Millwood Is Texas Rangers’ Stopper In More Than One Way

ARLINGTON - Evan has already dissed the idea of Kevin Millwood being named to the A.L. All-Star team. And Millwood shrugged at the notion after Tuesday night’s 6-1 win over the Astros: “If I do, great. If I don’t, I get four days off.”

Well, the man deserves some kind of recognition or Congressional Medal for lowering his Ballpark ERA through eight starts this season to 2.08. Tuesday night’s effort marked his 10^th quality start in 14 overall outings, his fourth consecutive. He’s 7-4 with three straight wins and hasn’t lost in almost a month.

Maybe the way he bats down balls hit through the middle, two more on Tuesday night, he should be up for a goalie berth in the MLS All-Star Game.

“If I keep sticking it out there, it’s going to be a nub before long,” Millwood noted.

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Post-Game Show: Rangers 6, Astros 1

Three Up and Three Down from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington Thursday where the Rangers snapped their two-game losing streak by beating Houston 6-1.

Three Up
• Hello, Ian Kinsler (3-for-4, 2HRs, walk). Where ya been lately?
• RHP Kevin Millwood has allowed one earned run in 21.2 innings in June. He has lowered his ERA to 2.61 and is one out away from 100 innings.
• The Silver Boot once again belongs to the Rangers since they lead the six-game series 4-0. That makes five Silver Boots in the last six years.

Three Down
• Another down night in the two-steps-forward-one-step-back progress of 1B Chris Davis. He struck out twice while going 0-for-4.
• After homers in consecutive games against Los Angeles, DH Andruw Jones went hitless in four at-bats and is hitting .143 (3-for-21) for the homestand.
• Don Sanders was at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and didn’t have a big fat check in hand. All signs suggest Sanders would make an excellent fit as an investor/partner in the club, but he’s yet to jump in with both feet.

The Depot: Texas Rangers-Houston Astros Live Game Blog, News And Notes

5:58: The pool is open.

6:00: Don Sanders is at the game tonight. Is he a potential future owner of the Rangers? He’s not sure, but he is sure of one thing.

6:01: Jon Daniels said typed many interesting things in a chat with the DMN. … Also in the where have you been lately department: RHP Willie Eyre will start a rehab assignment with Triple Oklahoma City tomorrow; RHP Dustin Nippert goes to Frisco on Friday. … More trouble for the Angels. RHP Ervin Santana was scratched from tonight’s start at San Francisco with forearm tightness.

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Don Sanders: Keeping Nolan Ryan Is Key

ARLINGTON – Don Sanders may not be sure if he’ll be involved in the next ownership phase of the Rangers, but he is happy to dole out a little advice.

“Any group that gets involved, the key is Nolan Ryan,” said Sanders, Ryan’s business partner in a pair of minor league teams and a potential investor in the Rangers. “I don’t think anybody would want to tackle this without him.”

Sanders, who lives in Houston, watched batting practice on the field, chatting with officials from both teams. Afterwards, he left to meet Ryan in his office. Ryan, who has been president of the Rangers since 2008, and Sanders share ownership of the Triple-A Round Rock Express and Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks. They have also been investigating buying a Double-A Eastern League team and moving it to Richmond, Va..

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Home Run Pool Time – And, Boy, Could I Use A Dip

Tonight’s lineup against Houston LHP Wandy Rodriguez:

2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young, DH Andruw Jones, RF Nelson Cruz, LF David Murphy, CF Marlon Byrd, 1B Chris Davis, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Kevin Millwood.

Texas Rangers To Add Toby Harrah, Ruben Sierra To Hall Of Fame; Induction Set For August 1

The Rangers Hall of Fame will grow by two players on August 1 when the team inducts infielder Toby Harrah and outfielder Ruben Sierra to the 10-man group. The Rangers had only inducted one player – Rusty Greer – over the previous three seasons.

Harrah, 60, was an original Ranger who played for the team until 1978 and then returned for the 1985-86 seasons. He still ranks fifth on the club’s all-time games played list and ranks in the top 10 in a number of other offensive categories.

Sierra, 43, was the organization’s first true superstar and is generally considered the Genesis of the Rangers Latin American talent pipeline that later produced Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez. Sierra played for the Rangers from 1986-92 and then returned to the club in 2000-01 and 2003. He finished second in the AL MVP voting in 1989 after hitting .306 with 29 home runs and an AL-best 119 RBIs. He ranks fourth on the team’s all-time home run list (180), fourth in RBIs (742), fifth in hits (1,281) and he remains the franchise’s all-time triples leader (44).

Frisco RoughRiders Broadcaster Scott Garner On Blake Beavan’s First Start: “It Was Above Average”

Spent just a few minutes this morning emailing with Frisco radio voice Scott Garner to get his impressions of Blake Beavan’s first Double-A start last night in Midland during which Beavan was charged with six runs (five earned) in 5.1 innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk anybody. The results weren’t fantastic, but Beavan certainly left an impression on Garner. His thoughts:

Me: So, Scott, what was your overall first impression of Blake Beavan and his jump from Class A to Double-A.

Scott Garner: I was really impressed with the mound presence. Of all the positives he showed, the mound presence is what is most memorable. Most of the time, A ball pitchers coming up to Double-A are rushed in everything they do, from their motion to the time they take between pitches. Beavan was not. He was pumping in strikes at a comfortable pace from the word “go.”

