August Awards

This week I will give my August Awards. These are who I would give my awards to as if the season ended today. Note all stats are as of 8/29.

Also, thanks to Scott Lucas for letting me fill in for him last week in writing the daily minor league report when I was in Hickory watching the Crawdads. If you didn’t get the chance to read those reports, I’ve included the description of the Crawdads game I saw below, along with a little more information from the trip.

Rangers Awards:

Rangers MVP: Michael Young, TEX (.327 AVG, 22 HR, 66 RBI): Michael leads the team in at-bats, hits, batting average, and walks. He’s also 3rd in home runs and tied for 2nd in RBI’s.
Runner-up: Ian Kinsler, TEX (.247 AVG, 28 HR, 73 RBI)

Cy Young: Scott Feldman (13-4, 3.87 ERA, 86 K): Scott is tied for 4th in the AL in wins, and he wasn’t even a starter in April, which is pretty incredible. He’s also 3rd among Rangers starters in ERA and is 2nd on the team in innings pitched behind Kevin Millwood.
Runner-up: Kevin Millwood, TEX (10-8, 3.63 ERA, 99 K)

Rookie of the Year: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.267 AVG, 5 HR, 26 RBI): Not only is he tied for 5th among AL rookies in batting average, 1st among AL rookies in stolen bases, tied for 4th in home runs, and tied for 5th in RBI’s, but he also has a shot at winning a Gold Glove. As a rookie.
Runner-up: Tommy Hunter, TEX (6-3, 2.95 ERA, 44 K)

AL Awards:

MVP: Joe Mauer, MIN (.372 AVG, 25 HR, 79 RBI): Joe missed the first month of the season and he’s still my AL MVP. He leads all of baseball in batting average at .372, a very, very high batting average. He also has 25 home runs, tied for 11th in the AL, and he has 79 RBI’s, 13th in the AL. Even though his power numbers don’t crack the top 10, his batting average makes up for that.
Runner-up: Aaron Hill, TOR (.289 AVG, 31 HR, 85 RBI)

Cy Young: Justin Verlander, DET (14-7, 3.38 ERA, 211 K): Justin leads the AL in strikeouts with 211, and is only behind Tim Lincecum in all the majors, and it’s pretty hard to have more strikeouts than Tim Lincecum. He is also tied for 2nd in the AL in wins, and is 7th in the AL in ERA. To me, that’s a Cy Young Award winner.
Runner-up: Scott Feldman, TEX (13-4, 3.87 ERA, 86 K)

Rookie of the Year: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.267 AVG, 5 HR, 26 RBI): Not only is he tied for 5th among AL rookies in batting average, 1st among AL rookies in stolen bases, tied for 4th in home runs, and tied for 5th in RBI’s, but he also has a shot at winning a Gold Glove. I think that should make him the AL Rookie of the Year.
Runner-up: Nolan Reimold, BAL (.276 AVG, 12 HR, 39 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Jim Leyland, DET (68-59, 1st place): If the season ended now, the Tigers would have gone from last place in 2008 (yes, even behind the 75-87 Kansas City Royals) to 1st place in 2009. Even though, they are in a weak division (the Rangers would be in 1st, so it’s really not fair), that’s still a pretty big jump, and that deserves Manager of the Year.
Runner-up: Ron Washington, TEX (71-56, 2nd place)

NL Awards:

MVP: Albert Pujols, STL (.316 AVG, 41 HR, 108 RBI): You can tell that he is struggling (for him) right now, because I actually had to put some thought into this one. It was between him, Prince Fielder, and Ryan Howard. But Pujols leads the 3 of them in batting average and on-base percentage, leads all of baseball in home runs, but is last between the three of them in RBI’s, which made it competitive.
Runner-up: Prince Fielder, MIL (.305 AVG, 36 HR, 118 RBI)

Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, SF (13-4, 2.33 ERA, 222 K): Tim is tied for 4th in the NL in wins (which for him is actually not so good), but to make up for it, he leads all of the majors in strikeouts, and is one of only two players with over 200 strikeouts so far this year. He is also 2nd in the NL in ERA at 2.33, behind only Chris Carpenter.
Runner-up: Chris Carpenter, STL (14-3, 2.20 ERA, 115 K)

Rookie of the Year: Andrew McCutchen, PIT (.295 AVG, 10 HR, 43 RBI): I know, a Pirate getting an Award. Amazing, huh? Doesn’t happen very often. But, Andrew deserves it, as among NL rookies he is 2nd in batting average, tied for 3rd in home runs, 2nd in RBI, 3rd in SB, and 2nd in slugging percentage. I think that’s a solid resume for getting the ROY.
Runner-up: Garret Jones, PIT (.289 AVG, 15 HR, 30 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy, COL (52-29, 2nd place) The Rockies were 20-28 when Tracy took over. Now they are 72-57. The Rockies were 8.5 games back of the wild card when Tracy took over. Now they are leading it by 2 games. The Rockies were 12.5 games out of the division lead when Tracy took over. Now they are 4 back. I think that pretty much explains my pick.
Runner-up: Bruce Bochy, SF (70-59, 3rd place)

I just got back from a week-long trip to Myrtle Beach with my parents, sister, and grandparents. My dad and I made the five-hour drive from Myrtle Beach to Hickory during the week for a one-night stay so that we could see a Hickory Crawdads game. The Rangers moved their low-A team to Hickory this year and we wanted to check it out. The Crawdads’ stadium is pretty old and fairly plain but a nice place to see a game. If you’re in the area, I recommend it. We saw the game (described below), stayed in a Quality Inn less than a mile away, and then drove back to Myrtle Beach the next morning. We also caught a little baseball action in Myrtle Beach, seeing a Pelicans game (the Pelicans are the Braves’ high-A team). It was a good trip and a good way to spend the last week before school. Here is my report from the Tuesday August 19th Crawdads game:

There was an announced crowd of 976 at L.P. Frans Stadium but there couldn’t have been more than 300 people in the stands. The Crawdads beat the team that must have the lamest team name (Drive) in the South Atlantic League. Cody Podraza went 2-for-5 with an RBI, and he was very aggressive on the base paths. He got on in the 1st after working an 8-pitch single. He then stole 2nd off the Drive catcher, who for the evening bounced 3 out of his 5 throws to 2nd base (and most of his warm-ups too). He took 3rd when the catcher's throw to 2nd just barely trickled by the 2nd baseman, when most players would have just stayed at 2nd. He also advanced from 1st to 3rd on an error by the 3rd baseman, where the ball didn't go far at all from bag, and just made it safely.

After Matt West made a two-base error on a ball that went right through his legs, he made up for it by getting an RBI single to cut the lead in half, which Eric Fry then turned into a tie game in the very next at-bat with an RBI single.

In the 9th inning, when the Crawdads were down 5-2, Cody Podraza singled in Leonel De Los Santos with one out to make it a 5-3 lead for the Drive. Podraza then stole 2nd again, followed by a Michael Hollander walk. Pinch-hitter Edward Koncel then struck out on three terrible pitches. Cristian Santana then came up and, with a 3-2 count and the team down to its final strike, he hit a no-doubt-about-it walk-off home run over the left field fence to end the game at 6-5 Crawdads.

Jared Bolden went 3-for-4 with 2 stolen bases in the game.

Jake Brigham started the game and went only 5 innings, allowing 3 runs, all earned, on 6 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 3. Carlos Pimentel then came in and pitched 4 very solid innings. He allowed 2 runs, but neither of them were earned, as in the 8th, Eric Fry, the RF, and Michael Hollander, the 2B, had a near collision that turned an out into a double, followed by a bloop single, and a ball thrown away to let the runner on 1st to go to 2nd, leaving men on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. He then got two outs, leaving both runners right where they were. He followed that by inducing a ground ball that would have gotten him out of the inning, but Michael Hollander booted it, costing the Crawdads two runs, on his 2nd rough play of the inning.

If it weren't for a perfect throw from Cristian Santana to nail a runner at home in the 9th to end the inning, he never would have been able to hit his walk-off home run.

Interesting facts about watching a game at the Crawdads’ stadium:
- Cristian Santana has the worst walk-up music ever. And this is on a team that, as a whole, has the worst walk-up music ever. Only two players have walk-up songs that aren’t painful.
-After the 5th inning, they have every kid in the entire stadium run across the outfield. I don't get the point of it, really.
-They have 56 ads on the outfield wall.
-If I counted right, 91 Crawdads have made the majors including: Jim Abbott, Chad Bradford, Joe Crede, Brendan Donnelly, Jon Garland, Adam LaRoche, Carlos Lee, Nate McLouth, Aaron Myette, Magglio Ordonez, Pete Rose Jr., Aaron Rowand, Chris Shelton, and Chris Young.
- The stadium is named after the founder of the Pepsi company.

Come back next week for a playoff race special.

#26-30 All-Time Rangers List

This week I will give numbers 26-30 on my Top 50 All-Time Ranger List. See my June 14th entry for the previous installment.

30. Rick Helling: 68-51, 1008 IP, 687 K, .571 W%, 4.86 ERA, 20-Game Winner (‘98), T-Win Leader (‘98)

Rick is 4th in winning percentage among Rangers pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched, and 2nd among starters with at least 500 IP. That’s pretty good by itself, but it’s even better when you’re 5th in team history in wins, 8th in innings pitched, and 8th in strikeouts. He also was tied (with Roger Clemens) for the league lead in wins in 1998 with 20. He helped lead the Rangers to the division title in 1998 and 1999 and pitched reasonably well in two losses to the Yankees, with quality starts in both games. The only think holding him back from moving up on this list is his ERA, which is 4.86, which is just 42nd in team history among pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched.

29. Danny Darwin: 224 G, 55-52, 872 IP, 566 K, 3.72 ERA

Danny is 8th in team history in wins with 55, even though he was only a starter in 3 of his 8 seasons as a Ranger. But when he did start, he went the whole way 22.3 percent of the time, which is very, very, very good. He is also 14th in appearances, 10th in innings pitched, and 10th in strikeouts. Not to mention the fact that he is 7th in ERA among pitchers with a minimum of 400 innings pitched.

28. Jose Guzman: 66 W, 24 CG, 1013.2 IP, 715 K, 66-62, 3.90 ERA

Jose is 7th in Rangers history in wins with 66, only two behind Rick Helling, but in 7 less starts. He also has a very good ERA as a Ranger at 3.90, 14th in team history among pitchers with 400 innings pitched or more in their Rangers career. He also has 24 complete games as a Ranger, which ranks 9th in the Rangers record books. And don’t forget that he is 6th in innings pitched and 7th in strikeouts, so that just adds on to an already solid resume.

27. Francisco Cordero: 49 saves in a season, 356 G (3rd), 117 saves (3rd), 21-20, 3.45 ERA, 393 K, 297 IP, All-Star (‘04)

Co-Co Cordero is 3rd in both games and saves in Rangers history, and the 4th place Ranger in saves is nowhere close, 34 saves behind Cordero. Cordero also had 49 saves in 2004, only 4 behind Mariano Rivera for the major league lead in saves that season. He also made the All-Star team that season. He had a winning record as a Ranger, with a record of 21-20, and has 393 strikeouts in only 297 innings pitched, 11.9 strikeouts per every 9 innings pitched, which is a great rate.

