Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (8/3)

Jeez is he good.

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The Depot: Rangers-Mariners Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Hall Of Fame-Worthy Chatter

5:11: Hello, and good evening. You can either go gamble away your earnings on the Texas Lottery tonight, which is worth a paltry $31 million, or, for free you can play the home run pool. And it’s safe to splash in our pool even if their is lightning in the area.

5:14: While you have been out playing, shopping, doing yard work or good things, we stayed in the house all day typing away (except for when we went to La Cubanita for lunch). Here’s what we have to show for it: We have our list of Rangers-oriented winners and losers from the trade deadline, a story on how Michael Young and Marlon Byrd responded to the quiet deadline, and some notes that also include news that Kevin Millwood will be pushed back again due to a sore gluteus maximus.

5:35: Wrote down the wrong name in Rangers lineup. Andruw Jones is not playing. Nelson Cruz is hitting sixth. Please note and change any entries accordingly. Thanks and apologies.

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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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A Rangers Trade Proposal From A Blog Reader

Our good friend Dr Pepper Presents Batface McGee presents this question:

“When talking about possible pieces in a Halladay trade, how come no one is mentioning Hamilton? Is he untouchable, and if he is, should he be? Who says no to this trade: Neftali, Hamilton, Beaven, Poveda, and Teagarden. Does substituting Hamilton for Smoak make it more or less likely a trade gets done?”

That’s a big package, brother. Three pitchers and two players from the current roster. Kind of hard for me to see the Rangers going for that. As much as Hamilton has struggled, you aren’t going to get anybody to replace him in the lineup for this year. I think you potentially create an even bigger issue in the lineup for the remainder of this season. But I could be swayed by some good persuasive arguments. People? Anyone? Bueller?

Rangers Were Close On Ryan Garko

This comes from the New York Post’s Joel Sherman:

New York Rangers “In the late afternoon on Monday, the Rangers were convinced they were the front-runners to get Ryan Garko from the Indians. They were surprised when he ended up going to the Giants New York instead. Texas is still trying to find a righty-hitting first baseman.”

Rangers officials have since confirmed for me that they were heavily involved in the talks for Garko. But early on in last night’s game, they were informed of the deal with the Giants. The Giants dealt 21-year-old LHP Scott Barnes, who had been 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA at Class A San Jose, to Cleveland in the deal. Barnes was ranked as the Giants’ ninth-best prospect entering the season by Baseball America and their third-best pitching prospect. About the closest comp I could possibly find for Barnes in the Rangers’ system is either LHP Kasey Kiker, who is also 21, and who is 7-5 with a 2.74 ERA at Double-A Frisco. Barnes has a more traditional pitcher’s body than Kiker; he’s taller and has a collegiate background (St. John’s). I suppose you could also say that LHP Martin Perez is something of a comp, but he’s younger and with a higher ceiling and he is one of the top three prospects in the farm system of what is considered the best farm system in baseball. No way the Rangers would have offered Perez.

Garko, 28, would have fit all the Rangers criteria. He’s a right-handed batter, cheap in terms of salary and controllable for multiple years. He will be eligible for arbitration for the first time next year and should jump from $446,000 to probably close to $2 million.

Alas, the Indians liked the Giants offer more. By the way, I’ve been told the Rangers were not surprised that Cleveland opted for the San Francisco offer. They knew there were two deals on the table and that Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro was deciding between the two.

Countdown To The Trade Deadline: Take A Shot At Making The Best Possible Rangers Deal

Just under five days to go before the trade deadline, so let’s engage in a little exercise: Make believe trades. You may have already read the armchair GM’s roundtable in which MJH, Jamey Newberg, Joey Matschulat and I wasted your time. Now it’s your turn:

We’ve got a simple question, doctors (with Spanish subtitles, too!): Propose your best, most realistic trade the Rangers could make between now and the deadline. Be specific. Who knows if the club makes a trade and your proposal is dead-on, we might even send you a prize. Or Jon Daniels might hire you as an assistant. Time’s a wasting. Go.

