SB Nation User Blog: dustinvandeman

Arod out 10 weeks with hip surgery

dustinvandeman — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:23:37 -0000

Arod will be out until at least may best case scenario. Most likely mid may or perhaps june. I don't believe the Yankees are going to want to run Cody Ransom out to 3rd everyday until arod is back healthy. Think there is any chance they might have interest at Blalock to play 3rd? I personally dont think he is healthy enough to play 3rd, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Yankees have some interest in him. Given Blalock's moderately overpriced contract due to the economy, I don't believe we could get much in return from the Yankees. I would rather us just hold on to Blalock and hope for the best rather than just give him away to Yankees. Do you think the Yankees will have any interest in Blalock?

Link to Arod story on ESPN

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will have surgery to remove a cyst from his right hip and will be out 10 weeks, Rodriguez's brother told ESPNdeportes.com on Thursday.

Joe Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez's older brother, told Enrique Rojas of ESPNdeportes.com during a phone interview that immediate surgery was recommended, and that rehabilitation would take about 10 weeks.

A source close to the situation told ESPNdeportes.com that the surgery is scheduled for Monday in Colorado.

There has been no confirmation from the Yankees regarding the scheduled surgery.

It also means that A-Rod will not be able to participate with the Dominican Republic team in the World Baseball Classic.

"It's a big blow for the whole family. Alex is destroyed," Joe Rodriguez told ESPNdeportes.com. "We were all very excited to see him play with the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.

"But the most important thing is to have a successful surgery so that Alex may continue his career."

Stan Javier, general manager of the Dominican Republic's team at the WBC told ESPNdeportes.com: "I haven't received any information on the results of the medical exams performed on A-Rod."

Rodriguez felt tightness and stiffness in his right hip this spring and was examined by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad on Saturday, the Yankees said. An MRI exam showed the cyst.

Rodriguez then went to be evaluated Wednesday by Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, Colo. It has been a rough spring for the All-Star third baseman.

Rodriguez arrived at the Yankees' camp last month in Tampa, Fla., shortly after a report that he had tested positive for steroids in 2003. During a news conference, he admitted he had used performance-enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, saying they came from the Dominican and were provided by his cousin.

Official FanFest autograph schedule

dustinvandeman — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:45:41 -0000

from texasrangers.com

looks like it should be a blast

Autograph Schedules

Time	Diamond Club – AREA A	Diamond Club – AREA B
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.	Josh Hamilton	Kevin Millwood
11:00 - 12:00 p.m.		Ron Washington, Rudy Jaramillo & Johnny Narron
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.	Chris Davis	David Murphy
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Ian Kinsler	Scott Feldman & Guillermo Moscoso
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.	Taylor Teagarden & Jose Vallejo	Travis Metcalf & Doug Mathis
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.	Matt Harrison & Warner Madrigal	Tommy Hunter & Luis Mendoza
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.	John Bannister & Jarrod Saltalamacchia	Brandon McCarthy & Omar Poveda

Time	Diamond Club – Bullpen Grill – Hosted by Jamie Newberg
11:00 - 12:00 p.m.	Michael Ballard, Derek Holland & Kasey Kiker
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.	Blake Beavan, Andrew Laughter & Tim Murphy
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Neftali Feliz, Michael Main & Kevin Richardson

Time	Majestic Grand Slam Gift Shop
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.	Ray Burris, Mike Jeffcoat, Bobby Jones & Ellis Valentine
11:00 - 12:00 p.m.	Scott Coolbaugh, Larry Hardy, Jeff Russell & Curtis Wilkerson
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.	Dave Barnett, Jose Guzman, Josh Lewin, Eric Nadel & Eleno Ornelas
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Bill Fahey, Tom Grieve, Pete O'Brien & Dan Smith
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.	Steve Buechele, Dave Hostetler, Mike Simms & Bill Stein
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.	Rich Billings, Jeff Kunkel, Frank Lucchesi & Jim Sundberg

