MVN - Most Valuable Network

Texas Trade Wind Anemometer & Miscellaneous Rangers Notes

I originally set out this evening with the intention of publishing two items - the first on Triple-A Oklahoma’s Nelson Cruz, and whose uniform he is most likely to be donning on the evening of August 1st (which I’ve since pushed back to Friday evening), and the second on the plethora of trade rumors and miscellaneous notes swirling around the team whose last six disillusioning games have dealt an excruciating blow to its already dim playoff hopes.

Well, one out of two ain’t bad.

● Dan Graziano of the Star-Ledger reports that the New York Yankees have checked into the availability of not only catcher Gerald Laird, but also Washington’s Paul Lo Duca, Kansas City’s Miguel Olivo and Toronto’s Rod Barajas.

● Baseball Prospectus’s Will Carroll writes that the Atlanta Braves “shot down Mike Gonzalez to the Rangers in return for one of their outfielders,” with MLB.com’s Mark Bowman evidently learning “it would take Josh Hamilton to pry Gonzalez loose.” There was never much of a match here to begin with, and thus it should come as no great surprise that this rumor died a quick and painless death.

● MLB.com’s Jim Molony reports that “the Astros, Cardinals, Phillies, Rangers, Red Sox, Royals, Tigers, Mets, White Sox and Yankees are among the teams expected to send a representative to watch [Freddy] Garcia,” who continues to rehab from season-ending surgery performed last August to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum in his right shoulder.

Additionally, the Minnesota Twins are thought to be more than a little interested in third baseman Hank Blalock.

● ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark offers the following slew of notes in his latest “Rumblings or Grumblings” column:

So why are the Rangers willing to trade [Vicente] Padilla, their leading winner (11-5)? No, not because of dollars. And no, not because he’s an astronaut, either. Because he’s as talented as any pitcher on the market. So the Rangers are telling other clubs they’re willing to deal him if they can get back a young starter they can plug into their rotation by next season, if not immediately.

They’ve had only back-burner interest so far, from a group that’s believed to include the Tigers and Yankees. But in one of the least-inspiring rotation markets ever, that could easily change in the next week. Incidentally, two pitchers the Rangers don’t intend to deal, despite extensive interest, are relievers Eddie Guardado and Jamey Wright.

Both Guardado and Wright (who was inked to a minor league contract in January) can depart for free agency after the 2008 season; that being said, their relative effectiveness out of the Texas bullpen this season should ensure that at least one, if not both, of the veteran hurlers are retained into 2009.

This is an absolutely loaded farm system. What it isn’t loaded with is relief prospects.

● Right-hander Kevin Millwood (strained right groin muscle) may yet avoid landing on the 15-day disabled list, but residual soreness has placed his next scheduled start (and already marginal trade value) in serious jeopardy. He’ll test his injured groin and undergo a medical examination in Oakland on Friday, which should yield enough information for the club to make an informed decision as to what course of treatment they should pursue next.

Should Millwood be unable to start on Monday evening against the Seattle Mariners at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Luis Mendoza or Scott Feldman would likely assume his responsibilities.

● Anthony Andro of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram lays out what difficulties remain ahead of Texas as they begin their last-ditch push towards the top of the standings. Ten of the Rangers’ final 60 games of the season come against the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which could conceivably provide a stepping stone back into the divisional playoff race if Texas manages to win at least eight or nine of those games.

But that’s an awfully tall order to fill.

● Highly regarded prospect Max Ramirez - who can be classified as a catcher, first baseman, designated hitter, or, heck, simply a hitter - might benefit more than anybody from Laird’s long-awaited return to the active roster on Friday. The 23-year-old slugger has played only three times since July 7th, and just once since July 13th, which denoted the Rangers’ last game before the All-Star break.

There’s no doubting how wonderfully uplifting and inspirational it is to see that first wave of young, electrifying talent make its indelible mark on the big league squad. Consistent playing time, however, is an important consideration as well, and I doubt many will disagree with the assertion that the youngsters need to be playing - regardless of whether or not they’re still nursing that first delectable big league cup of coffee.

● John Dewan, owner of the fantastic Baseball Info Solutions, offers the following description of a non-mainstream baserunning statistic whose relevance to the Rangers will become apparent momentarily:

In the last three editions of The Bill James Handbook, we introduced a new statistic to measure baserunning. It’s called Net Baserunning Gain and it’s simply how many extra bases beyond average a player gains.

