Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Chris Davis, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison
I’m afraid I don’t have time for my normal game recap this morning (a prior engagement at church may have to have to preclude my beloved Rangers somewhat today) so we’re gonna try something a little different here by seeing if I can formulate a quick post without turning it into a long one. So, without further adieu, here’s a few thoughts/stats from yesterday’s 9-4 win you might find interesting:
- Chris Davis is awesome. If there’s one guy in the lineup who wasn’t slowed down by the all-star break, it was Crush – he’s 12 for 31 (.387/.387/.871) since baseball’s midsummer interlude, with 4 home runs, 3 doubles and 7 RBI. As his bash buddy Josh Hamilton points out in Evan Grant’s game story, the thing about Davis has been his ability adjust, and adjust quickly – officially one month into what should be a great Major League career, Chris has 10 homers and 20 RBI in just 89 at-bats, which is nothing short of amazing.
“He’s got to be in the top 15 of players I’ve ever seen when it comes to raw power,” Hamilton said. “He’s young and strong, but he’s also learned how to make adjustments pretty quickly. That’s a dangerous combination.”
- That leads us to Josh himself, who even though he’s not hitting much for average right now is sure hitting for power with three home runs in his last 5 games. And credit Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (the #9 hitter of late) for getting on base in front of him, too – all three of those homers have been multi-run jobs, giving Hamilton 8 RBI’s to up his season total to 103. The top of the order has started clicking again, and that’s been the key to the Rangers takeoff in the last two games.
- I thought Matt Harrison was pitching okay yesterday before he left with a blister on his index finger after 86 pitches in the 5th. 3 runs (one earned) on 5 hits and 3 walks isn’t spectacular, but it’ll get the job done when you have an offense like ours behind you – in any case, it was important for him to rebound after the two tough starts preceding yesterday.
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who went 2-3 with a walk, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored yesterday) has hit .364/.440/.545 in his last 6 games for an 985 OPS, but is now going to be relegated to backup catcher unless he or Gerald Laird is traded in this coming week. I like the him (as everyone knows) so I might sound biased saying this… but does it seem to anyone else that every time he finally starts to find a groove, something has happened to disrupt it (i.e. playing in a sporadic platoon, groin problems, and now being religated to backup catcher)? He hasn’t performed anywhere near his potential this year, but the circumstances sure haven’t helped him any either.
Eric Hurley comes off the DL this afternoon to take on A’s lefty Dana Eveland – Kevin Millwood was put on the DL yesterday to make room for Gerald Laird, but Hurley’s activation means that Max Ramirez should be going down to AAA today to get some regular playing time (and he could use it too, he hasn’t started since July 19th).
So, make sure you’ve got your brooms handy this afternoon folks – provided the offense can handle the left-hander today, we’ve got our best shot at a sweep in months.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Kevin Millwood, Josh Hamilton, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Scott Feldman, German Duran, Josh Hamilton is amazing, Max Ramirez, Gerald Laird
So, how do you rebound from two dissapointing series that saw your offense and pitching staff both get kicked around like soccer balls? Well, coming back from a 5 run deficit and scoring 14 runs against the team with the lowest staff ERA in baseball is a pretty good place to start.
With observing scouts dotting the stadium, the team who just might have the most moveable talent at this years trade deadline put on quite a show, starting with Vicente Padilla. Padilla put together a decent, if not fairly impressive start despite giving up 5 runs in the third inning – which was thanks in part to Michael Young, whose key misplay on a ball that was (most generously) ruled an infield single set up the Oakland rally.
After A’s RF Ryan Sweeny started the inning with a leadoff double, Padilla got Kurt Suzuki to ground one to the right of Young, who bobbled it. For some reason the official scorer ruled it an infield single, but it was pretty clearly an error, even in the opinions of Rangers radio announcer Eric Nadel, who said he had marked the play down as such in his scorebook expecting it to be changed.
After the miscue Padilla loaded the bases by walking Jack Cust, struck out Emil Brown, allowed a bloop RBI single to Carlos Gonzalez and got Mark Ellis to foul out. But with that extra out, the A’s went walk, single, single and single before David Murphy threw out Jack Hannahan at home plate to end the inning. Down 5-0, the game was shaping up in a far too familar fashion – but the Rangers where about to conjure up some more of that pre-all star break magic.
Much like Michael Young in the bottom of the third, the A’s defense started their top of the 4th with third baseman Brooks Conrad throwing away a Marlon Byrd groundball, and that’s all the opening the Texas offense (which has been without hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo of late, as he was in Dallas having knee replacement surgery yesterday) would need. David Murphy followed the Error by jacking his 14th bomb of the season to left center to put the Rangers on the board. After Chris Davis single, Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked and Ian Kinsler hit a sac bunt, Michael Young followed witha sac fly to right. That brought up the 98-RBI man Josh Hamilton as the tying run with one out. The A’s now-beleaguered rookie starter Sean Gallagher tried to snap off a first pitch curveball, but it hung – and then hung some more as it soared out to right for Hamilton’s 99th and 100th RBI’s of the season. Josh Hamilton = unprecedented greatness.
The rally didn’t just give the Rangers chances at winning a new lease on life, it seemingly gave Vicente Padilla a huge boost in confidence too – he came back and retired 9 consecutive A’s, including 5 strikeouts over the 4th, 5th and 6th innings before being pulled at 108 pitches. The Rangers took the lead just in time to qualify him for his 12th win in the top of the 7th – Chris Davis, who would come up a triple short of the cycle at the end of the night smacked a 1-out double and Ian Kinsler brought him home with a 2 out single to right, making it 6-5 Rangers.
The bullpen also seemed recovered from it’s meltdown on Thursday, as Frankie Francisco and Eddie Guardado fired hitless 7th and 8th innings. With CJ Wilson warming in the bullpen, the Rangers had one last chance to tack on some insurance in the top of the 9th. Apparently, the Texas offense doesn’t trust CJ anymore than I do right now, because they batted around to score 8 runs off two different Oakland relievers. Chris Davis got it started by jacking his 9th Major League home run of the season, and Michael Young (RBI double), Hank Blalock (2 run single) and Marlon Byrd (RBI double) where the other prime contributors to one of the Rangers best single innings of the season. The fact that the seemingly too often-used Jamey Wright gave up a run for the 5th time in his last 6 outings in the bottom of the 9th was completely lost in the revelry of what the Rangers offense had accomplished: every single player had a hit and a run scored in the 17 hit, 8 walk attack that should go a long ways toward shaking this team out of it’s recent funk.