Clinic Schedule

Time	Home Run Porch
12:00 - 12:30 p.m.	Hitting Clinic with Rangers Hitting Coach Rudy Jaramillo
1:45 - 2:15 p.m.	Catching Clinic with Rangers Hall of Fame Catcher Jim Sundberg

Q&A Schedule

Time	Legends of the Game Baseball Museum – Theater
10:15 - 10:45 a.m.	Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels &p Manager Ron Washington
11:15 - 11:45 a.m.	Texas Rangers Radio & TV Announcers
12:15 - 12:45 p.m.	Rangers Outfielder Josh Hamilton
1:15 - 1:45 p.m.	Rangers First Baseman Chris Davis & Outfielder David Murphy
2:15 - 2:45 p.m.	Rangers Second Baseman Ian Kinsler

Rangers sign Vizquel

dustinvandeman — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:23:02 -0000

The Rangers have signed 11-time Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel to a minor league contract, with a non-roster invite to big league camp.

per Jamey Newberg

at least there is one good bit of rangers news in this depressing day (RIP Eric Hurley's shoulder)

a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a aa a a a a aa a a a aa aa a aa a a a aa

Chris Davis to be signing at the FanFest and my evening tonight at the Rangers Round Up

dustinvandeman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:12:04 -0000

Tonight in Tyler, Tx Chris Davis, Brandon Boggs, and Tom Grieve were signing at the local Brookshire's and Sports Academy. I managed to make it to both of them and got a lot of stuff signed since they were so nice to everyone.

I showed up at brookshire's at about 4:00 or so, they were scheduled to be there at 4:30 but didnt show up until about 4:50 or 5:00. I got through the line pretty quick (there were about 20-30 people ahead of me). One cool thing brookshires was doing was if you bought two McCormick products they would give you a free new era texas rangers hat. So i decided to do that (it only cost about 3 bucks and i got a 15 dollar hat for autographs)

at brookshires i was able to get all of this and take some pictures as well. they had cards they were signing ahead of time that you could take as well so that was pretty cool. this is what we and my brother were able to get

via i268.photobucket.com

via i268.photobucket.co

via i268.photobucket.com

At the sports academy there was surprisingly less people and i was actually able to chat with each of them for a few minutes. davis said he will be there saturday and was looking forward to it and was having a great time signing for people from his area. boggs said he was going to be unable to make it due to some family matters. I asked grieves what he thought about the andrus situation and he said he thought he would be a very exciting player but would probably experience some growing pains in the beginning. Academy had several things that fans could buy to get signed and i ended up buying a baseball, a jumbo baseball, and a mini helmet. all in all a very good day. i had to make sure i got a picture personalized for my girlfriend as well haha.

via i268.photobucket.com

As dumb as it may seem, this is the response of 95% of Rangers fans :/

dustinvandeman — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:29:25 -0000

I agree with Pat Reagan!!!! This is a bunch of crap!! Young made one move already to accomodate a selfish A-Wad!!! Now to move to third for a kid!!! Come on people, let the man play SS! He's the best SS out there, and one of the only reasons we drive over 3 hours for at lest 10-15 games a year despite gas prices!!! If the Rangers along with their putzie GM and manager decide to trade Young, they will lose my family and I as fans as well as our business!!!! We have been Rangers fans for a long time, and to watch the morons trade off all the tallent i.e. Tex, Mench, Laird, Soriano, etc. etc. al. And now Young???!!1 Its too much, Im done w/ these fools!!! Everyone of us , the fans, know we need pitching. We have needed pitching for a long time now!!! So why mess with the nucleus of the defense?? Just dont make no sense!!! Can someone please help me understand Daniels thinking? Never mind, I guess im going to just have to root for Boston!!!!! Hell, maybe even the evil empire!!!! God help us!!!!

I'm sick of Jon Daniels and surprised at Washington for wanting Young to switch! Daniels is an idiot and needs to be fired plain and simple! Find a decent third baseman DON'T get rid of your All-Star shortstop!!!!!

