And it so begins:

The Rangers placed catcher Gerald Laird on the 15-day disabled list with a pulled left hamstring after Friday's 4-3 loss to the Nationals and will recall Max Ramirez from Double A Frisco.

The injury was described as minor during the game, but manager Ron Washington said otherwise after the 14-inning loss at Nationals Park.

"He pulled it," Washington said. "It's bad. It's not a day-to-day thing."

Laird was injured in the fourth inning while legging out a bunt single. He said he felt the hamstring tighten two strides before the bag, then pull on his last step.

"I said to myself, 'This is not happening right now,' " Laird said. "It's disappointing. It's tough to swallow. I felt like I was playing pretty well."

http://startelegramsports.typepad.com/foul_territory/2008/06/laird-headed-to.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/062108dnsporanglede.22fa3635.html
http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2008/06/21/the-max-ramirez-experience/

Per Evan Grant:

The Rangers this afternoon, perhaps momentarily, will announce that Jason Botts has been designated for assignment and that Chris Shelton's contract will be purchased. The club is desperate for another productive right-handed bat in the lineup and Botts simply hasn't taken advantage of whatever limited opportunities he's been given. He is hitting .158 in 38 at-bats. The move will give the Rangers 10 days to trade, release or outright Botts to Triple-A. If he clears waivers, the Rangers absolutely want to keep him in the system, but with the season hanging on the edge of a cliff, the Rangers need somebody with a little bit of a track record of big league success against right-handers. I don't know if Shelton will play every day at first, but I'm pretty certain that at the very least, but it won't surprise me.

Brandon Boggs is expected to be called up to replace Hank Blalock, but to get Shelton on the roster, the Rangers had to take somebody off the 40-man roster. It appears, Botts is the guy. His career with the Rangers, which began in 2000 as a 46th round draft choice, is now more in limbo than ever before.

http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/04/jason-botts-has-been-dfad.html

 

Well, this isn't good:

Hank Blalock, who injured his left hamstring legging out a double Friday night, is expected to be placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday. Blalock had an MRI Monday morning, which revealed a small tear. He could miss between three and four weeks. The initial plan while Blalock was hurt was to platoon Ramon Vazquez and German Duran at third. Blalock is hitting .299 with three home runs and seven RBI.

http://startelegramsports.typepad.com/foul_territory/2008/04/blalock-headed.html
http://trsullivan.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/04/blalock_out_34_weeks.html
http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2008/04/28/newsflash-blalock-out-3-4-weeks-with-hamstring-tear/

Not even the Edinson Volquez trade could save his job, apparently:

The Cincinnati Reds have fired general manager Wayne Krivsky less than three years into his tenure, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Krivsky, a former assistant GM with the Minnesota Twins, was hired in 2006, succeeding Dan O'Brien. He was the first general manager to be hired under the Reds ownership group led by Bob Castellini and is in the last year of a three-year contract.

The Reds are currently 9-12 and 5½ games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3363283

I suppose this is when two of my favorite subjects - the Texas Rangers and severe weather - collide:

http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2008/04/09/newsflash-tonights-rangers-game-a-washout/

Hopefully the storms hold off until after tonight's game concludes, but it would come as no great surprise to me if this game was rained out.

Entire DFW area is currently under a tornado watch until 11 PM; a tornadic supercell has been reeking havoc to the west, and may be on track to slam into Denton/Sherman/McKinney in the coming hours.

Per T.R. Sullivan:

Pitcher Luis Mendoza will start the season on the disabled list with a blister on his right middle finger. The Rangers still expect him to be their fifth starter on April 12 and he'll likely make at least one start at Triple A Oklahoma on medical rehabilitation before that.

But this means Kason Gabbard will be the Rangers fourth starter while Mendoza gets the blister problem straightened out.

The Rangers have also told reliever Josh Rupe that he is on the team. That leaves one spot left in the bullpen: Wes Littleton or Robinson Tejeda.

Per the Boston Herald:

FORT MYERS - The Red Sox' trip to Japan has already hit a major snag.

During a players-only team meeting at City of Palms Park this morning at 8:30, the players decided unanimously, according to more than one player, that the Sox would not take the field for their scheduled 12:07 p.m. exhibition game against the Blue Jays today unless there was a resolution to MLB's decision not to extend an appearance fee of $40,000 to all team coaches making the trip to Japan. All players are receiving the $40,000 appearance fee for the Tokyo trip.

According to one player, the players also agreed not to board the Red Sox' flight to Japan if the matter remained unresolved this evening.

