Lone Star Ball

Friday afternoon video

2009-11-20T20:45:08Z

My favorite #stlcards email of the day so far, letter for letter: "you're an idito"

2009-11-20T20:09:02Z

My favorite #stlcards email of the day so far, letter for letter: "you're an idito"

Keith Law tweeting.

St. Louis writer has a meltdown over "Waino" and Carpenter losing to Lincecum

2009-11-20T19:09:41Z

St. Louis writer has a meltdown over "Waino" and Carpenter losing to Lincecum

But the most entertaining part is the fanboy comments, complaining about how everyone is biased against Cardinals players.

Richard Durrett with a Brandon McCarthy Q&A

2009-11-20T16:42:35Z

More photos » by Dave Einsel - AP

6 months ago: Texas Rangers' Brandon McCarthy, right, gets a hug from manager Ron Washington, left, after pitching a complete game shutout against the Houston Astros, Sunday, May 24, 2009, in Houston. McCarthy threw 121 pitches to lead the Rangers to a 5-0 win over the Astros. (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

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Richard Durrett has a Q&A up with Brandon McCarthy over at the ESPN Dallas Rangers blog...

It includes some discussion from McCarthy about the mechanical changes and the things being done to try to avoid a repeat of the shoulder blade stress fracture that has interrupted two of his seasons with Texas...

Check it out...

Friday morning stuff

2009-11-20T15:13:19Z

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

1 day ago: FILE - Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks looks at a television screen in his box during the baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Arlington, Texas, in this April 8, 2008 file photo. Hicks said Wednesday Nov. 18, 2009 he is putting together a group of local investors, including Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, for a bid that would enable him to keep majority ownership of the team. Proposals to buy the Rangers are due Friday. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

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So, today, we have the story out that Michael Young has been named Rangers player of the year by the local BBWAA chapter. No surprise there.

Jayson Stark says that talk between the Marlins and Rangers in regards to Dan Uggla got pretty "hot and heavy" at the GM meetings. The only thing that is more surprising to me than the Rangers having serious interest in Uggla is the number of Ranger fans who seem to be on board with the idea of bringing Uggla here to be the DH.

Let's be realistic...if the Rangers add Uggla, who will be making $7-8 million in 2010, that's it as far as significant offseason moves go. They've got no more money of note to spend once Uggla is added. So unless you are planning on moving C.J. Wilson or Frankie Francisco or Ian Kinsler -- and really, adding Uggla only makes sense to me if you are planning on trading Kinsler -- then Uggla is your big offseason addition.

And Uggla isn't that great an option as a DH. He's a .281 career EQA guy who had a .280 EQA last season and turns 30 this offseason. He's valuable as a second baseman, but as a DH, he's just decent. And he's certainly not worth $7-8 million.

And forget about the idea that the Marlins will just give him away to you for the equivalent of Michael Hernandez or Steve Shoemaker...teams that need a second base are going to value Uggla, and will be willing to give up prospects to get him. So the price to land Uggla is going to involve names like Kasey Kiker or Robbie Ross or Engel Beltre.

Adding Uggla as a DH doesn't make sense.

Moving on...Randy Galloway has a column about Tom Hicks' efforts to retain ownership of the Rangers. Honestly, I can't imagine how any Ranger fan can feel anything but sickened about the idea that Hicks would stay on board as teh owner of the team. Galloway mentions that Roger Staubach being part of Hicks' group is obviously a p.r. coup, but I don't care if Hicks gets Staubach, or Rupert Murdoch, or if Jesus Christ himself came down from heaven and joined Hicks' group...

Tom Hicks has to go, and after the embarrassment that the last year has been, in terms of ownership, Hicks somehow figuring out a way to keep the team would be a gut punch.

Some quotes from Galloway's column:

Then came the official, yet convoluted, word from Hicks on Wednesday. He wants to remain as majority owner.

At the ballpark, you would have thought a large sewer line just erupted.

Talking to several different employees Thursday, there was heavy depression noted.

"I work for Tom, I wanted Tom to be successful at this, but, frankly, we can’t sell Tom," said one. "Our fans, for the most part, will not buy Tom. And our former season-ticket holders, and we’d lost a lot of those because of Mr. Hicks, will not come back if Tom is still the owner."

That’s not news. Anyone in the media with an e-mail address can tell you that. We’ve heard enough of it over the years.

Hicks, as far as I can tell, is certainly not a hated boss by the baseball people who work for him. He’s just considered hopeless as an owner. Fans normally respond to the product on the field, and attendance did grow last season, but ...

