A few short remarks:
This series has NOT been the pitching will dominate one that was advertised, that’s for sure.
If the Sox win this series, I say Joe Crede will probably win the MVP. He’s been great at third, and pitched in a lot offensively, too. He’s definitely my MVP for Games 1-2.
DeMarlo Hale goes to Boston
The Rangers lost first base coach DeMarlo Hale to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. He goes to the Red Sox to coach third base. While it might initially be seen as a lateral move, the third base coach has a more presitgious job. Also, Hale has a stonger tie to Boston’s club. He was drafted by them originally in 1992, and played in Boston’s minor league system for 7 years. Hale managed Texas’ AAA club for two years (00 & 01), and then was the Rangers’ first base coach from 02-05. Ironically (if I remember my dates right), Hale’s replacement as AAA Oklahoma manager was Bobby Jones, who was the Rangers first base coach before him, and is the leading candidate to replace Hale.
While I don’t really want to lose Hale, he seemed like a good enough coach and guy, if the replacement is Bobby Jones, I’m OK with that, it just makes the real choice being who replaces Jones at AAA? Click here to view DeMarlo Hale’s page on the Rangers site. Click here to view the story about Hale’s hiring on the Red Sox site.
Also, Orel Hershisher is talking to the Dodgers about their vacant managerial job this week. If Orel goes, we’ll probalby promote Mark Connor to pitching coach, and I’d love to see them make John Wetteland the bullpen coach.
White Sox go to the Series
Got done watching the White Sox beat the Angels to get to the World Series. A few random thoughts about that..
- I was really surprised that Vlad Guerrero was so ineffective in this series. Given how badly he destroys the Rangers, he batted worse than Phil Nevin did for us at the end of this season.
- I wonder how many times we’re going to hear about Shoeless Joe Jackson during the World Series.
- Anyone else find it ironic that the widow of a the former owner of the team the Sox beat presented Jerry Reinsdorf with the AL championship trophy?
- Lou Piniella looks like a wooden statue when he’s on TV in the booth.
- Surprising to me that in the three games the Sox played in Anaheim, they didn’t make one substitution from the starting nine players in each game. That was simply amazing.
- Former Rangers Carl Everett & Scott Podsednik go to the Fall classic with the White Sox.
- Surprised that Fransisco Rodriguez was that bad in the 8th and 9th innings.
- How many Angels conspiracy theory fans think the umpires cost them the series?
And yeah, I want Houston to go to the World Series, too. It’s looking good for them, up 3-1 with Andy Pettite on the mound for game five.
Roster Moves
This Friday afternoon brings a few more roster moves from new GM Jon Daniels. They’re mostly procedural, but still..
Pitchers Ryan Bukvich and Carlos Almanzar were both outrighted to Oklahoma after having cleared waivers. Almanzar however, decided not to accept the assignment and took his free agency. Both of them were on the 60 day DL, so it doesn’t affect the 40 man roster, which is still at 36.
Also, in a couple of minor league deals, we signed OF Ruddy Yan & P Jared Abruzzo to 1 year contracts for 2006.
Finally, the Oakland A’s rehired Ken Macha as manager, so if Orel Hershisher is going anywhere, it won’t be to Oakland.
Batty at the Ballpark 2005
The annual Halloween family event will take place again this year on October 29, 2005. From the press release…
Families will be treated to a day of face-painting, pumpkin-decorating, mask-making, home run hitting fun. Other Halloween festivities include crafts, pitching, a duck pond, ‘fishing’, ring toss, a balloon artist and spooky stories! Children decked out in costume will be entered in a drawing to win a baseball autographed by a Texas Rangers player.
There’s more information about this on the Rangers site here.