In other news, it now looks as if Kevin Millwood is indeed headed to the DL with his latest groin pain – according to TR Sullivan, Millwood tried to throw a side session yesterday in Oakland and “it didn’t go well”. Instead of simply having Millwood skip a start and wait to see if he can pitch again during the Rangers next weekend, the Rangers feel it would be better to have Millwood focus on fully recovering before he rejoins the rotation -and considering how bad he has been this year, that certainly sounds like the best course of action. This will of course mean the Rangers scrapping their plan to send Scott Feldman to the bullpen, having him instead rejoin the rotation as the 5th starter so he can be skipped over and pushed back whenever possible. They’re still hoping to keep him under 150 innings for the season.
Also in injury news, German Duran has undergone surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb and will be out for 6-8 weeks, effectively ruining the second half of his season. He apparently suffered the injury Wednesday, in his second game after being sent down. This really stinks because it could very well be a huge setback in the development of the 24 year-old Duran, who spent most of his 2 months with the big club this year riding the bench. As a result, Duran has gotten just 176 total at-bats this year, and hit just .225/.279/.363 in 102 Major League at-bats as a followup to a .300/.352/.525 breakout campaign with AA Frisco in 2007. It’s my opinion that Duran has been horribly mismanaged and misused this year by the Rangers – although it was an oft-overlooked fact, he never should have been allowed to sit on the bench as much as he was in the first half. If that meant sending him back to AAA and putting Ryan Roberts on the roster as the utility infielder, that’s what the Rangers should have done – but unfortunately, it’s too late to do anything about it now.
Coming off the DL tomorrow will be Gerald Laird. Laird completed his rehab assignment with AAA Oklahoma last night and looks 100%, despite the fact that he went 0-12 at the plate in his four-game stint. He is apparently expected to be the “#1 catcher” when he gets back, something that I find slightly disappointing:
“When he comes back, I certainly want him out there as much as possible,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “I’m not going to put a number on it this time. How many days a week he’ll catch, I don’t know. But he’ll certainly do most of it.”
I had at least hoped to see a return to the platoon of Laird and either Max Ramirez or Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whichever doesn’t get sent back down. Admittedly, Salty’s season has been a massive disappointment due to underperformance, injuries and sporadic playing time, and MaxRam hasn’t exactly dazzled in what little playing time he has gotten since being brought up – but making Laird the “#1 catcher” for the rest of the season does absolutely nothing to help whichever of those two winds up stuck as Laird’s backup, or resolve the logjam the Rangers currently have with their three young catchers.
In my opinion, Laird - whose career line is still a meager .257/.308/.387 despite his performance in the first half this year - is pretty redundant in regards to our catching future seeing as how he’s the most expensive of our catchers, and a free agent in 2 years. Since we’re 10 games out of first place, even if Max and Salty suck right now, it would be much more productive for us in the long run to get them as many innings as possible in the second half (meaning one needs to be going full-time in AAA, and the other catching at least on a semi-regular basis in the majors) to allow them to continue to refine their game as much as possible heading into 2009. But sentencing one of them to catching once a week behind Laird is tantamount to what the Rangers did with German Duran this year, and that is stunt his development.
What all this seems to be leading up to however, is a trade of one of our catchers – we just don’t have room for four, and in TR Sullivan’s recent rundown of Ranger trade rumors, he mentions that the Yankees (whose catcher Jorge Posada is on the DL and will not be able to catch again this year) have asked about both Laird and Salty, and the Reds have been looking at Laird since this spring. TR says that 20 teams have asked about one of the four Rangers catchers. I believe I’ve said this before, but seeing as how I think Laird is the most redundant catcher we have, and because he’s likely at an all-time peak in his trade value, he is the one (in fact the only one) who I would prefer to see dealt.
Speaking of trade rumors, I’m still planning to do a seperate post and run them all down sometime this weekend – I’m horribly behind as far as reporting upon trade rumors in this space goes.
Quick hits: Joaquin Benoit got roughed up in a rehab outing for AA Frisco yesterday, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks while not recording an out… Joselo Diaz cleared waivers and has been sent to OKC… LHP Beau Jones, the forgotten part of the return in the Mark Teixeira deal, has been promoted from Bakersfield to AA Frisco.
Today, Matt Harrison takes on Justin Duchscherer in Oakland – Harrison has given up 13 runs in 7.2 innings his last two starts, and Duchscherer is the AL’s ERA leader at 1.87. So, uh… yeah. Looks like a tough one.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chris Davis vs. Hank Blalock, Josh Hamilton, Josh Hamilton is amazing
I think Josh Hamilton might have been born to hit in the home run derby. Or maybe the home run derby was born for Josh Hamilton to hit in it. I’m not sure which. But I do know one thing: the show that Josh Hamilton put on last night in Yankee Stadium was nothing short of prodigious.
With his 71 year-old former coach and batting practice pitcher from his high-school days, Clay Counsil throwing him the gophers, Hamilton would launch an incredible twenty-eight home runs in the first round. That easily eclipsed the previous record of 24 home runs in the first round, set by Bobby Abreu back in 2005 (the year he hit an amazing 41 home runs total in Detroit). And of course when you’re hitting ball after ball with that much power, you’re gonna send a few balls a loooooong way: he had three home runs surpass the 500-foot barrier, his furthest being a 518-foot monster that ranks third all-time in the history of the contest. Absolutely amazing.
“They should have juiced the ball up. I’d have hit the subway,” Hamilton said.
The only unfortunate part (if any part of what Josh did last night can be termed unfortunate at all), about hitting all those homers in the first round was it seemed to tire out our hero – he and Council decided to skip the majority of the second round after they where assured a spot in the finals to conserve their strength, but it didn’t seem to be enough. Hamilton hit only three homers in the final round, allowing fellow finalist Justin Morneau to sneak past him and nab the trophy with 5 dingers - something even Morneau didn’t really feel he deserved:
“He was the one that put on the show,” he said. “I’m just glad I was a part of the whole thing.
“It does seem kind of unfair that he didn’t get to win the whole thing,” Morneau added. “Anyone who was here won’t forget that performance.”
All total, Hamilton hit 35 HR’s despite skipping most of the second round – by comparison, Morneau hit just 22 and the second-rounders Lance Berkman and Ryan Braun both hit 14.
