Rangers Dilemma: Will Dealing Derek Holland To Toronto Get Them A Happy, Healthy Halladay?

If Thursday's start was Derek Holland's last as a Ranger, the standing ovation the crowd gave him was a fond farewell. (Photo: R.P. Washburne)

ARLINGTON - If the trade deadline is one big hand of poker game, we’re now at the river.

On the turn, the advantage went to the Rangers.

With the Rangers balking at including Holland in the deal for ace Roy Halladay and Toronto wanting to see him pitch before moving ahead on conversations over ace Roy Halladay, the 22-year-old rookie went out and gave the Rangers the dominant ace-like kind of performance this team has been lacking for ages. In a 7-1 win over Toronto, he went to the ninth with a one-hit shutout that included 10 strikeouts and no walks. He retired the first 14 batters he faced. He was invincible.

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The Depot: Rangers-Mariners Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Our Famous Guacamole Recipe!

5:16: Attention, attention: The home run pool is open.

5:30: If GM Jon Daniels swings by the press box, maybe we’ll have another trade update, but for now all I’ve got are my semi-educated guesses, hunches and theories. Hey, it’s been about as accurate as anything else that’s been thrown out there.

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Rangers Roster Roulette: Madrigal For Moscoso

Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

To fortify their beleaguered bullpen, the Rangers have optioned RHP Guillermo Moscoso, who pitched the last two nights, to Triple-A Oklahoma City and recalled RHP Warner Madrigal. It’s the third consecutive day the Rangers have made a pitching move.

Vegas Pool Parties Should Be As Wild As This One

Here is your preliminary entry form for the home run pool. We will go with the Marco Polo version until I see the actual lineup card. Get your entries in now, if you want. Or later. As always, we’re real flexible right up until game time.

After RHP Frank Francisco and RHP Brandon McCarthy got in some pitchers fielding practice and more throwing Thursday, perhaps the best rising high school senior position player in the nation took the field for a little workout. His name is Connor Narron. He has been on this field before. He’s the son of former Rangers manager Jerry Narron and the nephew of coach Johnny Narron. Not sure the Rangers personnel who were around spent a lot of time watching young Narron, a rangy, switch-hitting shortstop. But it’s probably just as good. Sounds like they might have no chance to draft the kid come next year’s first round. In addition to being ranked the best in the country, he’s already verbally committed to North Carolina.

UPDATED, 5:02 p.m.: No Ian Kinsler again, even though manager Ron Washington said the second baseman is progressing. Washington wants to wait until Kinsler is at 100 percent  before returning him to the lineup so, for all you folks wanting to see Elvis Andrus get a shot at the leadoff spot while Kinsler is out, here’s what I can tell you … Andrus is definitely playing. And hitting ninth.

The lineup against Seattle LHP Garrett Olson:  2B Omar Vizquel, 3B Michael Young, LF Marlon Byrd, RF Nelson Cruz, 1B Hank Blalock, DH Andruw Jones, CF Josh Hamilton, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … LHP Derek Holland.

This Is Chicken Shtick!

The Frisco RoughRiders are bringing that fowl-mouthed, feathered-fiend The Famous Chicken to the beautiful Dr Pepper Ballpark tonight.

Police in Frisco have been warned to be on the lookout for these guys. They ar reportedly “hoofed and dangerous.”

T-Minus 24: Countdown To The Trade Deadline

The non-waivers trade deadline expires at 3 p.m. CDT on Friday, a recent change in timing that means, thankfully, you won’t have to stay up until midnight to know if the Rangers did anything or not. With the window now officially down to a crack, that’s usually when all the hot air stops escaping and deals start getting done in earnest. So will the Rangers do anything? Even harder to say than usual, given the team’s financial constraints. Here some thoughts, some more educated on others, about the club’s approach to the deadline:

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Series Preview: Mariners at Rangers

When the Rangers played four games in Seattle just before the All-Star break, they had to face three of the AL’s toughest starters: Felix Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn, and Erik Bedard. The other pitcher Texas drew was righty Brandon Morrow, who was optioned to triple-A Tacoma two days after his start. The Rangers went 1-3 in the series, scoring more runs in the lone win (6) than in all three loses combined (5). I’ll let you guess which of the aforementioned they beat.

