Link to the story

 

This seems to make a lot of sense, and I'm all for it for selfish reasons. The only time I go see the Express now is when they play OKC. It would help the Rangers' fan base in Austin. The Express have a nice ballpark and it would be great for Austin Rangers fans to be able to see the #1 rated farm system in baseball play up the road.

For my fellow Austin Rangers fans who are frustrated by the flakiness of Time Warner:

I made a discovery two days ago. I have the DTV box instead of cable. I get a few channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW and PBS). The CBS channel actually has 2 signals (42.1 and 42.2). I'm at home right now and 42.2 is broadcasting the game. They also showed the game against the Ms two nights ago. Usually all they show are reruns of the Rockford Files and Knight Rider, which don't get me wrong is pretty cool. But having the Rangers on crystal clear in my living room made my night. I don't know if this is a season-long thing or if it's going to be intermittent or what, but it was a pretty great discovery. So, if you use the box, give it a look. Or unhook your cable and there you go.

 

Also, AM 1530 broadcasts the games on the air and on their site:

 

http://www.espnaustin.com

 

That will be $5.

In two weeks I'm making the drive up I-35 for a weekend in Dallas. I'm taking my girlfriend, who has a pretty negative opinion of Big D, so I want to show her a good time. Fortunately, I have lined up what in my opinion is the perfect Dallas weekend. Basically, it consists of:

1. The Old 97s show at the House of Blues on Saturday night.

2. The Rangers/A's game at the Ballpark on Sunday afternoon.

For me, it just doesn't get any better than this. We may mix in a few other things like a trip to the 6th Floor Museum (which, shockingly, I've never actually been too), but a lot of the rest of the weekend will consist of seeing friends. I need to think of a fun place to take her out to eat, as well.

I was curious what everyone else's perfect Dallas weekend would consist of. Thoughts?

I found this article to be intersting. Particularly because it shows that even Mr. Sabermetrics is influenced a bit by emotion when thinking about a player:

http://www.slate.com/id/2184797/

Basically, James thinks Craig Biggio was the best player of the 90s and (presumably) a no doubt Hall of Famer. I guess that's the upshot, anyway, since Jr. Griff is generally thought of the as the best player of the 90s (right?), James thinks that Biggio was better than Griff, ergo, yada yada just read the article. k thx.

I hope this guy makes it. Now that Edinson is out of the system, I think he has the best name of any player in the Rangers system, which is saying something given the presence of a catcher named "Saltalamacchia." I hereby bestow upon young Wilmer the nickname by which I, and I hope you, dear reader, shall from here forward refer to him:

Times New Roman.

Similar to the D-tron's prospect project, the commenters on Sickel's sight are conducting a ranking of baseball's farm systems. Guess who is in the top three?

http://minorleagueball.com/story/2007/10/19/23216/233

Seems a little bit high for me, but heck I'll take it since the Rangers usually just get hated upon.

Anyone else going? I'm going to head out of here shortly to head down. People have started to really hate on it and complain about it in Austin, but I always have a blast. The White Stripes cancelled unfortunately, but there are plenty of other good bands playing. Bob Dylan headlining on Sunday night is going to be cool, but he'll have a tough time following up Tom Petty in that slot last year. Looking forward to Blonde Redhead, Spoon, The Reverend Horton Heat, and Bjork today.

I've been on vacation in the mountains, busy at work, etc and have for a few weeks only been able to follow the Rangers through LSB, Jamey, and boxscores/game stories. I haven't been able to see much of Marlon since he took over regular center field duties. I was curious to hear impressions of people regarding his play in center in recent weeks. Has he inspired confidence? Made any outstanding plays? Screwed up royally? I haven't ready much about him one way or the other, suggesting that he might at least be holding his own. Anyone willing to offer their thoughts? And a poll...

Poll

Who will be the Rangers starting centerfielder on opening day 2008?

