Tuesday: What the Tuesday Morning Box Score Won't Tell You (and Some of What It Will)

Despite the fact that I usually leave game recaps to Jon (who is much better at them), for particularly interesting games I had an idea about writing an article entitled "What the Box Score Won't Tell You (and Some of What It Will)". I'm going to reserve these articles for games in which the box score just doesn't do the game justice (which, if you want to get technical, is every game, but I'll save this for the extreme circumstances). This game, though the Rangers' fourth loss in a row, was certainly exciting and had a multitude of notable moments. For those who haven't had the chance to read-up on the game yet, here are the links: Recap, Boxscore

So, without further delay, here is the first edition of . . . .

What the Tuesday Morning Box Score Won't Tell You:
**Marlon Byrd got away with a defensive miscue in the first inning (that was not ruled an error) and led to a run
**Aubrey Huff, a Texas native from Mineral Wells, reached base all 5 times even though he struck out once
**On a similar note, Jason Jennings struck out 3 in the seventh but didn't strike out the side
**Koji Uehara (Baltimore's starter) collected the first three strikeouts of his American baseball career
**Elvis Andrus and Taylor Teagarden had key RBIs on groundouts to key a 3-run 6th inning
**The ever-so-atheltic Eddie Guardado fell down while fielding a comebacker in the 8th yet still threw the runner out
**Home plate umpire CD Bucknor upheld his notoriety for a consistently inconsistent strike-zone, frustrating pitchers and batters alike (especially Ian Kinsler, who was nearly ejected)
**Ian Kinsler led off the ninth inning with a clutch double, but followed with a not-so-clutch baserunning blunder on Michael Young's lineout to the wall
**Nick Markakis saved the game for the Birds when he slammed into the wall catching Michael Young's 9th inning screamer with Ian Kinsler on second base and no outs
**Marlon Byrd struck out to end the game with the tying run on third and the winning run on second

And Some of What It Will:
**Chris Davis busted out of an 0 for the season slump with a 3 for 4 performance and 1 HR
**Michael Young slugged his first HR of the year en route to a multi-hit night
**Andruw Jones had a double and a HR in a solid offensive outing as the DH/cleanup
**Rangers pitchers had 9 strikeouts
**There were only 12,184 fans in attendance
**Vicente Padilla and Scott Feldman soiled the sheets

Around the Horn: Sunday (afternoon)

“The highlight of my career? In '67 with St. Louis, I walked with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in an inter-squad game in spring training.”--Bob Uecker

This made me smile (regardless of the fact that Uecker didn't play for St. Louis in 1967) and brought to mind all of the positive memories we all have of Spring Training. Baseball Time in Arlington's post on Spring optimism, based on Josh Hamilton's "win 90 games" comment, reminds me of the fresh start associated with the beginning of each school semester or perhaps the start of every new year. No problem seems insurmountable, no deed seems undoable. For a baseball team, phrases like "if we can stay healthy" and "stay focused the whole season" are tossed around with careless excitement. All the Rangers, especially Hamilton, seem to be optimistic about the upcoming season. Here's to hoping their optimism is closer to reality than most people (myself included) seem to think . . .

Jeff Wilson writes about Elvis Andrus (and has a Spring Training update here). Apparently, Andrus is pretty well-spoken and handles the media well:

"When you have teammates like I do, they are superstars you want to follow and want to be in the future. I know it's going to be crazy, but I'm trying to keep it cool and trying to be myself and not change or do anything different."

So far he's not missing the forest for the trees. Great. Let's hope that he plays well enough to stay in the big league forest all season. I think he will be an exciting, if not frustrating, player to watch.

TR Sullivan forecasts answers to some early questions that have been lobbed the Rangers way. No real surprises here. In a different article, he also notes that Jason Jennings could start the season at AA or AAA. This would be a great move for the Rangers and would prevent learning the hard way about Jennings like they did last year:

(screenshot from espn.com)

Scott Lucas of The Ranger Rundown notes that the franchise is 197 games under .500 since the move to Arlington . . .

And that is about it for today. 11 days until Spring Training!

Around the Horn: Valentines Day Edition

Morning post today because I'm taking my fiance out for Valentine's Day tonight . . .

Yesterday I commemorated the first "milestone" for this blog. I calculated that to match LoneStarBall's impressive 15,000,000 page viewings at this rate, it would take approximately 1,154 years. Still, we have something to shoot for. Maybe the Rangers will have won the World Series by then.