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Lone Star Series Resumes Tonight: Rangers-Astros In Arlington

On the baseball front, there are these things:

• The Rangers’ AL West lead has slipped to two games, smallest since May 22nd, which is when the Rangers went to Houston, swept three games from the Astros and came back to Arlington three games up. With these three games wrapping up the longest homestand of the year – a homestand that has seen the Rangers go 2-4 in the first six games – it is necessary for the Rangers to win the series.

• The Rangers will wear red all three days. They are 7-3 in their bright little red tops this season.

• Former Ranger Ivan Rodriguez needs to play two games this series to set the record for the most games appeared in as a catcher. He trails Carlton Fisk (2,226) by one game. Pudge has already established marks for most games started as a catcher (2,148) and most innings caught as a catcher (18,614.1), so to me, adding most games played isn’t that big a deal. He’s already spent more time squatting behind the plate than anybody in history.

• Finally there is the Silver Boot trophy, which the Rangers can clinch with one win or by not being outscored by more than nine runs.

But that’s not all, there’s lots of free stuff to be had. A bundle of booty, you might even say. Here is what the Rangers are doing promotions-wise over the next three days:

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Four Frisco RoughRiders To Play in Texas League All-Star Game – In Frisco

1B Justin Smoak, LHP Kasey Kiker, C Manny Pina and RHP Omar Poveda have all been named to the South Team for the July 1 game at beautiful Dr. Pepper Ballpark.

More Talkin’ Texas Rangers: MJH On Rangers Podcast; Lubbock I’m Coming At You

The Mighty MJH was Ted Price’s guest on the Rangers Podcast in Arlington along with the Grandaddy of Rangers bloggers, Jamey Newberg, and the great uncle of Rangers bloggers, Adam Morris, last night. They talked about the draft and the slumping lineup.

Me? I’m kind of the illegitimate child of Rangers bloggers, but I’m going to be on Tech Talk in Lubbock this a.m. at 11:35 if we manage to get all our connections straight. Tech Talk is not about Technology, thankfully. And it’s usually about Texas Tech, but I think Chris Level is going to make some time to talk Rangers baseball.

The Mavericks’ Drafting Slump

On Friday, I leave for a week, so before I go on vacation, I think I better touch on a few draft-related topics regarding the Stars and the Mavericks. Today, a look at the recent work of Donnie Nelson and the Mavericks in the last 5 years of the NBA Draft.

I picked 5 years for a few reasons. I wanted the sample size to be large enough to get a good idea of how Donnie has done, while at the same time getting past the year the Mavericks found Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels in 2003. We get it. That was a great accomplishment to find those two gems, but Howard will be 30 this season, so it is time we ask whether or not this team is replenishing the youth supplies often enough in the draft.

Donnie Nelson has done a fine job overall in my estimation, and will forever be lauded as a guy who found 2 MVP’s when nobody else could (a 3rd-string PG in Phoenix, and another that was selected behind Raef Lafrentz and Robert Traylor). Name any GM that has found 2 MVPs – and “finding” does not mean winning the lottery and taking the guy everyone would have taken (Duncan, O’Neal, James) – and you will find a GM that will never need a job. Nobody questions Donnie’s overall performance, but I believe below you will see why I question the quality of the last 5 drafts.

Also, to position this correctly, we need to remember that the Mavericks during this 5-year stretch have not been trying to rebuild, but rather they have been trying to win a title. Sometimes, that has resulted in some “win now” decisions that have given up many draft picks. Dampier cost 2 #1′s, Kidd cost 2 #1′s. Trading 4 1st rounders is obviously going to cost you lots of young talent – but you do what you have to do to try to win a ring. I accept much of that logic. But, are they doing enough with the later picks they still had? I recall in at least 2 of these drafts that the Mavs front office told us that they had no room on their roster for their picks due to cap situations. Regardless, with a real shortage of young talent, most of us would conclude that the Mavericks are in the situation they are in right now (with their top 5 players all over 29 years old) partly because they have not done a great job in decision making in the last 5 years. Anyone can point at the Devin Harris trade, but let’s try to dig a bit deeper.

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Talkin’ Texas Rangers With Norm Hitzges, Mike Bascik

We’ll talk trades and I know Norm will have a couple of interesting names to throw out there and I think the great Bascik will have some other stats on Ian Kinsler. Anyway, the guys apparently read what we wrote about yesterday and so we’ll further our discussion in another media forum at 11:10 on 1310-AM The Ticket. You can listen live at your desk even by just clicking the link and downloading the audio player.

Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (6/16)

Triple-A: @ Oklahoma City 5, Iowa 1

Interesting. Career reliever Bryan Corey — who was traded by the Rangers to Boston for Luis Mendoza three years ago — started for the RedHawks last night, while career starter Mendoza relieved him.

Facing off against Jeff Samardjiza, Corey (3-2; 4.75) blanked the I-Cubs on five hits and a walk, fanning four over seven innings and Mendoza fnished them off with a perfect final frame, punching out two.

CF Julio Borbon (.298 / .354 / .369) went 2-for-4 with a double from the top of the order, stealing his 18th bag of the year and scoring once while 2B Jose Vallejo (.266 /.322 / .367) belted a two-run homer, his first of the year, for his only hit in four trips.

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