This time around, the Rangers will again have to play Seattle four times in as many days, but the M’s three-headed pitching monster is down to two with the news that Erik Bedard has been placed on the DL after trying to pitch through a sharp pain in his shoulder. Maybe not the best idea for a guy that has never accrued 200 innings in a season and failed to break the century mark last year. And the guys slated to start games one and two don’t quite live up to Seattle’s AL-leading 3.87 team ERA. Jason Vargas has hit a wall since a entering June with a sub-2.00 ERA, going 1-3 while allowing 7.11 runs per nine in his last six starts. Garrett Olson has struggled to keep the ball on the ground — and out of the bleachers — posting a 5.37 ERA for the year and allowing 15 home runs in 65.1 innings. That should leave the homer-happy Rangers licking their chops, for better or worse.

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Chatting Rangers With Evan and MJH

Since we are close to the Friday trade deadline, I thought last night was a good chance to pick the brains of Mr. Grant and Mr Hindman during the first hour of last night’s game against Detroit. We talked about Rangers pitching and deadline moves, as well as what it might take to get Roy Halladay, and what the Rangers motivation level should be.

One note, both of the chatters have busy lives, so Evan arrived a bit after we started, and Mike had to leave a bit early, but still we got you almost 2,000 words of Rangers talk for you to digest today.

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Deal Or No Deal? (7/30)

Just emptying out my trade deadline brain of some of the thoughts that have been going through my mind this week. We’ll get to the Roy Halladay stuff after the jump.

Former Rangers great Justin Duchscherer appears to be a week or two away from being ready to return to action after a scintillating rehab appearance for Sacramento on Sunday where Rangers scouts were on hand. He is scheduled to pitch another rehab on Friday. Of course, players on the DL can’t be traded, but it might possible that Oakland could activate him for a day and then immediately trade him. This is Duke’s walk year and his salary the rest of the way (less than $2 million) is something the Rangers might be able to take on. Just file that away.

Another former Rangers great, Doug Davis, is just sitting there. He’s owed about $2.75 million the rest of the way and is a free agent this winter, so adding him is probably not precluded for financial reasons. Davis has a big fan in Mike Maddux who resurrected his career in Milwaukee. In two of his past three seasons, Davis has done his best pitching in September. There’s no reason for Arizona to hold on to him.

The Diamondbacks would also make Jon Garland available, but he’s like, you know, really bad and RBiA has been very unkind to him.

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Cowboys ’08: Week 3 At Green Bay

Here is Day 3 of our 16 day countdown to the first Cowboys preseason game, as we look back at the 2008 Cowboys campaign. Every single day (yes, weekends, too) we are marching through last year and reliving the good times and those bad times, too.

September 21, 2008 will forever be known as the high-water mark of that season. When the Cowboys strolled up to Wisconsin, they were 2-0 and looking good. But, how would they do against another 13-3 team from 2007? And how would they do in a stadium in which they have never won?

Well, after this 27-16 destruction of the Packers, the sky was the limit. And I wrote like I was convinced that I was going to be covering my first Super Bowl.

Enjoy. Because the down times are coming.

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Michael Main Update

One of the Rangers top pitcing prospects, 2007 first rounder Michael Main, had his 2009 season derailed by a mystery illness, first reported as mononucleosis. After months of tests, doctors have finally determined that he’s suffering from an unnamed virus. You can read more about Main’s strange summer in this story by MLB.com’s Daniel Paulling.

Prior to revealing that he was feeling ill, Main struggled through a month and a half of baseball with curiously poor results. He now admits that he tried to pitch through it.

“They diagnosed it as an ‘unidentified viral infection.’ They have hundreds of viral infections they don’t have a specific test for or are not named. They’re really rare that you can catch it.

“I might have had this virus for quite a while, but I was pushing through it. But my body said ‘enough was enough.’”

Main was also afflicted with extreme weakness. He said walking around the mall or other light exercise would wear him out for the remainder of the day.

“If you know me,” Main said, “that’s not normal.”

Main is improving and, as first reported here at Inside Corner, expects to return to Surprise in late August to prepare for fall instructional league play.

Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (7/30)

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