33%

Marlon Byrd

42 votes

14%

Aaron Rowand

18 votes

9%

David Murphy

12 votes

10%

Mike Cameron

13 votes

4%

Kenny Lofton

6 votes

2%

Corey Patterson

3 votes

15%

Torii Hunter

20 votes

6%

Other

8 votes

3%

Andruw Jones

4 votes

126 votes | Poll has closed

Very excited that the EPL season has started again, so I get to watch more of the most exciting professional athlete on the planet. Here a video of his free kick to win the match against Aston Villa on Saturday.

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/steven+gerrard/video/x2qz37_gerrard-vs-aston-villa_sport

                                                             

This is cool:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2967582

A very inspiring story in a brutal season for the Cardinals.

                                                                 

This may or may not be diary worthy, but I just surfed over to Shroom's Farm Probs site and was blown away. I hadn't seen the site in a while, and I was impressed with what he's done with it. It's really cool. The hover text function totally rocks, and you can get easy stats on all the pitchers you care about. So, this is just a plug. If you've never seen the site, definitely check it out. Or if you haven't been there in a while, it's worth a visit.

http://my.calendars.net/farmprobs/

Cheers Shroom!

We'll have to wait another year for the showdown with Joey Chestnut:

http://tinyurl.com/2bvznl

Jaw pain. How the mighty have fallen. Now what am I going to do with my 4th of July? Without competitive eating contests, I have a gaping hole in my life.

How much can you really say about competitive eating? That's all I've got.

So, just got a confirmation from the Blue Glove Lefty: The sick-azz pitch that he struck Eric Chavez out on last night was a gyroball. If you recall, the pitch looked like a low-90s heater, but about half-way to the plate it broke up and in to Chavez, rendering the hitter utterly powerless and silly looking. Wilson's follow-through was punctuated by a cool looking karate kick thing, which Lewin remarked upon.

That at bat has confirmed for me that CJ is currently the most exciting player to watch on the team. The whole bullpen actually is fun to watch, including Benoit (did I just say that?), Otsuka, Gagne, and Littleton (wherefore art thou, Wes). But CJ's got them all beat right now.

According to Jeff at Lookout Landing.

Now, we all know Jeff's irrational Michael Young hatred is well established, perhaps surpassed only by our own Cahill and Martin (Kidding!!!). I was a little surprised, however, that Michael Young's suckiness has migrated across the middle of the infield to infect Ian Kinsler, at least according to Mr. Lookout Landing.

Here are some gems from last night's game thread across the SBN way:

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/comments/2007/4/13/155239/768/68#68

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/comments/2007/4/13/155239/768/301#301

And my favorite, after Kinsler's home run:

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/comments/2007/4/13/155239/768/234#234

Now, I know that Seattle has had a few games postponed due to weather, but the following stat was too good to ignore.

2007 homerun totals:

Ian Kinsler: 5

The Seattle Mariners..........3

Ha!

Looking at Adam and Ben's nifty Al West Standings on the left of the blog, I'm reminded how much I really hate all the other teams in the AL West. I think I hate every AL West team more than any other team in baseball. Possible exceptions could be made for the Yankees and the Red Sox.

So, here's a poll.

I fully expect Sharky to call me a liberal hypocrite censor who is not a true Ranger fan for not including the Houston Astros in list of teams that I hate.

Poll

I'm a Ranger fan. Which AL West team do I hate the most?

66%

The Orange County Angels: the rally monkey, Disneyland, Juan Rivera, K-Rosin, Vlad's .435 BA against the Rangers, what's not to hate?

94 votes

7%

The M's: I'm jealous because all the players on their roster are better than Michael Young including Jose Vidro, Jose Guillen, Jose Lopez, and Jose Jose Putz

10 votes

23%

The A's: Nick Swisher, the yellow and green color scheme, how can a team that sucks that bad be that good?

33 votes

3%

The Texas Rangers: I'm a self-hating Ranger fan.

5 votes

142 votes | Poll has closed

This was going to be a comment, but I figured it was substantial enough to merit a diary.

Two points of info on Young and Tex:

Michael Young's batting average on balls in play is a shocking .174 through six games. That is about half of his BABIP for the last three years (.335, .356, .349). He has been spectacularly unlucky so far. I have little doubt that many of the line drives that he has hit right at people will begin falling.

