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The Rangers Report - Travelling Sucks

July 21, 2008 at 5:32 pm · Filed under AL West, Elvis Andrus, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, MLB, Matt Harrison, Michael Young, Neftali Feliz, Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers

The past two weeks, I’ve gone to Chicago, Milwaukee for Vacation, only to return and discover it’s off to San Antonio for business right after that. Chicago and Milwaukee I’m not complaining about. That was pleasure. San Antonio? Four days straight of meetings at a conference. All there really was to do was to head to downtown and get trashed…

The Rangers Report

The Teixeira Deal, One Year Later

It’s been about one year since the Rangers traded away Mark Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves for a package of five minor leaguers.

At the time, the big piece of the package was Jarrod Saltalamacchia, while everyone else was generally thought to be high upside filler.

So, with the one year anniversary of the trade nearly upon us, let’s see how the kids from the trade have fared:

Jarrod Saltalamacchia (C) - MLB. Salty has struggled this year, but is still a young player with a bright future. He’s got plenty of value as a trade chip, which may work considering the fact that Max Ramirez and Taylor Teagarden have made some huge impressions while they were up. Despite all that, I’m still a beleiver in Salty. Future - All Star Catcher Still
Neftali Feliz (RHP) - Double A. Seen at the time as just a raw arm with potential, Feliz has catapulted up prospect rankings and is now regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Feliz throws in the high 90’s, but more importantly how has a solid enough curveball and changeup to compliment the heater. He’s now in Double A, having skipped the California League entirely, and is currently 2-0, with a 2.65 ERA and 17 K’s in 3 starts for the Roughriders, and is coming off of a 6 inning, 8 K gem from Friday. Future - Potential Ace.
Elvis Andrus (SS) - Double A. Andrus was one of the more highly touted prospects coming into the season based on his speed and his impressive glovework at shortstop. Many feel he’s ready defensively for the majors defensively. The big problem for Adnrus was that he was rushed quicker than he should have been by the Braves., which stunted him a bit offensively. Texas has since slowed him down, which has helped Andrus adjust, as he is currently hitting .293 with 38 stolen bases. That’s not bad for a 20 year old in Double A. Andrus still has some warts, such as his plate discipline and lack of power, plus the fact he’s been caught stealing 11 times, but he’s young enough to improve on those. All in all, the Rangers have Michael Young’s future replacement. Future - Poor Man’s Edgar Renteria.
Matt Harrison (LHP) - MLB. Harrison was impressive in Double A, but was still a bit raw in Triple A when he was called up to pitch for the Rangers. Harrison has been shelled, but still has a bright future as a back of the rotation starter, a la Jarrod Washburn. Future - Innings Eater Back Of The Rotation Starter.
Beau Jones (LHP) - High A. The sleeper in the picture, Jones struggled as a starter before being moved into the bullpen for the Braves, where he’s been a revelation. Jones is currently sporting a 1.17 ERA in the pen for the Blaze and could soon rise to Double A by the end of the year. Future - Power Lefty Out Of The Pen, Potential Closer.

Meanwhile, Teixeira has been very good for the Braves, but hasn’t done much to improve their post season chances. And with Scott Boras wanting the bidding to start at $23 million a year for hsi client’s services, Atlanta is likely doomed to accept less than what they may have given up to the Rangers.

Feldman Headed To The Bullpen

In what has been an impressive rebound season for Scott Feldman, it looks like tonight will be Scott Feldman’s final start.

He’s headed back to the bullpen.

The thing is, Feldman is starting to put up some highs in terms of innings, which in turn has lead to his recent fatigue in his last few starts. It’s said that the Rangers are hoping to cap Feldman at around the 130 inning mark, which would in turn set him up for a possible 160 inning mark next season.

All in all, kudos to the Rangers organization for recognizing that Feldman did indeed have the talent to succeed, not just as a pitcher, but as a starting pitcher. All in all, this sets up for a potentially exciting rotation next year, with the following rotation:

Kevin Millwood (RHP)
Vicente Padilla (RHP)
Eric Hurley (RHP)
Scott Feldman (RHP)
Brandon McCarthy (RHP)

And that’s not counting Matt Harrison, Luis Mendoza, or Kason Gabbard, all of whom who have started for the Rangers.

