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Texas Trade Winds Swirl As White Sox Demolish Rangers, 10-2

With just over 200 hours remaining until Major League Baseball’s July 31st non-waiver trade deadline, the Texas Rangers have essentially failed to make even a microscopic dent in the mountain of questions that continue to bury their front office personnel alive.

Despite possessing a 52-49 record that represents a seven-game improvement over where the Rangers were at the 101-game mark in 2007, lateral movement in the American League West and Wild Card standings since the conclusion of the All-Star break has placed general manager Jon Daniels and company in a difficult spot.

Buy, sell, hold, or some convoluted mix of all three? It’s the million dollar question. And though the third-place Rangers presently sit 9½ games back of the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and 6½ games back of the wild card-leading Boston Red Sox, I still have an unfathomably hard time envisioning any significant deadline movement from this team.

A few more dreadful games like the one that unfolded at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday evening might yet alter that sentiment, however.

Sinkerballer Luis Mendoza flashed electric pure stuff in terms of velocity and movement, but ultimately imploded upon embarking on his second trip through the Chicago White Sox batting order when his command badly faltered. Longtime nemesis Mark Buehrle effortlessly held baseball’s best first-half offense in check, yielding only a mammoth solo home run to the incredible Chris Davis. And a perplexing, albeit brief lineup-wide slump with runners in scoring position (3-for-22 since the All-Star break) deepened:

“There’s no need to be concerned,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “Pitching stops hitting. I keep saying that — nobody’s listening. Pitching stops hitting. How can you keep scoring seven runs a night? Nobody does that in this game of baseball. We’ll be fine. Every now and then you face a pitcher that stops us. We’re not the first team Buehrle did this to.”

The Rangers’ clumsy stumble out of the second-half gates has closely coincided with a sudden explosion of trade rumors that might still have a monumental impact on the club’s roster composition for both the immediate future and 2009, depending on how committed Washington, Daniels and the remainder of the front office are to some of the players in question.

A look at a few of those swirling rumors:

● Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Cardinals have expressed interest in southpaw Eddie Guardado (152 ERA+, 0.91 WHIP, 2.714 WXRL), the undeniable Texas bullpen cornerstone that continues to enjoy a renaissance campaign at age 37. Exorbitant price tags placed on fellow left-handed relievers Brian Fuentes and George Sherrill should inevitably result in a deluge of phone calls being directed towards Daniels from teams in the market for such an asset.

Which teams and what price tags, you ask? According to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, the Marlins, Cardinals, Rays, Phillies, Red Sox, Mets and Yankees have all inquired about Fuentes, who currently reigns as perhaps the top southpaw reliever on the market. Colorado Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd allegedly wants 23-year-old Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz in return for Fuentes, eliciting much grousing among front office circles. You’d have to figure those same clubs would take a gander at Guardado.

One specific name mentioned in Goold’s report as a potential return for Guardado is right-hander Jess Todd, a 22-year-old starting pitcher selected by St. Louis in the second round (82nd overall) of the 2007 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Registering at a portly 5′ 11″, 210 pounds, the Kilgore, Texas native has quietly compiled a fantastic 2.14 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 80 innings pitched at Double-A Springfield of the Texas League.

Though his peripherals are hardly amplified by an uninspiring strikeout rate (6.53 strikeouts per nine innings), quality control (1.91 walks per nine innings) and a reputation for durability acquired during his collegiate days at the University of Arkansas evoke natural comparisons to another fast-rising right-hander that was selected 28 slots higher than Todd in last year’s draft: Triple-A Oklahoma’s Tommy Hunter.

Todd, according to Baseball America, possesses a 90-to-94 MPH four-seam fastball and a “hard mid-80s slider that rank[ed] as one of the best in the draft.” Complemented by a high-80s two-seamer and a circle change-up that moves like a splitter, some scouts envision the one-time Navarro Junior College attendee as a late-inning reliever. Others believe the battle-tested hurler profiles as a back-end starter, capable of consistently chewing up innings.

If you could get another Tommy Hunter for Guardado, would you do it?