26. Jeff Russell: 445 G (2nd), 134 saves (2nd), 3.73 ERA, 42-40, Rolaids Fireman of Year (‘89), All-Star (‘88, ‘89), Save-Leader (‘89)

Jeff Russell had a great Ranger career, ranking 2nd in both games and saves, behind only Kenny Rogers in appearances, and behind only John Wetteland in saves (only 16 saves back). He also won the Rolaids Fireman of the Year Award in 1989, was an All-Star in both 1988 and 1989, and was the AL saves leader in 1989 with 38. He also had 42 wins as a Ranger in his career, a pretty high number for a closer. He is 8th in ERA in team history among all players with at least 400 career innings pitched as a Ranger. He was also an important part of the bullpen in 1996, in his second stint as a Ranger, helping the team win their first division title.

I will be taking next week off, so come back in two weeks for my August Awards.

Myrtle Beach Trip Report

Last month my grandparents and I took a road trip to Myrtle Beach and stopped and saw some baseball on the way there and the way back. This week I’ll describe the baseball-related parts of the trip.

Birmingham Barons:

We left on July 9th and that day we drove to Birmingham and then saw a Barons game that night. The Barons are a double-A affiliate of the White Sox. The stadium (Regions Park) is very nice. It has a cool look to it on the outside and some nice history inside of it. On every entrance from the concourse to the seating area they have a picture of a player who had played baseball in Birmingham and some info about them, such as:
Michael Jordan
Frank Thomas
Willie Mays
Joe Crede
Bobby Jenks
Robin Ventura
Bo Jackson
Reggie Jackson

They also had some others that I had never heard of. The only bad thing I have to say about the stadium is that they have too many ads. They have two layers of them all around the outfield wall. They have some on the back wall. They even have ads as between-inning entertainment, and they have sponsors for the foul balls. So every time a foul ball was hit, the PA announcer would say something like “That foul ball is brought to you by AAA Batteries.” They also have horrible hot dogs. That had to be one of the worst hot dogs I’ve ever had, so if you go to see a Barons game, do not get a hot dog.

It was a good game. The Barons ended up beating the Mississippi Braves 7-3. The Braves’ #2 prospect (according to Baseball America), Jason Heyward went 1-for-3 with an RBI. The Braves’ #5 prospect, Freddie Freeman went 0-2 with a run and two walks, while the White Sox’ #5 prospect Jordan Danks (yes, he is John Danks’ brother) went 0-5 with two strikeouts. The Braves’ pitcher, Kyle Cofield had a no-hitter through three innings and looked great, but then lost it and ended up giving up 7 runs, all earned, on five hits and five walks in just 4.2 innings, raising his ERA to 4.00. Justin Cassel picked up the win for the Barons, as he went 7 innings, allowing 3 runs, only two of them earned, but he somehow managed to get no strikeouts. CJ Retherford had a good game for the Barons, going 1-2 with 3 RBI’s.
The Barons had some very interesting fans. In the section behind us there was a man who would just randomly start barking like a dog. Also, they shot out toy rockets to the fans one inning. One fan then turned around and shot his into the Barons dugout, and another shot his onto the field during the game.


Winston-Salem Dash:

The next day we drove up to Winston-Salem to see some relatives (my granddad’s brother Herb and his wife Annette), and while we were there we saw a Dash game (the Dash are also affiliated with the White Sox, their High A team). They played the Lynchburg Hillcats (affiliated with the Pirates). The Dash play at Ernie Shore Field also known as Wake Forest Baseball Park also known as some other name I can’t remember. The stadium is very, very old. My granddad saw a game there as a kid 50 years ago, when the Yankees with Mickey Mantle came to town for an exhibition game. They were supposed to have a new stadium this year that looked like it will be really nice, but it had some complications so it won’t open until next year.

It is a very small stadium, but we had great seats, as we were only four rows behind home plate. The game wasn’t so good, though, and it was very long. The Dash starting pitcher, Justin Edwards, was horrible. He allowed 8 runs, all earned, on 9 hits and 2 walks in just 2.1 innings. The White Sox didn’t have any of their top prospects playing in this game. Tyler Kuhn had a good game for them, though, as he went 2-4 with 2 RBI’s. The Pirates didn’t have any of their top prospects in this game, either. Matt McSwain, the starting pitcher for the Hillcats in this game, didn’t fare too well, either, as he allowed all 6 of the runs that the Dash scored in just 5 innings pitched, and allowed 9 hits. The bullpen for the Hillcats then threw 4 innings, and allowed only one baserunner. Chase d’Arnaud hit a grand slam in the 3rd inning. Matt Hague also hit a home run for Lynchburg in the game. The Dash ended up losing 12-6.


Myrtle Beach Pelicans:

After visiting some more relatives in Elkin (my grandma’s sister Margaret and some of Margaret’s kids and grandkids) and then spending a week at the beach, we went to a Myrtle Beach Pelicans game on our 2nd to last day before we started the drive back. They play at BB&T Coastal Field and are also affiliated with the Atlanta Braves (their High A team). They were playing the Dash. They have a very nice stadium, and I go to see the Pelicans every time I go to Myrtle Beach.

Once again, we had great seats, this time only two rows behind home plate, and with a very nice scout behind us that we talked to throughout the game. The game took forever, as it had been an hour by the time the 2nd inning was over, and an hour and a half halfway through the 3rd. Once again, the Dash had none of the organization’s top 10 prospects in the game. But the Pelicans had some of theirs. Their starting pitcher for the game, Cole Rohrbough, is the Braves’ #5 prospect (according to Baseball America). He lasted only 5.2 innings, and allowed 5 runs, 4 earned, on 8 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 6. Craig Kimbrel, the Braves’ #10 prospect, also pitched in the game, and he also struggled, picking up the loss in two-thirds of an inning of relief where he allowed one run on one hit in the 11th. The Dash starting pitcher lasted just 1.2 innings, giving up 3 runs, but only 1 hit, as he walked 6 and must have thrown about 80 pitches. The game lasted 11 innings, but we only stayed for 6 and a half because the game lasted for sooooooooo long. The game ended up lasting 4 hours and 18 minutes.

Also, in the top of the 2nd inning, Salvador Sanchez of the Dash called time during the pitcher’s wind-up, and the pitcher then threw the ball straight at him even after he had stepped out of the batter’s box. And then in the bottom of the 2nd, the Dash pitcher had 2 outs and nobody on, and then did this:
-Walk
-Walk
-Hit by Pitch
-Walk to Score a Run
-Walk to Score a Run
After that he was taken out. Then later, in the 5th inning, that same Pelicans pitcher hit two batters (so either he has an anger problem or a control problem).


Atlanta Braves:

On our drive back home, we stopped in Atlanta to see a Braves game. They were playing the San Francisco Giants that night. Turner Field is really, really nice. I had been there once before with my parents but I was only two years old at the time so it was like I was going for the first time. It has Monument Grove outside the stadium, which has statues of former Braves players (like Hank Aaron) and all their retired numbers with information about each player. Also, in the parking lot they have the old stadium’s basepaths marked and the part of the wall where Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run was hit (with a big 715 on it). So even before you step inside, the stadium’s really cool.

And then when we got into the stadium, a man who works for the Braves came up to us and asked us what we wanted to do. So we said we wanted to meet the players, and he took us down on the field for batting practice with about 30 other people, which was awesome. We got to stand behind a rope on the field right behind the batting cage and watch the Braves and then the Giants take BP. We were down there for about an hour. Apparently they do this every game and you can pay $50 to go down there, but we got to do it for free (I’m guessing because they hadn’t sold all of the spaces for that game), which is even better.

After watching batting practice, we went to the Braves Museum and Hall of Fame. It is really nice, and if you go to a Braves game, you should definitely go into the museum. They have all kinds of history about the Braves, from when they were in Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta. It’s very well done.

The game had a really good pitching match-up. For the Braves it was their #1 prospect Tommy Hanson pitching, and for the Giants it was Jonathon Sanchez in his first start after throwing his no-hitter. Hanson struck out 11 and allowed 3 runs in 7 innings, while Sanchez got 8 strikeouts while allowing 3 runs in 6 innings. In the top of the 2nd, Randy Winn had a two-RBI double to put the Giants up 2-0. But in the bottom of the inning, Garrett Anderson hit a solo home run, his 7th, to cut the lead down to 2-1. Then in the bottom of the 3rd, the Braves scored two more on Chipper Jones’ 11th home run of the year that put the braves up 3-2. In the 7th inning, the Giants tied it up at 3 on a Aaron Rowand sacrifice fly that scored Juan Uribe. But in the bottom half of that same inning the Braves scored 6 runs. Matt Diaz hit a 2-RBI triple to score Yunel Escobar and Garrett Anderson with still no out in the inning to bring up Casey Kotchman, who then singled Diaz home. The very next batter was pinch-hitter Ryan Church who came off the bench and hit a two-run home run, his 3rd of the year and 1st as an Atlanta Brave. Later in the inning Brian McCann drove in Nate McLouth with an RBI single to give the Braves a 9-3 lead. Then in the bottom of the 8th, the Braves scored two more runs, one on a Ryan Church RBI single, and another on a Nate McLouth sacrifice fly. The Braves ended up winning the game 11-3. Tommy Hanson got the win to improve his record to 5-0, while Sergio Romo got the loss, to make him 2-1 on the year.


Rickwood Field:

On our last day of driving before getting home, we stopped in Birmingham to tour Rickwood Field, which is an old Negro League ballpark that was used by the Black Barons and is still standing and kept up. It was built in 1910 and is the oldest standing ballpark in the US. The minor league Barons play one game a year there, called the Rickwood Classic, and the rest of the time the stadium is open for people to go in and see it. They have a self-guided tour brochure that helps you know what all to see. It is really awesome that they still keep it standing and in good shape and that they let people go in and see it. They still have all of the old signs on the outfield walls, so it’s fun to look out and see the 1950’s advertisements. They also have the same scoreboard as they used to and they keep the field open, so you can just walk right out onto the playing field. It has to be one of the better old ballpark sites around, if not the best (which I think it must be). I’m really glad I was able to do it, and if you’re ever going to be going through Birmingham, you should definitely go check it out.

It was a great trip and I would like to thank my grandparents for taking me.

Come back next week for #26-30 on my All-Time Rangers List.

Newberg Report Night Summary

Last night was Newberg Report Night at the ballpark. As always, it was lots of fun and Jamey did a good job of putting it together. I would like to thank Jamey Newberg and Eleanor Czajka for making it happen, and Will Carroll, Kevin Goldstein, and Jon Daniels for doing the Q&A sessions.

The Q&A sessions were held in the Legends of the Game Museum’s theater like usual. We got there at about 2:45 and went on up to the theatre. Will Carroll and Kevin Goldstein (both from Baseball Prospectus) were the first guests and were already up there hanging out when we arrived, even though they weren’t supposed to start until 4:00. They started taking questions at about 3:00 and went for 90 minutes. Will was great as always. This was the first time I had met Kevin. Both of them seem to know everything that’s going on in baseball and they’re funny too.

Here are some of the questions that I asked and their answers:

Q: What was the strategy of the Mariners and Reds at the trading deadline, when they both traded prospects for veterans, and then traded veterans for prospects?
A: Mariners: They have a long-term strategy, and they think that the Mariners are way ahead of where they thought they would be, although Will and Kevin are still trying to figure out the Jack Wilson trade.
Reds: They don’t understand what the Reds did with getting Scott Rolen. They said that they are confused by it and that the Reds got him because they could for a reasonably cheap price, even though Kevin wonders what it does for the team.

Q: What was the most surprising trade to you?
A: The Jake Peavy trade because nobody saw it coming and there were no rumors whatsoever. They also said that it might be the best trade and that it came so quickly, they didn’t even talk to the medical people because apparently this deal got done in minutes.