Why not trade Michael? You nuts have traded everyother good player we get. You let Tex. go and did not get anything for him.

these are the first 3 comments i see when i looked at the article about young wanting a trade on texasrangers.com

and folks i present to you your typical rangers fan. next time you are at the ballpark (or not) remeber that you are surrounded by mostly idiots

this is going to end up as a horrible pr disaster on the rangers front and michael young is still going to be scene as one step below god by the general public

those quotes sicken me

now dont get me wrong i've been a huge young supporter and still think he has something to offer to most teams, but this a little ridiculous. saying we got nothing in return for tex is one thing that EVERYONE here can agree is a dumb statement.

Texas Ranger's FanFest January 24th

dustinvandeman — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:57:02 -0000

I've never been to one. To the people that have been would you recommend going? I found some information from last years event and it looks like Jamey has a booth with signers and that there are Question and Answer sessions as well as some other interesting stuff. Is it usually fairly crowded or not that many people? Doesn't seem like a bad deal for 10 bucks imo. Sorry for the post just trying to find some stuff to talk about.

Other teams have interest in Michael "FOTF" Young

dustinvandeman — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:47:16 -0000

Mets, Angels, Dodgers, and Royals among teams asking about Young

Found this on Sports Illustrated Fannation and thought it may be of some interest to people.

LAS VEGAS -- The Mets, Angels, Dodgers and Royals are among several teams to inquire here about the availability of shortstop extraordinaire Michael Young of the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers are not shopping Young, but they are willing to listen to overtures on just about anyone, and that includes the five-time All-Star who won a Gold Glove in 2008 and has spent his entire career with Texas. There are quite a few teams in need of a shortstop, so it's not surprising that a number of them have asked about Young, a terrific all-around player who has $60 million and five years remaining on his contract.
Presumably, the Mets' interest would be for a second baseman, a position Young played beautifully when he first came to the majors in 2000 before moving to short in 2004. But the Mets say they won't acquire a second baseman unless they can first deal Luis Castillo -- a very difficult task, since Castillo is coming off an absolutely brutal, injury-plagued, out-of-shae season.

In my opinion the Rangers need to take advantage of this oppurtunity of interest and attempt to unload Young. He is a very good player and a great clubhouse leader but his contract will hinder more than help this team in the next several years. Let's hear your trade proposals for each given team and stir up some trade talk.

Jon Daniels has to explore this opportunity to see if there would be any value in trading Young. I would be willing to take on a bad contract with one or two years left to get out from under Young's contract. He would be sorely missed though.

Poll

Who do you see as the best potential trade partner for Michael Young to land?

Dodgers

70 votes

Mets

12 votes

Angels

0 votes

Royals

4 votes

Other

8 votes

94 votes | Poll has closed

Who is your Texas Ranger prospect that is going to shoot up the prospect sheet next season?

dustinvandeman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:07:04 -0000

mine is Tim Murphy. He will be in Frisco by the end of the year and will be in the 7-10 prospect range in our system by this time next season.

Joe Weiland also is of some interest to me as well. His size is projectable and he could end up becoming a solid prospect. Another guy I think us Ranger's fans are sleeping on is newly acquired Greg Golson. If Rudy can turn him around, which we've seen him do with players of MUCH less talent, we are looking at a top 10 top 15 athlete in all of the minors.

How many Rangers do you see in the Baseball America Top 100?

dustinvandeman — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:41:07 -0000

here is the current list (based on LSB's rankings)

The list so far:
1. LHP, Derek Holland.
2. RHP, Neftali Feliz
3. 1b, Justin Smoak
4. RHP, Michael Main
5. SS, Elvis Andrus
6. C, Taylor Teagarden
7. C, Maximiliano Ramirez
8. LHP, Martin Perez
9. OF, Julio Borbon
10. RHP, Eric Hurley
11. OF, Engel Beltre

i think we could all agree holland, feliz, smoak, and andrus are locks. I think main has a very good chance to make it as well even though rangers fans view him more highly than other baseball fans around the nation. I also think tea and max should be in there as well given their development. I think that is most likely all we have unless perez sneaks in there which he very well could. 7 players in baseball america's top 100. not too bad imo.