From The Rangers Beat: Friday Notes

BOSTON – With the MLB draft coming up next week, the signing period for Latin American players beginning next month and the trading deadline arriving at the end of July, the questions surrounding a team for sale are often about finances.

Rangers owner Tom Hicks, however, said that his search for significant investment – even if it means selling majority ownership in the team – will not impact his management’s team ability to acquire talent.

“It’s business as usual,” Hicks wrote in an email this week about how the club might be impacted by the uncertain future of ownership.

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Padilla Waiver Watch

With the deadline for clubs to place a waiver claim on Vicente Padilla having passed just a few minutes ago, it appears that Padilla remains property of the Texas Rangers.

Rangers GM Jon Daniels said the club would make no comments about whether a player was placed on waivers or cleared.

Assuming he cleared, the Rangers now have the option of assigning Padilla to the minor leagues and should they do so, Padilla would have the option of refusing the assignment and taking free agency. More likely, however, Padilla will simply stay in the Rangers rotation.

UPDATE: More than an hour after the deadline has passed, I believe it is safe to assume Padilla has cleared waivers. The Rangers are listing him as their probable starter for Sunday’s game at Boston. Daniels declined to comment on whether this week’s move has prompted interest from other clubs. Atlanta, however, is reportedly looking to upgrade its starting pitching and has been researching Boston RHP Brad Penny. – Evan Grant

Rangers Start Trade Talks; Place Vicente Padilla On Outright Waivers

UPDATED: 3:35 with correct waiver process information

NEW YORK – The Rangers have started the search for more parts for a playoff run in earnest, but will likely have to move some salary in order to acommodate a major trade.

They took the first towards doing that on Wednesday by placing RHP Vicente Padilla on outright waivers, major league sources said. The move would allow the Rangers to dump Padilla’s salary if any club claims him. It also serves as a subtle notice to other teams the Rangers would be willing to deal him for a small return. Citing MLB rules which forbid talking about what players may or may not be on waivers, GM Jon Daniels declined to comment on Padilla’s status.

If no team claims him, Padilla would remain property of the Rangers and could make his next scheduled start Sunday at Boston. The club could also release him (which is highly unlikely) or try to send him to the minors. Due to service time, Padilla, however could request his release and the Rangers would still be on the hook for his salary.

Daniels did, however, acknowledge the Rangers have begun to search for additional help for a team that has surged to the front of the AL West race.

“It’s that time of year,” Daniels said. “There are areas of interest that clubs would like to discuss and they are starting to do that. I expect that will pick up after the draft.”

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Pitching Profile – May Edition

The following exercise is something I am trying to keep on the side for my own personal use, but then I thought that there might be just enough stat-hungry baseball folks to go ahead and post it up here for you to digest (slowly…there is a lot).

It is basic splits for the 5 starters who have filled out the Rangers rotation for 2009. There have been 50 starts, and to date, Millwood, McCarthy, Harrison, Feldman, and Padilla have made 45 of them. Benson, Holland, and Hunter have made the last 5, but there is not enough data to make it worth running their monthly trends.

But, as we embark upon the month of June, here is a perfect time to show you how the 5 are performing, and perhaps this is something I will update and rerun each and every time we turn the calendar here in the baseball season.

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Texas Rangers May Have To Dance The Pitching Staff Shuffle This Weekend

ARLINGTON – The combination of a looming doubleheader, the chance to give RHP Brandon McCarthy some extra rest and the ineffectiveness of RHP Kris Benson as a long reliever could lead to a weekend makeover of the Rangers pitching staff.

GM Jon Daniels acknowledged Friday the club might opt to pull McCarthy from a start in Friday’s doubleheader against Oakland in order to give him an extra day of rest since he threw a career-high 124 pitches in his first complete game Sunday.

And that decision could lead to others that would impact the staff.

On Monday, manager Ron Washington said McCarthy would start the first game of the doubleheader with RHP Scott Feldman pitching the second. But if the Rangers push McCarthy back, they could move Feldman into the opener, then make a move at intermission to add a starter for the second game.

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Conviction Addiction Fuels Brandon McCarthy’s First Shutout In Rangers’ 5-0 Win Over Houston

D-tails:
• Boxscore, Standings, The Depot game blog

He arrived as the new pitching coach last fall, talking like an overzealous D.A. on one of the Law and Order franchises. All Mike Maddux talked about was “conviction.”