Teixeira simply hasn't gotten anything to hit. There's a greater than .200 differential between his batting average and his OBP (.211 vs .423).  He is without an extra base hit so far this year, but pitchers apparently are happy to pitch around him to get at Sosa. It's a wise strategy, because Sosa hasn't made them pay for it. Blalock has done what he can to carry the load, posting an OPS of .830 so far. Tex's struggles so far are more worrying than Young, even though it doesn't appear entirely to be his fault. I don't think he'll get many pitches to hit with Sosa hitting 5th. Still, I think Tex will be fine. He just has to be ready for the few decent pitches he does see, take the walks, and hope Sosa can pick up the production. Or, Ron W will figure out what's going on and move Kinsler from 9th to 5th.

At this point, knee-jerk reactions against Young and Teixeira are premature. I think these statistics show the folly of reading too much into the failings of some players this early on.

From the Post, so take it with a grain of salt:

http://tinyurl.com/2u2kek

In summation, the Astros considered two three-team deals at the deadline last year, one involving the Mets/Orioles and one involving the Rangers/Orioles. The Rangers would have parted with John Danks, Thomas Diamond, and the Hammer (to the Orioles) and received Roy Oswalt and Morgan Ensberg. The Astros would have received Tejada. The Rangers easily would have gotten the best out of that deal. No wonder it didn't come to fruition.

Sad.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4516123.html

Some people on this board probably didn't agree with her politics, but she was a very good-hearted person. In my opinion, she was at her best when she was taking the blowhards, Democrat or Republican, in the Texas Legislature down a couple of notches. I had the chance to meet her and attend an event at her house a few years back, right after 9/11 actually. She was incredibly nice and down-to-earth. A lot of political-types and liberals talk-the-talk about being "of the people" or whatever, but I think she genuinely cared about folks and just liked people. That motivated her. It's a real loss. Fuck cancer.

Apparently CJ Wilson's myspace page has been deactivated. Anyone know anything? I wonder if it has to do with his post about pending free agents (in which he hilariously begged management not to sign Jeff Weaver). Miles seems to be on top of these things, so I thoght he might know. I feel less cool now that's he's not my "friend".

Question for the collective knowledge of LSB:

Does anyone know if the the bid for negotiating rights with DM would count toward a team's liability in determining that team's luxury tax?
                                                                                                                                       

According to the IHT, the Seibu Lions will be posting DM, so it's now up to JD and Hicks to outbid the Yankees et al for negotiating rights for his services.

http://tinyurl.com/gcubq

I've seen him described as one of the big three free agent pitchers available this offseason, along with Zito and Schmidt. He has also been mentioned as potentially the best fit with the Rangers. I wonder if Aki knows him and can be of help in this process.

Ok, which trade was worse:

Sori for Wilk, Sledge, Galaragga

or

Young, Gonzalez, Termel Sledge for Eaton, Otsuka, and random catching prospect.

You are encouraged to support your answer with some evidence.

Although I much preferred the Soriano trade when it went down, in retrospect it seems like a much worse trade with the benefit of hindsight. Soriano could have been a difference maker for this team. It's a tough call, however, given how useless our starting pitching has been behind Millwood and Padilla. Anyway, curious to hear some thoughts...

Beyond the Boxscore has posted densive rankings for each position based on runs above average derived from zone rating. You can read about the methodology if you are more interested. Interesting observations:

Adam Everett is a bad ass shorstop.

Lance Berkman is a serious asset at first base (while likely a liability in the outfield).

The Rangers infield is right at average, a significant improvement over last season (with the exception of Teixeira, who has fallen off). All Ranger infielders contributed or cost less than one run with their defense this year, with the exception of MY who has contributed 1.5 runs. This conforms with my perception that his defense at shorstop has improved this year.

The outfield is very poor defensively, with GMJ, Wilkerson, and Mench all among the worst defenders at their position. Mark Derosa is the only Ranger outfield who has not cost the team runs, contributing 2.2 runs to the team through his play in right field.

You can view the rankings here:

infielders

outfielders

I apologize in advance if this diary is frivolous.