Jeff Wilson runs down the biggest questions for the Rangers this season, including, but not limited to: Nelson Cruz, Taylor Teagarden, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Brandon McCarthy, Frank Francisco, CJ Wilson, Elvis Andrus. I'm going to throw another one out there: Michael Young. He is definitely one of the players to watch to see how he returns from a sub-par offseason and how he performs at his new position.

Jim Reeves writes about Andruw Jones and his role on the team, referring to him mostly as an insurance policy. It's good to know the Rangers aren't putting too much stock in Jones, but my question is: Insurance policy for what? The densely populated outfield already insures against all basic problems and injuries. Even if, God forbid, we had serious injuries in the outfield, even if Nelson Cruz returns to his AAAA-hitter form, there are players on this team and in this organization that I'd rather see fill that role over Jones.

Mike Hindman at the DMN Blog shows the similarities between Michael Main's delivery and . . . Nolan Ryan's. A bit of a stretch, but you can see where he's coming from. Includes cool graphics!

TR Sullivan has a great rundown of memorable moments from Spring Trainings past.

12 days until Spring Training!

Around the Horn: Thursday (Night)

Rototimes.com gives a fantasy-oriented preview of the 2009 Rangers. Its the usual scouting report for the team: stellar hitting, abysmal pitching. The notes about the individual players make are interesting to read, however, and are backed by interesting stats and analysis.

Baseball Time in Arlington breaks down the five best and the five worst rightfielders in Texas Rangers history. The "best" list includes the usual names that you might expect; what I found most interesting were those fortunate enough to make the "worst" list.

Mike Hindman dissects Elvis Andrus and discusses other Rangers prospects to skip several minor league levels to get to the bigs. He concludes that the Rangers haven't been so successful at this game: Laynce Nix and Benji Gil being the most recent (Gil actually remained in the majors until 2003, and was spotted in the Mets system as late as 2005). This excerpt from the article shows what kind of season Andrus is likely to have, based on his performance last year in AAA:

"As the league's youngest player, Andrus hit .260 / .302 / .310 in April. He improved to .278 / .343 / .322 in May, upped it to .309 / .385 / .397 in June and peaked in July with a .333 / .382 / .423 line before regressing just a bit with a still very fine August (.303 / .351 / .393). Yes, he made 32 errors last year, but more than half (17) came in the first two months of the season and he made just three errors in August."

There is talk of the team's desire to sign Josh Hamilton to a long term contract during Spring Training. This is a no-brainer. Do it. My desire to get this deal wrapped up quickly stems not only from Hamilton's value as a baseball player, but also from the fact that I recently received a Hamilton jersey as a gift.

And Jim Reeves gives an appropriate response to Tom Hicks.

14 days until Spring Training!

Around the Horn: Wednesday

The first Spring Training game is in three weeks and one day . . .

Chris Davis, Taylor Teagarden, Maz Ramirez, Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and Joaquin Arias made USA Today Sports Weekly's Top 100 Names You Need to Know list in that order. Arias? Here is what they had to say:

"86. Joaquin Arias, SS, Rangers: Arias, 24, had shoulder surgery in 2007 that limited his arm strength in 2008, and the emergence (and apparent anointing) of Elvis Andrus as the shortstop of the present and future casts Arias' role in doubt. Assuming Andrus pans out, Arias will have upside, possibly as a super-utility player."

I think its a bit odd to have a "super-utility" player in your Top 100 list, but at least the description is accurate. Recall how we required Arias: he was the player to be named later in the Alex Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano deal. Follow the link and read the list of other players the Rangers could have chosen from . . . most notably the only other infielder. I know we have Kinsler, but wouldn't it be nice to have this guy instead of Arias?

It turns out that Josh Hamilton is staying put in centerfield for at least this season. Appropriately, it appears that Nolan Ryan's announcement was a bit too fast. I imagine a lot of it has to do with the development of centerfield prospect Julio Borbon. Judging from this non-move, I would imagine we will not be seeing Borbon until late September at the very least, and possibly not until next year alltogether.

To conclude and follow up on two points I made yesterday (thanks to those who posted updated comments):

It is confirmed that Eddie Guardado has signed with the Rangers on a minor league one-year deal. He will most likely be rounding out the bullpen. I would love to write about how I agree with this situation, but Joey Matschulat at Baseball Time in Arlington has done a much better job than I would have breaking down Everyday Eddie's return, including a month-by-month look at his 2008 statistics and probable reasons for his semi-meltdown late in the year. Also, Adam Morris at LoneStarBall provides his outlook on the 2009 bullpen.

It has been formally announced that 105.3 The Fan, an FM affiliate of KRLD, is going to be broadcasting weekday games, and KRLD is going to be broadcasting weekend games. Additionally, 105.3 is going to air 18 spring training games this year.