But win or lose, Josh says the best part about getting to participate in this event was continuing to share his amazing story of winning his battle with addiction and getting back into baseball. He said that back in 2005 he had a dream about being interviewed after participating in the derby at Yankee stadium – long before it was ever determined when the next All-Star game there would be held.
“Now I’m not making this up, but soon after my sober date (Oct. 5, 2005), I had a dream about being in the Home Run Derby in Yankee Stadium,” he said.
“So I didn’t even know about an All-Star Game or Home Run Derby actually being held in Yankee Stadium, but I had this dream. And I didn’t see how I did. All I saw was this microphone in my face afterwards, and how I got to share with people the reason I am back.
“You can say that dream was a coincidence. But I don’t believe in that.”
If there’s a single player in Major League baseball right now who deserved a moment like last night’s more than Josh Hamilton, I’d like to hear about him. This is some well-deserved national recognition for one man’s incredible journey – a journey that hopefully is still just beginning.
In other news yesterday, Hank Blalock and Eric Hurley went on a rehab assignment with AA Frisco today - Hurley tossed 7.1 innings of scoreless ball, striking out 2 and walking one, and Blalock went 1-3 playing first base. Both are due to come off the DL during the Minnesota series, with Hurley scheduled to start on Saturday.
Blalock’s activation will of course mean it’ll be decision time for the Rangers on Chris Davis – Davis has a 983 OPS and is hitting .412 for his last 4 games, getting the average back up to .259 again, so it’s gonna be a tough decision for the Rangers on what happens once Blalock comes back. You already know where I’m at on this one – I think sending Davis back down would be a huge mistake. But unfortunately, I’m guessing that’s exactly what they’ll do, at least until the trade deadline, so I’m trying to be prepared for when the news comes.
Sorry this is another short entry, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to stop it early again instead of plowing ahead like I know I need to do. I know I haven’t been blogging at 100% capicity lately (I’m sure most of my readers have probably picked up on that) – things have been a little hectic for me lately, but I know I need to get back into a rythm here with my posting and my content. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that with a midseason report of some sorts this week - I’ve got some stuff that needs catching up on.
The All-Star game is tonight – I know most people usually don’t as much about care who wins or loses, but I get pretty amped up about rooting for the AL in these things, and with Hamlton, Bradley, Kinsler and Young all at this game, I’ll really be pulling for the AL this year. The Rangers have had a lot of great all-star moments over the last few years, with Blalock, Soriano, Teixeira and Young all playing big parts in some big AL victories – Ham and the rest of the crew can continue the tradition tonight. GO AL!
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: CJ Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison, Max Ramirez
Back on April 24th, when this Texas Rangers ballclubwas sitting at 7-16 in the standings if somebody would have told me we’d finish the first half with 50 wins by the All-Star break I probably would have told them they where insane. And really, it is insane. It’s insane how this team turned itself around on a dime, and gone from one of the worst Aprils in team history to 4 games over .500 at the break. It’s insane the contributions the Rangers have gotten from core players like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley - and from the rookies like David Murphy, Eric Hurley, Chris Davis and Brandon Boggs. Yep – it’s absolutely, beautifully insane.
Some of that beautiful insanity was demonstrated yesterday against the White Sox, in another weird, wacky contest in which pitchers (bothstarter and reliever) where treated as rudely as doormats. Though I regretfully don’t have time this morning to run through all the craziness at great depth like I normally would (I also need to do a roundup of all the latest Rangers news and notes I haven’t been able to get to) I’ll just give you some of the noteable highlights of yesterday’s 12-11 slugout:
- Matt Harrison, trying to make his case for a spot in the second half rotation gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 innings. Not a very good performance for Harrison – but considering how everybody else that pitched in that game pretty much got hammered as well, I’m not super concerned over this hiccough. Matty should start the second half in the rotation irregardless in my opinion.
- Ian Kinsler3-5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI – he ends the first half leading the AL with a .337 average in a league-leading 452 PA’s. He also leads in hits (134), total bases (218), runs scored (84), doubles (34), extra base hits (52) and runs created (92). All that, plus some other cool stuff like being 5th in OBP and 7th in SLB% adds up to a .945 OPS and an AL-leading 52.4 VORP. That’s your first half MVP, not only for the Rangers but for the American League. And maybe even for all of baseball.
- Oh yeah, almost forgot: Kinsler extended his hitting streak to 25 games. This may be the one reason I am sorry the ASB is here – he doesn’t have a chance to go for 26 until Friday.
- Maximiliano Ramirez: 3-5 with 1 double and 3 RBI. He’s been getting some additional playing time since Salty tweaked his groin July 5th. The result? He’s gone 7-for-20 with a homer, 6 RBI and a .959 OPS. Overall his line has jumped from .182/.280/.318 to .250/.333/.425. Sounds like Salty better get his groin healed and show us something immediately after the ASB, or he could wind up being the one sent down when Laird comes off the DL (which is tentatively targeted to be July 25th).
- Milton Bradley: 2-5 with his 19th homer of the season yesterday. Not only does it tie his personal best in HR’s for a single season, but it was the 100th of his career.
- CJWilson: gave up 3 runs on 5 hits after being brought into the game with a 12-8 lead in the top of the 9th inning. That’s bad. Again. He also said that he didn’t get pumped up enough to start getting outs until he heard Ozzie Guillen taunting him from the White Sox dugout, and that…
“I don’t really worry about my ERA too much,” Wilson said. “I just worry if I get my saves, because that’s the only thing I can control.”
Forgive me if the next few sentences sound like a rant, but… that’s just a horrible attitude for a closer to have. Maybe I’m reading to far into this, but if taken literally, he’s basically saying he doesn’t care how many runs or baserunners he allows just so long as he doesn’t give up that tying run. Being an adrenaline junky is one thing, but as a closer, your job is to go out there and get outs as quickly and efficiently as possible. You have to go out there and want mow down every single batter with your very best stuff, and from the sound of it, CJ doesn’t seem to have the drive to do that unless the tying run is actually standing at third. And when you’ve got a 5.01 ERA, a 1.573 WHIP, and 23 BB’s already, the law of averages would seem to dictate that sooner or later, that guy on third is gonna start scoring.