When Kameron Loe went on the DL, I was in Europe and I missed the whole thing. What happened to him? Now it appears to be assumed that Loe will head to the bullpen, not back to the rotation. I guess this is because the Rangers expect Eaton to make a contribution when he gets healthy. But, are Rheinecker and K-runk really a better option than Loe in the rotation? Maybe the thought is that Loe has had some success as a reliever in the past, and he might be better suited for a set-up role for the stretch run?

I must confess to being a fan of Kam. He doesn't really strike guys out, and really struggles with lefties, but he is a fighter (as much as I hate cliches like that). I hope he's not getting cut out of the Rangers plans. I feel like I missed out on some key events that have affected Loe, and I would be interested to know what happened and what people's opinions about Loe are.

Now that the Rangers have finished laying the smack down on the O's and we've solved the Middle East crisis, here's another terribly pressing issue for the Lone Star Ball community: Ranger entrance music. Inspired by Adam's memory of Eric Young's terrible entrance music when he was here.

1. Which Ranger has the best music intro when he comes out to hit/pitch?
2. If you were a Ranger, which music would you have the PA guy play when you walked up to the plate?

For #1 I'm going to have to go with Teixeira and "All Along the Watchtower". It's a great intro riff, and I imagine the song to inspire fear among pitchers when they hear it coming on over the speakers. A close #2 would be "Walk" by Pantera which Dellucci used to come out to. The DFW connection is key, and I always got a kick out of it when Looch had that ridiculous walk rate during the first few months last season.

For #2, I've given this a lot of thought, and I think I would have to go with either "Timebomb" or "Barrier Reef" by the Old 97s. You get the DFW connection, both songs have a great opening riff, and I don't think I would ever get tired of hearing either one.

If I was a closer, I would go with "Angel of Death" by Slayer.

Well, I'm back from Germany (along with the US squad). I was pretty bummed about having to come back and go to work after two weeks of nothing but soccer, beer, and European women. But, I was really happy to learn that ESPN is streaming all the games for free, live on their site. So, right now I'm watching the superclassico between Spain and France, easily the best matchup of the cup so far (except maybe Mexico and Argentina). I'd definitely reccomend it if you are a soccer fanatic stuck at work. Kudos to ESPN!!!

Given the debate that has occurred here recently, I thought I'd share this article on Slate.com about steroids. No evidence is offerred by against Pujols, Giambi, or Clemens, but the author's point is that writers don't do the investigating that is needed. It does seem that many journalists have stopped following the steroids angle, and they all rail against Bonds because everyone does it. But, without the Chronicle, we probably wouldn't know about it.

http://www.slate.com/id/2142937/

On the other hand, if this writer is so upset about the lack of reporting on the issue, why doesn't he do some reporting himself?

David Wells is an idiot.

Wells' steroids comments rile Dellucci                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                           

Wow. What an impressive individual.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2443147

     Immediately following surgery Friday to repair a broken wrist that will sideline him for at least three months, Hideki Matsui apologized for getting hurt.

     "Due to this injury, I feel very sorry and, at the same time, very disappointed to have let my teammates down," Matsui said in a statement. "I will do my best to fully recover and return to the field to help my team once again."

     Yankees manager Joe Torre spoke with Matsui, who was operated on at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Torre expects Matsui will return to the ballpark in the next few days and remain in the New York area while his wrist heals.

     Torre wasn't surprised by the apology.

     "It's all about responsibility -- what he thinks his responsibility is to this team, this organization, because the Yankees committed to him and he feels it's a two-way street in that regard," Torre said. "He's done that before here, where he's made an error, he's come up and apologized to me."

     Matsui's statement also praised his manager.

     "I would like to thank Joe Torre from the bottom of my heart for having been considerate of my consecutive games played streak these past several years and for placing me in the lineup every day," he said.

Gas Lamp Ball has the audio:

http://gaslampball.com/story/2006/5/11/11485/5817

A Joe Namath moment.

I always feel kind of sad for the individual when this kind of thing happens. But how cool would it be to party with Bill Murray?