For example, a runner goes first to third on a single about 30 percent of the time. The average is three out of ten. If a given player goes five out of ten, he is plus two. We look at all the situations like this, scoring from first on a double, scoring from second on a single, and so on and so forth. If a player is thrown out on the bases, he receives a triple penalty (-3). And we count stolen bases, but it’s only a plus if it’s better than a success rate of two out of three (67 percent).

It makes a difference. The top ten baserunning teams are a collective 58 games over .500 and the bottom ten are 51 games under .500.

Texas registers at +74 in the ‘Net Gain’ department, good for third-best in the majors, while second baseman Ian Kinsler registers at +40, knotting him with Ichiro Suzuki for the second-best individual total in baseball behind only Colorado’s Willy Taveras (+44).

Great hitter, great baserunner, mediocre defender. I think we can all live with that.

● David Brown of “Big League Stew” at Yahoo! Sports presents a rare glimpse at the more personal side of Milton Bradley in his latest weekly installment of “Answer Man,” in which everybody’s favorite Ranger discusses his uniform dominance over the game of dominoes, reflects on the long-departed Tupac, and perhaps drops a thinly veiled hint as to just how receptive he is to the idea of remaining in Texas over the long haul:

Q: Are the [youth baseball] academies doing what you want them to?

MB: Definitely. I’ve got some pictures of some of the kids with me. Maybe down the road we can do something like that in Texas. I’m still getting acclimated to Texas and used to everything.

Read as deep into that emphasized sentence as you like.

● Had an opportunity to check out the new MVN 3.0 layout tonight, and though I can’t reveal any specifics, I will offer this brief assessment: Wow.

Baseball America’s Thom Henninger has an excellent feature piece on Double-A Frisco’s Neftali Feliz; a few choice cuts:

“There are plenty of guys who can light up a radar gun,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “There are two things that stand out with Neftali and how he does it. One is the ease with which he throws the ball with very little effort. Some big flame-throwing guys have very unsound mechanics in order to generate all that force behind the ball. It almost looks like Neftali is playing catch and the ball just explodes out of his hand.

“Secondly, a lot of guys who throw with that velocity can’t command it. The pitch might be 97, 98 on the radar gun, but it’s a foot out of the strike zone. When you actually have to throw a strike, it’s much more hittable at 91, 92. Neftali has shown to this point that he’s able to throw a strike with that velocity.”

[…]

Daniels said Feliz’s promotion had little to do with his velocity. He noted that the prospect’s overall command and changeup have been markedly better in 2008, and he’s shown a much-improved curveball in many of his starts, making the entire package more effective.

“He really needed a new challenge,” Daniels said. “He wasn’t being challenged in that league, and we felt he was ready for the next step.”

● BTiA minor league correspondent Jason Parks, quoting a highly informed source (the remarkable Jason Cole of Lone Star Dugout fame), reports that High-A Bakersfield southpaw Derek Holland lit up the radar gun at San Jose Municipal Stadium on Thursday evening to the tune of 95 MPH not once, not twice, but thrice in the bottom of the first inning.

Three innings later, Holland surrendered just his third home run of the season in 113.2 innings to organizational soldier Dayton Buller, giving San Jose a 3-0 lead that they would stubbornly refuse to relinquish and ultimately resulting in the lone blemish on what had been a perfect 9-0 record.

Bobby Felmy, the first batter to step to the plate after Buller’s solo missile, was rudely greeted by a 97 MPH fastball. All told, Holland yielded three earned runs in six innings, but on just four hits and a walk; his performance was immeasurably amplified by the 10 strikeouts he accumulated, which edged his season total between Low-A Clinton and Bakersfield to 115.

I’m not certain there’s a strong enough adjective in the dictionary to describe Holland’s unprecedented ascension into the limelight. But I am certain he’ll be making more than a mere cameo appearance in the re-racked BTiA Top 25 Prospect Rankings this coming off-season.

● Finally, tantalizing 17-year-old southpaw Martin Perez pitched five exemplary innings of two-hit, no-walk, no-run baseball for Low-A Spokane on Thursday evening, upping the Venezuelan’s short-season strikeout total to 33 and slashing his ERA to 3.38. The Indians eventually succumbed by a 1-0 margin to the visiting Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in 10 innings.

Deadline fever: Catch it.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 12:03 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.