Sunday Notebook: Marlon Byrd Tries to Figure His Role; Kevin Millwood, Derek Holland and more

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Another spring, another roster dilemma for Marlon Byrd.

Two years ago, he came to Rangers spring training as a non-roster invitee uncertain of whether he’d even break camp with the big league team (he didn’t), only to come back and hit .300 for the season.

Last year, he arrived at camp uncertain if he’d begin the season with the Rangers or in Chicago (he remained in Texas) since the Cubs were pursuing him as answer to an outfield issue. He rebounded from an awful April and a trip to the DL to hit .298.

And what’s it gotten him? More uncertainty, that’s what.

With David Murphy and Nelson Cruz manning the corner outfield spots, Byrd isn’t likely to get the playing time of a starting outfielder. With Andruw Jones in camp, it’s possible – though probably not likely – that Byrd might still have to compete for a job on the team. More uncertain is what his role will be on the club.

“I think I’m part of the team,” Byrd said. “Nobody has come up and told me that I’m a fourth outfielder, but I’m speculating. If you look at the club and what they are trying to do with young players, I think that’s where they believe I fit. I just think that I’m going to be one of those guys who will never be given a spot. I’m going to have to earn it.”

Manager Ron Washington said Byrd figures in the Rangers’ outfield mix, but how the team will use him is undecided.

The most obvious choice would be to platoon Murphy and left-handed hitting left fielder David Murphy, but Byrd was a much better hitter (.308 against right-handed hitters) than he was against lefties (.277). For his career, his batting average and on-base percentage vs. left-handers (.281/.346) are almost identical to those against right-handers (.277/.342). Murphy hit .258 against lefties last year. If he can improve on that at all, there won’t be a measurable advantage to a platoon.

The other option: Move Byrd around the outfield, inserting him into the lineup whenever the matchup against an individual starter favors Byrd over one of the others. Might get him about 80-100 starts, about 300-400 at-bats. When the Rangers won back-to-back division titles in 1998-99, they had just that kind of player: Roberto Kelly. Despite having a durable outfield of Rusty Greer, Tom Goodwin and Juan Gonzalez, Johnny Oates got Kelly about 300 plate appearances each year. He averaged 81 games played in his two seasons.

If everybody stays healthy and productive in the Rangers outfield, using Byrd along the same lines as Oates used Kelly might benefit everybody.

• LHP Derek Holland was just ridiculously filthy (and I mean that in a good way) in two innings of work Sunday. Holland retired the first five batters he faced before hitting a batter, allowing a double off the wall in left and then a run-scoring single to sneak through the right side.

The way he put away minor leaguer Luis Durango for his third strikeout of the game was pretty impressive. He blew a 96 mph fastball by Durango for Strike Two, then came back with an 81 mph slider that had the hitter way out in front. That kind of speed differential between a fastball and breaking ball is really off the scale.

That said, it doesn’t appear there is any way Holland can break camp with the club (unless there are a number of catastrophic injuries). There are currently no plans for him to start a game and as camp goes a little deeper, available innings for him to pitch will likely shrink up.

And the most impressive thing about his outing Sunday may have been the way he answered questions about possibly making a bid for the Opening Day roster.

“If it happens, it happens, but I just want to use every minute I’m here to get more and more information from the veterans and from the big league staff,” he said. “I still want to be a sponge. Wherever I pitch at the start of the season, I just want to make sure I’m prepared and ready to go.

• Strange scene in the Rangers bullpen after RHP Kevin Millwood went five innings and threw 70 pitches Sunday. It was Millwood throwing another 15-20 pitches to stretch himself out even farther. Millwood wanted to go down and do the extra work even though he’d reached his pitch count for the day.

This led to an obvious question for a guy whose spring trainings with the Rangers have been criticized as soft. The question: When was the last time he wanted to go throw extra pitches in the bullpen?

“I don’t know that I ever have,” said Millwood, who allowed six hits and four runs in his five innings of work. “But I feel good and I want to stretch myself out as far as possible. I want to know that when I go out there on April 6 [Opening Day] that pitch count is not an issue.”

As we discussed here earlier, Millwood has not thrown more than 92 pitches in any of his three season openers in Texas. His opponents have averaged about 10-12 pitches more than Millwood in those games.

• A callus that split open has delayed C.J. Wilson’s announced decision to return to the windup. He announced the decision on his Myspace blog, but when we tried to catch up with him, he didn’t have much to say about the new wrinkle in his game.