Should be interesting.

Marlon Byrd And Nelson Cruz Potential Trade Chips

The Rangers are getting calls on Marlon Byrd and Nelson Cruz, the latter of which has flamed out with the Rangers, but is getting some love due to his 31 home runs in 314 at-bats at Oklahoma. Byrd has been the subject of trade rumors before, but Cruz is a new one, considering his struggles with the majors. For Cruz, I think it’s possible to get an arm, likely one in the lower minors, for him, maybe a positional prospect that has flopped or is blocked.

As for Byrd, well, I’m not sure what he’d bring back. Ideally, I’d like a young arm or a decent positional player. Well see if the Rangers can get one.

Next Week’s Blog Schedule:

Thursday - Finding The Successor For Young

Monday - Finding Fits For Potential Trades

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7 Comments »

shooterb wrote @ July 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am

Milwaukee for vacation?

The Texeira deal is looking solid for Texas, if only because of how high-priced he’s going to be. They had the power bats in the minors to replace him, and they got some good return for him.

Though I’m not sure a rotation with the names Kevin Milwood and Vicente Padilla at the top qualifies as “potentially exciting”. Well, maybe exciting in the same way as waiting for the results of an STD test after a trip to Vegas.

morisato wrote @ July 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am

I made a side trip to Milwaukee strictly for the game. I drove up Sunday and went back to Chi-Town Monday morning, after a quick stop at the Museum of Art. I’ll have to chronicle my travels in the other blog.

As for the rotation looking exciting, take a look at the 2005 rotation, where Texas had everyone but the kitchen sink pitching, including an Edinson Volquez that had no business starting after being jumped from Double A. Take a look at the Ranger rotations from 2001-2003. Compared to those rotations, next year’s potential rotation looks like the 1998 Yankees in comparison.

shooterb wrote @ July 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am

Comparing that rotation to the 98 Yankees? Did you catch a bad bit of brew in Milwaukee?

I’ll have to take your word for it on the Texas youngsters, but neither Padilla or Millwood have done much better than a 4.50 ERA while in the AL. And in recent times, I don’t see any reason to believe either one of them belong at the top of a rotation. Well, unless they were playing for Pittsburgh.

Didn’t that Yankees rotation have guys like David Wells & El Duque?

They need a youngster to emerge as a true staff ace.

morisato wrote @ July 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm

It was merely meant as a comparison to how potentially good next year’s rotation could be to how abysmally bad the past rotations were. Not as a direct comparison, just an analogy.

And yes they did have Wells and El Duque.

As for the Youngster, it’s likely Feliz, though both Main and Beaven down in the lower minors have the same ability right now.

morisato wrote @ July 22nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm

As for the bad Brew, all I had while I was up there was Pabst. In Chicago, I drank a lot of Blue Moon and Becks (the latter of which tastes suspiciously like Tecate.) I also tried Old Style, which is okay I guess.

miracle wrote @ July 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 am

You’re absolutely right about San Antonio, nothing to do but drink. My wife had a conference in June so the rest of the clan tagged along. You see the Alamo then you’re pretty much done. We took one of the river walk boat tours which was ok, but the food sucked at every restaurant. We heard great things about the Iron Cactus, bad food bad service. We got better food from our hotel Homewood Suites(which I highly recommend, free food and booze at 5p)

And don’t go outside of the tourist sections unless you have a shotgun, sombrero, sun screen(sombrero optional).

I have to Milwaukee on business a couple of times, took the Miller brewry tour. Lots of nice old bars and micro brews were everywhere. Not much else to do in the winter I guess, bowl and make beer.

shooterb wrote @ July 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 am

Gotcha on the comparison. I was going to say that if Millwood wants to be like David Wells, he better start hitting the twinkies and keg parties a little harder.

Nobody likes San Antonio? Maybe because at this time of year it’s like hanging out in the core of a volcano.

Definitely have to experience that town with a steady drunk. Did you at least go to Dick’s Last Resort (sounds like a porno version of The Bucket List)? There they have bad service on purpose…which I guess is supposed to make them cool and funny. But at least the matchbooks they give out have pictures of naked chicks on them.