"No one says it publicly, but there was disappointment that we didn’t draw better, based on how well the team played into September," said an employee. "Yes, attendance was up, but it was up from one of our worst years ever at the gate. The perception of the team, unfortunately, still has a lot to do with the perception of Mr. Hicks, including, of late, all the financial difficulty."

After the embarrassment Hicks has been to MLB the past year, and after everything that has gone on during his stewardship the past decade, I can't imagine MLB is going to let Hicks keep the team if there is another viable group out there.

The very idea of him staying on, when his problems have ended up hamstringing this club during the 2009 season and in 2010, when the Rangers should be prepared to make a significant financial commitment to the major league team to get them over the hump, and instead are back to "bottom fishing," as John Hart put it after the 2004 season, nauseates me.

Cubs deal Aaron Heilman to the D-Backs

2009-11-20T03:49:40Z

Cubs deal Aaron Heilman to the D-Backs

Cubs deal Aaron Heilman to the D-Backs for a fringe relief prospect and an organizational depth guy, rather than fool with arbitration with him. I'm surprised to see Heilman is already 31 years old...

Scheppers Rawks Article

2009-11-20T03:27:53Z

Scheppers Rawks Article

"You gotta think the hitters don't feel too comfortable hitting off him," Teagarden said. "It's hard enough catching him."

Happy birthday, Steve Dreyer

2009-11-19T20:45:08Z

Happy birthday to Steve Dreyer, who turns 40 today...

Dreyer was a righty pitcher who logged 50+ innings for the Rangers in 1993 and 1994, never pitched in the majors again, and has a weird stat line.

In 1993, he was 3-3 with a 5.71 ERA.

In 1994, he was 1-1 with a 5.71 ERA.

So both years he was in the majors, he had the same winning percentage and ERA.

Freaky, huh?

Rangers add Kirkman and Phillips to the 40

2009-11-19T18:49:31Z

Per the Newberg:

After a couple years of missing on my 40-man roster predictions by a player or two, I got it right this time around. As I speculated in this morning's report, the Rangers have announced that lefthanders Michael Kirkman and Zach Phillips have been added to the 40-man roster, protecting them from exposure to next month's Rule 5 Draft. x x x x x x x x x x x

Jamey

LSB Pick 'em Update

2009-11-19T18:00:21Z

After the jump...

Rank	Pick Set Name	Total Points	Dropped Points	W-L
1	BoNeZ	604	38	73-56
2	FELDMEISTER(tyd3311)	603	36	76-54
3	\m/ Hook'm \m/	601	29	75-55
4	gm_darkplace	593	37	76-52
5	drizzle	590	29	64-66
6	Smoak Some	582	28	72-58
7	jonthefon	575	38	72-58
8	Rangermad	573	37	71-58
9	daddyrat	568	33	69-61
10	Bixie Ott Pixies	568	36	71-58
11	JDT217	567	25	72-58
12	GhettoBear04	567	18	71-59
13	Doomsday Defense	567	33	72-57
14	losangelesrangerfan	566	23	69-61
15	Kibbles and Vick	563	36	67-63
16	ThemBones	562	15	70-60
17	I Pick By Quality of Mascot	560	28	67-63
18	Kevtron	557	0	73-56
19	A byrd in the hand	555	38	71-58
20	Dierk's Diggler's	555	24	73-55
21	Smalls	552	33	71-59
22	The Aints Will Win!	547	36	66-64
23	bigsteve	547	29	67-63
24	bspate	545	35	66-63
25	Skeets McGee	542	36	68-62
26	RA Dickey's Rusty Trombone	541	33	68-62
27	buckets	540	32	75-55
28	ewmvv6	539	22	64-66
29	Jealous1	538	0	79-49
30	JBImaknee's picks	530	33	72-57
31	Anonymous New Guy	501	14	67-62
32	Two Minute Drillin' Your Mom	488	13	63-67
33	The Notorious AJM	486	0	63-64
34	Kudos	478	0	62-66
35	Sammy Sosa	474	0	65-64
36	jgar's best picks	470	30	65-65
37	Texas Patriots	450	0	62-67
38	Weaselmuffin	447	0	65-62
39	RallyMac	435	0	53-75
40	TxStCA	371	0	47-81
41	Real McCoy	360	0	44-84