Can the solution to a problem more puzzling than Global Warming – making the Rangers pitching staff competitive – really be as simple as a single buzzword.

With each passing day, as the rotation ERA drops to levels unseen in The Ballpark era, it sure seems that “conviction,” more than anything else is the reason.

It’s not like he’s got a whole new group of pitchers to work with. It only seems that way. Case in point: Brandon McCarthy.

On Sunday, McCarthy pitched the first shutout – and the first complete game – of his career in a 5-0 win over Houston. The power of conviction was on display all over Minute Maid Park.

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Rookie Ball: Derek Holland Impressive In First Major League Start; Rangers End Four-Game Skid

D-tails: Rangers 6, Astros 5
• Boxscore; Standings; The Depot game blog; Post-Game Show comments
• Andruw Jones auditioning for more regular playing time?

HOUSTON – As usual, a Rangers rookie went to the mound for his first major league start full of nerves Friday night.

Derek Holland’s first pitch as a major league starter was 96 mph, low, away and out of the strike zone to Houston’s Michael Bourn. The second was in almost the same spot at 95 mph.

Here, however, is where Derek Holland differs from other Rangers rookies who have come before him in recent years: The case of nerves lasted all of two pitches.

“I said to myself, ‘Come on, I’ve been here. Let’s get it together and throw strikes’,” Holland recounted much later after the Rangers’ 6-5 10-inning win over Houston. “That’s really all it took to settle down.”

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The Depot: Rangers Live Game Blog, News And Notes

You’ll probably want to print this out as a souvenir of Derek Holland’s first major league start.

We’re about ready to go. Got a little more updating to do to the reporter’s notebook. We will alert you when that is completed. But, otherwise, it’s time to hop aboard.

7:10: One pitch, one out for the Rangers. 2B Ian Kinsler did not do his job to start the game. With a rookie on the mound whom the Rangers had never seen, it was incumbent upon him to make Felipe Paulino work a little, show the Rangers what he’s got, etc. Kinsler swung and popped out on the first pitch. 3B Michael Young followed with a walk.

7:23: Report on Derek Holland’s first inning as a starter: He threw two fastballs for balls to Michael Bourn to start the inning, then seven of the next eight for strikes to retire the side. Holland threw nothing but fastballs in the 10-pitch inning, averaging 94.6 mph on the Minute Maid Park radar gun.

7:29: Rangers Report updated with a note about Vicente Padilla’s assignment to the DL.

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It’s Happy Hour At Viral Video: Rangers Pitcher Matt Harrison

We had Jon Daniels this morning and tonight’s starter Matt Harrison this afternoon. Where else can you get a double dose of Rangers video in one business day?

Welcome To Baseball Season: A Primer For Rangers Fans Returning To The Flock

First to loyal, Cornerians: We call upon you now to do your duty and help the education of those less fortunate than you, those who haven’t caught the first six weeks of the Rangers season and are only now starting to get a little bit interested in the first place Rangers. Over the course of the day, I hope to make a couple of posts explaining to those folks what they’ve missed and why the club is suceeding this year. First, we hope you will tolerate such posts. Second, we hope you will add to them by helping further along explanations and offering your own reasons why the Rangers are worth watching again.

Maybe you are a Mavs fan, finally done grieving over the playoff loss or just turned off over how that playoff series became more about Dirk Nowitzki’s love interests and Mark Cuban’s potty mouth. Maybe you are a Cowboys fan who doesn’t quite think this draft is going to be the one that breaks that decade-long (and we’re being conservative there) playoff victory hex. Maybe you are, or were, a Stars fan until the hockey lock out a couple of years ago.

Or, maybe, just maybe, you are a baseball fan who had been disenfranchised by a decade of mediocrity combined with a couple of seasons of unexplained arrogance.

For whatever reason, though, you find yourself here. Ready to step on a bandwagon. You’ve heard the Rangers are in first place, that they are playing well, and right now they are the only game in town. So, you figure, your willing to give them another shot. And besides, you do kinda miss those ballpark nachos.