“I just thought it would look cool; what do you want me to say?” Wilson said. “I think it would give me more versatility in the future.”

Wilson declined to answer any other questions from us (he’s not keen on some stuff we’ve written in the past about alienating teammates), so here is the text from his blog entry:

“I’ll be debuting my windup- which I’m bringing back into effect to get me ready for possibly throwing more than one inning if needed.  Since it looks like I don’t really have a chance at being the closer (the team seems very happy to name Frank Francisco as the 9th inning dude) I figure it can’t hurt me to increase my versatility. Who knows, maybe in a few years I’ll be a starter again since I won’t be able to get the job back.”

The Rangers are indeed happy to name Francisco the closer since he earned the job with a strong September last year while Wilson was recovering from surgery to remove bone chips. The club is convinced Wilson can be an integral part of the bullpen, but would prefer he focus on just getting outs now rather than on what might be in a year or two.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the blog entry is that a handful of Rangers officials I spoke to had no idea Wilson planned to take the windup into a game. Pitching coach Mike Maddux said he has seen Wilson throw from the windup in the bullpen, but there has been no discussion about a change to his delivery.

• RHP Kris Benson continues to pitch well, but barring injury, there just doesn’t appear to be room for him on the opening day roster. Benson, who hasn’t pitched in the majors the last two years, went five innings in a camp game Saturday. He allowed three runs, two earned on 70 pitches.

Benson hasn’t pitched in the major leagues for two years because of injuries and his contract requires him to accept an assignment to the minors for a month if he’s not placed on the major league roster. No matter how well he pitches in camp, and he’s pitched very well with a 2.57 ERA in seven innings, his bid for the Opening Day roster is dependent on one of the Rangers’ top five starters either a) pitching really poorly or b) getting hurt.

Neither has happened.

“The guys who were listed as probables have all pitched very well to this point,” manager Ron Washington said. “They haven’t done anything to make you think differently about them. Kris has been impressive. It’s a tough question to answer. He’s been impressive, but we haven’t made any decisions.”

• The Rangers had their annual meeting with Players Association executive director Don Fehr Sunday. Lots of talk about what’s happening with pension plans and on the steroid front. Former manager Buck Showalter used to say the club always seemed to play a bit sluggish on PA meeting day. Perhaps that’s because amid the exuberance of spring training, it’s a stark reminder of how much of a business the game is. … Since the start of spring training, there hasn’t been any contact or negotiations between the Rangers and the agent for OF Josh Hamilton. … C Max Ramirez sat again Saturday for Team Venezuela as it beat The Netherlands 3-1 to open the second round of the World Baseball Classic. The Rangers haven’t been happy over how Ramirez has been used, which, is to say, sparingly. Ramirez has five at-bats in five games over the last 10 days. …

A STAT TO CONSIDER

Rangers’ pitchers have committed 48 errors over the last three seasons, the second most in baseball (Florida pitchers have botched 54 plays) and the worst in the AL. It is a simply unacceptable total. Rangers pitchers have started playing a game during workouts to get them better suited to catching ups and for being in the proper place on such plays.

ROSTER PROJECTION

Mock roster #2

Catchers (2): Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden

Infielders (6): 1B Chris Davis, 1B/3B-DH Hank Blalock, 2B Ian Kinsler, SS Elvis Andrus, 3B Michael Young, INF Omar Vizquel.

Outfielders (5): LF David Murphy, CF Josh Hamilton, RF Nelson Cruz, OF Marlon Byrd, OF-DH Frank Catalanotto.

Starting pitchers (5): RHP Kevin Millwood, RHP Vicente Padilla, LHP Matt Harrison, RHP Scott Feldman, RHP Brandon McCarthy

Relief pitchers (7): RHP Frank Francisco (closer); LHP C.J. Wilson; LHP Eddie Guardado; RHP Brendan Donnelly, RHP Josh Rupe, RHP Dustin Nippert, RHP Warner Madrigal.

The skinny: No changes to our second roster projection, but there are a couple of places where change could happen. INF Joaquin Arias could pose a threat to INF Omar Vizquel as the utility guy. Arias has made a couple of solid throws here lately; Meanwhile, the only thing that looks old about the fantastically conditioned 41-year-old Vizquel is his arm. He really seems to lack some strength. … In the pitching department, Madrigal may be close to locking down a job, but the other three middle/setup spots ahead of Francisco, Wilson and Guardado are wide open. RHPs Willie Eyre, Derrick Turnbow, Doug Mathis or Luis Mendoza could unseat one of the other three.