I was waiting for the morning post, to make a comment with some facts and trivia, but I'm bored at work and want to get this out there.

Interesting Facts:

The New York Yankees, with the best record in all of baseball, only have a losing record against 2 AL teams: The Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels.  The two teams the Rangers could have used the Yankees help with the most!

The Texas Rangers are tied with the Boston Red Sox with the second toughest schedule so far this year, based on ESPN.com's Strength of Schedule calculations.  The Yankees and the Angels are tied for the 8th most difficult schedule (also tied with the Padres).

The Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays are all tied with the most games played against a starting LHPin the AL.  This equates to those three teams being on the bottom of the list of AL teams with games played against starting RHP.

Trivia:

1) The Texas Rangers have a losing record against 4 teams in the AL.  Name the 4 teams.

2) Take a stab at which team has the number 1 toughest schedule so far this year, based on the Strength of Schedule stat.  Think about teams that play a lot of games against difficult opponents, I guess.

3) Of the three teams that have played the most games against starting LHP in the AL, one has a losing record, one is at .500, and the other has a winning record.  Which teams fall into those categories?

4) And also, what is the Texas Rangers record in games against a starting LHP?

BONUS: The Rangers played 52 games against starting LHP in 2008.  What was the Rangers record in games against a starting LHP in that season?

Hey Blue Jays fans.  I'm a regular of the Texas Rangers blog, LoneStarBall.com.  I'm home in Dunedin for the weekend, and I'm hoping to do some baseball related activities on Sunday.  I'm not entirely sure about the Jays schedule for Sundays, but if you think they'll be working out, I'd be happy to go take some pictures, video (albeit off of my digital camera), and make some notes about what I saw.

I know a lot about the Rangers minor leaguers (so if I were in Surprise, AZ I'd be like a kid in a candy store), but I don't know too much about the Jays organization.  Let me know if there are players you'd like me to look at, get pictures of.  It might help if you know the numbers they're wearing.

If it turns out they're off on Sunday, this was all for nothing, but I'm itching for some baseball, so let's see how it plays out!

Troy I.

I know CJ has a lot of fans on here, especially those of us that were around LSB when he was.  But obviously something has to be done at this point.  There is going to be a lot of discussion about what should be done with CJ, so I just wanted to help the situation by making one thread that we can centralize the discussion.  On top of that, I'm curious what the community opinion is at the moment.  So go ahead and vote in the poll, about what you think needs to be done with CJ at this point.

In my relatively unknowledgeable opinion, he at least needs to be put on the DL, and used as a set-up man the rest of the way.  He won't be worse than Wright in that role.  I don't think there is one man on this team that can really handle full-time closer duties at this point, so I would suggest that you use a combination of Eddie and Frankie depending on the batters you're facing.  I also really want to see more discussion on stretching CJ out in the Arizona Fall League, ST next year, or in the minors early next year.

Based on the new information, with CJ being put on the DL with bone spurs.... I reworked the poll with new options.  Pick your answer based on what you think should happen with CJ keeping in mind that he might not be coming back until next year.

Jayson Stark has a really awesome piece up over at ESPN.com where he names Ian Kinsler his First Half AL-MVP!  Very deserving, and it is great to see that Kinsler is getting some recognition for how great he has been so far this year!  Here is what he has to say:

AL MVP of the half year: Ian Kinsler, Rangers

AP Photo/Gail Burton

If you're one of those folks who hasn't paid much attention to Ian Kinsler -- which at least puts you in a group that includes just about everyone in America except Mrs. Kinsler -- it would probably come as a shock to hear he's even the MVP of his own team. But while Josh Hamilton is a more charismatic story and Milton Bradley's 1.033 OPS makes him a sabermetric hero, it's Kinsler who has really been the centerpiece of one of the best offenses in baseball. You'll undoubtedly be stunned to learn that Kinsler leads the league in batting, hits, runs, total bases, extra-base hits and multihit games. He's in the top five in the league in nine major offensive categories. He has stolen 23 bases in 24 tries (with the only caught-stealing on a pickoff). He's hitting .397 with men in scoring position. Only three of his 14 homers have been hit in that Texas home run paradise. He has run off separate hitting streaks of 23 and 19 games just since mid-May. And he has reached base in every game but one since May 16. The only arguments against him come down to defense (16 errors) and the fact that his team hasn't been closer to first place than six games since June 1. But the Rangers actually have more wins since April 24 (42) than the White Sox (41), Angels (41) and Red Sox (40). So every number on Kinsler's stat sheet is relevant to his club's revival. And that's good enough for us.

