Friday Rangers Doodles: Notes Of News, Oodles Of Opinions And Random Rumors

UPDATED, 12:54: Red Sox acquire SS Alex Gonzalez; won’t arrive until Saturday.

It’s been a busy week in the world of the Rangers. Starting with last Friday’s announcement that the club had seen the last of Vicente Padilla, it’s just been one thing after another. Josh Hamilton’s revelation of his relapse in the battle against alcoholism followed. Then the Rangers briefly moved into a tie for the wild card lead. Rookie pitchers Derek Holland and Tommy Hunter nearly rolled off consecutive shutouts. And then Neftali Feliz, younger than both of them, rolled off seven consecutive strikeouts over two outings to tie the club record for consecutive strikeouts. Some guy named Ryan had it.

Oh, and now the Rangers, trailing Boston by a half-game in the wild card race, host the Red Sox for three games starting tonight. LHP Jon Lester, one of only two pitchers to post a complete game win against the Rangers this year, starts for Boston. Lester has the Red Sox only win against Texas this year. RHP Kevin Millwood, who has twice smothered the Red Sox this season, starts for the Rangers tonight.

As we get ready for the start of the big series, here are some reactions and thoughts about various news stories from the week that impact the Rangers.

• ESPN’s Rob Neyer, who I apparently am locked in a death match of opinions with, gushed after watching Neftali Feliz on Thursday. From his blog:

I also suspect that Feliz is, right now, one of the dozen or so best relief pitchers in the major leagues. He won’t be 22 until next spring, and at some point the Rangers will have to find out if Feliz can be one of the two dozen or so best starters.

C’mon. That’s just irresponsible. Feliz’s start has been electrifying. And he’s been better than expected, thanks to the development of a breaking ball and, more significantly, the emergence of a splitter. But he’s pitched four games in the majors. To call him one of the top dozen relievers in the game is just setting the bar ridiculously high. Here is what Feliz is: He’s an unknown commodity with exceptional velocity on his fastball and surprisingly effective secondary pitches. He can be a significant playoff race weapon in the way that Francisco Rodriguez, Joel Zumaya and David Price have been throughout this decade, but before anybody starts ranking him, let him develop a track record.

• You can, however, say that these are not your typical Ranger rookie pitchers. To this point, the group that qualifies as rookies has a composite 3.73 ERA. Just consider these composite rookie ERA’s for the previous five seasons: 6.56 (2008), 4.68 (2007), 4.88 (2006), 4.03 (2005 when Chris Young won 12 games) and 4.68 (2004).

• Anybody watch how the Rick Pitino affair has played out? Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention, but it just brought up some thoughts about comparing how a 56-year-old coach, representing a university and charged with helping to build teens into men handled scandal compared to say, Josh Hamilton?

Neither of them said a word until the story actually broke on another front. But then Hamilton, in front of teammates and media, answered every question thrown his way before a game, after a game and the next day. He was blunt and explicit about his actions. Pitino made a statement, referring to the situation as an “indiscretion” and didn’t take questions.

This doesn’t make Hamilton any less of an addict or any more of a role model, but it does suggest to me this is a guy who takes responsibility for his mistakes. I’ve read lots of opinions and columns on the Hamilton subject. I’ve listened to talk show chatter. And I’ve thought about expressing my own point of view. In truth, I don’t think I could really do it justice. The DMN’s Tim Cowlishaw wrote a gutsy, eloquent  column in which he acknowledged his own struggles with alcohol. Cowlishaw summed up the situation beautifully with a simple sentence at the end of the column.

“He’s trying to live,” Cowlishaw wrote.

If I was to add anything to this subject, it’s just understanding that living as an addict is never easy and living with one isn’t easy either. It is full of difficult moments and lots of disappointment. The only thing you can hope for is that when/if a relapse comes, the addict doesn’t let it spiral into a long-term, life-damaging episode. From the outside, it certainly seems like Hamilton took all the right steps after the January incident. Here’s hoping they continue.

