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Holland Ace Sauce

That’s it, I suppose.

The Rangers never would have traded Derek Holland (and if they had, I would have unleashed a criminal flurry of expletives directed at people I actually like).

The only chance Texas had to land Roy Halladay was to convince the Blue Jays that Neftali Feliz was as good, or better. The Rangers know better, but maybe, just maybe, they could convince J.P. Riccardi and his scouting team that Feliz was the bigger talent with the brighter future as many outside of the organization — including both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus– believe (but not me).

Now, there’s no way.

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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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Armchair GM Roundtable: Trade Deadline Edition

Back by popular demand, another mind-tingling edition of Armchair Roundtable and once again it’s huge.

Yesterday morning, I assembled Our Leader (Evan Grant), the Godfather (Jamey Newberg: The Newberg Report), and The Wonder Kid (Joey Matschulat, founder of Baseball Time in Arlington) in a chat room to kick around the Rangers options at the trade deadline.

Make the jump for an explosive edition of Armchair Roundtable where I think we manage to illustrate just how difficult the decisions will be for the Rangers as they engage in trade discussions this week.

Plus, we find out what kind of ice cream Jamey, Evan and Gerry Fraley favor.

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Putting Rangers Blame Where Blame Is Due

I’m now more or less convinced that Rudy Jaramillo has instructed his hitters to expect a 4-seamer on every pitch.

People will blame Derek Holland for this one, but the performance of this lineup — other than Michael Young — was nothing short of embarrassing.

Armchair Farm Director Roundtable

And it’s huge. I gathered up a couple of my best baseball-talkin’ buddies for what turned out to be about a two-hour discussion of the Rangers farm system yesterday.

The truth is that I engage in these sessions with Jason Parks from Baseball Time in Arlington and Jason Cole, who commands lonestardugout.com , at least two or three times a week via IM sessions, but never for this long at one time and never with all three of us gathered together in one chat room.

I have enormous respect for both of these guys. If you are into the farm system and you aren’t reading their stuff, you are really missing out, as you will quickly realize after you make the jump to take in more prospect talk than anyone ought to want or need in one sitting.

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MJH’s Top-40 Texas Rangers Prospects (Nos. 1-10)

Final installment.

Please: jump and read on.

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MJH’s Top-40 Texas Rangers Prospects (Nos. 11-20)

I’ll have to break this into three parts. I decided to get into a little more analysis (or is it rationalization?) We’ll get back to you with the top-10 tomorrow.

Check it out and let me have it.

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MJH’s Top 40 Texas Rangers Prospects, (Nos. 21-40)

For what it’s worth, here is the back half of my top-40 prospects in the system through the halfway point of the 2009 season. Terse commentary follows each player listed. I intend to provide more detailed analysis when I get around to posting my top 20 in the next day or two.

Naturally, this is a highly subjective process and I’d feel alot better about it if I could just rank players into tiers, but — as anyone who has lived in the Dallas radio market for the past dozen years or so knows all too well– people love lists.

Ranking prospects is a product of weighing performance (stats) and projection (tools). I place a higher emphasis on tools and projectability than on production. Age vs. competition is a a very heavy factor, as is a demonstrated ability to learn and adjust. More than anything, a player’s track record comes into play for me in trying to understand his ability to address his weaknesses.

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International Signing Day Is Here

The Rangers have vigorously bolstered their farm system through international free agancy, landing talents such as Martin Perez, Wilfredo Boscan, Wilmer Front, Omar Poveda, Jose Vallejo, Manny Pina, Carlos Pimentel and many others from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic over the past several years. While they were rumored to have been frontrunners to land last year’s big fish Michael Ynoa (who signed with Oakland for $4 million), Texas still hasn’t ever signed an international free agent for seven figures.

That was supposed to change this year as the Rangers were widely believed to have agreed to a deal with power-hitting outfield prospect Guillermo Pimentel for $2 million. But in recent weeks, reports have Pimentel signing with the Mariners for that figure instead.

This year — assuming the Rangers have the cash to sign anybody, and it’s entirely possible that they don’t — it appears that this guy is going to be their top international signee.

Venezeulan legend Jurickson Profar led his country to the Little League World Series title at the age of 11 back in 2004. Five years down the road, he’s expected to sign with Texas for about $800K. Profar has tantilizing stuff on the mound, but he reportedly prefers to play shortstop.

Other high profile Caribbean prospects linked to the Rangers of late include 6’6″ RHP Leonardo Perdomo –expected to sign for a high six figure bonus — and possibly SS Luis Sardinas, who may command a seven-figure bonus.

Borbon In Arlington

Center Fielder Julio Borbon has been summoned to Arlington, though no official announcement has been made as to his activiation on the 25- man roster. He is already on the 40-man roster.

Ron Washington’s Big Test

On the most recent Rangers Podcast in Arlington, I suggested that Ron Washington might be at a very pivotal moment in his career as a manager, facing the job of keeping the Rangers on top without Josh Hamilton in the lineup.

Citing the work Joe Torre has done in keeping the Dodgers rolling without their slugger, I suggested that Washington had an opportunity to establish himself as a manager by doing the same thing.

So far, Washington has not distinguished himself in the face of his club’s adversity while Torre has.

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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.

Draft Q&A With Kevin Goldstein From Baseball Prospectus

Following one farm system closely year after year has taught me one thing above all else: the guys who manage to do so for 30 systems are supermen. And the guys who add amatuer prospects to their plate are insane geniuses.

Nobody I know has more propspecty information in his giant baseball brain than my friend Kevin Goldstein from Baseball Prospectus. KG was kind enough to share his thoughts on the Rangers draft with me over the phone this morning. Check it out after the jump.

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Guillermo Pimentel: The Other First Rounder?

Guillermo Pimentel from Kiley McDaniel on Vimeo.

While the Rangers go into the 2009 draft with the #14 overall selection and the #44 pick (as compensation for losing Milton Bradley in free agency), giving them two picks before the second round begins (and yet another exellent opportunity to load up high-upside talent to the game’s best farm system), it is widely rumored that they have already bagged the elephant of this year’s amateur class by having successfully wooed Dominican outfielder Guillermo Pimentel, who turned 16 in mid May.

Pimentel is said to have plus power and an extremely smooth stroke from the left side, tremendous athleticism and a below average arm (as opposed to the Guillermo Pimentel that Rangers already have, whose cannon might be the best among all oufielders in the system right now).

The signing date for international free agents is July 2, but Pimentel is known to have a strong relationship with the Rangers already — a product of the intensified scouting efforts by the organization in the DR over the past few years — and he has worked out at the Rangers’ Dominican academy. In recent months, however, nobody has seen him leading to speculation by other clubs that the Rangers are hiding him. Having been beaten to the punch by Oakland on Michael Ynoa last year, it may be that the Rangers decided to pounce early on Pimentel — even if it means irritating other clubs — rather than risk losing him .