Apologies to: Hamilton, Bradley, Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Quentin, Kevin Youkilis, Joe Mauer, J.D. Drew.

Kinsler is even the lead picture on the main MLB section over at ESPN.com, awesome!

He gives out some other awards, including AL Least Valuable Player of the First Half, Richie Sexson.  That award is probably more deserving than Kinslers!  A decent read, so check it out!

Check this out for more information about how each player got to the game.  I'll summarize it here though, too!

AL Starters:

C. Joe Mauer
1B. Kevin Youkilis
2B. Dustin Pedroia
SS. Derek Jeter
3B: Alex Rodriguez
OF: Josh Hamilton - 3.7 million votes
OF: Manny Ramirez
OF: Ichiro Suzuki - Lone Mariner
DH: David Ortiz

They announced Josh Hamilton first, so it will be interesting to see if he actually surpassed Manny, or if those were read off in alphabetical order, or what.

AL Pitchers:

SP. Scott Kazmir - Players pick
SP. Roy Halladay - Players pick - Lone Blue Jay
SP. Justin Duchsherer - Managers pick - Lone Athletic
SP. Cliff Lee - Players pick
SP. Ervin Santana - Players pick
SP. Joe Saunders - Players pick
CL. George Sherrill - Managers pick - Lone Oriole
CL. Mariano Rivera - Players pick
CL. Jonathan Papelbon - Players pick
CL. Joe Nathan - Managers pick
CL. Joakim Soria - Managers pick - Lone Royal
CL. Francisco Rodriguez - Players pick

A crap load of closers!

AL Reserves:

C. Dioner Navarro - Managers pick
C. Jason Varitek - Players pick
1B. Justin Morneau - Players pick
2B. Ian Kinsler - Players pick
SS. Michael Young - Players pick
3B. Joe Crede - Players pick
3B/1B. Carlos Guillen - Managers pick - Lone Tiger
OF. J.D. Drew - Players pick
OF. Carlos Quentin - Players pick
OF. Grady Sizemore - Players pick
DH. Milton Bradley - Players pick - On the show, Francona said Bradley will be starting at DH, in lieu of David Ortiz

Great news about Kinsler, Young and Bradley!

AL Final Vote:

1B. Jason Giambi
2B. Brian Roberts
3B. Evan Longoria
OF. Jermaine Dye
OF. Jose Guillen

####

And here is the link for the details about the NL selections.

NL Starters:

C. Geovany Soto - First Rookie to start at catcher in the NL
1B. Lance Berkman
2B. Chase Utley
SS. Hanley Ramirez
3B. Chipper Jones
OF: Ryan Bruan
OF: Alfonso Soriano
OF: Kosuke Fukudome

I could think of some more deserving NL players that should have been starters.

NL Pitchers:

SP. Aaron Cook - Managers pick
SP. Tim Lincecum
SP. Dan Haren - Managers pick
SP. Ben Sheets
SP. Carlos Zambrano - Managers pick
SP. Brandon Webb
SP. Ryan Dempster - Players pick
SP. Edison Volquez - Lone Red
CL. Brian Wilson
CL. Kerry Wood - Players pick
CL. Brad Lidge
CL. Billy Wagner - Managers pick - Lone Met

NL Reserves:

C. Brian McCann - Managers pick - Lone Dodger
C. Russell Martin - Players pick
1B. Albert Pujols - Managers pick
1B. Adrian Gonzalez - Lone Padre
2B. Dan Uggla
SS. Miguel Tejada - Players pick
SS. Cristian Guzman - Managers pick - Lone National
3B. Aramis Ramirez - Players pick
OF. Matt Holliday - Players pick
OF. Nate McLouth - Players pick - Lone Pirate
OF. Ryan Ludwick - Players pick

NL Final Vote:

3B. David Wright
OF. Pat Burrell
OF. Corey Hart
OF. Carlos Lee
OF. Aaron Rowand

The announcers didn't add the commentary on every player about if they were a players or managers pick, but if I don't have the commentary, you might be able to infer if the player is the only one from his team, like Guzman is (although they did say he was a managers pick).