● Conversely, Baseball Prospectus’s Will Carroll and MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan independently report (here and here, respectively) that the Rangers could dip into their deep reservoir of outfielders to procure left-handed reliever Mike Gonzalez from the Atlanta Braves. Now 30 years old, Gonzalez continues to recuperate from May 2007 Tommy John surgery and will be eligible for his final year of salary arbitration this winter.

Even if there’s some fire to match this apparent smoke, I’m not exactly seeing a perfect marriage here. The only line of thought that immediately springs to mind is that the Rangers might believe they can acquire a younger, albeit riskier asset like Gonzalez (who will remain under club control through 2009) for less or as much as they can obtain for Guardado, speaking strictly in terms of value.

If that sounds strange to you, you’re not alone. Welcome to deadline fever.

● Speaking of that outfield depth, Dan Graziano of the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported late Monday evening that the Mets have a scout in Chicago watching the Rangers (presumably with a focus on the outfield, given their offensive plight in that particular area). Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Los Angeles Dodgers have also joined the South Side fray, assigning one of their own scouts to watch Tuesday evening’s blowout at U.S. Cellular Field.

● The Yankees and Mariners have reportedly engaged in trade discussions to potentially ship left-hander Jarrod Washburn to New York, which would deliver a significant blow to any hopes the Rangers might have entertained of sending Vicente Padilla or Kevin Millwood to the Bronx. Limited no-trade protection that gives the 33-year-old southpaw veto power over a deal to the Yankees could eventually nix such talks, however.

● Oklahoma’s Nelson Cruz (who belted his 32nd home run on Tuesday evening, spiking his Pacific Coast League batting line to .341/.441/.709) and Joaquin Arias are being actively shopped, while catcher Gerald Laird (strained right hamstring), who caught five innings and went 0-for-2 with a walk during the first game of his minor league rehab assignment with the RedHawks, is on course to make his return to the Rangers on Friday.

Plugging Cruz’s batting line into the minor league equivalency calculator available at Minor League Splits results in a .282/.362/.553 batting line. Just sayin’.

No specific rumors on Frank Catalanotto, Hank Blalock, Marlon Byrd or anybody else tabbed by the fanbase as “available” just yet, though if we are to believe Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News, “somebody will have to knock the Rangers over” for a substantial deal to go down.

Which, I suppose, goes back to this sentence from approximately 20 paragraphs up:

I still have an unfathomably hard time envisioning any significant deadline movement from this team.

So, there’s that.

Evan Grant’s latest “Inside the Rangers” newsletter expands on the Rangers’ decision to reinstall Blalock at third base, and examines the job security of pitching coach Mark Connor, Millwood’s continued struggles on the hill (which some would argue render him untradeable, regardless), and the catching situation, which was previously tackled as part of Saturday’s inaugural “Joey and Jason on the Rangers” Q&A.

Flamethrowing right-hander Frank Francisco has fanned 16 batters in 14 innings pitched since June 15th, yielding just eight hits and four walks en route to a sparkling 1.29 ERA and lethargic .160/.222/.300 opponents’ batting line over that span.

And finally, remember the massive buzz surrounding Josh Hamilton that purportedly sent FOX network executive scurrying to shuffle their Saturday afternoon baseball schedule so that they could accommodate at least one nationally televised Rangers game?

From the Tuesday morning edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Saturday’s game against Oakland will not be televised. The 3:07 p.m. game falls in the Fox broadcasting window but it wasn’t picked up.

Enjoy the dulcet tones of Eric Nadel and Victor Rojas, folks. And after you’re done, go outside and inhale some of those warm summer trade winds.

They’re equally intoxicating.

Quick Hits: Right-hander Brandon McCarthy (right forearm inflammation) allowed four earned runs on seven hits and a walk and punched out four in a 3.2-inning rehab start at Triple-A Oklahoma on Tuesday; 36 of his 63 pitches went for strikes…with his three-run homer on Monday, Josh Hamilton became just the fifth player since 2000 with at least 98 RBI through his team’s first 100 games of the season…right-hander Eric Hurley threw off flat ground on Tuesday, and is still on track to make his next scheduled start in Oakland on Sunday…the Rangers’ current five-game errorless streak matches their longest of the season.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 am and is filed under The Season. 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.