Q: What teams do you think are best at starting pitching and relief pitching?
A: Starting Pitching: Red Sox and Giants
Relief Pitching: Brewers

Will and Kevin also said that if the Rangers traded Neftali Feliz, Tommy Hunter, Wilfredo Boscan, and Thomas Diamond, it would be about the equivalent of what the White Sox gave up for Peavy, and if the Rangers traded Wilfredo Boscan and Tommy Hunter, it would be about the equivalent of what the Tigers gave up for Jarrod Washburn. Kevin also said that he could see Justin Smoak and Kasey Kiker coming up to the majors around this time next year.

After the Will and Kevin Q&A, Jamey auctioned off some prizes, with proceeds going to the Hello Win Column Fund. They raised thousands of dollars, which was great. There were two items that were very exciting for me personally. First, I won an inning in the TV booth with Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve! That was awesome. Second, I had donated one of the items for auction (a baseball with autographs from a lot of different Rangers players) and it went for $200.

Then, at 5:00, Jon Daniels came in and did 90 minutes of Q&A. When Jon kicked off the Q&A he said ‘I typically open up with Grant but his questions are usually a little challenging so I’m going to warm up with a few others first.’

I was able to ask the following three questions:

Q: Can you please name 3-5 minor leaguers who are most likely to be called up and have an impact on this year’s pennant race, including at least one who’s not currently on the 40-man roster?
A: ‘A handful of guys have the chance to play some role for us either as part of a September call-up or earlier. I think guys like Julio Borbon, Doug Mathis, and Guillermo Moscoso have done nice jobs while they’ve been up here. I think (Neftali) Feliz is certainly an option. Esteban German has had a very good year for us. I think he has the chance to help us in some regard. He’d be a nice guy for any contending club to have on their bench down the stretch.’ (Note that Mathis and Feliz were activated for that evening’s game.)

Q: The Rangers have managed to remove a number of players from their 40-man roster over the last couple of years, get them through waivers, reassign them to the minors, and then repurchase their contracts later to help the major league team, like Nelson Cruz and Doug Mathis. Is there a key to the timing of these moves that increases your chances of keeping the player?
A: ‘Absolutely. Nelson Cruz cleared waivers right at the beginning of the season. That’s the toughest time to claim a guy on waivers just because you have your roster set, your big league club’s set, and you’re breaking camp. Unless it’s a slam dunk upgrade, everyone just says ‘hey, let’s go with our own’ rather than taking someone else’s discard. So I think that’s probably the easiest time to slide a guy through waivers. Mathis was a non-tender re-sign. In that situation, it’s basically explaining to the player the options and, if they agree to resign with you at that point, you can give them some things that they might not get as free agents. That’s more of a leverage situation than anything.’

Q: Can you name three Rangers prospects that are not on most people’s radars who have made their way onto your radar?
A: ‘I’ll put (Jurickson) Profar on there. I’ll put Leury Garcia on there, shortstop at Hickory. And I’ll put Tim Murphy on there.’

Other interesting comments from Jon in answer to questions:
· After receiving a huge round of applause when someone thanked him for not trading some of the guys that were rumored to be traded, Jon said ‘I’ll do nothing more often. That was awesome.’
· Jon was asked why he didn’t wait a month or so to promote Elvis so that he could keep control of him for an extra year. He said that they looked at it and talked about it but it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. To tell Elvis that he’s the shortstop but that they were going to wait a few weeks because they wanted to exploit his arbitration eligibility didn’t feel right. There are certain times you make business decisions and separate your emotions from those decisions, but they were telling this 20-year old kid that they believed in him and he would be a big part of the club. Plus they were telling the players on the big league club ‘Hey, trust us on this’. He felt it would have been talking out of both sides of their mouth. They would rather deal with the financial consequences than create a potentially divisive situation.
· When asked about the media not giving much coverage to the Rangers, he said that he doesn’t totally buy into it just being because Dallas is a football town. A lot of it is because the Rangers haven’t won to create the fan base and interest. He feels that the media will cover whoever the fans tell them to cover.
· They’re still watching Ben Sheets to see if he’s an option for next year.
· When asked if the starting center fielder for next year is in the organization, he said that candidates internally are Hamilton, Byrd, and Borbon. He feels that one of them will very likely be starting for the Rangers in center field next year.
· When asked why Borbon was brought up earlier this year if he wasn’t going to play, Jon said that he doesn’t completely buy into the philosophy that you shouldn’t call a top prospect up if he isn’t going to play every day. He feels that Borbon got a lot out of the experience.
· He typically goes out to see the A clubs once per year. He sees Frisco and Oklahoma City more often.
· 90% of trade rumors reported are inaccurate.
· When asked who would be called up if Salty or Teagarden were hurt, Jon said that Max Ramirez would be recovered from his injury soon. Manny Pina would also be considered, especially since he’s Rule 5 eligible this year. Richardson and Frostad could also do the job in the short term.
· Main internal candidates for the starting rotation next season are Kevin Millwood (he expects him to vest his option), Scott Feldman, Vicente Padilla (the club has an option on him), Matt Harrison, Brandon McCarthy, Derek Holland, and Tommy Hunter. Others in the mix are Neftali Feliz, Dustin Nippert, Guillermo Moscoso, and Doug Mathis. The position will be high on the list of priorities during the off season.
· When asked if it bothers him when a player like Halladay doesn’t want to come to Texas, he said that it does a little bit but that it’s sort of like his answer about media coverage. The team needs to win first and then people will be more interested in coming here.
· The cost to put a dome on the ballpark is prohibitive plus the ballpark wasn’t engineered to facilitate something like that. There’s a company that said they can put a screen over the park to lower the temperature 10 degrees. But odds are that there’s really not a realistic option to help with the heat.
· Benoit is throwing. There’s a chance he could be back in September but it’s unlikely.
· People need to keep in mind that Josh Hamilton is still recovering from surgery.
· They’re not trying to preach a philosophy of more pitches per plate appearance. He doesn’t think that it directly correlates to success. Getting a good pitch to hit is directly correlated to success.
· They’ve discussed moving McCarthy to the bullpen to ease the strain on his shoulder. They’re focusing on a starter’s routine during his rehab, which allows them to go either way with it. He’s pitched in the bullpen successfully in the big leagues. It will depend on what their needs are when he’s ready to come back.
· They’re not sure why Blake Beavan’s velocity is down but he’s 20 years old and time is on their side. They’re going to let him keep pitching and see if it improves.
· He would be in favor of moving the deadline for signing draft picks up to June 30th. It would be a challenge to sign them quicker but it would let them have the rest of the summer to focus on other things and also let the players start playing and getting on with their development sooner.
· Chris Davis is still very much in their plans. He will be a strong consideration for a September call-up, if not before then.
· Eric Hurley’s on pace to be 100% for spring training.
· Jurickson Profar will likely be developed as a position player not a pitcher. He thinks he’ll be one of the top shortstop position player prospects in the game.
· He expects that Tanner Scheppers would start out higher than Low-A to start his minor league career.
· Right now, Chris Davis is better defensively than Justin Smoak.

Like usual, Jon did a great job answering the questions and I would like to thank him for giving us so much of his time.

After the Daniels Q&A, we went to our seats for the game. I got to talk to Will, Kevin, Jamey, Eleanor, Scott and Courtney Lucas, and Barry Newberg a lot during the game (and Ted Price and Adam Morris a little too). It’s really cool to watch a game and talk baseball with all of those people.

It was a very good game, as the Rangers won 4-2. Scott Feldman picked up the win, to make him 10-4 on the season. He allowed 2 runs, both earned, on just 5 hits, and he lowered his ERA to 3.91 on the year. CJ Wilson picked up his 13th save on the year, on one of the strangest last outs I’ve seen. It was a 1-2 count with 2 outs and Jack Wilson at the plate, and CJ threw him a breaking ball in the dirt that he swung at, and the ball got away. But he thought that he tipped the ball, so he didn’t run. But Salty ran and got the ball and tagged Wilson out, as none of the umps saw him tip the ball.

The Rangers scored all of their runs on homers. In the bottom of the 1st, David Murphy crushed a ball into the upper home run porch to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Then, after the Mariners scored two runs in the top of the 6th, Michael Young hit a solo home run to tie the game at 2, which would change when Salty came up in the 7th, as he hit a two-run home run off the foul pole in right to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead, which would be the final score. And Scott Feldman’s 7 innings are even more noteworthy since he was pitching on short rest. That’s pretty good.

We didn’t get to see Feliz make his major league debut, but we did get to see him going to the bullpen before the game carrying a pink backpack.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone that made this happen. It was a blast.

Come back next week for a report of a recent baseball road trip I took.

July Awards

This week I will give my July Awards. The awards are for who I think should win if the season ended today.

Rangers:

MVP: Michael Young, TEX (.313 AVG, 13 HR, 39 RBI): Michael is the only Ranger with at least 300 AB’s to be hitting above .280, which is really pretty sorry. He also has a solid amount of home runs. I think that definitely makes him Rangers MVP.
Runner-up: Nelson Cruz, TEX (.268 AVG, 23 HR, 55 RBI)

Cy Young: Kevin Millwood, TEX (9-7, 3.44 ERA, 82 K): He is tied for the Rangers lead in wins, but leads the team in innings pitched, and leads the starters in ERA. I think that’s pretty deserving of being the Rangers Cy Young.
Runner-up: Scott Feldman, TEX (9-3, 3.59 ERA, 53 K)

Rookie of the Year: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.254 AVG, 3 HR, 17 RBI): He’s my Runner-up of AL ROY and he’s definitely my Rangers ROY.
Runner-up: Darren O’Day, TEX (2-1, 1.99 ERA, 30 K)

AL:

MVP: Justin Morneau, MIN (.313 AVG, 24 HR, 79 RBI): Justin is leading the American League in RBI’s, is tied for 3rd in home runs, and is hitting over .310. He’s also struck out just 11 more times than he has walked. He’s the only top 10 home run hitter in the AL hitting over .290. That, to me, makes him an easy choice for AL MVP through July.
Runner-up: Miguel Cabrera, DET

Cy Young: Zack Greinke, KC (10-6, 2.04 ERA, 146 K): Even though he’s fallen to a tie for seventh in wins with only ten, he is still 1st in ERA by 0.41 points. That’s a pretty large margin, not to mention the fact that he is tied for 2nd in the AL in strikeouts.
Runner-up: Felix Hernandez, SEA (11-3, 2.45 ERA, 137 K)

Rookie of the Year: Jeff Niemann, TB (9-4, 3.61 ERA, 59 K): Jeff is tied for 11th in the AL in wins with an ERA well below 4.00, which ranks 15th in the AL. With his weak competition, to me, he’s pretty obviously ROY so far.
Runner-up: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.254 AVG, 3 HR, 17 RBI)

Comeback Player of the Year: Jarrod Washburn, SEA (8-6, 2.71 ERA, 78 K): Jarrod went 5-14 with an ERA over 4.50 last year, striking out only 87 batters all season long in 153.2 innings pitched. This year he is 8-6 and is 5th in ERA with 78 strikeouts.
Runner-up: Victor Martinez, CLE (.287 AVG, 14 HR, 64 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Jim Leyland, DET (52-44, 1st place): This year the Tigers have gone from last place last year to first place this year. That is pretty deserving of Manager of the Year.
Runner-up: Ron Washington, TEX (53-42, 2nd place)

NL:

MVP: Albert Pujols, STL (.325 AVG, 34 HR, 91 RBI): Albert is going for the NL triple crown, and is only two spots away in batting average from doing so. I think when you’re doing that, you have to be the MVP, no matter how good the other players in the league are doing.
Runner-up: Prince Fielder, MIL (.308 AVG, 24 HR, 86 RBI)

Cy Young: Matt Cain, SF (12-2, 2.27 ERA, 108 K): Even though Matt is only 14th in the National League in strikeouts with 108, he is tied for first in wins with 12 and 2nd in ERA. In my opinion, he is the most balanced pitcher among all three stats and deserves the Cy Young Award.
Runner-up: Tim Lincecum, SF (10-3, 2.45 ERA, 168 K)

Rookie of the Year: Pablo Sandoval, SF (.324 AVG, 15 HR, 58 RBI): Pablo is 4th in the NL in batting average, which, if that was all he did, should get him ROY, anyways. But that’s not all he does, as he’s also tied for 21st in RBI’s and tied for 22nd in home runs.
Runner-up: JA Happ, PHI (7-1, 2.97 ERA, 71 K)

Comeback Player of the Year: Todd Helton, COL (.321 AVG, 11 HR, 60 RBI): Todd was injured for much of last year, but is still hitting 57 points higher than last, and has hit 4 more home runs and gotten 31 more RBI’s than last year in only 7 more games.
Runner-up: Felipe Lopez, MIL (.306 AVG, 6 HR, 25 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy, COL (35-15, 2nd place): Since Tracy took over as Rockies manager, he has been 35-15, and has taken them from 18-29 to the NL Wild Card leader. That’s a pretty good coaching job there.
Runner-up: Bruce Bochy, SF (52-45, 3rd place)

Come back next week for a summary of Newberg Night at the ballpark. Since Newberg Night is not until Sunday, next week’s post will be out a day later than usual, on Monday.