We don’t have too many options to replace CJ in the 9th inning with at this point – but I’ve had enough of the antics of watching our 3-4 run leads evaporate to one in a matter of minutes after CJ takes the mound. Not to repeat what I’ve said before, but I really think it would be a good thing if the Rangers told CJ he was splitting time in the 9thinning with Frankie Francisco, who has at leas the pure stuff to pitch there (though he too could use a lesson in being more aggressive with it at times). Under that scenario, we’d get a look at what Frankie can do, see if he can handle the role and at the same time hopefully light a fire under CJ’s ass to get some 1-2-3 innings as well.
Anyway… this kind of turned out to be an impromptu rant about CJ Wilson, so my apologies for that. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a more proper post, and round up all the latest Ranger news later.
Tonight… tonight is gonna be special. We have Josh Hamilton in the home run derby (which is on at 7:00 central on ESPN if you’re wondering). In a really cool gesture, Hamilton has chosen to bring his high school coach, 71 year-old Clay Council to the derby to throw him the cheese. I’ve been a little concerned that the derby will mess up Josh’s swing for the second half, but at this point there’s really nothing to do but shut up and cheer him on – and based on what we hear about his BP sessions, this should be a piece of cake for Josh as far as launching balls goes… if you’re a betting man… he’s even the odds-on favorite. Who can argue with that?
I think I need to apologize for something. I literally, completely wrote this game off at the end of my last entry, and now I feel like a total douche for doing it. Because what wound up transpiring last night was most certainly not something to write off – it was something every baseball fan should experience at least once in their lifetime, proof once again that you can never truly write off anything in the sport of baseball.
The turning point of last night’s game may have come before it even started. Instead of going with an emergency callup of AA pitcher Michael Ballard, the Rangers decided the to pitch the game entirely out of the bullpen and start Warner Madrigal instead. Although he’s mostly been a one-inning reliever in the minors, Madrigal (who ironically enough was stolen in the offseason from the Angels on a roster technicality) would make it through the first 3 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits while throwing 46 pitches. That, combined with 3 innings of one-run ball from Josh Rupe, kept the Rangers on pace with the Angels Jered Weaver, who allowed 2 runs in 6 innings. Most likely, that was a much better performance than what Ballard would have been able to turn in, and a couple fine performances any way you cut it.
Also helping the Rangers keep pace with the Angels was Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who drove in both of the Ranger runs through the first 6 innings by knocking an RBI single in the 4th, and hitting a sac fly (which was dropped by Vlad Guerrero in right) in the 6th to tie the game after Angels left fielder Juan Rivera had let Marlon Byrd’s leadoff single skip to the wall, allowing Byrd to motor into third with nobody out.
With the game tied at 2-2, the Rangers went to Frank Francisco for the 7th inning, who coming into the game had not allowed a run in his last 9 outings. But with 2 out in the inning, Francisco proved mortal, allowing a 2-run longball to Rivera (who, despite his costly fielding gaffe, drove in 3 of the 4 Angel runs on the night). With a 4-2 advantage the Angels highly effective set up men, Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields would steam through scoreless 7th and 8th innings, allowing just one hit between them to set the stage for the Major League leader in saves, Francisco Rodriguez in the 9th. But the mighty Rodriguez, who came close to blowing the save against the Rangers Monday night, was about to prove mortal himself – and was about to provide Rangers fans with memories to last a lifetime.
It started when he walked the leadoff batter Ramon Vazquez (pinch hitting for German Duran) on 4 pitches. Ian Kinsler (who earlier extended his hitting streak to 21 games) struck out for the third time in the game, but Frank Catalanotto at least made a productive out, grounding to first base and moving Vazquez to second, albeit with 2 out, for Michael Young. Young stepped in and took a strike at the knees and a slider in the dirt before waiting on a Rodriguez curveball and punching it through the left side for an RBI single. The game was still alive for Josh Hamilton, and now the Rangers only needed one more to tie.
Coming to the plate, Hamilton was 0-5 on the night and in the middle of a huge power outage – he hadn’t homered since June 17th, and he had just two extra-base hits over the same period. That was fixing to change.
The gameplan for Rodriguez seemed to be to try and stay away from Hamilton – the first pitch of the at-bat was outside, and the second was fouled away. On 1-1, Michael Young took off for second base, and made it safely as the pitch was ball 2 outside and high. All Hamilton really needed now was a single somewhere – often, this would be where he would start hacking. But ball three was down and away, and Hamilton actually showed some plate discipline for a change, as he waited calmly for his pitch. On three and one, with2 out and the tying run on second, he got it. ”K-Rod” came to the plate with a 79 MPH curveball. That stayed about belt high. That stayed over the plate.
I wish I could embed the video for you here (sadly, I still cannot seem to do that with WordPress for some reason) but beyond that link directly above is a microcosm of what the game of baseball is all about - the one moment of ultimate triumph players and fans either live or die for. From the sweet sound of the ball off the bat, to Josh Lewin’s triumphant scream of ”BALLGAAAAME!!!!” on the TV broadcast - that’s what it’s all about:
“My first walk-off ever,” Hamilton beamed afterward in the Rangers clubhouse. “My first helmet toss ever. I’ve always seen guys on TV toss their helmets and jump into the crowd at home plate. It’s pretty cool.”
“It’s been a real challenge. I was battling tonight until my last at-bat. But when something like that happens, it reminds you how much you love playing this game.”
It also reminds you of just how much we love watching Josh Hamilton play this game – for me, that was the most exciting, most satisfying Ranger moment I have ever born witness to. I do not know where this team would be without Josh, but they would not be where they are now - that much is certain.
I’m afraid I’m short on time right now (I’ve spent more time trying to think of things to write than actually writing them in this entry) so I’ll just leave you with this: in the pandemonium that ensued around home plate, as Josh was greeted by his jubilant teammates, one of the most epic photos of our Rangers that I have seen in a long, long time was snapped. This is my new wallpaper:
That is the kodak moment of the season, folks.
PS – if you want to read a real recap of this game and this moment, Joey Matschulat over at BTiA has once again shamed me, and just about every other Rangers writer out there with this awesome writeup. Do yourself a favor, click the link…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Milton Bradley
The results are in, and the aforementioned four have made it into the 2008 All-Star game. Hamilton will be our lone voted-in starter, but Milton Bradley has been chosento DH in the stead of an injured David Ortiz, so that’s actually two starters for us. As expected, Ian Kinsler got snubbed from getting the start by that little dwarf from Boston – Kinsler lost to him by 34,000 votes, which, in ASG voting terms, is pretty close. So at least we gave Boston a run for their money on that. Michael Young got in as well, as he and Kinsler are both on the bench.