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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The Chat Room: A Little Late Night Baseball Talk With Rangers Relievers Jason Grill, Darren O’Day

On Friday night, I decided to try something new and different. I decided to annoy Rangers relievers Jason Grilli and Darren O’Day. We made plans that we’d spend a little time in our own private chat room, talking baseball, the bullpen, the trade deadline and anything else that came to mind. We got kind of a late start – it was actually about 12:40 a.m. before we even got together, but for the next 40 minutes we hit on a lot of stuff, and I think if you read all the way through, you’ll get a pretty good sense of the chemistry, comaraderie and team-first ethic on dispolay out there. It’s long, but I think it’s well worth the read. Just for the record, Evan is indeed me, DOD is O’Day and Grillcheese is Grilli.

Evan: Why is it working so well out there?

DOD: Why is the bullpen working so well?

Grillcheese: Can we have Tiny Dancer playing while in this Tiny Chat room. I got it on Youtube while we talk, performed by Dave Grohl.

Evan: If you got the video and can upload, Hammer man, go for it.

Evan: I mean since Grilli arrived, the ERA is 2.38. Since Darren arrived – and actually put on a jersey with the right name – the ERA is 3.27. It’s good. It’s very good. I don’t think anybody thought it would be this good.

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New York Blogger: Cure For The Mets Is Hiring John Hart, Buck Showalter

A guy in New York has a very long treatise on rebuilding the Mets. His solution: Hire John Hart as GM and Buck Showalter as manager. (Hat tip to AJM for having already linked to it).

Form your own opinions.

Schizophrenic Evan: Multiple Voices On Trading – Or Not – For Roy Halladay

Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi has imposed a Tuesday deadline for trading Roy Halladay. If he doesn’t get the deal he wants by then, Ricciardi plans on shutting down talks. So, with about 100 hours to go in the Halladay Sweepstakes, should the Rangers push forward in what would be a long-shot bid to land him or not. It’s a long-shot because Halladay would have to approve any trade. It’s a long-shot because even if he does approve a trade, the cash-strapped Rangers would have to figure how to pay him the $4.5 million he’s owed for the remainder of this year and the $15 million for next year. Finding the talent to interest Toronto? That’s not much of a problem, if you ask me.

Anyway, my multiple personalities have been arguing back and forth for a week. I’m tired of the voices in my head. I figured I’d let them talk to you for a while. If you’ve got time – and, hey, it’s Friday, you aren’t going to get any work done anyway – read my two separate columsn on pushing ahead with a deal or stopping this whole process right now. And then give me your thoughts. Maybe that will help me quiet those voices once and for all. And they are really annoying voices, too. One sounds like Gilbert Gottfried and the other like Bobcat Goldthwait.

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Ask Sports Sturm: Pujols The Great

Ronald sent me this week’s project – which I referenced on the air yesterday, but now you have it in print. This is a pretty good one. Check this out:

SportsSturm-

Maybe you can help me with this. Albert Pujols has pretty much wrapped up the “best hitter of the decade”. It looks like he will win the decade triple crown for the National League. Has any other player ever done that? That guy is too good.

And yes, I am a die hard Cardinals fan.

Thanks.

Ronald

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Deal Or No Deal?

We’re a week shy of the trade deadline and once again we in the media (Evan, Jeff and Bob) and quasi-media (that would be me) are obligated to speculate about trade scenarios that won’t happen. I’ve come to hate doing this every year, but it’s part of the job. Stir up trade speculation. Weigh in on what the ballclub should do. And do all of this with a mere sliver of information as to what is actually possible and what isn’t.

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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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‘Pen Is Mightier: For 40 Days and 40 Nights, Rangers Relievers Have Dominated The Opposition

ARLINGTON - Just how good has the Rangers bullpen been this summer. Well, have a look for yourself. After the jump, comes a chart comparing the 14 AL teams in relief ERA, opponents batting average, holds and blown saves since June 10.

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