From The Hardball Times, MLB is looking to hire someone in the DFW market to watch Rangers games and do the data entry for Gameday and other digital media feeds.  I'd be all over this, except I don't live in the DFW area (and don't have the required "pressbox experience").  But someone on this board must be qualified.  Make sure you know how to quickly enter the data for the double steal - I get sick of waiting for slow Gameday updates on the interesting plays.

Or at least we have, on many occasions.  This post has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while and the upcoming draft made me decide to post it now.  Back when we signed Kris Benson, people were talking about how the guy had to be good since he was a former #1 overall draft pick (?!?!).  I know that Josh Hamilton is also a former #1 and that got me wonder how many other #1 overall picks have passed through the Rangers over the years. So, I went back though all the previous drafts through 1965 and checked which players had played for the Rangers at some point during their careers.  I also looked up their WAR for the time they were here to get a rough idea of how much they were worth to the Rangers.

Ten #'1's have played for the Rangers. I'm not sure how that number compares to other teams.  If someone knows of a way to compile that information easily, I'd be very interested to know it.  Of the ten that played in Texas, six of them played at or below replacement level.  The total WAR for all the player in all the years they played for the Rangers is 35.9, but most of that is from A-Rod with his 24.6 Wins.  Josh is still here and we all hope that he will add to his total of 6.5 so far.  The Rangers have had the #1 pick twice, which is about you'd expect without looking at records with 30 teams and 44 drafts so far.  The Rangers have been historically bad, but not bad enough to get more than their share of #1 picks, unlike the Mets and Padres who have had five #1's each.

Notes for the data below.  Baines was aquired mid-season in '89 and traded mid-season '90.  He played 50 and 103 games for the Rangers in those season, respectively.  For Benson and Hamilton, their current WAR numbers come from fangraphs.com  All historical WAR, including Hamilton's '08 season come from baseballprojection.com.  FanGraphs and BaseballProjection have different number for Hamiltons '08 WAR (FG: 4.0, BP: 5.6), so they are calculating WAR differently. That makes Hamilton's total WAR number of 6.5 questionable since its adding apples and something similar, but different, to apples.

Player                  Drafted By      Year    With Rangers    Total WAR
Jeff Burroughs          Senators        1969    '72 - '76             8.1
Dave Roberts            Padres          1972    '79 - '80             0.0 (0.5, -0.5)
David Clyde             Rangers         1973    '73 - '75            -0.5
Floyd Bannister         Astros          1976    '92                  -0.7
Harold Baines           White Sox       1977    '89 - '90             0.9
Phil Nevin              Astros          1992    '05 - '06            -1.0
Alex Rodriguez          Mariners        1993    '01 - '03            24.6
Kris Benson             Pirates         1996    '09 - current        -0.3*
Josh Hamilton           Devil Rays      1999    '08 - current         6.5*
Adrian Gonzales         Marlins         2000    '04 - '05            -1.1

DJCahill wins the McCarthy Community Projection with a 4/60/40/4.2.  This is, of course, predicated on him not pitching in the majors again this year.  I'm expecting the stress fracture the take longer than expected to heal, then he'll have some sort of setback while on rehab (a blister, maybe?).  We can expect the obligatory "It's so frustrating.  Every time I start feeling good and pitching well, something else goes wrong.  I just want to help the team and show them what I'm capable of.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah."

I really wanted to be right with my prediction of 14//160/140/3.95.  I was really expecting him to carry the rotation this year.  As Adam would say: "Bah.".

Just clicking through the channels and got to MLB network and found the they are showing Nolan's 7th no-hitter against Toronto on May 1, 1991.  They just completed the 5th inning.  Note that I am in PST.  I do not know if MLB channel has same programming on at all times across US, so ymmv.

This reminded me of a memory I have from 1989 or 90 where I clearly remember another Nolan Ryan game where he had a no-hitter into the 9th when Julio Franco booted what would have been the last out.  The next batter promptly broke up the no-no.  I have googled around for this game, but I have been unable to find it anywhere.  Did a game like this actually happen, or did I dream it?