Top Teams Represented:

Red Sox - 7
Cubs - 7
Rangers - 4
Angels - 3
Twins - 3
Yankees - 3
12 teams with 2
12 teams with 1

I thought it would be a fun exercise to review the opinions of various LSB'ers around the time the Hamilton trade happened.  For the sake of disclosure, I didn't have much of an opinion at the time.  I didn't say anything on here, but I remember being skeptical, like a lot of you.  I did make a comment back when the Reds took him in the rule 5, that he had been quite a bust up to that point.

Anyways, let the fun begin:

Continue reading this post »

So, thanks to bigskinny for pointing out that milb.tv game video is archived and available for free after the games are finished.  They don't always have video for every game, but a the RedHawks get video quite a bit.  For the lower level teams, all they ever really have is audio, but that can be enjoyable if you're bored and thirsty for more baseball.  All you need for the archived video or live audio is a milb.com account.

Texas Rangers Minor League Affiliate Multimedia Guide

Oklahoma RedHawks: Video - Audio

Frisco RoughRiders: Audio

Bakersfield Blaze: Audio

Clinton LumberKings: Audio

As an example of how you can access the RedHawks video, you need to register at milb.com, then go to that link for the video, and click on "select month" and go back to May.  Click on any of those video links on the right, and it should come up!

Hopefully this isn't old news to most of you (the free video is news to me).

Mr. Beltre makes the list this week

No. 10 Engel Beltre, OF                                                                           Rangers

Team: low Class A Clinton (Midwest)
Age: 18
Why He's Here: .407/.407/.630, 11-for-27, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 4 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0-for-1 SB
The Scoop: While the Eric Gagne trade may have proved to be a waste of time for the Red Sox last year, the biggest prize to come out of it on the Rangers side could well be Beltre. This season, Beltre is the youngest player in the Midwest League, but he's held his own to the tune of a .272/.298/.406 line for the year. He's been a key contributer to the MWL's best team in Clinton, batting leadoff and playing center field every day.  He ranks fourth in the league in both hits and runs scored and is second in triples. Right now, he's on a six-game hitting-streak and is also working on a streak of four straight multi-hit games.

Really cool line, good to see him getting some extra base hits, RBIs.  Want some more walks, but its only one week.  The hit streak is pretty cool too.

Lumberkings kick ass!

I know there aren't too many ESPN / BBTN fans out there, but I really have reached a breaking point.

First of all, it was the other night that I think Orestes Destrade called Hamilton "Jeff Hamilton."  Destrade even talked about how he was a part of the Rays organization when Hamilton was there... I understand people misspeak sometimes, but this is supposed to be the premiere baseball program, on the premiere sports network.  You can't make mistakes like that for a player that is killing the ball like Hamilton.

Then tonight, this comes up...

Tell me what's wrong with this picture?

via i4.photobucket.com

I swear, if a team isn't from somewhere in the Northeast/Chicago or Southern California, ESPN just doesn't give a shit about them.

I should say, they did make a correction at the end of the show, but it just goes to show how little effort they put into doing a show.  Honestly, how difficult is it to query your own organization's stats site to see how a player really ranks.  Nope, let's just make it up.  He has to be in first in all of those categories, there aren't any other teams but the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox in the American League.

The real Rangers aren't giving us too much to be excited about, so let's talk about our MLB 2k8 Rangers.  I know there's at least a few other people out there playing it as consistently as I am.  So, post some of your more exciting stats thus far...

Continue reading this post »

Pretty bored right now, so I thought I'd start a thread for everyone to share their best fantasy draft so far this season.

