From July 21st-27th all Baseball Prospects articles are free. I am not sure if this was mentioned already but thought it to be diary worthy incase anybody out therelike me had not seen it on this site.

Also from BP...

... If anyone tells you that Tim Lincecum will be affected in the second half by his All-Star illness, don't believe them. And next time someone mentions the way that the media deals with players now, versus what they did with Mickey Mantle, don't believe that either. ...

Does that mean that Tiny Tim was out getting wasted around New York and just felt too hungover to pitch the next day or am I missing something?

www.BaseballProspectus.com

I was watching the Twins v. Tigers game and had some rando thoughts that I wanted to hear a LSB opinion on.

Brendan Harris was referred to as "The Twins Big Bat."

Hearing this, and seeing how well they have been playing and how close they are to the White Sox (1.5 games back before todays game, 20-6 in their last 26 games including getting swept in Boston) I was wondering if anyone has heard any possble trade rumors between these two teams? With Liriano coming back this team should have a good chance to make the playoffs, but slide Bradley into that DH spot instead of Craig Monroe and that lineup looks much better.

Scott Baker is pretty good. I think its crazy that 4/5 of their rotation from last year has been replaced and their team is still playing this well.

Who is a better young player/prospect these days? Chris Davis or Delmon Young

Also Jayson Stark awarded Ian Kinsler his first half MVP. Other notables were Hamilton and Bradley in the running for MVP, Murphy for ROY. 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3483646

The rules are no more than 2 players from each organization. Current Rangers/ prospects that have played include:

Elvis Andrus, IF (World), 2007

Joaquín Arias, IF (World), 2006

Hank Blalock, IF (US), 2001

Marlon Byrd, OF (US), 2002

Nelson Cruz, OF (World), 2005

Thomas Diamond, P (US), 2005

Germán Durán. IF (World), 2007

Max Ramírez, C (World). 2007

Johnny Whittleman, IF (US), 2007

The Question is: who is representing the Rangers this year?

My Guess is Feliz and Mayberry but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to who would be selected this year.

With the season he is having, did he make a huge mistake turning down the Rangers offer?

I Know teams love his age, the fact he is a switch hitter, and his great defense at 1b but for some reason I have not seen any diaries about what a mediocre year he is having. Are teams going to be willing to commit 20-25 million a year to this guy?

Just for fun Here is how his year compares to David Murphy

David Murphy             Mark Teixeira

.291                    Avg             .262

.336                   OBP            .348

.483                    Slg             .415

6                           Hr                 5

35                        Rbi               27

I was also looking up some stats today and noticed that Ichiro only has 13 rbis this year and after looking it up he has never had even 70 rbis in a single year, with his career low being 51. I know he is a leadoff hitter but I just never realized how low his totals were.

Their bullpen looks pretty terrible, do they have anything of value in the minors besides Porcello? Does Porcello look to be ready while their window is still open (before Guillen, Renteria, Orndonez, Pudge, Sheffield) break down? What could a bullpen arm like Benoit or Guardado (assuming he pitches well) get us from their system?

 http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3323695&name=olney_buster&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3323695%26name%3dolney_buster

This is a link to a story but its insider so I can only read the first few lines so if Buster addresses any of this I have not read it in full.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/specials/spring_training/2008/previews/rangers.html

Nothing too new, Jason Botts left off of the team in favor of Kevin Mench.

Who is the most valuable unsigned free agent of the off-season? After Barry Bonds, it's former Braves and Orioles pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who would be a good fit in Texas. In addition to his well-documented success for more than a decade in Atlanta, Mazzone was more effective in his two seasons in Baltimore than the club's poor record during that time would indicate. Under Mazzone's tutelage, Erik Bedard became a Cy Young candidate and Jeremy Guthrie went from Indians castoff to baseball's best first-year starter in 2007. Mazzone's insistence on pitch-efficiency would be especially helpful to Vicente Padilla and the rest of the Rangers' highly inefficient staff, which walked 668 batters last season, second-most in the majors.

This  is the best advice I have seen in a while, does anybody know why he left Baltimore?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7824474?MSNHPHMA

Sheffield hates Boras, says he will tell other clients about bad things he has done. Also story says Arod has not spoken to Boras since he negotiated his new contract. Also I didnt realize that sheffield is only 20 homers shy of 500 and I wanted to see if people here thought he is a future hall of famer. In my opinion he is not and with the steroid cloud surrounding him, im not sure his chances are good. Im putting up a poll just to see what LSB thinks.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=597

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/alexei_ramirez/index.html

I was wondering if anyone has heard of this Alexi Ramirez guy? Seems pretty interesting especially since he is young and has played OF before. Does anybody like engelsol have any insight on this guy??