• Cleveland president Paul Dolan said his team will lose $16 million this season, but somehow managed to turn that into a shot at the Rangers.

“I can’t speak for the Texas situation,” said Dolan. “I don’t know the facts, but I understand there is an extreme situation there. On the ranks of financial losers in Major League Baseball, we are high on the list, but we’re not in a situation like that one that’s being described in Texas.”

To clear things up, the Rangers, I expect, will show a profit this season. Over the last four or five years, they would show a profit, too. But the club is still paying for the sins of bad decisions in 2000-2002 when the payroll became bloated with huge contracts and huge deferred money. Hicks Sports Group had to do even more leveraging to meet those financial demands and it’s the debt on those loans and that deferred money that has put HSG in such dire financial straits. The way the club is being run right now: It’s pretty much a model for other MLB clubs.

It’s those past sins that are casting shadows over what had become a pretty streamlined, efficient organization.

• Though he didn’t speak to the media after hitting Kurt Suzuki in his last start with the Rangers, deposed RHP Vicente Padilla decided to become quite loquacious upon the club’s decision to designate him for assignment.

Among the most provocative things he told Al Dia’s Carlos Nava was this:

“He [GM Jon Daniels] should tell me whom I have disrespected … or he should tell me if I ever offended Jon Daniels. If they think I’m not a good teammate, they should specify and tell me what I did.”

Actually they did. In June, when they placed him on waivers, then told him he had 100 days left on his contract and that if he wanted another long-term deal, he’d better understand that neither his teammates nor opponents respected him and that he’d better change those perceptions. Padilla’s reaction is just another case of how out of touch he was with the organization. His teammates spared no words in discussing how poorly Padilla fit in with the club following the team’s decision to DFA him last Friday. Marlon Byrd said it was “about time.” Eddie Guardado said it was a “long time coming.”

It led me to file back through my memories to see if there has been a worse Rangers teammate than Padilla in the 13 years that I’ve covered the team. The good news: It was difficult to fill out a full list of five bad teammates in the last decade. That’s due in large part to the infuence Will Clark, Mickey Tettleton and Mark McLemore passed on Rusty Greer and what Greer passed on to Michael Young, who is now passing it on to the younger players who arrive.

Here’s my list of the worst teammates in my time, with the worst listed last.

Five worst Rangers teammates

No. 5 Brad Fullmer: Creepily intense guy wasn’t very approachable to teammates or media. Biggest hit he had during 2004 season was when he drove his car through the metal entrance gate to the tunnel underneath the stadium. After trade to San Diego fell through because of his knee problems, he wasn’t even around the club for the final two months.

No. 4 Juan Dominguez: Teammates had no idea what to make of the guy, who trashed his hotel room once after being sent down and went AWOL on another occasion. Earned nickname “The Savage.” Called in sick for scheduled start at Los Angeles in late September, 2004 with the bullpen at less than full strength. Was a nice touch.

No. 3 Chad Curtis: Didn’t just proselytize, also acted as censor in clubhouse. It led to near fisticuffs with Royce Clayton because of his objections “The Thong Song” being played on clubhouse sound system. He wouldn’t make it a week under the current music mix.

No. 2 Esteban Loaiza: Once discovered washing his car in the Ballpark garage. During a game. Regular tardiness and absent-mindedness nearly led to a team revolt in 2000 before he was traded to Toronto. But he never put any teammates in harm’s way. And he did leave the Rangers with an enduring contribution; trading him resulted in acquisition of Michael Young.

No. 1 Vicente Padilla: No player in the last 13 years has so alienated teammates as Padilla. His penchant for throwing at hitters and giving up on games showed no respect or care for teammates. He regularly left teammates to pay for his transgressions, then often declined to speak about situations, making teammates answer questions for him, too. Ignored club’s June warning about being a good teammate and ultimately pushed a club in a pennant race to discard one of its most more talented arms.