T.R. Sullivan Interview

On July 7th, I interviewed MLB.com reporter and Rangers beat writer T.R. Sullivan. TR does great work covering the Rangers for MLB.com and you can read his articles on texasrangers.com. He also writes one of my favorite Rangers blogs, Postcards from Elysian Fields (http://trsullivan.mlblogs.com/). TR has written a book, with Mel Didier, called ‘Podnuh, Let Me Tell You a Story’, which I’ve read and recommend. You can buy it at http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3002543. TR is a friend of mine and has helped me a lot over the last few years since I started writing this blog. I would like to thank TR for taking the time for this interview.

Me: When did you decide that you wanted to cover sports for a living?

TR: I went to the University of San Francisco as a business major. When I came home for the summer after my freshman year, my father and I were casually talking in the kitchen one day. He looked out the window and simply said, “With your knowledge of sports, you should be a sportswriter.” I didn’t say anything back. But I agreed with him and when I went back to school, I joined the school newspaper.

Me: How did you prepare yourself to be a journalist?

TR: I only had one journalism class in school but I worked on the school newspaper for three years. I read newspapers, mainly the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sporting News, and I studied the work of many great sportswriters. The three best were Glenn Dickey of the San Francisco Chronicle, Jimmy Cannon from New York and of course Peter Gammons. When I got to Texas, there were many good ones to study including Jim Reeves, Randy Galloway, Gil LeBreton, Blackie Sherrod and many others. My all-time journalism hero is Dan Rather of CBS. I loved his book, ‘The Camera Never Blinks’. It’s my journalism bible.

Me: What led you to working at the Fort-Worth Star Telegram?

TR: My first job was at the Denison Herald, a small town on the Red River. I loved it there but after four years, I wanted to move to a bigger paper. With my future wife Helen’s help, I sent my resume and clips to 17 papers in Texas and Oklahoma. The Star-Telegram hired me in 1985 to do high school statistics for them.

Me: What led to you leaving the newspaper business to work for mlb.com?

TR: It was made clear to me at the Star-Telegram that they wanted me to cover the Rangers forever. That was fine with me but I decided that if I was going to do that, I should do it for an Internet company and one that would ensure my family’s future.

Me: What are the major differences between writing for MLB.com versus the newspaper?

TR: Not much, other than the deadlines are easier working for MLB.Com. In both places, there are good and bad, but I pretty much write the same way for both entities. The three things I miss about the newspaper is that many old-time baseball guys don’t read me as much, I can’t help cover other sports in the winter, and I don’t have columnists behind me. Plus I really love the city of Fort Worth.

Me: What is a typical day like in your job?

TR: Usually I am at the Ballpark at 2 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game. But there are a lot of phone calls, e-mails and text messages sent all through the day, plus surfing the Internet. The clubhouse is open at 3:30 to interview players and we usually talk to Ron Washington at 4:15 or so. From 5-7 p.m. I am writing my pre-game stuff. After the game, it’s another 60-90 minutes of writing before I head home. I usually get home after midnight.

Me: What are the three most fun things about your job?

TR: 1. Watching a Major League baseball game every night. After 21 years, that never gets old.
2. Covering big events like the All-Star Game and World Series, or watching a historical event like a no-hitter. I miss covering the World Series with Jim Reeves at the Star-Telegram.
3. Hanging out with writers from other cities. I am fortunate to have a great group of colleagues at MLB.com and many friends at other newspapers. Plus guys around here like Jeff Wilson, Anthony Andro and my old pal Evan Grant.

Me: What are the three toughest things about your job?

TR: 1. Standing around a Major League clubhouse waiting to talk to players. I like interviewing players but there is an awful amount of time standing around and waiting for people. I hate that worse than anything in my life. After 21 years, I am still very uncomfortable walking into a Major League clubhouse.
2. Stupid mistakes in my stories like misspellings. All writers do it but it still bothers me greatly.
3. Being away from my family, especially during Spring Training. I love the regular season – 162 is my favorite number - but I’m not a big fan of Spring Training. Much of the stuff written in Spring Training ends up being totally irrelevant once the season starts.

Me: How has the sports writing business changed since you started your career as a journalist?

TR: The internet changed everything. Now you have to rush everything onto the Internet rather than do a much more thorough job of reporting. Blogs also changed everything. Opinion, commentary and promotion have become more important than journalism. Fan blogs like you, Jamey and Eleanor are great – a huge boost for the game and fun to read - but too many “professional” journalists in all areas prefer the shrill of blogging to old-fashioned journalism.

The other thing has been the proliferation of statistics. That’s not a bad thing but what bothers me greatly is the disdain that numbers crunchers and baseball writers have for each other. It’s like both sides consider themselves far smarter and far superior to the other side instead of mutual respect.

Me: What is your best memory of being a journalist?

TR: Having the honor as BBWAA President of inducting Peter Gammons into the Hall of Fame in 2005 in Cooperstown. I remember standing in the tent behind the stage waiting for the event to begin. There were Peter, myself, a couple of Hall of Fame officials and 50 of the greatest baseball players in history. Nobody else.

Me: What is the most fun season you’ve covered and why?

TR: The 1996 season – the first division title – was far and away the best season ever.

Me: What is the most fun game you’ve covered and why?

The four division series games against the Yankees in 1996. Those were the four best games I’ve ever watched. I have never been so caught up in a baseball game as I was for those four games. I didn’t want that series to end.

Me: Which players have been the most fun to interview and why?

TR: He’s not a player but I enjoyed talking to Doug Melvin more than anybody. When the Rangers trained in Port Charlotte, I used to do my work in a work room just down the hall from Doug’s office. Late in the day, after everybody had gone home, he would come by and we’d talk baseball for an hour or so. Every day. We’d talk about what I was writing, what was going on with the Rangers and what was happening in baseball. Right now, I follow the Brewers very closely.

Me: What would be your advice to someone who wants to get into sports journalism?

TR: Read as much as possible and learn to ask good questions. You’d be surprised some of the terrible questions asked of people. Dan Rather said that good journalists should spend their time crafting good questions in their heads. I tell young reporters to always have good questions ready because you never known when you’ll have access to somebody.

Me: What do the Rangers need to do to win the division this year?

TR: Beyond maintaining what has gone well so far, I think they need a strong second half from Vicente Padilla, Hank Blalock and Josh Hamilton. They need the bullpen to hold up. They need one more starter to emerge.

Me: What do you think the Rangers need to do at the trading deadline?

TR: I’ve heard they want a right-handed bat, a right-handed reliever and another starting pitcher. If they can make one big trade, I would prefer it be for a starting pitcher.

Me: With all of the praise for the Rangers farm system, it seems like they might be poised for a long-term run of success. What’s your opinion on that and what do they need to do to turn that potential into reality?

TR: I think they have a tendency to rush players through the system and to the big leagues before they are ready. Certainly there have been players like Mark Teixeira and Ivan Rodriguez who have flourished but that still bothers me. I was once told young players should get 2,000 at-bats or 500 innings in the minors before coming to the big leagues. I think that’s a good benchmark.

Me: Who are the next players in the Rangers’ minor league system that will make an impact with the Rangers at the major league level?

TR: I’ve heard great things – who hasn’t - about Martin Perez at Class A Hickory but I don’t consider anybody a serious prospect until they succeed at the Double A level. I think Neftali Feliz and Julio Borbon are the closest. Personally I really like catcher Manuel Pina and pitcher Omar Poveda. I was impressed with Poveda in Spring Training.

Me: How will the Rangers make room for Justin Smoak when he’s ready?

TR: Hank Blalock is a free agent at the end of the season. If the Rangers don’t re-sign him, I think that will take care of that issue.

Me: Do you think Josh Hamilton should move to one of the corner outfield spots long term? If so, who’s the Rangers’ center fielder of the future?

TR: Borbon is the early favorite to be the Rangers center fielder of the future but I would still try to keep Marlon Byrd when he becomes a free agent. Yes, Hamilton should move to one of the corners.

Me: Who do you think should be the Rangers’ closer?

TR: You can’t go wrong either way but I’d say Frank Francisco because C.J. Wilson can go multiple innings earlier in the game.

Me: Which Rangers do you think should have made the All-Star team that did not make it?

TR: Kevin Millwood, although I am a great admirer of Tim Wakefield. I don’t think people realize how close Scott Feldman came to putting up the kind of numbers that would have deserved at least consideration. If he had started the season in the rotation…

Me: What was your favorite team growing up and why?

TR: The Boston Red Sox. My all-time favorite player was Carl Yastrzemski. My dad was from Massachusetts and I was eight years old when the Red Sox won the pennant in 1967. That’s when I really fell in love with baseball. Yastrzemski’s season in 1967 is the single greatest ever by a Major League player.

Me: Did you play baseball growing up? If so, for how long and at what position?

TR: I played first base and outfield into high school. I got to try out with the Cincinnati Reds and didn’t do well. I was a much better softball player than a baseball player.

I would like to thank TR again for giving me so much of his time and for the great answers.

Come back next week for a trade deadline special.

Anthony Andro Interview

On June 29th, I interviewed Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Anthony Andro. Anthony is one of the beat writers for the Rangers and his material is now carried in the Dallas Morning News as well. He also does a blog with Jeff Wilson at http://startelegramsports.typepad.com/foul_territory/. Anthony does great work and I’ve really enjoyed getting to read his Rangers coverage in the Morning News. I would like to thank him for giving me so much of his time for this interview.

Me: When did you decide that you wanted to cover sports for a living?

Anthony: Probably when I was sixteen, when I was a junior in high school. I started working for my school paper in Plano and then I started working for the city paper in Plano when I was about seventeen. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since.

Me: Did you cover sports for your school paper and the city paper in Plano?

Anthony: That’s all I covered. The name of the school paper at Plano East was The Panther Print and then I also covered sports for the Plano Star-Courier. They used me on weekends. And then my senior year of high school, I was the sports editor at the school paper and I worked for the city paper then as well.

Me: That’s pretty cool.

Anthony: Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Me: How did you prepare yourself to be a journalist?