Rank	Pick Set Name	Total Points	Dropped Points	W-L
1	willamos2	666	18	80-49
2	Panorama	628	29	80-50
3	ABQ Aces	626	43	77-53
4	rangerfaninva	617	34	78-52
5	3hacks	615	15	79-51
6	Rentzaphonic Spree	609	30	75-55
7	cmkelly29	600	33	79-51
8	awall22	596	42	77-52
9	Mike's Leach	590	31	72-57
10	Fartbox Burglers	589	53	73-56
11	beaumonty	584	0	73-55
12	tricer	567	34	70-60
13	coolaid	563	24	69-61
14	alon91's Fighting Neftali's	552	20	69-61
15	¡Viva Sanchez!	547	36	68-62
16	TagDon'tTweet	532	0	67-62
17	uthornfan	531	25	70-60
18	Nolan's Headlocks	531	31	72-55
19	Whatever	520	12	68-61
20	Give Me Some Money	515	24	64-66
21	Testicular Fortitude	513	0	64-64
22	Flash Floodmen	508	32	69-61
23	Tiny E's Huge Salt Shaker	505	16	64-64
24	Fighting Engineers	504	24	66-64
25	Ryin A	504	31	65-65
26	A Tila Tequila Night	500	28	66-64
27	Agreen07	500	0	63-65
28	dustinvandeman	496	0	55-73
29	Bomb Squad	490	0	64-63
30	Brandon McCarthy's Elbow	476	0	59-70
31	GLWrath	473	0	64-64
32	Parman	450	0	53-75
33	TBD	341	0	50-77
34	Basehead	323	0	40-88

Thursday morning Rangers things

2009-11-19T15:06:04Z

More photos » by Orlin Wagner - AP

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The big Rangers story this morning is still Tom Hicks attempting to hang onto the Rangers by constructing a new local ownership group. His favorite buzz word here appears to be "local." Evan Grant lays out Hicks' thought process, and one of Hicks' comments here is that he has been working on this for a while:

"I have initiated my own process," Hicks said Wednesday. "I want to have other local prominent families involved in a group that would own the team and sizable commitments have been made. This would allow us to have continuity on the plan that we started five years ago. This process has never been about wanting to sell the Rangers. It has been about finding a way to monetize our assets to retire most, if not all, of the debt."

Richard Durrett considers the question of why Hicks is going through the process of collecting bids if he intends to keep the club after all. I have to think that he'd be doing it for the benefit of MLB owners.

Gil Lebreton discusses that angle as well and suspects that other owners aren't going to see Hicks as a great candidate moving foward.

T.R. Sullivan discusses the start of free agency tonight and looks at what the Rangers might do if they lose Marlon Byrd, as well as their approach on the pitching front.

Callis on Perez and Feliz

2009-11-19T02:08:53Z

Callis on Perez and Feliz

Zach (Philadelphia)

I have heard that Martin Perez might turn out better than Feliz. Is this true, and how good does Perez project to be in Texas?

Jim Callis (2:36 PM)

That could be. Feliz has a more electric arm, but Perez might have more pitches and better command when he reaches the majors. I could see Feliz as a closer and Perez as a frontline starter.

Tom Hicks with last ditch effort to keep the Rangers

2009-11-18T22:27:36Z

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

7 months ago: Dallas Cowboys football team owner Jerry Jones chats with Texas Rangers team owner Tom Hicks during the baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Arlington, Texas, Monday, April 6, 2009. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

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Richard Durrett writes that Tom Hicks is putting together a group in a last-ditch effort to keep from selling the Texas Rangers:

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks said Wednesday that he's putting together his own group of mainly local investors, including team president Nolan Ryan and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, in an effort to maintain majority ownership in the club.
Hicks expects at least five groups, including his own, to submit proposals by Friday's deadline. At that point, Hicks and his staff will analyze the proposals and decide which one makes the most sense to pay down or eliminate debt accrued by Hicks Sports Group.

So we have Chuck Greenberg, who is supposedly putting together a local group with Nolan Ryan, and now we have Tom Hicks, who is putting together his own group that includes Ryan (and Roger Staubach).

I get the sense that, after what has gone on here lately, MLB wants to be rid of Hicks, and thus I'd be shocked if Hicks was able to do something that will result in him retaining control. I also find it bizarre that he's part of a group that is going to submit bids to, in essence, himself.

Durrett's story has a lot of quotes from Staubach, as well.

This is weird. But then, everything involving the Rangers always seems to be weird.

Mike Scioscia wins A.L. Manager of the Year Award

2009-11-18T19:50:46Z

Mike Scioscia has been named the A.L. Manager of the Year, finishing with 15 of 28 first place votes.

Ron Gardenhire and Joe Girardi were second and third, respectively, and Don Wakamatsu and Ron Washington tied for fourth place, with Jim Leyland being the only other manager named (getting two third place votes).

Washington and Wakamatsu finishing that far back is a surprise, as the two of them headed up teams that were viewed as the big "surprise" teams for 2009, and the manager of the year award generally seems to be given to the manager of the team that exceeds expectations the most. Girardi, Scioscia and Gardenhire all made the playoffs with teams that were seen as playoff-caliber teams prior ot the season.