"Unless they take care of this I don't think we're going (to Japan)," said Red Sox pitcher Kyle Snyder. "That's pretty much where we stand. It's a pretty strong feeling throughout the clubhouse."

Both Red Sox manager Terry Francona and multiple Red Sox players who were in on the offseason phone calls regarding the logistics of the trip insist that part of the agreement to make the season-opening trip included the coaches being paid the same fee as the players.

"It's wrong, it's wrong," said Curt Schilling. "It was part of the basic agreement when we talked about it last year. The coaching staff was part of the conversation, we all heard it.

"It's not really surprising because the coaches and staff are people generally who have always been overlooked and undervalued."

[...]

The $40,000 appearance fee in question is a big deal for most of the coaching staff. For example, bullpen catcher Manny Martinez, who would be considered part of the coaching staff on this Japan trip, earns just $30,000 per year.

According to Francona, the coaching staffs of previous MLB trips to Japan all were paid the same stipend as the players. The Sox manager was scheduled to join the Oakland A's coaching staff in its team's trip to Japan in 2003 and said it was agreed on that the coaches were to be paid. The trip was ultimately cancelled.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=1081414&pos=breaking

MLB also made a similar promise to the A's, but have apparently reneged on their agreement to pay the coaches from both teams.

Of course, MLB will cave and pay up once this story has fully blown up - sounds like today's exhibition game between the Blue Jays and Red Sox will be postponed, though.

From Jeff Blair of Canada's Globe and Mail:

Beyond that, the best available free-agent pitcher, Kyle Lohse, is being pursued by three clubs that have pitching injuries and don't have the Blue Jays' depth: the St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers and the Giants.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080312.wsptblair12/BNStory/GlobeSportsBaseball

Last night, I penned an in-depth piece over at BTiA examining the ongoing spring battles in Rangers camp, and attempted to predict the outcomes of several of those said battles.

I figured it might be fun to see how LSB believes these spring battles will conclude, so here's an easy template to select who you think will end up winning each spot:

Starting Catcher: Pick one of Salty/Laird

First Base/Outfield: Pick two of Botts/Cruz/Mench/Murphy/Shelton

Utility Infielder: Pick one of Alfonzo/Roberts/Vazquez

Starting Rotation: Pick two of Gabbard/Harrison/Hurley/Mendoza/Murray/Ponson

Bullpen: Pick four of Davis/Francisco/Feldman/Fukumori/German/Littleton/Loe/Ramirez/Rupe/Tejeda/Wright

...for his flagrant foul on AK-47 the other night.

No story link yet, just came down from the Ticket.

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Looks like my diary from yesterday was rather well-timed, in any event:

According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Rangers agreed to terms with the 30-year-old outfielder on a minor league deal on Tuesday afternoon, which apparently includes an invitation to big league spring training.

The signing marks the official onset of Kevin's second tour of duty with the organization that originally selected him with their fourth round pick (118th overall) of the 1999 MLB Draft.

Texas chose Colby Lewis (38th overall), David Mead (47th overall), Nick Regilio (72nd overall) and current starting third baseman Hank Blalock (105th overall) ahead of Mench in that fateful draft class, which also yielded 2006 National League strikeout champion Aaron Harang (195th overall, but dealt to the Cincinnati Reds in November 2000 for Randy Velarde), and current outfielder Jason Botts (1375th overall), who will join Nelson Cruz and David Murphy as the greatest obstacles looming between Mench and a guaranteed big league job.

http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2008/02/12/newsflash-mench-returns-to-texas/

Blech.

No, he still hasn't signed, but that hasn't prevented me from penning a way-too-hostile piece on why the Rangers shouldn't sign him!

What exactly am I trying to say here? Quite simply, Mench sucks. He's on the wrong side of 30, he can't field (his RZR totals of .809 in left field and .868 in right field would have ranked third and ninth worst, respectively, among all qualifying corner outfielders), and his offensive game has by and large abandoned him. Trust me, I was as big a fan of Mench's as any several years back - but those days have long since passed us by.

Before anybody rushes to point out that Mench, should he be signed, would likely head to Triple-A Oklahoma as an emergency outfield reserve to begin the 2008 season, let me provide this cautionary note: Ron Washington loves his veterans. From where I sit, it would take little more than a strong offensive showing over the course of fifty or so largely meaningless spring training at-bats for Mench to play his way onto the 25-man roster.

And if Mench makes the team, it's a near certainty that one of Jason Botts or Nelson Cruz, two players that the Rangers desperately need to figure out, won't. Yes, Kevin Mench - the guy who can still sock lefties at a surprisingly decent clip (.314/.343/.558 in 156 AB last season, to be exact), but contributes practically nothing else of value.