Anthony: My major in college at Texas A&M was journalism and it was a lot of English. My minor was English because you obviously have to do a lot of writing. And I worked at the school paper at Texas A&M, The Battalion, for two years. I was a sports writer at The Battalion too. So from the time I was sixteen, all I’ve ever done is written sports. So when I graduated from college, I took a job as a sports writer in Port Arthur, which is a little town, and all I did there was cover sports. In a little town like that you cover everything. And then I went from Port Arthur to Fort Worth.

Me: Good school choice (A&M).

Anthony: Thanks.

Me: What led you to working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram?

Anthony: My wife was also a journalist and in 1999, she got a job offer from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. We were both in Port Arthur and so we basically found a job for me up here with the Home Town Star, which was a little community paper they used to do. So I came up here with her in 1999 and worked on the Home Town Star and then in 2000, they moved me over to the regular Star-Telegram ,working on high school sports.

Me: Is your wife still working for the newspaper?

Anthony: No, my wife’s a teacher. She quit the newspaper business last summer.

Me: Have you done anything different in your writing since your stories began being carried by The Dallas Morning News as well as the Star-Telegram?

Anthony: No, the way it works, whatever we write for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, the Morning News takes too, so we don’t get any assignments from the Dallas Morning News. Basically they just take whatever we write and they use that if they want to. They don’t have to use any of our stuff but it seems like they use almost all of it. We don’t get any assignments from them and they’re not allowed to assign us anything to do.

Me: What is a typical day like in your job?

Anthony: It depends. If it’s a Rangers home game, I get to the park about 3 o’clock and the locker room opens at 3:35 and we’re typically downstairs from about 3:35 until about 5 o’clock. And then we come upstairs and put a lot of stuff on the blog for both papers and then we have to do pregame notes for espn.com; we send in stuff to ESPN for them to use. Then we work from about 5 until 6 and then we eat and then at about 6:30 we sit down to get ready to watch the game. If I’m writing the lead, I wait until the game’s over to write my story. If I’m doing the notes and the spotlight, I write all that stuff during the game and normally have to send that in around 9:30. If we’re on the road, the Rangers hit later, so you arrive at the park at the same time but you’re at the locker room later. If I’m at a NASCAR race, it’s different because you’re at the track all day. You get to the track about 9 in the morning and you leave about 10 o’clock at night. So NASCAR’s a lot longer. That’s where I’m going Wednesday (July 1). I need to go to Orlando for the Daytona race this weekend.

Me: Which sport do you like covering better?

Anthony: I think the Rangers. I grew up in Plano and Richardson and I’ve always been a Rangers fan so I used to go to Rangers games as a kid. It’s a lot of fun for me now to get to cover the team I grew up watching. It’s cool to talk to Jim Sundberg, who used to be one of my favorite players when I was a kid. I get to talk to him almost every day now and it’s just different. So it’s a lot of fun to get to do something that you wanted to do your whole life.

Me: What are the three most fun things about your job?

Anthony: The number one thing is I get paid to watch baseball. You can’t beat that. The number two thing is probably interacting with players. This is my third year to do it, so you have an idea what they’re like and you get to know them a little better. And the third thing is the writing. Writing on deadline is a lot of fun. The pressure of doing it is a lot of fun.

Me: How long does it normally take you to write a story?

Anthony: If a game ends at 10 o’clock, we have to have the game story in by 11. A lot of the time, towards the end of the game, you’ll start writing it because you have a pretty good idea where the game is going, so you have a little bit of a head start. If the game ends at 10:45, you have 15 minutes to write it so you don’t always get quotes for the paper.

Me: Wow, that’s not much time.

Anthony: No but like I said, it’s one of the more fun things about it.

Me: What are the three toughest things about your job?

Anthony: Being away for spring training for six weeks, being away from your family, is tough. Also, it’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day – you do the same thing every day. You’re there at 3 o’clock, you’re in the locker room at 3:30, you watch baseball, so if you’re really not into doing that, I could see how it could get boring. And then the toughest thing now is the way the newspaper business is with layoffs and that kind of thing. There’s just a little bit of uncertainty in journalism and the newspaper business right now.

Me: How has the newspaper business changed since you started your career as a journalist?

Anthony: There’s a lot less people working the newspaper business because of all of the layoffs. The online stuff has changed everything because you don’t write for the morning paper a lot of the time anymore. You write for blogs and you like to get stuff online as quick as you can. It’s about breaking stories because it’s not an am news cycle anymore – it’s a 24-hour news cycle. So that’s probably the biggest change – you’re constantly writing stuff because you don’t want to get beat on something and because online you have the opportunity to break stuff a little easier.

Me: Do you like writing online or for the paper better?

Anthony: I think I still like writing for the paper better because it’s still fun to get up in the morning and get the paper and see your name in the paper. Online can be a little more gratifying because if you break something, you’re really first to have it out there. But the difference is, in the old days with the newspapers, if you beat somebody you could have the whole day before them. Now if you beat somebody online, you might only beat them by five minutes because they can see your story and they can chase for that same story.

Me: What is your best memory of being a journalist?

Anthony: The best memory for me was when I first started working in Fort Worth, one of the first things I covered was the Dallas Desperados, the Arena Football League team when they had their first year here, and I got called by Roger Staubach, who was my favorite athlete growing up. He called me on the phone and he said, ‘Hey Anthony, this is Roger Staubach’, and to me that was the coolest moment because you’re actually talking to someone who you grew up idolizing.

Me: Wow, that’s one more call from Roger Staubach than I have.

Anthony: (laughs)

Me: What is the most fun season you’ve covered and why?

Anthony: You know, this season has been a lot of fun just because the Rangers have been in first place so much. It’s a good clubhouse to deal with to begin with, but since they’re doing so well, they’ve had a lot more attention, which has made it a lot more fun. And everybody’s in a good mood when they’re winning, so it’s made it a lot of fun.

Me: What is the most fun game you’ve covered and why?

Anthony: The best game I ever covered was a high school basketball game when I was in Port Arthur. It was I think the 1995 Class 4A State Championship with Port Arthur Lincoln against Austin Anderson. They had Stephen Jackson, who plays for Golden State, on that team. There were like five guys who went on to play Division 1 college basketball. Also, it was an overtime game that Port Arthur Lincoln won. It was a great game.

Me: That’s some good talent there.

Anthony: Yep.

Me: Which players have been the most fun to interview and why?

Anthony: On the Rangers right now, the best guy to talk to is probably Eddie Guardado, just because he’s so funny. The best people for just honest answers are probably Kevin Millwood and Marlon Byrd because they’re just going to tell you how things really are. There’s not a bad interview in that clubhouse right now. But Eddie’s the most fun and Marlon and Kevin are going to be the most upfront people with you.

Me: What would be your advice to someone who wants to get into sports journalism?

Anthony: You have to be ready to be online. You have to know how to do different things with multi-media like shooting videos and putting audio online. You have to be ready to be very versatile. When I started I didn’t know how to do any of that stuff but now I shoot videos and we stick audio on there, stuff that I wouldn’t have even thought about doing a couple of years ago but that you have to do now. You just have to be prepared to be able to do a lot of different things.

Me: Do you like to do videos or just the sound bites more?

Anthony: Well the videos are fun. We had a lot of success with them in spring training when we shot a lot of batting practice and pitching videos. Readers seemed to like that a lot, so that made it fun. The audio clips are a lot of the same things we’ll use in the paper but the videos you’re only going to see online.

Me: What do the Rangers need to do to win the division this year?

Anthony: Before the season I would have said that they’d need to pitch better but right now their pitching is great. They’ve got to start being a little more consistent on offense. They’d probably tell you that too. They’re just not hitting the ball well as a team. Maybe when Josh Hamilton comes back that will be the difference, but as long as their pitching pitches like they have been and their defense stays steady, if they can find a way to hit, they can beat the Angels and Seattle pretty easily.

Me: What do you think the Rangers need to do at the trading deadline?

Anthony: Because of the way the payroll works out, I don’t think that they can do much. It may be calling up Neftali Feliz and a small move to get another arm in the bullpen. They’ve been really lucky with Darren O’Day and Jason Grilli, the guys they didn’t have to pay much to get at all, so that’s two good arms in the bullpen. If CJ’s good and Frankie’s good and Jason Jennings, that’s five solid arms in the bullpen, Maybe they need one more. Everybody needs starting pitching but I don’t know that they can afford to go out and get starting pitching. I wouldn’t trade away much to get it right now, that’s for sure.

Me: Speaking of CJ and Frankie, which one do you think is the better closer?

Anthony: I’ll tell you what, CJ’s looked really good this year and so has Frankie, so it’s a hard call. They’ve both looked so good. Right now, CJ’s pitching better, but Frankie’s still got to get some more innings under his belt. Frankie was the best closer in baseball I think the first month and a half of the season.

Me: With all of the praise for the Rangers farm system, it seems like they might be poised for a long-term run of success. What’s your opinion on that and what do they need to do to turn that potential into reality?

Anthony: I wouldn’t rush them. I wouldn’t rush Feliz, I wouldn’t rush Manny Pina, I wouldn’t rush Justin Smoak. Let those guys get their time in the minor leagues because you don’t want them to come up here and struggle. You want them to come up here and have the best chance at success that they possibly can. If you bring people up too early, that tends to mess people up. There’s no reason to rush it. Let things play out the way they’re supposed to play out and don’t push things.

Me: So if the Rangers traded Blalock, would you rather have them call up Smoak or someone else and what do you think they would do?

Anthony: Well, if they traded Blalock, I’m sure what they’d probably do is give Andruw Jones a lot of the DH at-bats and leave Chris Davis at first base. I don’t think they would call up Smoak. I don’t know what they would do, if they would bring up another outfielder or utility infielder, but I don’t see there’s a reason to call up Justin Smoak this year.

Me: Who are the next players in the Rangers’ minor league system that will make an impact with the Rangers at the major league level?

Anthony: The two obvious ones would be Smoak and Feliz. I’m sure Feliz will be up here sometime this year and probably pitching in the bullpen, so he could be that arm they need at the trade deadline. He could be like Joba Chamberlain was for the Yankees a few years ago. I think Smoak could help this year but I just don’t know that there’s really a need to push it.

Me: How will the Rangers make room for Justin Smoak when he’s ready?

Anthony: Well, Hank Blalock’s probably going to be gone after this year. If that’s the case, you have Smoak and Chris Davis. You could let Smoak DH. You could let Chris DH.

Me: Do you think Josh Hamilton should move to one of the corner outfield spots long term? If so, who’s the Rangers’ center fielder of the future?

Anthony: Right now, if he moves – which he doesn’t want to do, he wants to play center field – I guess Borbon would be the center fielder of the future. He’s hitting pretty well in the minors but I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to happen this year. The Rangers are going to have an outfield spot to fill after this year because Marlon Byrd will be a free agent, depending on how Nelson Cruz and David Murphy develop this year. Because if Nelson Cruz is your every day right fielder, you have a problem with Hamilton if he wants to play center next year. My guess though is that the next outfielder that comes up that makes an impact will be Borbon, and Hamilton needs to move, just because he’s getting older and it will be less taxing on his body to move to a corner spot. (Note: this interview took place before Borbon was called up to the majors.)

Me: If he did move to one of the corner spots, do you think he would play left or would they move Nelson Cruz to left?

Anthony: I don’t know. I don’t know what kind of arm Nelson Cruz has for left field. He has a strong arm but it’s not the most accurate so far. That’s a question I don’t think I can answer. I don’t know what they would do. It really depends on what Josh wants to do. If Josh wants to play center field, they’re going to have a hard time convincing him to move to one of the corner spots.

Me: What was your favorite team growing up and why?

Anthony: My two favorite baseball teams growing up – I had two – were the Chicago Cubs and the Rangers. The Rangers because I grew up here. The Cubs because I was born in Chicago and it was my dad’s favorite team growing up.

