first time since 1997 (save for 2002 when the wife and I bought a house). I went and figured out how much it actually costs me to go to a game, multiply that by say 20 a season, and GOOD GOD is that a lot of money. The tickets aren’t actually the worst part. I live in Garland, roughly 35 miles from the Ballpark. Given I have to drive straight out Rt 30, and games start at 7PM, hello downtown Dallas mixmaster. Ugh – I’ve started to really detest driving out there, and there’s been a couple times since my last game (Sun Apr 9) that I’ve thought of going, and then I think of the drive out, and I stay home. Given what my truck gets in gas mileage, it costs me $12 in gas alone to go to one game. Then there’s $10 parking, and the ticket cost, and that’s around $30 before I even buy a single thing. And that’s just me – if I bring the wife and kid, the ticket cost is higher. I don’t hate going to games, I just can’t afford that many of them now. If there was some mass transit solution to Rangers games like the Cowboys had with Dart, (until they both got pissy over who was going to pay for it) I’d probably go to a lot more, as gas and parking are now the most expensive part of the equation.
Do what the Devil Rays are doing. Free parking for all games the whole season. I read that the team isn’t happy with all the empty seats – well, do something to appease the fans. Raising ticket prices doesn’t help. Sure, winning does, but that just brings out the fair weather fans when they’re doing good. If you want sustained increased attendance, cut the prices somewhere, and I don’t mean a $1 ice cream day, or a $1 hot dog day once in awhile. I’m talking about permanent price drops on the order of 25% of ticket revenue. $5 parking. $6.50 for a beer is stupid, I can buy an entire six pack at home for that.
As long as I’m ranting about prices, I did discover a new trick in the 2006 season to get cheap tickets. Buy the Kids Jr. Rangers program. Even if you don’t have a kid, invent one. The reason is it costs $15, and you get a lot of free stuff for that $15. You get a gift for each month of the year (which so far in 2006 has been a bobblehead & a free ticket to Six Flags). But you get a free ticket for one game per month. The cool thing with that is this ticket is also good for $6 tickets for “friends and family”, which means you can get more tickets at dirt cheap. So last night I used the voucher out of my daughter’s package, and got two tickets upstairs for $6. I was by myself, so I used the empty seat next to me as blank space so I’m not so darned squashed (being fairly overweight that’s more of an issue to me). It’s one of the good hidden money saving tricks (another good one is to buy food out of the Rangers Captain Corral in right field – it’s kid food stuff, and it’s $1 all the time for hot dogs if I remember right).
I didn’t intend on writing this much about costs, but darnit.. It’s kept me from coming to more games. I used to go to so many, but with all these things piling up it keeps me from coming to more games. Cost is a major issue for a lot of people coming to games, no matter how much a millionaire like Hicks wants to put his head in the sand and ignore it. Want less empty seats? Cut prices. It’s as simple as that. It really is.
Oh yeah – the game. Well, I got out there, and was looking forward to seeing John Koronka pitch. He’s had a few not sparkling entries lately, but has pitched pretty decently still. And that kept up tonight. With the exception of the third inning when he walked three batters, Koronka had some great control, and threw a great game. His total line was 7IP, 5H, 2R, 1K, 3BB. One of those walks led to a run, adn the other run came on a solo home run. In all his pitching was great.
Francisco Cordero blew another save, his second since losing the actual closer’s job. He still has speed, but people are finding ways to beat him; it’s got to be some minor control issue. While I’m in no way ready to abandon him, I wonder how long it will be before we start hearing “is he finished” in the press and whatnot.
Otsuka was perfect in his appearance in the ninth for his seventh save of the season.
Joe Blanton went for Oakland. He wasn’t all that bad either, going just 5IP, giving up 5H and 2ER. However, he threw a LOT of pitches, and was out after 5 having thrown 107 pitches. That put us in the Oakland bullpen, who didn’t fare as well. The trio of Keisler, Gaudin, & Flores went 3IP, giving up only 3 hits, but 3ER on 3BB. In all fairness, Flores doesn’t deserve to be lumped in there, he only went 0.1IP to finish up the game.
But walks were a major factor in this game – on both sides. Koronka’s three walks led to one of the Oakland runs, and Oakland walked a total of 8 batters. I’m not sure at the moment how many of those 8 scored, but I think at least a couple did. You can’t expect to win a game while walking that many.
Also, Ian Kinsler got drilled by the first pitch he saw early in the game – not terribly sure if it was a purpose pitch or not, but Koronka’s near beaning of an Oakland batter the next inning definitely was, as he had great control tonight. :)
We’re now three games up in the West, and while it’s way too early to even contemplate things like playoffs (heck, it’s still May), it is nice to say we have a lead in the West.
Littleton, Brown
- P Wes Littleton recalled from AAA
- OF Adrian Brown outrighted to AAA [ Link ]
Last night’s press release said that Rhinecker was recalled in place of Tejeda, but today they said it was Littleton instead. Not sure of status of Rhinecker at the moment.
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