You just wish someone could catch you up a little on what you missed. Hey, that’s why we are here. What good would a city magazine be if it didn’t provide service for the city and community.

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Winning Combination: Rangers Improved Pitching, Defense On Display Throughout 6-0 Homestand

Pitching. Defense.

After years of digging the long ball, the Rangers are finding that pitching and defense are two good things that go great together. They’ve become one and the same. The only thing that can pry them apart is a conjunction.

The Rangers spent an entire homestand demonstrating their two new loves and the result was perfection. Sunday’s 3-0 win over Los Angeles, highlighted by sharp starting pitching and a third straight day of a web-gem worthy, game-saving defensive play, completed the homestand sweep. Winning all six games against AL West opponents extended the club’s winning streak to seven games and its lead over the now-hated Angels to 4.5 games. No wonder 37,146 people were on their feet at the end of Sunday’s game: It’s only the eighth season in the Rangers’ 38-year run in Texas in which they’ve had a lead that big.

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Texas Rangers’ “Out Of Position” Pitchers Improve The Team’s Position Over The Angels in AL West

ARLINGTON - Scott Feldman, who couldn’t win a spot in the Rangers’ starting rotation during the spring, threw six shutout innings on Sunday against an Angels team that came in second in the A.L. in hitting. With closer Frank Francisco on the disabled list and interim closer C.J. Wilson having pitched 3.1 innings the last four days, Darren O’Day earned his first career save. In the middle, Jason Jennings finally made his first appearance of the homestand and earned his first win in two seasons.

Four Texas pitchers combined to outduel Jered Weaver, who began the day third in the league in ERA and in opponents’ batting average among starters, and hand LAA its first shutout of the season.

“We expect everyone in this clubhouse to contribute,” Ian Kinsler said. “That’s why we’re all here.”

Here would happen to be four and a half games ahead of second-place Los Angeles. In sweeping the weekend series before more than 104,000 paying customers, the ’09 Rangers already have more wins this season in Arlington against the Angels than the ’08 Rangers (2).

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Viral Video: Hail To The Chief

Nolan Ryan stopped by the beautiful InsideCorner Studios to chat a little bit about the improvement in the Rangers pitching staff this year. Also, to abuse me. And, really, what good is a day without some abuse from a Hall of Famer?

Again, much thanks to videographer extraordinaire Ted Price of Rangers Podcast in Arlington. We stocked up on some more viral video, including Josh Hamilton, Eddie Guardado and Matt Harrison, all coming in the next few days.

Matt Harrison Authors Yet Another Gem, Then Watches Texas Rangers Bats Write Another Happy Ending

D-tails
• Boxscore (Rangers 3, Mariners 2); Standings; The Depot live game blog; Post-Game Show comment thread
• Davis delivers walkoff homer

ARLINGTON  – There might be new required reading in the Rangers’ clubhouse beyond that new Josh Hamilton autobiography that has shown up in more than a few lockers.

Try “Thinking Body, Dancing Mind,” from Chungliang Al Huang. The subtitle is: “Taosports for Extraordinary Performance in Athletics, Business and Life.” That’s what Rangers lefty Matt Harrison has been reading since …

“I got that book from my wife’s parents the day before I pitched in Baltimore,” he said. “I’ve been reading it ever since. It’s about the mental part of the game. Confidence. Visualizing yourself being successful.”

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Survival Skills: Texas Rangers Starter Scott Feldman Outlasts Opponent In 7-1 Win Over Mariners

D-tails
• Boxscore (Rangers 7, Mariners 1); Standings; The Depot live game blog; Post-Game Show comment thread
• Rangers don’t waste second chances; Biceps soreness leaves Frank Francisco unavailable
• AL West glance: Boston rallies to beat Angels; extends Texas lead to 1½ games

ARLINGTON - Josh Hamilton officially returned Tuesday night. Derek Holland officially arrived.

And, perhaps most importantly, another Rangers starter won another round of Survivor: The Pitchers Mound. You know, the objective: Outwit, outpitch and outlast the other guy on the little dirt island.

The Rangers assured themselves of another night in first place with a 7-1 win over Seattle that was powered in part by a Hamilton homer to start a six-run, seventh-inning rally and by 1.2 flawless innings of relief from Holland, which earned him the first win of his major league career.

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