I'm in a few leagues on espn.com, straight out of their live draft lobby, and I had one of the best drafts of my life yesterday, people around me were just jumping on some strange picks.  Here's my draft:

I was pick #5 in the first round

(1)   David Wright                                 (14)  Tim Lincecum
(2)   Ichiro Suzuki                                 (15)  Matt Cain
(3)   Mark Teixeira                                (16)  Matt Capps
(4)   C.C. Sabathia                               (17)  Aaron Hill
(5)   Nick Markakis                               (18)  Kevin Kouzmanoff
(6)   Troy Tulowitzki                              (19)  Manny Corpas
(7)   Russell Martin                              (20)  Ty Wigginton
(8)   Roy Halladay                                (21)  Andre Ethier
(9)   Corey Hart                                     (22)  Hank Blalock
(10) Matt Kemp                                     (23)  Rajai Davis
(11) Carlos Zambrano                        (24)  Yunel Escobar
(12) James Shields                             (25) C.J. Wilson
(13) Felix Hernandez

(as AJM would say) More after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

This is incredibly funny.  Phillies' pitcher Kyle Kendrick fell victim to a clubhouse prank this last weekend.  Orchestrated by Brett Myers, featuring the Manager Charlie Manuel, assistant General Manager Ruben Amaro, Kendrick's Agent, and the media.

Manuel and Amaro call Kendrick into an office and tell him he's been traded to Japan.

The hearing begins at 10:00am EST.  Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee will be sitting right near each other, both addressing and answering questions from members of Congress.

Clemens has a lot to prove, short of McNamee saying that he was straight up lying, Clemens is in a world of hurt.                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                       

Check out the news here.

Sources are telling Ed Werder that Garret has informed both the Ravens and the Falcons that he will not be filling their vacant head coaching positions.

The Ravens offer was reportedly less than $3 million annually.  No word on how much the Falcons' offer was, but the report says the job was his if he wanted it.

The report says Garret was in Baltimore on Monday and Tuesday, flew to Atlanta on Wednesday, and back to Dallas on Wednesday night to talk things over with Jones.

No word if he's getting any extension, concrete guarantee of the head coaching position (can they do that?), or a pay raise.  Although it seems like he's getting a lot to stay.

Check it out here.

409 page PDF.

Go here to get the link to the video for the press conference.

[Update]
Here are some reactions from around the net:

ESPN.com's Story
Foxsports.com's Story
Orioles SB-Nation site and their reaction to Brian Roberts and other inclusions.
I'm sure there will be more interesting reaction to come, including players and agents responses.

Typical response everyone should expect to see: (in the section on Adam Riggs, pdf pg. 260)
In order to provide Riggs with information about these allegations and to give him an opportunity to respond, I asked him to meet with me; he declined. By letter, his lawyer stated that Riggs "never tested positive for improper substances."

I was just watching the end of the Jerry Crasnick chat session over at ESPN.com.  At the end of it, someone said that a NY radio station was breaking news that Milledge has been traded to the Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.  There is no news about it on ESPN, Foxsports, Sportsline or SI.com.  Wikipedia has something, so you can go here, but otherwise, I've got no source to back it up.

I don't really have an opinion of the trade, but I thought I'd break the news.

UPDATE: Here's the news according to foxsports.com's Ken Rosenthal

I'm graduating with my B.S. in Economics and Political Science today from FSU.  Just want to congratulate any of the other college students that are graduating this spring!                                                                                                                                                                                      

ESPN and their contributors posted their predictions yesterday, here.  So I'm not sure if anyone else has picked up on this, but if they have, just let me know.

At any rate, here are a few observations:
12 of 18 pick the Angels to win the AL West, most of their top baseball reporters fall in this category.
3 of 18 pick the A's to win the West, including LSB favorite Keith Law.
2 of 18 pick the Rangers to win the West, including: Pedro Gomez, and Phil Rogers.
1 of 18 pick the Mariners

Only 1 of the 18 pick the AL Wildcard to come out of the West, Gomez picks the Angels.

Rogers actually picks the Rangers to go to the World Series, but to fall to the Braves.

Pedro Gomez picks Michael Young as his AL MVP.

I just wanted to bump this and let people know that there is a 3rd LSB fantasy league ON YAHOO, we're at 8 teams right now, and we can use 2 to 4 more.  I'll leave the league open up to 12, so first come first serve.

The draft is TODAY at 3:45pm EST (2:45pm for most of you).
The league ID is: 50850
and the password is: lonestar

let me know if there are any issues with that password, but I'm pretty confident that is the right one.

Also, any of you that are in this league, if you have any scoring suggestions, let me know soon, before I lock that up.