Here are the All-Star rosters - I’ve got to run right now, but I’ll write some more on this later, I promise (really, I do). For now, I just wanted to convey a giant fistpump and a send congrats out to Josh, Milton, Ian and Mike – they all deserved to start, really.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Chris Davis, First Major League hit, Josh Hamilton
There’s not really a whole lot to say about last night’s Lone Star Series finale in Houston. Unable to clinch the silver boot trophy with a decisive win, or move 2 games above .500, the Rangers instead suffered though a 7-2 drubbing by the Astros to take the boot by an anticlamactic default of run differential, and also saw another possible injury to Josh Hamilton further dampen their spirits.
Kevin Millwood didn’t seem to have anything working for him in the early going last night - his command was poor, he and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia struggled to get on the same page, and the Astros rapped out 7 hits and 7 runs in the first two innings, including a 3-run triple by Hunter Pence in the top of the first. Said Millwood:
“I made a lot of bad pitches and they hit them,” Millwood said. “Even after that, I didn’t make a whole lot of good pitches. My defense picked me up the last three innings. I was coming off a game where I felt I threw the ball pretty well but tonight was the total opposite. I felt good. I felt I all my pitches were there but I didn’t locate them.”
That put the Rangers in an insurmountable hole, as Astros left-hander Wandy Rodriguez turned in a brilliant performance, striking out 9 while allowing just one run on 5 hits over 8 innings. The Rangers are now 8-16 on the season against left-handed starters, and are hitting just .253 as a club against them – even having both Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton back in the lineup last night didn’t help the Rangers avert their woes against left-handed pitching.
Of course, Hamilton wasn’t actually in the lineup but for one inning – in the most discouraging news of the night, he took a Wandy Rodriguez pitch off his left hand in his first at-bat, and was subsiquently pulled after just one inning. Brandon Boggs took over for the rest of the game, and Hamilton was sent for X-rays of his hand, which fortunately came up clean.
”It’s just bruised, but it’s as sore as can be,” Hamilton said. “Everything felt fine running, but my hand didn’t start hurting until I got out into the field. Must have been the adrenaline from having a ball come right at your face.”
Hamilton is listed as day-to-day, and probably won’t be playing tomorrow against the Phillies. Although right now this doesn’t appear too serious, I gotta agree with what Evan Grant said on the DMN blog – perhaps it would be a good idea to let Hamilton take most of, if not all of this series against the Phillies to fully recoop from all the dings and dents he’s been taking lately. Obviously you want to have his bat in the lineup, but he’s just 2 for his last 17 – I don’t think a couple games off here would do him anything but good.
There was one bright spot in the morass of last nights game however: Chris Davis made his Major League debut, pinch-hitting for the pitchers spot in the top of the 9th inning. Wearing Juan Gonzalez’s (and Jason Botts) old #19, Davis swung at the first pitch he saw from Oscar Villareal, and grounded it to third where Ty Wigginton couldn’t get a handle on it. Davis reached at first on an infield single to begin his career, and promptly scored from first when Marlon Byrd tripled into the gap. Considering his reputation, and god-given raw power, I’m sure that’s not exactly the way Chris (or anyone else, for that matter) envisioned his first Major League hit, but I’m sure he’ll take it – I’ve got a feeling that’ll be the first of many more, albeit probably one of the shortest.
Later tonight, Davis will get his first career start at first base with right-hander Brett Myers on the mound – in some supreme irony, it will also be Hank Blalock bobblehead night. Speaking of Hank though, according to Ron Washington, the Rangers are still dead set on moving him to first base and playing him there when he comes off the DL:
“When Hank comes back, Hank is going to play,” Washington said
Based on that, it pretty much sounds like Davis’ callup is indeed only going to be a cameo, unless he immediately tears the cover off the ball. Which he could very possibly do - and if he does, it’s going to be quite a juggling act for the Rangers if they have to find Davis, Blalock, and Max Ramirez AB’s while still using Milton Bradley as the primary DH.
In the meantime though, the plan is going to be for Davis to start primarily against right-handers while seeing time against select lefties. For example, Ron says he’ll sit Davis on Saturday against the Phillies ace lefty Cole Hamels and play Max Ramirez instead, but he will be out there on Sunday against Jamie Moyer. And Davis is perfectly fine with that arrangement – he’s just happy to be here:
“They told me I’m here and that I will play against right-handers and some lefties,” Davis said. “They said that when Hank comes back there will be a decision that will have to be made. He’s a good player. They need his bat in the lineup. They told me not to worry about that and just focus on playing. I’m going to worry only about the things I can control. I’m very excited about this opportunity.”
So am I.
Quick hits: Chris Davis, Taylor Teagarden, Max Ramirez and Elvis Andrus have all been chosen for the All-Star Futures game at Yankee Stadium July 13th – Davis and Teagarden would be on the US Team, and Max and Elvis would be on the World team. Only thing is, Davis and MaxRam will likely be with the Rangers as they play the White Soxthat day, so they’ll most likely be unable to appear there – but given the choice, I’d bet they’d both rather be playing the White Sox anyway. And finally, Tom Grieve will return to the booth tonight for the first time since his prostate surgery.
Kason Gabbard vs. Brett Myers and the Phillies today – this could be a pretty tough series, despite the fact that the Phils are slumping badly coming into Arlington. They’ve lost 11 of their last 15 games, and scored 4 or fewer runs in 12 of those last 15, but they still rank second in the NL in runs scored, and their lineup features such threats as Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. Gabbard’s gonna have to be on top of his game tonight, but he is coming off two pretty good starts since being recalled from AAA.
On the bright side though, Brett Myers is 1-8 with a 6.03 ERA in his last 12 starts – and he has a 7.54 ERA on the road this year. Perhaps he can be the tonic for our offensive woes, no?
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Hank Balock, Jamey Wright, Joaquin Benoit, Josh Hamilton, trade talk
Further proof that wins and losses are a relatively useless stat for pitchers: Eric Hurley took his first Major League loss Tuesday night by allowing 2 runs in 6 innings. So how did that happen? Well, in short, the Rangers offense was nowhere to be found for the first 8 innings, Joaquin Benoit continued to struggle, and a 11th-hour rally fell short as the Rangers lost 4-3.
The Rangers offense produced a quick run in the first inning, thanks to an Ian Kinsler leadoff double and a Michael Young RBI single. But they got shut down after that, as the 36-year old Brian Moehler proceeded to hold the Rangers to just one run on 5 hits and 2 walks in his 6.1 innings.
