MVN - Most Valuable Network

Saturday Morning Rangers Notes

A long, strenuous day of work and school has left me utterly exhausted, and I’d be lying if I said that the Texas Rangers were the foremost subject on my mind at the moment.

But, hey, spring training slows down for nobody. Let’s have a go at the day’s happenings, shall we?

● Talks between the representatives of second baseman Ian Kinsler and the organization appear to have been revived from the brink of death, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News is reporting that a long-term contract extension could be struck within the week. Jay Franklin, one of Kinsler’s representatives, commented on the negotiations on Friday:

“We’ve met, and we’ve continued to talk,” Franklin said. “I think we’re at a very good point for both sides.”

Well, well, well - and only three weeks after those same negotiations purportedly stalled out, no less! Needless to say, Kinsler’s side is singing quite a different tune compared to the one they were chirping as recently as January 27th:

“The two sides just couldn’t come together,” said Jeff Frye, the former Rangers second baseman who is now one of Kinsler’s agents. “Their opinion of Ian is different than ours.”

Regardless of the eventual outcome of these talks, the Rangers did manage to lock up Kinsler for the 2008 season on Friday, inking their prized 25-year-old middle infielder to a one-year contract worth $407,570 - a raise of $16,862 over his 2007 base salary of $390,708. A bizarre figure, I know.

The onus now rests on the Rangers to wrap this up. Kinsler killed talks revolving around a similar long-term contract extension last spring after they crept too close to Opening Day. Don’t expect this spring to be any different in that regard.

● Both Evan Grant and MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan have published articles on the Rangers’ muddled catching situation (here and here, respectively), with Grant in particular noting how the organization’s sudden lack of stability behind the plate is a far cry from much of the franchise’s history:

It is indeed foreign territory for the Rangers. They have played exactly 5,700 games since moving to Texas in 1972. The duo of Jim Sundberg (1,426 games) and Ivan Rodriguez (1,495) has combined to catch more than half of those games.

Grant also serves up the following anecdote from last May, which the Rangers finished with a nightmarish record of 19-35:

If Laird is to win the starting job for a third time, he must rebound from an awful 2007 season. It began with Washington urging Laird to help the pitching staff, even if it meant sacrificing some offense.

“I think I put too much pressure on him and kept the pressure on him,” Washington said. “I think I just hit him with it too hard. I’m going to sit back and relax and let him play baseball. He clearly knows what’s expected of him. The guy is a big league catcher.”

The pressure built to a breaking point last May when Washington and Laird got in a dugout shouting match over the handling of pitchers. They were eventually separated by pitcher Kevin Millwood. Tension lingered for several weeks. Laird seemed to never recover.

“We just got off on the wrong foot,” Laird said. “But by the second half of the season, he understood me and I understood him.”

[…]

Washington met with Laird in Arlington last month to make sure the air was clear. He’s also said he will give new catching instructor Matt Walbeck more autonomy to communicate with Laird and Saltalamacchia. Laird, Saltalamacchia and prospect Taylor Teagarden all attended Walbeck’s informal minicamp in Arizona last month.

Startling revelations, at any level. Should Jarrod Saltalamacchia indeed begin the 2008 season at Triple-A Oklahoma (a possibility which has my gag reflex going haywire), veteran backstop Adam Melhuse would most likely wind up as Gerald Laird’s backup.

A catching tandem of Gerald Laird and Adam Melhuse. Yikes. In 521 combined plate appearances last season, Laird and Melhuse teamed up to provide the Rangers with a VORP of -11.5.

If one were to merge the pair into a single, freestanding entity of suck, that -11.5 VORP would have ranked third worst among all catchers in baseball in 2007, behind only the Royals’ Jason LaRue (-13.0 VORP in 195 PA) and the Athletics’ Jason Kendall (-13.2 VORP in 312 PA). As it stands, Laird’s -7.5 VORP was the eighth worst from a big league catcher last season.

Chew on that for a second. And after you’re done, start praying that Saltalamacchia makes the team.

● Outfielder Marlon Byrd reportedly remains of interest to the Chicago Cubs, but the Rangers are still unwilling to part ways with Byrd without acquiring at least one pitching prospect from the North Siders, as well as outfielder Matt Murton - or in other words, what Evan Grant terms as a slam dunk “overpay” on the Cubs’ part. Byrd acknowledged his mixed feelings over the situation on Friday:

“Down the road, maybe it could affect you,” Byrd said. “Two weeks down the road, maybe it’s something. You don’t know whether to pack your bags or unpack them. For right now, though, I’m doing everything I can to just get ready to play.”

Fret not, Marlon. At this stage in the game, it’s fairly unlikely that you’ll be dealt - well, to Chicago at least. Unless general manager Jon Daniels significantly lowers his demands, or Cubs GM Jim Hendry is struck with a violent pang of spring training desperation, this deal ain’t happenin’.

● Kevin Mench’s bat speed? Still above-average, according to hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. But what does Ron Washington think of him?

A few minutes later Washington wandered over to the field where the Rangers’ position players were taking batting practice. He was just in time to watch outfielder Kevin Mench start ripping line drives all over the field.

“You could hang some clothes off those line drives,” Washington said.

I have this disturbing mental picture of Washington softly muttering the above quote in the general direction of T.R. Sullivan, with a far-off, distant glint in his eye.

I’m not yet certain whether Jason Botts, Nelson Cruz or both should be watching their backs. It’s important not to make too much of quotes such as these, especially when the calendar page has yet to flip to March.

But at the same time, perhaps those of us who have been vocally opposed to the Mench signing were a bit less paranoid than some thought.

