I couldn't come up with anything really original for today's Friday Foto, so I thought our readers might enjoy some visual evidence from Hank Blalock's dugout dive yesterday (photo credit goes to Yahoo Sports and whoever they got it from).I'm sure it's a moment Hank would rather forget, but I'd bet it's something his teammates will be reminding him of fairly frequently, at least for another month or so. I'm just going to remember it as the time Hank was almost - almost - as clutch as Derek Jeter.
The Rangers where out in Tuscon today, taking on the Rockies - they won 11-5 with a solid outing from Matt Harrison (5 innings, 5 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB 3 K's) who was apparently happy with the way he threw his changeup. Big homers from Nelson Cruz and Frank Catalanotto drove the offense, while Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus went a combined 3-6 with 2 doubles in the leadoff/#9 slots.
Other highlights/lowlights included a scoreless 1-2-3 inning by relief prospect Pedro Strop in his spring debut (the Rangers of course snapped up the live-armed Strop after the Rockies released him over the winter). Derrick Turnbow struggled a bit in his lone inning (after some brilliant work against the Indians a couple days ago) giving up a run on 2 hits and a walk.
Perhaps most significantly, Michael Young left the game with a tight left quad after doubling in the third. It doesn't sound too serious at this point though - and I suppose it's worth pointing out sore quads and finger blisters are a lot better than the thoratic outlet syndrome and chronic elbow soreness of springs past.
In other news/links of interest, TR Sullivan says Nelson Cruz has been officially named the starting RF, supposedly beating Andruw Jones out for a job. I wasn't aware there was an actual competition between the two for an outfield slot (mainly because there shouldn't have been - we've been hearing Cruz was supposed to get one final shot this season since last September) but then again, this is probably just Sullivan trying to create some hype for Cruz as the season approaches.
Jones, by the way, will generously grace Surprise with his presence for a couple more days while he and Scott Boras try to figure out what to do now that his opt-out day has passed and he hasn't performed well enough to make the team. We're honored, I'm sure.
The actual link of interest: Mike Hindman has a report from the Rangers backfields in Surprise today, noting in particular the performances of Marcus Lemon, Johnny Whittleman and Zach Phillips. He also speculates that absent catching/outfield prospect Christian Santana might be one of the five Ranger prospects still held up in the Dominican Republic. For those of you who don't know, Santana's a toolsy catcher who supposedly has big raw power, but posted some horrible numbers and dealt with some injuries after an initial hot start in single-A last year, casting some doubt on his prospect status (which would probably disappear altogether if it's suddenly revealed he's a couple years older than he's supposed to be).
Now, I'm off to await the start of the imminent Battlestar Galactica series finale - hopefully this will be as epic a night for Sci-fi as it is a sad one.
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