Me: That’s not that good because over the last 100 years you’ve had zero World Series championships.

Anthony: That’s right but I did get to watch all three of the Cubs/Rangers games here at the ballpark two years ago, so that was kind of like my World Series.

Me: So you got to see Sammy Sosa’s 600th.

Anthony: I got to see Sammy’s home run. We were in the stands for that game – my wife, my son, and I.

Me: Yeah, we were there the night before he hit it.

Anthony: We were down the third base line when it happened.

Me: Did you play baseball growing up? If so, for how long and at what position?

Anthony: I played for like two years when I was 7 and 8. I played every position but I was not any good at it.

Me: Thanks again for doing this interview.

Anthony: No problem.

I would like to thank Anthony again for giving me so much of his time and for giving such great answers.

Come back next week for an interview with mlb.com reporter and Rangers beat writer TR Sullivan.

My All-Star Teams

This week I’m providing my All-Star teams. The stats are as of Thursday, July 2nd. The All-Star Selection Show will be Sunday at noon on TBS.

AL:

Starters:

Catcher:
My pick: Victor Martinez, CLE (.313 AVG, 14 HR, 57 RBI): Even though Victor’s batting average is well below Joe Mauer’s .392 batting average, Victor has 13 more RBI’s and 96 more at-bats. Both Mauer and Martinez have 14 home runs, so if Mauer wasn’t injured at the start of the season, he would almost surely be the starter, and not Victor.
It will be: Joe Mauer, MIN

1B:
My pick: Justin Morneau, MIN (.309 AVG, 19 HR, 64 RBI): Justin is 3rd among balloted AL first basemen in batting average, and is tied for 3rd in home runs, but he leads them all in RBI’s with 64, and that is the most important one, in my opinion. He is very good in all three major hitting categories, and I think that is worthy of being the starting first baseman in the All-Star Game.
It will be: Either Kevin Youkilis, BOS or Mark Teixeira, NYY

2B:
My pick: Aaron Hill, TOR (.301 AVG, 19 HR, 56 RBI): Aaron leads all AL second basemen in RBI’s with 56, and is tied with Ian Kinsler for 1st in home runs with 19. Also, out of all the AL 2nd basemen on the ballot with at least 225 at-bats, he leads them in batting average at .301. So he is either in first or tied for first in all three major hitting categories, so that makes him the obvious choice here.
It will be: Either Dustin Pedroia, BOS or Ian Kinsler, TEX

SS:
My pick: Jason Bartlett, TB (.362 AVG, 7 HR, 36 RBI): Jason obviously leads all balloted shortstops in batting average at .362, and then just to add to that, he is second only to Alexei Ramirez of the White Sox in RBI’s among AL shortstops. He is also 3rd in home runs. There isn’t too much competition at the shortstop position when it comes to All-Stars this year, which just makes this decision that much easier.
It will be: Derek Jeter, NYY

3B:
My pick: Evan Longoria, TB (.297 AVG, 16 HR, 63 RBI): Evan leads all AL third basemen in RBI’s by 11 and is 2nd in home runs, not to mention the fact that he is 4th in batting average. When you add all three of those things together, it sums up to an All-Star starter.
It will be: Evan Longoria, TB

OF:
My pick: Torii Hunter, LAA (.305 AVG, 17 HR, 59 RBI): Torii is 2nd among all AL outfielders in RBI’s, and leads the guy ahead of him in that category in batting average by 43 points. He also is in the top 5 in home runs among outfielders. He also is an outstanding defensive player. So far he has been the best all-around American League outfielder on the ballot, in my opinion, and so I think that definitely makes him a starter.
It will be: Jason Bay, BOS

OF:
My pick: Jermaine Dye, CWS (.294 AVG, 18 HR, 48 RBI): Jermaine is 4th among balloted AL outfielders in RBI’s with 48 behind Bay, Hunter, and Markakis, and is tied for 3rd in home runs with Curtis Granderson. And of those people ahead of him (or tied with him) in those two categories, only Hunter has at least 10 home runs and a better batting average than Dye.
It will be: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA

OF:
My pick: Jason Bay, BOS (.262 AVG, 19 HR, 69 RBI): Even though Jason is only hitting .262 so far this year, his power numbers make up for that, as he leads all American League outfielders in RBI’s by 10, and is tied with Nelson Cruz for the lead in home runs with 19. If it weren’t for his batting average, he’d probably be the top AL outfielder, but instead, he is only 3rd.
It will be: Josh Hamilton, TEX

Starting Pitcher:
My pick: Zack Greinke, KC (10-3, 1.95 ERA, 114 K): Zach leads all of baseball with a 1.95 ERA, and is tied for first in wins with 10 (and only three losses, which is really good). He is also tied for 2nd in the AL in strike-outs with Jon Lester. When you are only 16 strike-outs away from a pitching triple crown, like Grienke is, you’ve got to start in the All-Star game.

Reserves:

C: Joe Mauer, MIN (.392 AVG, 14 HR, 44 RBI)
1B: Kevin Youkilis, BOS (.314 AVG, 14 HR, 47 RBI)
Miguel Cabrera, DET (.331 AVG, 16 HR, 47 RBI)
2B: Ian Kinsler, TEX (.263 AVG, 19 HR, 51 RBI)
Robinson Cano, NYY (.300 AVG, 12 HR, 42 RBI)
SS: Derek Jeter, NYY (.307 AVG, 9 HR, 32 RBI)
3B: Michael Young, TEX (.315 AVG, 10 HR, 30 RBI)
Brandon Inge, DET (.275 AVG, 18 HR, 52 RBI)
OF: Nelson Cruz, TEX (.264 AVG, 19 HR, 47 RBI)
Adam Jones, BAL (.305 AVG, 12 HR, 44 RBI)
Ichiro Suzuki, SEA (.368 AVG, 6 HR, 18 RBI)
Nick Markakis, BAL (.298 AVG, 8 HR, 52 RBI)

Pitchers:
Roy Halladay, TOR (10-2, 2.56 ERA, 95 K)
Felix Hernandez, SEA (8-3, 2.54 ERA, 104 K)
Kevin Millwood, TEX (8-5, 2.80 ERA, 74 K)
Justin Verlander, DET (8-4, 3.54 ERA, 130 K)
Edwin Jackson, DET (6-4, 2.49 ERA, 84 K)
Dallas Braden, OAK (6-7, 3.13 ERA, 67 K)
Brian Fuentes, LAA (3.49 ERA, 23 SV, 30 K)
Joe Nathan, MIN (1.44 ERA, 21 SV, 39 K)
Jonathon Papelbon, BOS (1.80 ERA, 20 SV, 34 K)
Mariano Rivera, NYY (2.76 ERA, 20 SV, 40 K)
David Aardsma, SEA (1.45 ERA, 16 SV, 47 K)
George Sherrill, BAL (2.51 ERA, 17 SV, 31 K)

Players per Team:
Detroit Tigers – 4
Texas Rangers – 4
Baltimore Orioles – 3
Boston Red Sox – 3
Minnesota Twins – 3
New York Yankees – 3
Seattle Mariners – 3
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – 2
Tampa Bay Rays – 2
Toronto Blue Jays – 2
Chicago White Sox – 1
Cleveland Indians – 1
Kansas City Royals – 1
Oakland Athletics – 1 (and I only have 1 because it’s required)


NL:

Starters:

Catcher:
My pick: Brian McCann, ATL (.310 AVG, 8 HR, 33 RBI): McCann leads all National League catchers on the ballot with at least 100 at-bats in batting average by far, and is 2nd only to Bengie Molina of the Giants in RBI. Even though his stats aren’t that good, his poor competition makes him All-Star-starter worthy.
It will be: Yadier Molina, STL

1B:
My pick: Albert Pujols, STL (.337 AVG, 30 HR, 77 RBI): Albert leads all of baseball in both home runs and RBI’s, which is enough to make you an All-Star even if you were hitting .200, but he’s not doing that. He’s got the 4th best batting average in all of baseball at .337. That makes him a very, very obvious choice here.
It will be: Albert Pujols, STL

2B:
My pick: Chase Utley, PHI (.301 AVG, 17 HR, 52 RBI): Chase leads all NL 2nd basemen in home runs with 17 and is tied for the lead in RBI’s with Brandon Phillips with 52. That’s pretty good even without the .301 batting average, but with it, it pretty much makes him an All-Star lock, and a probable starter.
It will be: Chase Utley, PHI

SS:
My pick: Hanley Ramirez, FLA (.348 AVG, 13 HR, 58 RBI, 12 SB): Hanley leads all balloted NL shortstops in batting average. And in home runs. And in RBI’s. And in stolen bases. That is pretty amazing. And not only does he lead shortstops in batting average, he leads the entire National League in it. That is definitely the equation of an All-Star starter.
It will be: Hanley Ramirez, FLA

3B:
My pick: Pablo Sandoval, SF (.332 AVG, 11 HR, 40 RBI): Pablo is 2nd among NL 3rd basemen on the ballot with at least 100 at-bats in batting average at .332, only behind David Wright of the Mets. He is also tied for 3rd in that category in home runs and 5th in RBI’s. Even though he doesn’t lead any of those, he is the most balanced throughout those categories.
It will be: David Wright, NYM

OF:
My pick: Raul Ibanez, PHI (.312 AVG, 22 HR, 59 RBI): Raul leads all NL outfielders in home runs and RBI’s, and he is 4th in batting average among NL outfielders with at least 100 at-bats. That is definitely All-Star starter worthy.
It will be: Raul Ibanez, PHI

OF:
My pick: Ryan Braun, MIL (.330 AVG, 16 HR, 57 RBI): Ryan is 3rd among NL outfielders with at least 100 at-bats in batting average at .330, only 6 points behind the leader. He is also 3rd in home runs and 2nd in RBI’s behind only Raul Ibanez. To me, he pretty obviously deserves to start in the All-Star game.
It will be: Ryan Braun, MIL

OF:
My pick: Brad Hawpe, COL (.333 AVG, 13 HR, 56 RBI): Brad Hawpe is 2nd among NL outfielders with at least 100 at-bats in batting average behind only Carlos Beltran of the Mets (who is hitting .336), is 10th in home runs, and is tied for third in RBI’s with Adam Dunn.
It will be: Either Carlos Beltran, NYM or Alfonso Soriano, CHC (probably Beltran)

Starting Pitcher:
My pick: Tim Lincecum, SF (8-2, 2.37 ERA, 132 K): Tim Lincecum is 2nd in the National League in ERA, and leads all of baseball in strike-outs. He has a very good record to go along with that, too, as he’s tied for 5th in wins in the National League. To me, that is an All-Star starting pitcher, even though there are many deserving pitchers for this spot.