Of course Texas was once again missing Milton Bradley from the lineup, but this time their offense took an even bigger blow in the 5th inning, when Josh Hamilton was removed from the game with inflammation in his right knee. Apparently, Hamilton first aggravated the knee last week when he made a diving catch on a Chipper Jones fly ball in the first inning of Thursday’s game against the Braves. Since then, it’s been an on-and-off condition, and he started to feel it again in the first inning last night when he came up for his first AB. He tried to grit it out, but apparently couldn’t continue after missing a diving catch in a Ty Wigginton floater in the 4th. Brandon Boggs replaced him at the start of the 5th, and proceeded to go 1-for-2.
This is the same knee that Hamilton underwent two arthroscopic surgeries on in 2006, so there is some history here – the early determination is that there is no structural damage to the knee, but Josh will be reevaluated today, and is currently listed as day-to-day. We reeeally better hope this isn’t serious folks – all I can say is, if we lose Hamilton for an extended period of time, our already-slumping run production is going to take an even bigger nosedive.
Getting back to the game, the Astros took the lead by scoring two in the second inning off Eric Hurley, who otherwise had a very economical and efficient outing. Although he still gave up his usual amount of fly balls (4-12 GB/FB ratio), walked 3 and only struck out one, he was only at 88 pitches when he was pulled after 6 innings with the score 2-1.
In fact, Hurley probably could have gone another inning, but Ron Washington decided to go to the bullpen a little early instead. Frank Francisco came in and tossed a scoreless 7th, but the Rangers also wasted a big chance in the top of the inning when they loaded the bases with 2 out, only to have Brandon Boggs hit a long flyout to center field.
It was in the 8th when things melted down though – for some reason, Ron decided to bring on Joaquin Benoit, despite his well-documented struggles this season. Well, Benoit melted down again, issuing a walk to the first batter he faced, and then giving up a home run to Lance Berkman, making it 4-1 Houston. Carlos Lee followed with a double, and after a flyout by Hunter Pence, Benoit issued a second walk, prompting Washington to finally remove him and bring in Josh Rupe, who got out of the inning by inducing a lineout double play.
That homer really hurt though, because Ramon Vazquez blasted a 2-run shot of his own in the top of the 9th - a shot that would have put the Rangers ahead if not for the lack of ability on the part of Benoit, whose troubles, as Evan Grant noted, just seem to be compounding as the season rolls on.
After putting up a 2.20 ERA in May, the wheels have come off since the calendar turned to June for Benoit, as he’s given up 8 hits, 8 walks and 8 runs, including 3 homers in just 4.1 innings this month. According to Mark Connor, the main problem has been Benoit’s lack of control:
“It just looks like he’s pulling off of every fastball and trying to be a little too fine,” pitching coach Mark Connor said. “His stuff is good enough that even if it’s not 95 mph, he can get guys out at 92 or 93. He just needs to stay on line to the plate and trust it. His location has not been good. That’s it in a nutshell.”
What’s been causing the lack of command however, is still a mystery all unto itself - Benoit maintains his am is healthy enough to pitch, but it sure hasn’t seemed like it for awhile now. Who knows what it is that ails him, but one thing’s for certain: the Rangers screwed up when they didn’t take their chance to put him on the DL last week (in fact, in a interesting side-note, Robinson Tejeda, the guy who was DFA’d so Benoit could remain on the active roster was just claimed off waivers by the Royals yesterday). Benoit’s problem has gone beyond struggles, it’s bordering on outright ineffectiveness – he should be figuring things on a rehab assignment in the minors, not costing us games in the Majors.
Speaking of relief pitchers, congrats to Jamey Wright, whose wife gave birth to their second child on Monday. That does however have the Rangers playing a man short in the bullpen for at least one more day though, as Wright won’t return until Thursday – yet another reason why it’s not good to have a nearly handicapped reliever in your bullpen.
A quick update on Hank Blalock: Hank was again out of the lineup with his bruised hand yesterday in OKC, and could be out past Thursday. Since both OKC and AA Frisco are now off for their all-star breaks, Hank will join the team in Houston and go through some workouts, but the Rangers wanted him to play a 9 inning game at first base before they activated him.
“If he makes some remarkable improvement, things could change,” assistant general manager Thad Levine said. “But it was our desire for him to play [a full nine-inning game at first] when we sent him out, and it is still our desire.”
Oh well – more possible playing time for Max Ramirez, I guess…
And now, we interrupt this blog entry for a required reading alert: Joey Matschulat and Jason Parks have put together their top 25 Rangers prospect rankings over at Baseball Time in Arlington, and they have done a simply awesome job. I won’t spoil any of the list here, but let me just say that it’s stuff like this that illustrates the job Jon Daniels has done in rebuilding our farm system in this past year – we are going to have the makings of a very exciting young team in a season or two, provided everything goes right.
Evan Grant has another newsletter out, and says the Rangers might want to consider just holding onto their chips at the trade deadline this year. I’m sort of in agreeance with part of that, I suppose – we shouldn’t be trying to move our top trade chips like Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood and Milton Bradley, we should be letting the deals come to us - and if we don’t find a deal that suits our liking for any of those three, then yeah, you shouldn’t trade them just to be trading them.
However, there are some deals that need to be made – for example, the Rangers need to move Gerald Laird to make way for their young catchers in Saltalamacchia, MaxRam and Teagarden. They also need to move Hank Blalock out of the way of Chris Davis sooner rather than later, and if at all possible, Frank Catalanotto needs to be dumped on some National League team who needs a good pinch-hitter. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Laird will be back before the deadline, or that Blalock and Catalanotto actually have any value left on the trade market, but those are guys we need to be selling at the deadline just so we can clear some spots on the roster. Also, another thing to consider is the Rangers have some needs themselves – namely, a need for a quality, fairly young relief pitcher who still has some service time left and can shore up our beleagured bullpen. And that’s just the kind of return I think Balock or Laird might fetch – and if we play our cards right, I could even see Gerald getting us a decent young starting pitcher.
Quick hits: Max Ramirez is going to make his first Major League start at catcher tomorrow - it should be really interesting to actually get a firsthand look at his defense behind the plate… Brandon McCarthy has begun throwing off a mound again, but still won’t be back until April first at the soonest.