It says on the bottom of ESPN News that 11 free agents are named in the Mitchell Report. Does anyone have any links to websites where those players are listed? I cant seem to find it anywhere.

http://www.bodog.com/sports-betting/baseball-futures.jsp

Rangers at 50-1

Im not proclaiming the Rangers Champs yet but with those odds I think it would not be that bad of an idea to bet 50 bucks and pray!

Teams that have better odds:
Yanks 4-1
Mets 6-1
Sox (Red or White) 8-1
Cards, Angels, Tigers 10-1
Cubs 12-1
Toronto, Philly, A's, Dodgers 15-1

Plenty more have better odds. Toronto and Angels and Cards way overrated IMO.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061210&content_id=148152&vkey= news_milb&fext=.jsp

The Royals pick in the Rule 5 draft throws a perfect game in the Mexican league just 2 days after getting drafted!

I know it is the Mexican Pacific League but those numbers

11 starts
9-0
1.77 ERA
73 K's

Those look pretty good. Also the lineup featured local slugger Jerry Hairston Jr. Does anyone know any more info on this kid or what type of prospect he is???

Jose Mesa agrees to 1 year deal with the Tigers. Good move to strengthen bullpen and hopefully he can teach the other pitchers in the pen how not to throw the ball away on simple ground balls i.e. the playoffs!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2692259&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2

 "Pettite is a great signing on a one-year deal, even with the player option for 2008, and at the end of the season Johnson, Pavano, Jorge Posada and Abreu come off the books as Vernon Wells, Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones come onto the market. The next year, they can have Mark Teixeira at first base in their new stadium. "
 - Peter Gammons

It must be nice to be able to assume that you can automatically bring in the best free agents every off season. Is there any way we can enjoy Tex now or should we just give him to the Yankees now? I would expect to hear something like this from a proud fan but from a "well-respected" journalist like Peter Gammons this just sounds a little too biased.

ESPN NEWS reports that according to Buster Olney Pettite signs a 1 year deal with the Yankees, no report yet on how much it is for.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

I am surprised it took this long for a diary to open up but on the bottom corner of ESPN news it reports that Iverson has demanded a trade. This is also being reported by rotoworld.                                                                                                                                                              

I am just curious if anyone has read anything about the Likelihood of Jake Westbrook being traded and if he were available, what it would take to get him? I read on mlbtrade rumors 2007 pirates projection that pittsburg is interested in, is there any reason the Rangers wouldn't be equally interested?

I am new to posting at LSB but have visited the site daily for almost a year. I have some terribly boring classes that I must sit through(UTA) and often spend that time  wondering about what I would do if I were GM of this team. I wanted to post my opinions and see how bad they get blasted so here goes.

Looking at next years salary breakdown the rangers have the following commitments:

9 mil Teixeira
7.5 Millwood
7 AROD
4.75 Blalock
3.5 Michael Young

The following players are either indentured or make next to nothing (<1 mil)
Cruz
Botts
Kinsler
Laird
Ojeda
Meyer
Botts
Arias
Diaz
Wilson
Volquez
Tejeda
Masset
Littleton
Koronka
Beltre(if he can get to US)
Feldman
Francisco
Loe

Lets say those 19 players each make around 500,000 (average that means very little to the overall payroll) thats about 42 mil for those players coming back.
Im not sure what Otsuka is going to make but for arguments sake lets say 2.5 = 44.5

The FAs that I would try to sign(remember in a perfect world you could get them to come to Texas and now that Buck is gone we are a lot closer to a perfect world) are:
Matthews ~ 6 mil a year
Padilla ~ 8 mil a year
Zito ~ 15 mil a year

Thats about 73.5 mil for a decent team but what would make the team would be Daniel's best trade ever: Bring Vernon Wells back to his hometown of Arlington!

Wells would be hard to pry away from the Jays but seeing as he is a FA in 08 and would welcome a trade home it makes perfect sense! His contract is fantastic at 5.6 mil next year before the extension Hicks would sign him to.
I find it hard to believe that the Jays would pass up a trade of maybe Diamond, Arias, and maybe a Koronka or Rheineker or even Loe for one season of Wells. Other trade bait could include Wilkerson, Diaz, Guzman. This trade may seem implausible now but if the Jays are slipping in the race next year maybe they will be inclined to move him.

That would give us an OF of Matthews, Wells, and Cruz which would be great defensively and a more than capable rotation of

Milwood
Zito
Padilla
Tejeda
Volquez

not to mention a big bat to back up Tex. The bench looks weak now but the lineup would be stacked!

Matthews
Young
Tex
Wells
Blalock
Cruz
Botts
Kinsler
Laird

Bench:Meyer, Diaz, Guzman, Ojeda
BP: pretty much the same as this year
Payroll is < 80 mil.

Payroll sources:rotoworld, rangers.scottlucas.com
Ok blast away!