The hitters Gutierrez faced did not have a chance on his curveball.  Gutierrez has great stuff, and he has a real shot to impact our bullpen this year as well as Scheppers.  I'd prefer he get more time in AA and AAA, but if he performs really well I don't see why you wouldn't give him a look in September.

Scheppers threw 1 83 mph breaking ball and an 89 mph changeup.  The rest were all fastballs ranging from 96 - 99.  We need a great nickname for this guy.  Enjoy!

Using Cot's Baseball Contracts as a reference, I extracted these contracts for a possible 25-man roster for next year. Our needs going into this off-season remain a LOOGY, a backup IF specialist, and a middle of the order bat that can DH.  If the Ranger's FO says our payroll will match last season's 68M, then we have roughly 11M to spend this winter.  (Cot's has what I believe to be higher contracts than reality for MY and Millwood, but these are the numbers I have, so I'm rolling with it)  (This assumes a 8M increase through arbitration etc)

Harrison, Hurley, Moscoso, Madrigal, Eyre all figure to be apart of the Rangers 'pen if not get a start at some point in '10.  Late season callups could include Scheppers, Kiker, etc

German, Boggs, Smoak, MaxRam, and Moreland will most likely be at AAA waiting to fill in for a need etc.

FA targets could include these
Position Players:
Bobby Abreu - Type A
Jermaine Dye - Type A
Mark DeRosa - Type B
Nick Johnson - Type B
Hideki Matsui - Type B
Jim Thome

LH Relievers:
John Grabow - Type A
Scott Eyre - Type B
Joe Beimel - Type B
Ron Mahay
Will Ohman - Type B

Other FA Pitchers:
Ben Sheets
Chad Cordero
Joaquin Benoit
Kiko Calero - Type B

Who would you want to fill the needed positions and how much would you allocate to them? 

There are plenty of trade targets out there as well that have been mentioned that include Halladay, Bradley, Dunn etc.

We will see how the Rangers perform in their beneficial schedule in April where we face only one team that posted a record above .500 last year.  I wanted to break down each month that the Rangers are going to have this year based on their schedule.

I think most of us would agree that having more home games vs road games is an advantage.  Here are the Rangers home and road games respectively by month:

April  - 12 - 10 
May   - 15 - 13 
June - 15 - 12 
July   - 15 - 10 
August - 10 - 19 
September - 14 - 13 
October - 0 -4 

It is an interesting schedule where the Rangers have more home games in every month except August and October, and as you see there are only 4 games in October. Isn't it usually a negative thing in sports to have 10 home games with 19 road games in a month. The month of August presents us with this many road games. I wonder if this is actually a disadvantage or not, since our pitchers will be able to avoid the heat of Texas, for the most part, in August.  I think these home and road splits will help our team stay competitive until later in the season.  Of course, these are just numbers, and the Rangers did go 40 - 41 at home last year, but in 2007 we went 47 - 34. 

In the first month last year, we had 13 home games vs 15 road games, and the year before we started with a 10 and 15, home and away shedule which of course did not help (i don't think playing at home or on the road was the result of all the errors and poor play).  I'm only saying, in years past the schedules have not favored the Rangers, and this year it does.  We'll see how it turns out on the field.

Yesterday was a good start.  Keep it up!

Per MLBTR Link

According to Boston Globe reporter Nick Cafardo, Red Sox special assistant Allard Baird recently scouted Salty. Cafardo added that Saltalamacchia's defense didn't look solid on that particular night, though. Cafardo also notes that other scouts who have seen the catcher in winter ball thought his defensive skills were up to par.

I know, I know.  What's new?  DWL ball is on break until Friday.  However, Salty did not play in the most recent two games played.  He was playing pretty much every game.  Looks like Salty was sent home or sent somewhere else maybe?

Also, the Red Sox might have a little bit of pressure on them since the Yankees are signing everyone.

I know this has been like beating a dead horse, but here it is.  Kick it.

good job, ghtd36 and all the rest that provided themes. they were excellent.  

As we continue to wait on any baseball news, hopefully good news on the Rangers front, maybe we'll get a new set of Sheets for Christmas, here are the results and final runoff for the top 3 based on the votes. 

There were a ton of great lines, but as these 3 all were tied for first, we'll have a runoff vote between them. You've outdone yourselves in this time void of baseball 

Also, hilarious mention has to go to
"You can't hit Tom Hicks with your shoes from home.".

2nd tier honorable mention, as voted on, goes to:

"Your 2009 Texas Rangers...they're still shitty" 
"You could use some mediocrity!!"
"Millwood, Padilla: The Farewell Tour"

If you want to make a case for another theme, go ahead.

Going into the winter meetings, this makes Salty that much more attractive.
With Leones del Escogido in 12 games and 41 ABs

BA:      .390
OPS:  1.439
HR:     6
Runs: 14
RBIs:  14

Also important, he has walked 12 times compared to 7 strikeouts.

Salty has been alternating as the Catcher with Miguel Olivo lately.  The days he's not catching he is the DH.  He has 1 error, but I don't know runners success rate against him stealing bags.  He has 3 passed balls.  I think these are Salty's most important stats.  If he can improve defensively to at least become avg, I think that is a huge deal. 

Nelson Cruz
You gotta like the fact that he is still mashing the ball.
with Gigantes in 22 games and 83 ABs

BA:     .373
OPS:  1.132
HR:     8
Runs: 16
RBIs:  29

Cruz has, also stolen 4 bases with only 1 CS.

Do you feel comfortable with Cruz manning RF?
I'm starting to, but I'm still skeptical whether he'll be able to consistently hit in the Bigs..

MinorLeagueBaseball.com this week ranked the top 50 prospects with rookie eligibility.  The Texas Rangers have 3 in the top 50 and I think you can make a strong case for two or three more (Smoak, Main etc) due to the stock falling on some of the other players on this list, but like any rankings system it is subjective.  The Rangers rank as follows:

9 – Neftali Feliz

21 – Elvis Andrus

46 – Derek Holland

They’ve done a nice job of giving a bio and video on each player.  Here is the link to the complete list. 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/prospects/y2009/index.jsp

I thought it was a ridiculous move when we got rid of Galarraga.  We've apparently let two really good pitchers go this winter, although we did get Hamilton in one of those deals.  Below is what Armando Galarraga did in a spot start for Detroit while Willis is on the DL:

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