Today it’s Scott Feldman vs. Roy Oswalt – Feldman is coming off a start he should have won, but the Ranger bullpen blew it. Oswalt meanwhile, is just beginning to settle down this month after a very rough start to the season. This might be a pretty sorry offensive game for the Rangers though, considering they’ll be lacking both Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley – I dread to think what the lineup card is going to look like tomorrow.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Draft picks, Eric Hurley, Josh Hamilton, Justin Smoak, Milton Bradley, Tom Grieve
This is not normally how the Texas Rangers win ballgames. In fact, this is how they usually lose them. But for one night at least, the Rangers got to be the beneficiaries rather than the recipients of a massive late-inning meltdown that allowed them to steal one out from underneath the Kansas City Royals, 6-5.
For most of the ballgame, nothing seemed to go right for Texas. #1 starter Kevin Millwood was lacking something from his game last night, as he surrendered 5 runs on 11 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings. Gerald Laird was the only one who could manage a hit off Gil Meche for the first 5 innings, and he committed a costly baserunning mistake and a throwing error. Milton Bradley even forgot how to play right field in the 6th inning.
The Rangers didn’t even score a run till the top of the 6th, when Josh Hamilton (who went 0-5 after starting the day hitting a mere .143 in his last 5 games) drove in a run with a fielder’s choice. To get the Rangers on the board. By the time the bottom of the 6th was over, and Milton Bradley had allowed Mike Aviles single to skip past him and bounce around in the RF corner, leading to 2 runs, the score was 5-1.
But the tables where about to turn, not long after Meche (who allowed just 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks in his 6 innings) left the game at the 100 pitch mark. Things where quiet for both sides in the 7th inning, former Ranger Ron Mahay tossed a scoreless top, and Josh Rupe (who the Rangers probably where going to let finish the game if they had not rallied) pitched a scoreless bottom, but it would be the top of the 8th when the lighting struck for Texas.
The inning started off innocently enough for Mahay, who went back out for a second inning, as he retired Ramon Vazquez on a groundout, and Ian Kinsler on a fly ball. But then Mahay missed on four straight pitches to Michael Young (who had earlier extended his hitting streak to 23 games) and that brought up Josh Hamilton. Hamilton hit a roller to short, which Mike Aviles picked and threw it low over to first – where it was dropped by Royals first baseman Mark Teahen. Teahen’s error can probably be attributed to inexperience, as he was only playing his 12th game at first base this year (he played only 9 there last season). As he later explained, he just couldn’t make the play:
“I dropped it cut and dry,” Teahen said. “It sunk on me, it handcuffed me and I dropped the ball. What can you do?”
That one error gave the Rangers new life. Spare extraordinare Brett Tomko was brought in to take over for Mahayafter the error, and he had absolutely nothing for reigning AL co-player of the week Milton Bradley, who came up and redeemed his earlier fielding gaffe with a 2 run double down the line in right-field line. Withthe score 5-3, David Murphy came up and whacked an RBI single to right after an 8-pitch battle with Tomko, making it 5-4.
By now, Royals manager Trey Hillman was getting desperate, so he called upon one of his setup men, Yasuhiko Yabuta to try and find the last out of the inning. It didn’t work, at least not in time. Gerald Laird blooped his third hit of the game to center, bringing up Chris Shelton, who just an inning previous had pinch hit for Frank Catalanotto. Hitting a mere .215 coming to the dish, Shelton saw two changeups to start his AB, one a called strike and one a ball low. The third pitch was a changeup as well, but this one stayed up about belt high, and Shelton socked it the other way into right, scoring Murphy from second and tying the game at 5. Just like that, the 5-1 KC lead had vaporized, much to the dismay of a stunned Kauffman Stadium crowd.
Eddie Guaradado, who Ron Washington announced on the Rangers pregame show is now going to be the 8th inning go-to guy rather than the struggling Joaquin Benoit, came in and pitched the shutdown inning. It got off to a rough start, as Guardado wound up making a headfirst belly flop to relay a toss to first base on a John Buck leadoff knubber, but it apparently didn’t affect his composure, as he retried the next two batters with no problem. The real highlight of the inning was when Trey Hillman got himself ejected arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Mike Everitt – whose strike zone was horrible all night long I might add.
With the game still tied in the top of the 9th, Ian Kinsler lead off the inning with a double to left, putting the Rangers in perfect position to get the go-ahead run home. Michael Young grounded out, moving Kinsler to third for Josh Hamilton. That was when the Royals decided to go to right handerRamon Ramirez, a guy apparently known for his power change-up. He came in and struck out Hamilton on three pitches – quite possibly the worst at-bat I have seen for Hamilton in a Ranger uniform so far - fortunately, it didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Milton Bradley was intentionally walked next, and David Murphy was the hitter with runners on the corners and one out.
Murphy would wind up striking out as well, but as it turned out, he all he needed to do to get the run home was take a sinker down and in that John Buck couldn’t get a handle on. The ball skittered to the backstop, took a favorable bounce straight back at Buck, who flipped back to Ramon Ramirez covering the plate – but Kinsler had started busting it down the line from third the second the ball got by, and his slide got his foot in just ahead of the tag, making it 6-5 Rangers.
That’s all closer CJ Wilson would need, although his defense came close to giving the game right back - after CJ the first two outs on a flyout and a K, he gave up an 0-2 base hit to Alex Gordon to keep the bottom of the 9th alive. That was when Jose Guillen grounded one over to first where Chris Shelton misplayed it, and it bounced out into right field. To complicate matters further, Milton Bradley apparently tweaked his quad when he came in to cut that ball off, and had to ”remove himself” from the game. Despite the momentary scare though, Bradley’s quad is apparently going to be okay, and he is “expected to play in some capacity” today. Marlon Byrd replaced him in right for the 3 or 4 minutes it took CJ to strike out Mark Teahen looking to end the game and record his 12th save, so the Rangers get to keep their happy ending to this one untainted.
In some other good news, Tom Grieve’s surgery Monday apparently went well, and he’s at home recovering. He’ll be out for 2-3 weeks – until then, the somewhat strange arrangement of having Victor Rojas and Josh Lewin doing the TV commentary, and Eric Nadel and Steve Busby doing the radio is going to be the norm. Hopefully, TAG will get back before this new arrangement drives me nuts – Busby sounds like Proffessor Finkel from the Simpsons, and from what I’ve been told, having Rojas and Lewin in the same booth is like having two PBP/straight commentary guys up there. Just my opinion, but as somebody who someday aspires to be a sports broadcaster, I think it would be a better deal to just send Busby up to sit with Josh Lewin, and not have broken up Nadel and Rojas at all, myself. Yes I know, I’m nit-picking at a pet peeve – I’ll stop now.