Stop me if you've heard that song before.

http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2008/02/11/rangers-notebook-the-kevin-mench-chronicles/

Way more at the link, including a (sorta) comprehensive chart showing the disturbing downward trends in Mench's key offensive stats (including BB/PA, BB/K, and AB/HR), and analysis showing why it's very unlikely that he's ever going to rebound to '03-'04 level production.

This is probably way over the top, considering that the Rangers have yet to sign Mench, and considering that he's still a fifth outfielder, at best, even if he makes the team - but if the Rangers do sign him, this situation would seem to have all the makings of another Jamey Wright/Kameron Loe-type debacle.

Thoughts, anybody?

Poll

Should the Rangers sign Kevin Mench?

19%

Yes

9 votes

80%

No

38 votes

47 votes | Poll has closed

First big severe weather event of the year appears to be firing up, though the Metroplex might be out of the woods at this point.

Nasty squall line has fired up extending from the Red River to around Georgetown, with multiple severe thunderstorm warnings being issued. There's an unsubstantiated report of a TVS (Tornado Vortex Signature) in the cell near Ennis, as well.

Anybody run into anything this afternoon?

I don't even know where to begin with Kevin Sherrington's argument:

As for the Rangers, any hopes of landing Santana officially end if the Mets can finalize a contract today.

Since hearing Santana would be a free agent after the 2008 season, Rangers fans have fantasized about the two-time Cy Young winner. And why not? He's simply the best pitcher in the game, and left-handed, at that. His arrival would speed up the Rangers' rebuilding process by at least a year.

So where were the Rangers when the Twins made him available this winter?

Only the Mets, Yankees and Red Sox were considered players in the Santana sweepstakes. When the Yankees pulled out, so did the Red Sox. The Mets got him this week for four prospects, pending a new contract.

As it turns out, the Rangers did, indeed, pester Minnesota this winter. But the Twins worried that the Rangers couldn't finalize the deal by signing him, which, as the Mets are learning, won't be easy.

Still, Santana is worth it. He'd have been worth whatever the Rangers had to give up, too. No pitching prospect in the Rangers' system will rise to his level. Tom Hicks' payroll, one of the game's tightest, could have accommodated his asking price.

Had Jon Daniels been able to land Santana, the Rangers would have just about repaired their fractured fan base.

Now that they can't, and Jason Jennings is the consolation prize for the rotation, Hicks is reverting to what worked for a previous ownership group: He's counting on Nolan Ryan for credibility.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/020108dnsposherrington.3190 3db.html

This argument, which I've also heard perpetuated by George Dunham on the Ticket, strikes me as incredibly lazy.

And for what it's worth, Jamey Newberg's thoughts on the situation were dead on:

Because this has nothing to do with whether the Rangers were willing to give up a better package than New York has reportedly offered Minnesota for Santana, and everything to do with a contract provision that the 28-year-old secured three years ago: a limited no-trade clause that permitted him to block trades to 10 teams in 2007 and 12 teams in 1008 and would convert to a full no-trade clause for those two years if he were to finish in the top three in the American League Cy Young vote in 2006 or 2007.

[...]

Assume for a moment that Santana would be willing, given the choice between finishing out his current deal with the Twins or spending 2008 in Texas, to waive his no-trade and accept a trade to the Rangers. Think he'd extend here for six or seven years?

I tend to doubt it. Maybe he'd entertain the thought after a year of pitching here, but not now.

The no-trade clause (combined with a Teixeira-esque vibe that he's not going to stick around past 2008) gives Santana enough leverage to essentially engineer his way out of Minnesota, and while he can't name his team, chances are the Twins were told long ago which few teams he'd accept deals to. And it's conceivable that the playing field might have been reduced further, eliminating any clubs on his list that were not interested in extending the lefthander long-term.

Handing over the top of a very strong farm system to the Twins for Santana, and then potentially failing to come up with a long-term extension (Mets are reportedly offering $21.5 million per year over six years on top of the $13.25 million he's owed in '08 - or $142.25 million - and the two sides are still $20 million apart, per Heyman), would be an incredibly risky and outright dangerous move for a team that's close to reaping the benefits of their talent-rich farm system.

This absurd "where were the Rangers on Santana?" argument has got to stop.

It's over:

As the latest step in the messy divorce between former host Greg Williams and The Hardline, the Hammer's attorneys have slapped the station with a nice little cease and desist. (Remind me some day to tell you about the time I got one from baseball super-agent Scott Boras. The things are nasty.) What's it mean?