Reserves:
C: Bengie Molina, SF (.259 AVG, 10 HR, 46 RBI)
1B: Prince Fielder, MIL (.306 AVG, 20 HR, 74 RBI)
Todd Helton, COL (.312 AVG, 9 HR, 53 RBI)
2B: Brandon Phillips, CIN (.268 AVG, 11 HR, 52 RBI)
Freddy Sanchez, PIT (.315 AVG, 6 HR, 33 RBI)
SS: Miguel Tejada, HOU (.331 AVG, 6 HR, 42 RBI)
3B: Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (.296 AVG, 13 HR, 44 RBI)
Mark Reynolds, ARI (.270 AVG, 22 HR, 57 RBI, 13 SB)
OF: Carlos Beltran, NYM (.336 AVG, 8 HR, 40 RBI)
Adam Dunn, WAS (.260 AVG, 20 HR, 56 RBI)
Justin Upton, ARI (.309 AVG, 14 HR, 45 RBI)
Matt Kemp, LAD (.302 AVG, 10 HR, 41 RBI, 19 SB)

Pitchers:
Matt Cain, SF (9-2, 2.48 ERA, 88 K)
Dan Haren, ARI (7-5, 2.19 ERA, 113 K)
Johnny Cueto, CIN (8-4, 2.69 ERA, 78 K)
Jason Marquis, COL (10-5, 3.87 ERA, 51 K)
Josh Johnson, FLA (7-1, 2.76 ERA, 97 K)
Ted Lilly, CHC (7-6, 3.35 ERA, 88 K)
Heath Bell, SD (1.34 ERA, 22 SV, 36 K)
Francisco Rodriguez, NYM (1.59 ERA, 21 SV, 40 K)
Jonathon Broxton, LAD (2.15 ERA, 19 SV, 62 K)
Francisco Cordero, CIN (1.85 ERA, 19 SV, 29 K)
Ryan Franklin, STL (0.87 ERA, 19 SV, 22 K)
Huston Street, COL (2.91 ERA, 19 SV, 39 K)

Players per Team:
Colorado Rockies – 4
San Francisco Giants – 4
Arizona Diamondbacks – 3
Cincinnati Reds – 3
Florida Marlins – 2
Los Angeles Dodgers – 2
Milwaukee Brewers – 2
New York Mets – 2
Philadelphia Phillies – 2
St. Louis Cardinals – 2
Washington Nationals – 2
Atlanta Braves – 1
Chicago Cubs – 1 (and I only have 1 because it’s required)
Houston Astros – 1
Pittsburgh Pirates – 1
San Diego Padres – 1

Come back next week for an interview with Fort Worth Star-Telegram Rangers beat writer Anthony Andro.

New York Trip Report

Last week, my mom, my dad, my little sister, my grandma, my granddad, and I took a baseball-centered trip to New York City. This was my second trip to New York. I also went in 2002 when I was 6 and my parents took me to Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and Fenway Park. With the opening of the new Yankees and Mets stadiums, it was time to go back. Following is the report on our trip.

Wednesday June 17

We flew out of Dallas at around 10 in the morning and got to New York with no delays. The plane ride went very smoothly, and we landed at LaGuardia Airport right on time. We grabbed a couple of taxis and went to our hotel, getting to experience some gridlock New York traffic on the way. I was in a taxi with my grandparents and one of the traffic delays we experienced was some police officers stopping a car in front of us, placing three people from the car against a wall, and arresting them. Just another day in New York I think. We stayed at the Double Tree Suites right on Times Square, and it was awesome. We had a great view, because right outside of our window was the north end of Times Square, with all of the big screens they have there. My little sister Kate particularly liked the M&M’s World video screen we could see from our room. We got two suites, one for my grandparents, and one for my parents, my sister, and me, and the suites had two rooms each. Since we got connecting rooms, for Kate and me it was like having four rooms and two bathrooms.

Once we checked in to our hotel, my dad, my granddad and I left almost immediately to take the subway to the New Yankee Stadium (the rest of the family came later, closer to game time). The new stadium is amazing. You walk out of the Subway station and it’s right there. The outside is great. They’ve made it look like old Yankee Stadium, before the mid-70’s renovations messed it up. On the side where we came out, the sidewalk right by the stadium is called Babe Ruth Plaza, and it has a bunch of different signs and plaques about the Babe and the things he did. Another cool thing is that old Yankee Stadium is still standing, so we got to see the two stadiums side-by-side.

When you enter the stadium, you’re in the “Great Hall”, which has pictures of all the Yankee greats on huge banners on the wall. We went straight to Monument Park, and the line really wasn’t that bad (at this point it was about 4:30 and game time was 2.5 hours away). But the New York Giants were at that game and decided they wanted to see Monument Park, and so of course nobody could get in until they were done. So we waited for 20 minutes or so for the Giants to be done, and then they crammed in twice as many people into the park as could fit to make up for that. But it was great. They moved all the stuff from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one, so it’s pretty much the same thing (which is a good thing). They have all of the retired numbers, with plaques underneath the numbers about those players. They have the five free-standing monuments (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Miller Huggins). And they have plaques on the wall for other Yankee greats (like Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson). It’s a great area and we spent a lot of time there reading all of the information. It’s more compact than the Monument Park at the old stadium, where the retired numbers were basically in a walkway leading to a separate area with the monuments and other plaques. Another neat thing is that, when you’re done looking at the plaques and monuments, you can turn around and watch batting practice (Monument Park is located in center field). Basically, it’s one of the neatest areas at any ballpark anywhere.

After Monument Park, we tried to go to the Yankees Museum, a small museum at the ballpark about the Yankees and their history. But there was a huge line to get in and it didn’t seem to be moving. My dad asked an employee what was going on and, guess what, the New York Giants decided they wanted to see the museum too, so again everyone else had to wait for them to be done. Since the museum is open all through the game, we decided to leave and come back later.

We took a walk around the rest of the ballpark. The Yankees have done a great job celebrating their history. For example, as you walk along the main concourse, you see pictures from each of the Yankees’ 26 world championships above the concession stands (in order, basically walking you through their history). And on the mid-level concourse, they have pictures of every Yankee that’s been named AL MVP, from Babe Ruth to A-Rod. Those sorts of things were great touches.

It was around game time, so we headed to our seats. It was tough to get tickets to the game so we had to use StubHub and weren’t able to get great seats or anything. We sat on the second row from the top of the stadium, but we were right behind home plate, so it wasn’t too bad. We got lucky, and we saw the Nationals beat the Yankees 3-2. It was a really good game. Jon Lannan pitched for the Nationals, and did great, going 8 and a third, allowing only two runs on four hits, and improving his record to 4-5 (even though he had a 3.38 ERA). Mike MacDougal got his first save since July 16th, 2006, going two-thirds of an inning, and allowing no runs. Chien-Ming Wang pitched for the Yankees, giving up all three Nationals runs in five innings of work, giving him another loss to make his record 0-5, but lowering his ERA to a mere 12.30. Phil Hughes pitched two good innings after him. Adam Dunn had a solo home run in the 4th to give the Nationals a one-run lead, which they then expanded to 3-0 in the 5th with a 2-run triple by Nick Johnson. But in the bottom of the inning, Robinson Cano hit a solo homer to cut the lead to 3-1. The final run was a solo shot by Johnny Damon in the bottom of the 9th to lead off the inning.

After the game, we went back to the Yankees Museum. It’s smallish but is a nice extra touch to the stadium, especially since there’s no extra charge for admission. It’s just one room. In the middle are hundreds of baseballs signed by various Yankees. Along the walls are a tribute to Babe Ruth, Thurman Munson’s locker, seats from different eras of the old Yankee Stadium, and information and artifacts about each of the Yankees’ World Series championships. They have the championships divided up between what they call the Babe Ruth Era, the Joe DiMaggio Era, the Mickey Mantle Era, the Reggie Jackson Era, and the Derek Jeter Era.

After we were done with the museum, we hit the subway and headed back to the hotel.


Thursday June 18

On Thursday it was rainy, wet, and cold all day, but we still took the subway to Coney Island. It was very disappointing because all the rides were closed. We got to see the Cyclone roller coaster but couldn’t ride it. We went to the aquarium, but a lot of the best stuff (the walruses, sea lions, and penguins) weren’t out because of the rain. But we still had a good time there. After the aquarium, we went to eat lunch at the original Nathan’s Famous (hot dog place), which was excellent. They were definitely some of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. Even though it wasn’t the perfect Coney Island experience, it was good to see it and we had fun with the things we did.

We were glad that we picked Wednesday to go to the Yankees game. Thursday’s game had a 5.5 hour rain delay. We were a little worried about our Friday Mets game because it was supposed to rain the whole time we were there.

After Coney Island, we hung out at the hotel for a while before walking Times Square and going to the three-story Toys R’ Us they have there. My dad took Kate on the huge Ferris Wheel that goes through all three floors, which she enjoyed.

We ate dinner at the Stardust Diner on 51st Street, where the waiters and waitresses sing songs every few minutes. It was really fun. If you’re ever in New York, I recommend it.

We then went to M&M’s World (a store). It’s actually a good store and isn’t just a bunch of candy or anything. They do have a lot of candy though, including M&M flavors and colors that you can’t get anywhere else.


Friday June 19

We got lucky Friday and the rain held off all day. We went to Central Park, which, amazingly, has no signs except for “Stay off grass”. There are no signs to help you find anything. We pretty much went straight to the Central Park Zoo, and had good timing, as we got there right before the sea lion feeding show. They had the sea lions do tricks for fish. They also had penguins, polar bears, snow leopards, snow monkeys, birds, leaf-cutter ants, tortoises, a red panda (panda-face, lemur-body), and other stuff. Overall, I was amazed by how big and nice Central Park was.

Afterwards we went to eat at Mickey Mantle’s, which is right by Central Park. It was really cool (but really expensive), as it had sports memorabilia all over the place and good food.

After that, we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours before taking the 7 train to the Mets game at their new ballpark, Citi Field.

Citi Field was very nice, although not as good as the Yankees’ new stadium. The outside was based on Ebbets Field, which was a nice touch. They have some banners outside the ballpark with pictures of past Mets greats. Shea Stadium has already been torn down and turned into a parking lot. My dad and I walked to the spot in the parking lot where the field used to be and found plaques marking the former locations of home plate, each base, and the pitchers’ mound. That was a good touch too.

Inside the stadium, the best part is the entryway, called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. It’s a huge area, all of which is a tribute to Jackie, both as a player and as a person. Walking around the stadium, there’s not too much to see and they didn’t do anywhere near as good a job of celebrating their history as the Yankees did. They had the old apple from Shea and that was about it. Above the old apple are pennants for the Mets’ various playoff appearances and championships but you can’t even see those from the seating area. There’s also a good kids’ play area, which is something that the Yankees didn’t have.

Our seats were in the upper deck, on the third base side. The Mets won the game 5-3 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Mets took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a Brian Schneider home run, his 1st of the year, to deep right-center. We were glad to see a home run so that we could see the new apple come up. The Mets scored another in the bottom of the 3rd on a David Wright RBI-double to give them a 4-0 lead. BJ Upton scored on a fielder’s choice in the top of the 6th to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-1, and then in the top of the 7th BJ cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3 with a 2-out, 2-RBI double to score Gabe Gross and Jason Bartlett. But Ryan Church put the Rays away in the bottom of the 8th with an RBI single to give the Mets a 5-3 lead, which would end up being the final score. Andy Sonnanstine was the starter for the Rays and got the loss to make him 5-7, as he allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in just 6 innings. Fernando Nieve pitched for the Mets, and he pitched well, going 6 innings, allowing only 1 run and 3 hits. K-ROD recorded his 18th save of the year, pitching a perfect 9th.

After the game, we beat the crowd to the subway and headed back to the hotel.


Saturday June 20

On Saturday morning, my grandparents went to Rockefeller Center while the rest of us went to the World of Disney store, which is really, really cool, and is three floors just like Toys R’ Us. It used to have character appearances, which my little sister would’ve enjoyed, but since they’re about to go out of business they stopped doing those in February. The World of Disney store isn’t like the Disney Stores in the malls. It has merchandise from the theme parks that you can’t get anywhere else. They’re closing sometime next year when their lease expires, which is a shame.

After that we went to the hotel to get ready to go to a Broadway play, The Little Mermaid, which was very good. It was my second Broadway play (we saw The Lion King in 2002) and Kate’s first. The whole family really enjoyed it.