● Speaking of Laird, he participated in blocking drills on Friday, despite being limited by a sprained ankle, and issued the following proclamation:

“You see me blocking balls? They can’t hold me down. I told the doctor, ‘they don’t make them like me anymore.’”.

This sounds like something that an overly cocky 15-year-old junior varsity high school basketball player would say, rather than a 28-year-old Major League catcher.

● Botts is drawing plenty of early praise from Washington for his progress defensively at first base, and the Rangers are reportedly not presently concerned about the back problems that previously hindered him at the position. Encouraging developments, but will they continue?

● Right-handers Kameron Loe and Robinson Tejeda don’t appear to be taking the news that they’re being viewed by the organization as strictly bullpen candidates particularly well:

“I told them that whatever this team wants me to do, I will do it,” Loe said. “I just asked them not to forget that I do want to be a starter again. If I show them I can do all the things a starter can do to get through a lineup three or four times and if the opportunity arises, I’d like the opportunity again.”

[…]

“It’s been frustrating because I’ve been hurt at the end of the year for the last couple of years,” Loe said. “I just don’t want them to forget me. I’ve had some success as a starter so I’m going to take everything I’ve learned, put it into my game and not worry about anything else. If they want me to be a reliever I’ll be a reliever but I’m going to try and work my way out of the bullpen and back into the starting rotation.”

[…]

Tejeda referred to the bullpen as a “second option.”

“I can not say it’s definitely going to be the bullpen,” Tejeda said. “In baseball you have good times and bad. The main thing is believing in yourself and working hard. That’s what I’m prepared to do. If I can do that, I think I can win my spot in the rotation.”

● We may finally have a definitive reason as to why pitching coach Mark Connor is so incredibly enamored with left-hander A.J. Murray. From T.R. Sullivan’s “Friday Happy Hour” segment at “Postcards from Elysian Fields”:

Pitcher A.J. Murray has a five-pitch repertoire: fastball, curve, slider, changeup and cut fastball. Said Murray: “I can throw all for strikes. A couple have more effect than others but I pitch off my fastball and change and mix the others.”

Then again, Connor was also mysteriously enthralled with Jamey Wright’s “electric stuff” last spring, and we all bore witness as to how well that experiment in the starting rotation worked out.

● If you enjoy what I’ve been pumping out here at Baseball Time in Arlington for the past year (well, it will have been one year exactly on February 21st - how time flies!), I invite you to check out the 1,700-word Rangers spring training preview I’m penned for SpringTraining08.com, in which I take an extensive look at the spring training battles facing the ‘08 squad, and attempt to nail down some potential front-runners from within said battles.

Thoughts, comments and hate mail welcome, as always.

● The Rangers have set an optimistic, but extremely preliminary, target date of June 1st for right-hander Thomas Diamond to make his long-awaited return to the minor league pitching rubber, which also carries the hope that he’s ready to make his big league debut by September:

“That’s my goal,” Diamond said. “I want to be pitching well enough by the end of the season that they’ll give me a chance in September. First of all, I have to leave here. I’ve been here too long, since last February. I’ve been home just twice, once to get married and once for Christmas.”

Diamond, now 24, underwent Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery on March 20th, 2007. A return date of June 1st would place him just over 15 months removed from the procedure. Don’t expect him to regain his previous command of the strike zone until late 2008 at the earliest, or more likely 2009.

● Right-hander Kazuo Fukumori is throwing pain-free after undergoing surgery last summer in Japan to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow.

● Randy Galloway of ESPN 103.3 FM and Fort Worth Star-Telegram fame hates the Rangers, I think. Lone Star Ball’s Adam Morris already did a fine job of busting Galloway’s chops over his absurd Friday morning editorial, but this snippet, in particular, deserves further calling out:

This week, the Rangers brought back outfielder Kevin Mench on a minor league contract with an invitation to try and make the team in big league camp.

Compared to the rest of the club’s “major league” outfielders, Mench looks like Babe Ruth. I’m serious.

I swear, I can feel my eyes rolling into the back of my head as I read this. Unfortunately, by writing controversial drivel such as this, Galloway and “Company” - with the “Company” being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, of course - are getting exactly what they want: attention.

And I refuse to devote any more of mine to this useless waste of journalistic garbage. I make it a point to try not to tear into the Metroplex’s sports media contingent terribly often, as I honestly feel that would reflect rather poorly on myself.

But good grief. Long live the Hardline.

● Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA projected standings have been published, with the Rangers registering at 74-88 - or 15 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A tad low on the Rangers’ end, if I do say so myself - but hell, they are projections after all.

● Former Ranger greats Steve Buechele, Pete O’Brien, Mark McLemore, Mickey Tettleton and Rusty Greer are all expected to arrive at spring training as special guest instructors over the coming month; the latter two have been confirmed as receiving lockers in the Rangers clubhouse. Can’t leave McLemore out now, can we?

● No, the Jason Kidd trade is probably not going to happen anymore. And for all intents and purposes, I consider that a good thing. Devin Harris is no Kidd, but relinquishing backup center DeSagana Diop - whom I feel has been drastically undervalued by the Mavericks, in this instance - and a pair of first-round picks would have been a serious blow to Dallas in terms of both short-term depth and long-term talent.

The question now weighing heavily on my mind is, how does head coach Avery Johnson begin to reconcile that tumultuous locker room? Harris, according to local reports, is understandably less than pleased with how the entire fiasco has developed. I can’t imagine Diop is feeling too terribly appreciated, either.

What a mess.

First spring training game in eleven days, folks. We’re getting there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 12:31 am and is filed under Spring Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.