Firstly, as I wrote recently, it's a done deal that Williams has uttered his last back-porch country witticism on the station. Secondly, The Ticket can no longer use Williams' name on the air. No more of his commercial spots. No more mentioning his name during a segment. No more -- God help us -- Greggo drops.

Sad that our area's most innovative and addicting sports talk show had to end. Even sadder that it has to end like this. Williams, as detailed last month, recently lost a battle to drug addiction. With his Ticket bridges burned and nothing left but to negotiate a contract buyout, Hammer is already willing and able to move on.

Radio industry sources told me this week that Williams met with ESPN's local radio affiliate and is also involved in preliminary talks with Live 105.3 FM about an on-air role, possibly hosting his own show.

Couple of hurdles: Hammer would have to convince The Ticket to waive the "non-compete" clause in his contract in order to work in this market this soon. And ESPN -- despite being in all sorts of upheaval -- apparently said, "No thanks."

While Hammer searches for a new gig, and Hardline-er Mike Rhyner searches for a new sidekick, one thing's for sure: Dallas sports talk radio will sound much different in 2008. Too early to tell exactly what it'll all mean. The smart money says Hammer will miss The Ticket much more than The Ticket will miss the Hammer. Right? Not that station-wide, small-picture trend numbers are definitive, but in Arbitron radio ratings released Tuesday, The Ticket dipped from a 3.0 to a 2.8 in the Fall 2 period for listeners 12-and-up, while ESPN surged from 1.4 to 1.9. Are those tweaks due to the start of the Mavs' season on ESPN, the end of The Hammer Era on The Ticket or neither? Since you can no longer stay hard, stay tuned. --Richie Whitt

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/12/greggos_gone_for_good_but_to_w.php

Sad ending to a sad saga - I know many felt Greggo had been mailing it in for a long time, but it feels really strange knowing that his Hardline career is over for good. And apparently, we'll never hear any closure from Mike or Corby or anybody else, since they're no longer permitted to utter his name on the air.

Cocaine's a hell of a drug.

Courtesy of the Dallas Observer's Richie Whitt:

Lawyers. That's the latest update on the continuing saga of host Greg Williams and KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket). The wind has drastically changed directions since I wrote in my November 22 column that "The Hammer" would be back on the air at The Ticket.

At the time, Williams was determined to exorcise his drug demons and re-claim his spot on the afternoon show "The Hardline." And, at the time, station management was receptive -- or, at least, legally obligated to accept his return. Now? Don't count on it.

After Thanksgiving, there was a volatile face-to-face meeting between Williams and co-workers. And, recently, Williams and station management have down-shifted from not being able to say too much to not being able to say anything at all. Which means only one thing: lawyers.

[...]

My theory is that the involved parties are negotiating a departure rather than a return -- and that this could drag out for weeks, likely into the new year.

[...]

This morning we received another subtle, yet seemingly definitive clue about Hammer's life-support status when he wasn't included in The Ticket's annual "White Elephant" cross-dressing of hosts and shifts, set for next Wednesday.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/12/hammering_out_a_deal.php

At least through the magic of drops, Grubes can keep Greggo alive forever.

Hey gang, for anybody who's interested, I've finished up the second part of my Rangers ZiPS analysis over at BTiA - this time, I've focused on the pitchers, and how their actual '07 numbers compared to Dan Szymborski's pre-season ZiPS projections from Baseball Think Factory. You can check that out here, if you're into that scene.

Adam was kind enough to link to Part I (the offense) a short while back, but if you missed that you can check that part out over here if you like.

http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/2007/07/26/rosenthals-latest-update-on-teixeira-deal/

The Braves, major-league sources say, have made the Rangers a whopper of an offer for first baseman Mark Teixeira.

The Rangers evidently would receive three highly regarded young players -- catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Class AA left-hander Matt Harrison and Class A shortstop Elvis Andrus -- while sending the Braves only Teixeira.

I'm keeping the situation updated at: http://mvn.com/mlb-rangers/

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Per
Jon Daniels on the Ticket just now.

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From RotoWorld:

Kelvim Escobar is thinking about a more permanent solution for his elbow troubles this time.
''It feels like the same pain that I had three weeks ago,'' said Escobar, who is pitching with bone chips in his elbow. If he undergoes surgery, he'd probably be out until August. ''I don't want to take a couple weeks off and come back the same,'' he said. ''I just want to get healthy and pitch.''

That would be a nice break for Texas. It's quite possible he would miss the remainder of the season.

This won't matter if Texas can't stop sputtering though...