Texas Rangers Acquire Pitching Prospect Danny Gutierrez from Royals for Manny Pina, Tim Smith

UPDATE, 9:45: Deal has been officially announced.

The Rangers have acquired Danny Gutierrez, a 22-year-old right-handed pitcher from the Royals in exchange for C Manny Pina and OF Tim Smith.

Baseball America ranked Gutierrez as the No. 7 prospect in the Royals organization entering the season, but he’s pitched only 27.1 innings in High Class A this season. According to this post from the blog Royals Review, Gutierrez and his camp got into an early-season argument with Royals management over the pitcher’s rehab from a non-major injury.

Pina is considered an excellent receiver, but was not ranked among the Rangers top 30 prospects at the start of the year, according to Baseball America. Both he and Smith played at Double-A Frisco this season. Pina, 22, has not played since mid-August because of an injury, but was hitting .259 with a .313 OBP and a .393 slugging percentage. Smith, 23, has also been on the DL, but hit .309 with a .380 OBP and .439 slugging percentage in 36 games after a promotion from Class A Bakersfield.

Jump for an excerpt from the pre-season Baseball America scouting report on Gutierrez:

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Rangers OF Josh Hamilton Has Pinched Nerve

From Assistant GM Thad Levine comes this report on Josh Hamilton’s back:

“Josh saw the doctor today regarding his lower back and it was determined he has a pinched nerve.  He was given a ‘root nerve injection’ to reduce the inflammation. He is traveling with the club to Baltimore and athletic trainer Jamie Reed will examine him and evaluate him then. Hamilton is listed as day-to-day.”

Anti-inflammatory injections usually take about 24 to 48 hours to take effect, so it’s uncertain if Hamilton will be in the starting lineup on Friday against the Orioles or not.

Discussing Michael Young’s Hamstring with Injury Expert Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus

Will Carroll, author of Baseball Prospectus’ Under the Knife column, is considered the leading expert in the baseball media world on injuries and understanding medical treatments. Carroll, who lives in Indianapolis, authored the book Saving the Pitcher in 2004 analyzing pitching injuries and offering theories on how to suggest them. He’s a good friend of those who cover the Rangers and has been a regular (and popular) speaker at Newberg Report Night at Rangers Ballpark the last couple of year. We caught up with him Wednesday shortly after he’d finished writing an Under the Knife entry on Michael Young’s injury.

“The Rangers got the news that, as expected, Michael Young has a significant strain of his left hamstring. “Significant” usually means a Grade II and early speculation on the timeframe matches that. The best case has him back in two weeks, just in time for a big series with the Angels. The more realistic case has him out until about the end of the month. Some people caught that my ERD for Young was very optimistic yesterday, spotting him at the 12th. Since Young won’t have to go on the DL (almost no one will in September), the Rangers can play a bit faster and looser than normal. Young is undergoing the fashionable treatment, platelet rich plasma injections, to try and heal up. I think in about ten days, Young will have made enough progress that he’ll push himself into a discussion with the Rangers brass about playing. I’m not sure if it will be a full start or some lesser role, pinch hitting perhaps, but I think we’ll end up seeing Young more quickly than most. The downside here is the recurrence risk, but the Rangers are going to have trouble keeping Young on the bench.”

Follow the jump for more from Carroll on the Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) and the Michael Young case.

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Race Day: Looking at the A.L. Playoff Races

About the Wild Card Race

Boston: RHP Josh Beckett’s struggles continued Wednesday night. In his last four starts covering 24.1 innings, he has allowed 24 earned runs on 30 hits. In his last five appearances, he has given up 14 home runs.

3B Mike Lowell should be back in Thursday night’s lineup after sitting on Wednesday. He’s hitting .326 in his last 12 games and .351 since July 17. RHP Clay Buchholz will go Thursday coming off one of his best starts ever. He held Toronto to one earned run on three hits and two walks over 8.1 innings.

Tampa Bay: DH Pat Burrell was 2-for-4 Wednesday with his 13th home run. He was hitting .219 on July 30. Since then, 29-for-97 (.298) to raise his average to .243. Manager Joe Madden said Wednesday that he will use both Burrell (55 RBIs) and 3B Evan Longoria (.273, 26 HRs, 93 RBIs) in the fifth and sixth spots and leave 1B Carlos Pena (.225, 39 HRs, 98 RBIs) as the cleanup hitter.

LHP David Price (7-6, 4.63) will finish the series for the Rays. He has pitched once this season against Boston, winning at home on Aug. 5, going six innings and allowing two earned runs on six hits with no walks. Last Saturday at Detroit, he won pitching 7.1 innings and giving up one earned run on five hits and one walk.

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How Do You Get to 53?

With almost no drama left for 80% of your roster heading into the final preseason game, I wanted to look at the last two years as a template for how Jerry Jones, Wade Phillips, and the Dallas Cowboys Personnel Department looks at its 53 man board.

As you know, by the weekend, teams across the league must trim to 53. This generally is followed by teams changing out the last few spots with other teams’ discards, but, obviously, we can only analyze those who are currently owned by the Cowboys.

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For Texas Rangers’ Julio Borbon and Elvis Andrus, It’s as Easy as 1, 2 … Well, 1, 2

ARLINGTON - Amateur statisticians Julio Borbon and Elvis Andrus said it never happened when they hit first and second in the 50-something games that they played together last season at Double-A Frisco. Never did Andrus homer with Borbon on base as occurred Wednesday night in the fifth inning, putting the Rangers ahead for good in a series-clinching 6-4 victory over Toronto.

“And that’s what makes it so special,” Borbon said. Not to mention the win moving the Rangers within 2.5 games of the Red Sox in the A.L. wild-card race and within 3.5 games of the Angels in the Western Division.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (9/3)

Triple-A: New Orleans 3 @ Oklahoma City 0

RHP Bryan Corey (6-9; 5.52) was rocky at the onset, but ended up going eight strong innings. He needed 111 pitches to power through almost the entire game, allowing ten hits and three runs along the way. 30-year-old LHP Chris Cooper, who was just signed three days ago, made his season debut with an inning of one hit, scoreless baseball. Cooper spent the last two years playing in Italy.

But despite the solid pitching effort, the RedHawks never had a chance. They never got a runner past second base, and only combined for three singles and three walks all night. 3B Travis Metcalf (.207/.324/.448) accounted for half the team’s base runners, going 1-2 with a pair of walks. The only other Oklahoma City hits belonged to 1B Royce Huffman (.295/.378/.414) and 2B Adam Fox (.212/.268/.308), who also stole his first base at triple-A this year. LF Justin Leone, also signed on Monday, had a rough night going 0-4 with three Ks.

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