A lonestar in california

If Thursday was draft day, yesterday was bizzarro day for the Texas Rangers. Not only did they find themselves shut down by Scott Kazmir once again, as the Texas bullpen got hammered again in a 12-4 loss, they had a catcher playing third base, and they released their #3 starter due to a sudden off-field attitude problem.

The game wasn’t much to write home about – Vicente Padilla and Kazmir dueled for the first 5 innings, with the Rangers picking up a run in the second on a Marlon Byrd sac fly. They lead it 1-0 until Evan Longoria smashed a solo homer off Padilla in the 5th, and then BJ Upton jacked a solo shot of his own in the 6th to break the tie, and the Rays added another run on a wild pitch.

Then in the top of the 8th, things got ugly. Robinson Tejeda melted down with 2 out to give up 3 runs, including a 2 run homer by Dioner Navarro. Kameron Loe actually had to come on to get the final out. Ian Kinsler popped a solo homer in the bottom of the 8th for just the second Texas run of the game, but Kameron Loe took the hill for the top of the 9th and absolutely imploded, allowing 6 runs (although none earned, thanks to a pair of errors – but don’t let that fool you, he was horrible) including a triple and a 2-run homer. The Rangers tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to take the edge off of some of the embarrassment, but that didn’t change the fact that the bullpen once again got absolutely hammered.

In fact, I’d say it’s safe to assume that with their performances last night, Tejeda and Loe may have just earned themselves a pair of bus tickets to OKC (although Tejeda would have to pass through waivers again to get there).

The real news of the day though, was of course the DFA’ing of Sidney Ponson, due to a series of incidents in which Ponson disrespected the team. It apparently started on the last road trip, when Ponson was put on notice after creating a  ”serious disturbance” at a hotel bar in St. Petersburg, FLA. Then this week, after being called upon to start on three days rest while Kevin Millwood attended to a personal matter, Ponson “showed up his teammates” by blowing up after he was taken out of the game on Wednensday after he gave up 6 runs (though partly due to 3 errors committed by his defense). Apparently the icing on the cake came Thursday, when he again blew up when Ron Washington informed him he would make his next start on 6 days rest. After that, the Rangers decided to cut him when Vicente Padilla came off the bereavement list yesterday.

As Evan Grant notes, Ponson has had similar incidents like this before in his career, so this is really nothing new - it appears Ponson was simply sliding back into the behavior that has gotten him released and bounced around by multiple clubs in the last 3 years. And that’s certainly not something you want on your team. In the words of Jon Daniels:

“He had disrespectful and adverse reactions to situations that were unbecoming of a teammate,” Daniels said. “We want guys who want to be here. We’re trying to put together a team here, and based on some comments and reactions, he didn’t want to be part of that. That’s not something we’re going to tolerate.”

Amen.

This does leave the Rangers without a 5th starter, something they can do without until next Saturday – but once that time rolls around, JD has apparently said someone from OKC will be called up. TR Sullivan dropped the names Kason Gabbard, Luis Mendoza, Matt Harrison, Eric Hurley, and oddly enough Dustin Nippert in his article, and Evan Grant did the same, although he highlighted Hurley and Harrison a little more.

Myself, I wouldn’t mind seeing Eric Hurley, I don’t think he’s got a whole lot left to prove in the minors – he just needs to learn to keep the ball down more, and he’ll get schooled on that pitching in Arlington anyway. But he’s missing enough bats, and has pitched well enough of late to warrant a callup in my opinion – I actually think the extra pressure of pitching in the bigs and pitching in a hitters park might help him focus on keeping the ball in the yard more. The only thing is, I kind of doubt the Rangers agree with me, so I’m going to predict it will probably be Kason Gabbard who gets recalled.

Also of note was Gerald Laird making an emergency start at third base, after Michael Young apparently fractured his finger in the weight room. It’s only a hairline fracture, and Young expects to start today and play through it, but this is just the Rangers reaping the rewards of sending down their only other infielder earlier this week. German Duran is eligible to be called up again on Sunday, so I image he’ll be back here by then, but they still have to go one more game with no backup infielder – hopefully MY’s finger holds up.

Today, it’s Scott Feldman vs. Andy Sonnastine. Needless to say, it would be nice to come back with a win after the bullpen implosion last night.

One last thing: maybe from now on, when I say I’m going to write a special piece here, we should just assume it’s going to come out a day later than I said it would. I’m still working on my draft recap, and I won’t have it published till later today – fortunately, it is Saturday though, so I should have the time to finish it for a change. In the meantime, here you can find EMC’shandy draft board, with all the Rangers day 1 and day 2 picks. And here you can read Jamey Newberg’s day 1 recap. Good stuff.