Of course, maybe we should be happy that Washington didn't win. The last time the Ranger manager won the manager of the year award, the team had a disappointing follow up season that resulted in the g.m. being fired, and then another bad season that resulted in the manager being fired, and then a disastrous season after that.

So maybe it is better the Ranger manager didn't win it this year.

Jim Tracy won the N.L. Award.

Random pop quiz

2009-11-18T17:28:12Z

From 1876 until 1980, there was only one major league team that had three outfielders hit at least 30 home runs in the same season.

Name the team, the year, and the three outfielders.

Answer later today...

UPDATE -- Answer after the jump

Well, I got this question from Bill James Historical Abstract, and it turns out James got it wrong.

There were two, not one, teams.

The 1941 Yankees, with King Kong Keller, Tommy Heinrich, and Joe DiMaggio.

And the 1963 Twins, with Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Harmon Killebrew.

Michael Young is a bad baserunner

2009-11-18T16:49:06Z

Michael Young is a bad baserunner

At least in 2009.

Clint Hurdle chat session at the DMN today

2009-11-18T16:30:14Z

Evan Grant is hosting a chat session with Clint Hurdle over at the DMN Rangers blog at 1:30 p.m. today...

You can join in by clicking here...check it out...

Wednesday a.m. Rangers stuff

2009-11-18T14:54:21Z

The A.L. Manager of the Year Award will be announced today, and T.R. Sullivan writes that Ron Washington is a leading contender for the award.

Evan Grant writes that Chuck Greenberg has moved more and more towards making Nolan Ryan a true partner in his bid to buy the Rangers, with Greenberg and Ryan reportedly working together to involve local investors. Grant notes that local investment groups are preferred to outside investment groups by MLB, and of course, having Ryan as part of his ownership group can only help Greenberg when it comes to seeking MLB approval.

Also from Grant earlier this week is an item I'd missed on his blog, discussing the possibility of trying to trade for Edwin Jackson from the Detroit Tigers. Grant suggests offering Chris Davis, Kasey Kiker, Brandon McCarthy and a fourth minor leaguer, or Justin Smoak, Kasey Kiker, and Brandon McCarthy, for Jackson.

That would be a hefty ROI on Jackson for the Tigers, who picked him up from the D-Rays last offseason for Matt Joyce. And personally, I'm not all that interested in Jackson, and certainly not at that price.

Jackson is a righthanded flyball pitcher, the type of guy the Rangers have historically tried to stay away from. Last year, Jackson had the 11th highest flyball rate of any qualifying pitcher in the majors. That's a red flag, given that he'd be going from a pitcher-friendly park to a very hitter-friendly park (particularly for lefty power hitters).

Jackson also wasn't all that great last year...despite being a power pitcher, he struck out fewer than 7 batters per 9 innings, walked 3 batters per 9, and had a home run per 9 rate of 1.14.

Jackson did have a 3.62 ERA last season, but that was off of a FIP of 4.28 and a tRA of 4.75...and again, this is while pitching half his games in Detroit.

And Jackson fell apart down the stretch after a hot start...in the first half, he had a 2.52 ERA, allowed opponents an OPS of 617, and struck out 7.2 batters per 9 with a 2.77 K/BB ratio. In the second half, he had a 5.07 ERA, an 856 opponent's OPS, 6.2 Ks per 9, and a 1.83 K/BB ratio. And Jackson's hot first half was largely fueled by a BABIP of .249...a completely unsustainable rate.

Add in the fact that Jackson is under team control for only two more years, and it makes sense as to why Detroit wants to move him. Detroit, I believe, sees a guy who has had one great, but fluky, half of a season, and otherwise has been thoroughly mediocre as a starting pitcher, and who is about to start getting expensive. And yes, he has great stuff, but if he puts that great stuff together, he's also close to being able to walk as a free agent.

So on Edwin Jackson, I'd pass.

Zack Greinke wins the A.L. Cy Young

2009-11-17T19:28:10Z

Congratulations to Zack Greinke, the winner of the 2009 A.L. Cy Young Award.

He is clearly deserving of the award, but the biggest story here isn't that he won -- although with an unimpressive win total, there was a little bit of a question about that -- but that he blew away the field, picking up 25 of the 28 first place votes, and finishing second on the other three ballots.

King Felix finished second and Justin Verlander third, with only C.C. Sabathia and Roy Halladay picking up votes otehrwise.

Jason Cole profiles the Rangers starting LHP prospects

2009-11-17T17:49:34Z