After that, we were supposed to go see the Staten Island Yankees (Short-Season A Yankees minor league team), but the game got rained out at 4:00 PM for a 7:00 PM game. It was good we didn’t take the ferry ride out there just to see that it was cancelled, but I was still really disappointed. Instead, we went around Times Square again, and ate at John’s Pizzeria, which had great food, but the worst service I’ve ever seen (and I’m not exaggerating). We also went to the Hershey Store, which was very disappointing (especially compared to M&M’s World), because there was nothing to it, so we were in and out of there within a few minutes. After picking out some Christmas ornaments, we went back to the hotel, and stayed there for the rest of the night.


Sunday June 21

On Sunday morning, my dad and I took the subway and PATH trains to Hoboken, New Jersey in order to try to find Elysian Fields, the site of the first organized baseball game. When we came up from the train station, we were about 14 blocks from the site, so we got to see a lot of the city walking there and back. Hoboken actually seemed pretty nice, with lots of shops and restaurants along Washington Street (their main street). When we got to the former site of Elysian Fields, they had a plaque marking it as the site of the first organized baseball game in 1846, a baseball painted in the middle of the intersection, and then a marker at each of the four corners of the intersection marking the former location of the bases (home plate, first base, etc.). It was really cool, and they did a really nice job with it. They also had a logo at the Hoboken City Hall declaring Hoboken as the birthplace of baseball. We then walked back to the train station, picking up some hot chocolate at Starbucks along the way (it was cold and raining again), and took the train back to Manhattan.

After that we went to the airport (JFK this time), and got out with just a minor rain delay. It was a great trip and we really got pretty lucky that the rain didn’t impact more of our plans. I’ve now seen games at 29 major league ballparks (23 current, 6 retired) and my dad’s been to 45 (30 current, 15 retired). Minnesota is the next target when they open their new stadium next year.


Results of the last poll:
Of the players numbers 31-35 on my All-Time Rangers List, which one do you think had the best Rangers career?
Hank Blalock – 43%
Bert Blyleven – 43%
Steve Comer – 14%
Jon Matlack – 0%
Doc Medich – 0%

Come back next week for my All-Star Teams through June.

#31-35 Top 50 All-Time Rangers List

This week the Rangers had an awesome draft. Their first two picks were Matthew Purke in the first round and Tanner Scheppers in the supplemental round. Both were steals. Baseball America had Purke (P) as the #10 talent in the draft, and the Rangers got him with the 14th pick, and Baseball America had Scheppers (P) as the #9 talent in the draft, and the Rangers got him with the 44th pick. It’s fun to watch the Rangers continue to stock the best farm system in baseball. If you want to see full details on the Rangers draft, Eleanor Czajka has the best coverage anywhere on her Minor Details Page at http://www.dickiethon.com/eczajka/draft_2009.htm. Also, if you’re not already reading it, Eleanor has one of the best baseball blogs anywhere (Girls Don’t Know Anything About Baseball) at http://emcmlb.blogspot.com/.

Also, they traded cash for Jason Grilli (majors) and picked up El Duque (minors). Jason had a 6.05 ERA in 19.1 innings this year for the Rockies before he got traded, and has only pitched 3 innings as a Ranger so far. But even though he has struggled so far this year he has done well in the past. Just last year for the Rockies, he had an ERA as low as 2.93 in 61.1 innings pitched, and had a total ERA for the year of 3.00 (he also played for the Tigers last year). Jason has been in the majors off and on since 2000 and has a career ERA of 4.75. In order to make room for Grilli, the Rangers sent Kris Benson to triple-A. I like this move. Grilli has good upside and we didn’t lose anything to get him. If he works out, great. If not, no loss. An added bonus was that it caused them to make a move with Benson, who was really struggling in the long relief role (8.46 ERA). But they kept Benson in the organization and will have him working as a starter in the minors, which gives them extra depth in case they have more injuries in the rotation.

El Duque (or Orlando Hernandez) hasn't played since 2007, but played well in '07, as he had a 3.72 ERA and a 9-5 record in 147.2 innings. He has a career record of 90-65 and a career ERA of 4.13. Since it was a minor league contract, it's a low risk, high reward signing, so I like it.

This week I will give numbers 31-35 on my Top 50 All-Time Rangers List. See my May 9th entry for the previous installment.

Note: stats do not include the Washington Senators, just the Rangers.

35. Bert Blyleven: 11 shut-outs (t-3rd), 2.74 ERA (best, min. 400 IP), 23-23, 326 K, 437 IP,

Even though Bert only spent two seasons as a Ranger, he still pitched 437 innings, had 326 strikeouts (24th in Rangers history), and, most importantly, has the best ERA in Rangers history, at only 2.74. Not to mention that he is tied for 3rd in shutouts with 11 and pitched a no-hitter against the Angels on September 22, 1977.

34. Steve Comer: 3.80 ERA (11th, min .400 IP), .574 W% (3rd, min. 400 IP), 39-29, 205 K, 575.2 IP

Steve has a very good ERA at 3.80, 11th in Rangers history, to go along with a great record at 39-29. Among all Ranger pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched as a Ranger, Steve has the 3rd best winning percentage at .574. But just like Doc Medich, he didn’t strike out very many batters, as his K/9 IP is only about 3.2. But, anyway, his ERA and record pretty much make him a clinch for the list.

33. Hank Blalock: .273 AVG, 140 HR, 499 RBI, All-Star (‘03, ‘04)

Hank is a two-time All-Star, and he’s also a guy with the 9th most home runs in Ranger history and counting. He’s also 10th in Ranger RBI’s. Even though his batting average isn’t too great, all his other stats (in the three major categories) are pretty good, and good enough to get him into the All-Star game twice.

32. Doc Medich: .538 W%, 50-43, 3.95 ERA, 790.1 IP, 322 K

As a Ranger, Doc had a .538 winning percentage with a 50-43 record, and had a pretty good ERA to go with that (3.95 ERA, 16th in Rangers history). He didn’t strike out many people, as he had only 3.7 K’s per 9 innings. But that doesn’t take anything away from his record or his ERA, and so it doesn’t keep him off this list.

31. Jon Matlack: 3.41 ERA (3rd, min. 400 IP), 43-45, 493 K, 915 IP

Even though Jon has a losing record with the Rangers, he’s still on this list. He shouldn’t have a losing record because he has the 3rd best ERA in Rangers history with a minimum of 400 innings pitched at 3.41. In 1978 alone, he had 18 complete games, and has 32 complete games total as a Ranger, 6th in Rangers history. His 493 strikeouts rank 14th in Ranger history and his 915 innings pitched rank 8th. I think all that makes up for the losing record.

Results of last week’s poll:
Which of my MVP’s or MVP Runner-up’s do you think has had the best year so far?
Nelson Cruz – 37%
Evan Longoria – 25%
Raul Ibanez – 18%
Ian Kinsler – 12%
Albert Pujols – 6%
Justin Morneau – 0%

Next week I will be taking a break, so come back in two weeks for my All-Star Teams through June.

May Awards

This week I did my May Awards. These are who I would give my awards to as if the season ended today.

I’d like to wish a speedy recovery to Eric Nadel and Josh Hamilton. Also, I’m interested to see how Padilla responds tomorrow to being putting on waivers and being left unclaimed. I predict a strong game from Padilla.

Rangers:

MVP: Nelson Cruz, TEX (.286 AVG, 16 HR, 41 RBI): Nelson is tied for second in the American League in home runs, and first among Rangers. Also, he has a good batting average and is 9-for-10 on stolen base attempts and has a chance to be in the 30-30 club.
Runner-up: Ian Kinsler, TEX (.281 AVG, 15 HR, 44 RBI)

Cy Young: Kevin Millwood, TEX (5-4, 2.96 ERA, 48 K): Kevin is tied for 7th in the AL in ERA and has a winning record. Not only that, but he has been an innings-eater, throwing the 3rd most innings in the AL.
Runner-up: Scott Feldman, TEX (5-0, 3.79 ERA, 31 K)

Rookie of the Year: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.278 AVG, 3 HR, 12 RBI): His defense has saved so many runs and saved the pitchers so many pitches, he would probably be here if he didn’t even bat at all. The fact that his offense has been above expectations is just a bonus.
Runner-up: Darren O’Day, TEX (2-0, 1.06 ERA, 15 K)

AL:

MVP: Justin Morneau, MIN (.344 AVG, 15 HR, 51 RBI): Justin is tied for 1st in batting average among the top 10 RBI leaders in the AL and is 3rd in RBI’s in the AL. That doesn’t even mention the fact that he is tied for 5th in the AL in home runs with Ian Kinsler.
Runner-up: Evan Longoria, TB (.322 AVG, 13 HR, 55 RBI)

Cy Young: Zach Grienke, KC (8-2, 1.55 ERA, 91 K): Even though Grienke’s ERA has skyrocketed from April, he still leads the majors in ERA by almost half a run per game. He also is 2nd in the American League in strikeouts and is tied for 2nd in wins.
Runner-up: Roy Halladay, TOR (9-1, 2.77 ERA, 82 K)

Rookie of the Year: Rick Porcello, DET (6-4, 3.70 ERA, 34 K): Rick is tied for 18th in the AL in ERA, and has 6 wins on the year. Even though most years that might not be ROY worthy, there is very weak competition this year.
Runner-up: Elvis Andrus, TEX (.278 AVG, 3 HR, 12 RBI)

Comeback Player of the Year: Jason Bartlett, TB (.373 AVG, 7 HR, 30 RBI): After having an on-base percentage of just .329 last year, Bartlett is leading all of baseball in batting average at .373, and has already hit 6 more home runs than last year and is closing in on his RBI total.
Runner-up: Victor Martinez, CLE (.344 AVG, 9 HR, 40 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Ron Washington, TEX (32-22, 1st place): The Rangers are tied for the best record in the American League and lead their division, and with the Rangers having a losing record last year, that should get him the award.
Runner-up: Terry Francona, BOS (32-23, 2nd place)

NL:

MVP: Raul Ibanez, PHI (.332 AVG, 19 HR, 54 RBI): Raul is dominating National League pitching, as he is well over the century mark in batting average at .332, is leading the NL in RBI’s, and is 2nd in the NL in home runs.
Runner-up: Albert Pujols, STL (.344 AVG, 18 HR, 49 RBI)

Cy Young: Matt Cain, SF (7-1, 2.27 ERA, 53 K): Matt is 7-1, and is tied with four other pitchers for the National League lead in wins, but among that group, Cain has the least amount of losses. Plus, Matt is 2nd in the NL in ERA, behind only Johan Santana of the Mets.
Runner-up: Johan Santana, NYM (7-3, 2.00 ERA, 89 K)

Rookie of the Year: Chris Volstad, FLA (4-5, 3.65 ERA, 59 K): Don’t let the record betray you. Volstad has done great this season and just hasn’t gotten the run support. When you have a 3.65 ERA, you shouldn’t have a losing record.
Runner-up: Dexter Fowler, COL (.256 AVG, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 11 SB, Terrible Competition)

Comeback Player of the Year: Nick Johnson, WAS (.323 AVG, 4 HR, 27 RBI): After injuries held Johnson to just 109 at-bats last season, where he hit just .220, Johnson has been able to stay healthy so far this year, and is hitting .323.
Runner-up: Michael Bourn, HOU (.302 AVG, 1 HR, 13 RBI)

Manager of the Year: Ken Macha, MIL (32-23, 1st place): It’s pretty amazing that the Brewers are in first place in their division with their pitching staff. Really, I would’ve been less surprised if they were in last place at this point, so I think that Macha deserves this award.
Runner-up: Joe Torre, LAD (38-19, 1st place)

Come back next week for numbers 31 through 35 on my Top 50 All-Time Rangers list.