Roster Transaction
- P Ryan Bukvich outrighted to AAA
- P Carlos Almanzar outrighted to AAA, refused assignment, removed from roster
- P Jared Abruzzo signed to a 1 year AAA contract
- OF Ruddy Yan signed to a 1 year AAA contract
End of Season, plus Hart & Daniels
Well, the Rangers season is over, and we took a step backwards in 2005. Generally teams that overperform one year tend to slide backwards the next year, and we followed that. We were 10 games lower in the standings than last year. We ended up in third place again, which I suppose is better than the four years we spent in last. However, I’m tired of all the losing. I’m ready to win something again. Next year will be the 10 year anniversary of our first division championship. I know we won twice more in the following three years, but 10 years. That’s a long time. I know we need pitching, I know we need that, but I’m starting to feel frustrated. Perhaps it’s because the playoffs are going on, and the Rangers are at home again. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the offseason. I’m working on another article where I talk about every player that was on the field this season which will go into player specifics.
That leads me into the next part of the story. John Hart is gone as general manager. I think it’s a fair statement to say that you’d have a hard time finding many fans who said they liked him. Hart was extremely inaccessible when he was GM. You never saw him for the most part. Whenever there was a signing or whatnot, there was very frequently a “conference call” so he didn’t have to actually show up. He was there from time to time, but it was the exception, not the rule as far as this fan can tell. On Hart’s watch we signed probably the single worst free agent signing in club history, that being Chan Ho Park. How much of that was really Hart’s doing, and how much of it was Hicks in his “Let’s be Steinbrenner” period, we probably will never know. But there were several other not great signings during Hart’s era. Those were Todd Van Poppel, Jay Powell, Juan Gonzalez. There were also some really dumb moves too, like letting Travis Hafner go for beans. Letting Doug Davis get away. Both dumb moves. There’s plenty others. It wasn’t all bad, though. Some of the positive things were basically stealing Chris Young from the Expos for Einar Diaz (which ends up being Travis Hafner for Chris Young, essentially). John Thompson was great when he was here, that was a good move at the time. Frank Francisco (chair aside) was a great move – if he regains his health, it will be good for us again. But I suppose the best moves made during Hart’s run was signing Mike Young and Hank Blalock to long term contracts. That will definitely save us some money for a few years. That’s the one thing I thought Hart did well in Cleveland that he used here and it worked, the signing of players long term. Thought it was shrewd move in Cleveland. I wish they could have gotten that done with Kevin Mench, though. Overall I have to give John Hart’s run a C. He isn’t the devil like people like Randy Galloway make him out to be. He’s by no stretch the greatest we’ve had. Yes, there were a lot of dumb and bonehead moves, but what GM doesn’t have a handful of those under his belt? But he’s gone, which will make a lot of sports radio announcers and a lot of fans happy.
We replaced him with Jon Daniels, John Hart’s 28 year old assistant GM. Personally, I was hoping that would happen. Now I’m not foolish enough to say I know Daniels personally. I’ve only ever met him once, and that was in a group setting anyway. But in the little time I’ve got to hear him speak in person, he’s nothing like Hart, even though he was Hart’s assistant. From what I can tell, Daniels handled most of the contract negotiations anyway. Daniels will talk to fans and to the press. Obviously his job dictates that he can’t tell you everything, but I get the impression that Daniels wants to tell you what he can, and doesn’t put off an aura of “No, you’re not supposed to know that” or “Why are you asking me that?” – those things I felt from Hart. Daniels is pretty much a clean slate in terms of I don’t know if anyone really knows what will happen with him in terms of moves he’ll make – how he handle this and that. I won’t go into a lot of speculation on that, as there isn’t a lot to put out there, I think. We’ll just have to take it as it comes, and I think I speak for a lot of fans that I feel good about that. Hopefully his first order of business is signing Teixeira to a long term contract (and I mean more than 3 years – something like 7).
I’ll have more soon regarding individual players and what I’d like to do. But in the meantime, I have to say I really am enjoying the fact that the Yankees get to go home.
Roster Transaction
- P Justin Thompson refused assignment to AAA and is a free agent – he is off the 40 man roster.
Roster Transaction
- P Kevin Gryboski & Michael Tejera outrighted to AAA, removing them from the 40 man roster.
Roster Transaction
- GM John Hart resigns from position
- Asst GM Jon Daniels promoted to General Manager
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