This text comes from Jamey Newberg’s mailing list.
A shift is underway. T.R. Sullivan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Rangers have purchased the contracts of lefthander Justin Thompson and righthander Scott Feldman, clearing space in the bullpen by optioning Kevin Gryboski to Oklahoma and designating righthander James Baldwin for assignment.
Justin Thompson after all this time, eh? Wow. I mean, WOW.
I know I said a few days ago that I had given up on the season, and I haven’t changed my mind on that.
But we’ve now lost 5 in a row to the Red Sox – Yankees, and I’m so miffed about it, I’m not updating again until they win.
That was so pathetic I don’t want to even do updates for them.
Saw on Baseball Tonight last night that some doofus jumped out of the stands in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium onto the net that’s behind home plate. At first when I saw it, the news reports said he fell out accidentally, but this morning, it turns out he jumped. What a mental zero. People like that need to fall on their heads so we can’t get offspring from such twits.
The video of this looked like he was obviously disoriented and hurt when he landed, and was roughly pulled up – again, I felt bad for him at first, but after hearing what happened, good. The thing that bothers me most about this is he “wanted to test and see if the net would hold his weight”. What did he think would happen if it didn’t? He’d fall through to the ground, real smart. Worse yet, injure the people below the net. Real smart, you genius. If it wouldn’t have hurt the people below, I would have wished you would have fell through to the ground and really hurt yourself.
Anyone know why that net is there in the first place like that? I know why the vertical net is there, but the part that this doofus fell to I’m not sure why it’s there.
The most amusing thing to me in the full story about this is the quote by Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the White Sox. Guillen said this.. “I think that’s New York, you know, anything can happen.”. I don’t think Ozzie has much room to talk, as the folks in his stadium run out of the stands and attack people.
Word just came down that the MLB arbiter reduced Kenny Rogers’ suspension from 20 games to 13. This means he’s eligible to rejoin the team tomorrow, and I believe will probably pitch.
Here’s a news story detailing the reinstatment, and Here’s a response from Bud Selig over the matter.
According to the DMN, Kenny’s fine was not reduced, but it was converted to a “charitable donation”, although it wasn’t said which charity.
As I just found out about this about 2 minutes before I posted this, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet.
The Ft Worth Star Telegram today published an article saying the Rangers have gotten a preliminary version of the 2006 schedule. The article posts some highlights, some of which are:
There’s some negative things, too:
I personally would have liked to have seen Philadelphia come down here, since we went up there last year. Plus we played in Florida two years in a row, so I would have liked to have seen more of the NL East before we moved out of that division and back to the AL West.
If anyone reading this finds a copy of the full schedule somewhere, let me know, as I’d be really eager to hear if the Rangers are at home on April 16th or August 20th.
On Tuesday afternoon, less than 12 hours after RicRod’s stinkfest in Beantown, he was placed on the 15 day DL (although initial reports said he was demoted to AAA). We recalled Erasmo Ramirez to take his roster spot, although this doesn’t address the status of the rotation at all.
Still waiting to hear if Kenny Rogers appeal will be successful or not. But as the days drag on, it’s getting to the point that it doesn’t much matter whether it’s shortened or not, does it?
The Rangers re-signed former pitcher Aaron Sele this past Saturday. He obviously enjoyed the best part of his career here with Texas during the late 90’s. He’s now pitching for us in AAA Oklahoma, and made one start. He went six innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks. Not exactly setting the world on fire mind you, but then again, neither is anyone else on the major league level.
What I think should happen now is that we bring up Sele, send CJ Wilson back down, and move someone like Greg Colbrunn to the 60 day DL to clear a spot on the 40 for Sele.
Someone on my forums posted this over the last couple of days:
i wanna know why isnt that Diamond kid pitching in the show yet?
Here’s what I wrote about that..
What makes me irritated is how everyone automatically just says “Bring up the stud” like this. It’s not all about that. There’s a lot more to consider than just “bring ’em up” without examining the entire picture.
Read this – all of it – it was from today’s Jamey Newberg’s report.
I suppose we can assume that whatever Texas decides from this point forward with regard to the rotation will have 2006 in mind at least as much as 2005 — but it’s not as if the list of candidates changes that much between the two objectives. If Volquez weren’t still sidelined with that oblique strain, maybe he’d be on the immediate radar, but that’s about it. It would be shocking to see Texas bring John Danks or Thomas Diamond to the big leagues at any point this season, as neither needs to be added to the 40-man roster for another 15 months. Why does that matter?
It’s not so much because of 40-man roster spots right now. Though the roster is full, Texas can clear space easily by transferring Frankie Francisco or Nick Regilio or Laynce Nix or Greg Colbrunn to the 60-day disabled list.
It’s not so much because of concerns over options. Bringing one of those two up now would probably mean neither would return to the farm this season (Frisco’s season will end in less than four weeks), so their first option wouldn’t be exhausted until April (assuming they wouldn’t stick with the big club then). And it’s unlikely that Danks or Diamond will need three years of options, though you don’t want to treat that issue flippantly.
The real issue is what giving Danks or Diamond a look this season would do to the roster this winter. If either is brought up, it would take up a spot on an off-season 40-man roster that will need lots of work. The Rangers will need an influx of several veterans to come in and play significant roles. And the club tends to add three to five Rule 5-eligible prospects to the roster every winter. This winter the eligibles include pitchers Volquez, Hudgins, Wil Rodriguez, Scott Feldman, Kelvin Jimenez, Wes Littleton, A.J. Murray, and Chris Jaile; catcher Lizahio Baez; infielders Ian Kinsler, Joaquin Arias, Drew Meyer, and Nate Gold; and outfielders Ruddy Yan, Vincent Sinisi, Juan Senreiso, and Anthony Webster.
If the plan today is to add five of those players to ensure they aren’t lost in the Rule 5 draft, you don’t want to bring Danks or Diamond up, even for a spot start — because then the plan becomes adding only four draft-eligibles from the above list, and exposing one more prospect to the draft than you have to.
There are some non-roster players whom we’ll likely see in Texas before this season ends, but I’m going to strongly suggest neither Danks nor Diamond will be among them.
I have to say I agree with Jamey on this issue completely – as he wrote this far better than I could, I just used his text. And since I used it, I’ll plug his site – go check out http://www.newbergreport.com and get his newsletter if you aren’t already getting it.