Moving on, the Rangers have announced that they’ve agreed to terms with 15 of their draft picks already, most notably 3rd round pick Timothy Murphy, 4th round pick Joe Wieland, and 6th round pick Richard Bleier. No real word yet on Justin Smoak, negotiations apparently haven’t started yet – Jason Cole at RangersScout.com is supposed to have an interview with Smoak out sometime today, which should have something on that, although it’ll most likely be behind a pay wall. This reminds me, I still have to get my 2008 draft retrospective completed and put up – that kinda got shifted to the back burner of late, but I do plan on getting it up sooner or later, hopefully this week.
Eric Hurley apparently credits the recent success in AAA that has gotten him to the big leagues to some mechanical adjustments, and is excited to be in the bigs. Apparently, the entire Hurley clan, including his wife and daughter are going to be in KC for his debut Thursday. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of hard-core Ranger fans (like me) skipping work for that one – his is one of the most anticipated Ranger callups in a long time. Here’s hoping the pressure doesn’t get to him too much.
Josh Hamilton said before the game yesterday that he was at about 90%, so the viral infection really can’t be an excuse for his slump much longer… my advice to Josh right now (which, as you know, carries an absolutely huge amount of weight) would be to start taking a few pitches. I know when he’s locked in, he can swing at everything he sees and have huge success, but right now he seems to be just flailing uselessly. Hammy’s gotta start seeing some more pitches if he’s gonna break out of this slump anytime soon. Now, hopefully my typing that will grantee a 3-5 game tonight…
Quick hits: if you still care, Jim Reeves of the FWST has some more details on Sidney Ponson’s bar incident, and suggests Ponson may have challenged Ron Washington to a fight… I’ll say it again, good riddance to Sidney… and Evan Grant’s latest newsletter adresses the issue of horrible attendance at the Ballpark in Arlington this season.
Today, it’s Vicente Padilla vs. Kyle Davies. Davies is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 2 starts since he was recalled by the Royals from AAA recently, so he’s got some good stuff right now – this could be another tough game, even though Davies has an 8.03 ERA in three career starts against the Rangers.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Milton Bradley, Sidney Ponson, Tom Grieve
Yes, the announcement of Eric Hurley’s callup was of course the big story yesterday, but there was some other stuff worth mentioning that didn’t make it into my afternoon update, so I thought I’d knock it out real quick this morning. So without further adeu, some random left-overs from Monday:
Milton Bradley has scored co-player of the week honors for his explosion at the plate last week. He shares the award with Joe Crede, who hit .524/.600/1.333 with 5 homers, 2 doubles and 12 RBI the last 7 days, good for a 1.933 OPS. Bradley hit .550/.690/1.450 (11 for 29) last week with 5 homers, 3 doubles, 9 RBI – a 2.140 OPS. Nice to have some recognition for Milton, who has really been carrying the team while Josh Hamilton has slumped a bit at the plate lately (perhaps due to his viral infection).
Speaking of Hamilton, even though he’s gotten a little cold of late, he’s still going strong in the all-star voting- he’s a sold second in the AL outfield voting, 257,664 votes behind Manny Ramirez. He has pulled away from third place Ichiro Suzuki, as he now holds a 226,044 vote advantage over third.
And it’s not just Hamilton who’s now getting recognition for Texas now – the Rangers as a whole are surging in the All-star voting. Ian Kinsler and Michael Young have moved up to second in their respective second base and shortstop races, and Milton Bradley (who is just now starting to really get votes, thanks to his insane performance of late) is up to 14th in the OF voting. In an even bigger surprise, Frank Catalanotto is somehow up to 5th in the DH voting – of course, he’s 1,073,257 votes behind David Ortiz, but that’s still impressive. Keep on voting, Ranger fans - it looks like you’re making a pretty sizeable impact.
Along with Eric Hurley’s callup seems to have come a renewed interest in the Sidney Ponson DFA’ing, and the situations surrounding it. Joey Matschulat notes notes that Mike Rhyner of DFW sports radio KTIC 1310 AM The Ticket recently claimed of knowledge that Ponson had unleashed a racial slur toward a “Rangers official” during one of his angry rants before his release, and that this “official” was presumably Ron Washington. Rhyner also went on to claim that Michael Young had also been involved in a “dust-up” with Ponson, which would lend credibility to the recent rumor that Young’s finger was not fractured in a weight-room accident as claimed, but instead in a fight with Ponson.
Of course, sports talk radio is not the greatest source for credible information, but if these claims are true, then you can certainly understand even more why the Rangers where so quick to release Sir Sidney, despite the fact that he had been a fairly productive member of the pitching staff. The recent pieces from Evan Grant and Kevin Sherrington on the subject would seem to contradict these rumors – Sherrington even goes so far as to specifically say that Ponson’s problems “did not include a fight with Michael Young, rumors to the contrary” – emphasis his.
I myself really have no problem believing the rumor of Ponson unleashing a racial slur – that would fit right into Sidney’s modus operandi as a profane douche with a problem with authority. I do however, doubt the rumor about he and Michael Young mixing it up, if for no other reason than I seriously doubt Michael would have lowered himself to that level.
But true or not, these rumors are pretty much moot, in my view – Ponson’s past indicates that he is not a good teammate, or a responsible athlete- and we do know that in one form or another, Sidney had been sliding back into his old ways with the incident in the bar in Tampa. As Evan Grant says, he was basically challenging the team to release him with his attitude toward the team and his teammates – and the Rangers didn’t let him get away with it. I don’t really care to what lengths his antics went to, simple logic tells me that a pitching-starved team like the Rangers (who specifically went after him him midway through spring training) would not have released him had they not felt it absolutely necessary. And for that reason, I trust the Rangers judgement on their decision.
Hell, it’s not like Ponson was Roger Clemens or anything on the mound anyway.
And finally, best wishes go out to broadcaster Tom Grieve, whose surgery for prostate cancer was supposed to be Monday. I haven’t seen word yet on how everything went, but I hope it was successful, and I pray for his swift return to the booth – Ranger broadcasts just aren’t going to be the same while he’s gone.
Millwood vs. Meche later tonight – go Rangers.
