Opening Day 2003 is finally here. And Texas has their 1st winning record since at least the 2000 season probably 1999.
In any event the Rangers won the 1st game of the 2003 season the way they usually win. With homeruns. Michael Young hit a
3-run shot in the 4th to give Texas a 4-2 lead. Gonzalez and A-Rod also contributed solo shots. Gonzalez also doubled and had 3 hits in the game. In Ismael Valdez 1st career opening day start he gave up 3 runs on 7 hits through 5 for the win while Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 1st save as a Ranger. The difference was definately the bullpen. Texas relievers allowed just 1 hit through 4 scoreless innings of work.

Result Texas-6, Anaheim-3

Personally I was hoping to see Teixeira in the lineup along with Mench but that's life.

I'm glad to see Juan Gonzalez play well. Do you think Teixieria will start in the next game?

As much as I like the Rangers I'm expecting another tough year with that poor excuse for a pitching staff. Sure the offense is exciting but its the pitching that takes you where you want to go.

BGray

yup, have to agree with BGray there. Rangers had the fortune of a 3-run shot yesterday.

Pitching was pretty good.

But, it's one game.

Randy Johnson, Maddux, and Glavine all had horrific outings today.

But it's wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too early

Agree with BGray, pitching is key, Rangers need it.

Tim

Rangers COULD make it without pitching if they were in another division. But look who they are playing against. Only 2 of those 4 teams can make the playoffs.

well, as I sit here watching the Angels vs Texas, I am reminded of what Bgray said

"....I'm expecting another tough year with that poor excuse for a pitching staff...."

Angels 9, Rangers 0.

You need pitching to win. Can't count on winning games by outscoring teams 11-9.

Still wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too early to see how Rangers pitching staff will be. But they've got Hershiser as pitching coach -- that should help some.:eek:

Well, about all I can say about this one is except for Nitkowski, the bullpen was strong again. One run on 1 hit in 2 2/3 innings.
It seems like they purpously try to avoid getting the good pitchers
Tuesday's result:
Angels-10
Rangers-0

At least they won the opener.

They should trade for pitching. I'd trade Blalock to a team who needs hitters and has pitchers to spare who are decent.

plunge, I'd trade Juan Gonzalez (maybe he's got too large a contract to do this) or Rafael Palmeiro in exchange for a couple of good pitchers.

Teams with great pitching can get away with scoring 3 runs and still win the majority of times, enough to get to play-offs

Maybe Juan but not Rafael. But I doubt the Rangers will want to swallow Juan's contract for the last year.

Originally posted by plunge
They should trade for pitching. I'd trade Blalock to a team who needs hitters and has pitchers to spare who are decent.

The only problem is that the few teams that have extra pitching will not part with the pitchers because pitching is so difficult to come by. Rarely does a team trade a good young pitcher away.

Good point, pwaldo. I was thinking of a team like the Padres, Rockies, Marlins or the Mets. The Mets in particular because they had a few competing for the #5 spot in the rotation.

It looks like another long season for the Rangers after getting hammered by the Angels for the 2nd straight game. At least they scored this time losing 11-5. Glanville was the big guy going
3 for 5 with 2 runs, 1 Rbi and his 1st homerun as a Ranger.
A-Rod hit a three-run homer for the 300th of his career cutting the Angels lead from 8-1 to 8-4. Obviously it was not enough.
Palmeiro added a solo homer in the 8th for his 491st career homer
John Thomson took the loss in his Ranger debut.

Next game:Friday at Texas vs. Seattle

Starters:Ryan Franklin vs. Ismael Valdez

Record:1-2

Nothing from Tiexiera yet. Way to go Palmeiro. I know the Rangers have a lot of games ahead of them with their division. Maybe this will condition them to beat the pants off some of the other teams from the other divisions.

Here's what I would do:

Remember when Dallas traded Herschel Walker to Minnesota for 7 players and the kitchen sink? What happened afterwards? 3 Super Bowl wins (and more, if it weren't for free agency and salary cap issues that killed the Cowboys) on the backs of Troy, Emmitt, Irvin, and a tremendous defense.

Well, that's what I'd do if I were Rangers management.

Right now, I'd even trade Rodriguez for Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling (despite the fact that both are nearing their 40s, while A Rod is 23-24).

Only in basketball does ONE player (Jordan, Shaq) make a difference, primarily b/c basketball players play both offense and defense and can touch the ball on every single possession.

In baseball, the best A Rod can EVER do is hit 500 homeruns in a year (assuming he gets 500 at bats). That translates out to a minimum of 500 RBIs. No matter how good A Rod is, if Rangers get no pitching, they'll be eliminated by July, for the 3rd straight year that A. Rod has been here.

Look at the Angels -- no superstars...and they've got fans flocking this whole season to see them play.

So by July, they'll dump some hitters and hopefully get some pitching in return.

Rangers update:

6-4 loss to the Mariners, with the bullpen giving up the go-ahead runs.

Blalock's hot!!

Rangers lose again!!!!
How's that for news?
On the upside Blalock went 2 for 2 with a homer and 2 RBI and is now batting .467
Sierra also homered and drove in 2.
Valdez gave up 2 earned runs on 4 hits through 6 but the bullpen couldn't keep a lid on things.
Fransisco Cordero gave up 2 runs on a hit and 3 walks for the loss in the Angels 6-4 win.
Einer Diaz is doing better than expected.
Got 2 doubles already and batting .333

Saturday nights game @7:05PM Central
Seattle's Gil Meche vs. Colby Lewis for Texas

Texas record:1-3

Wish Tiexiera was in that lineup. Glad Juan Gonzalez is doing well still.

Rangers win!!! Rangers win!!!

Glanville went 2 for 5 with 2 runs and his first 2 steals as a Ranger. He is now batting .318 for Texas.
A-Rod went 3 for 4 with a double and his 3rd homerun.
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with his 2nd and 3rd homers of the year and drove in 4. He is now batting .350
Blalock possibly the best game of his young career going 4 for 5 with 2 runs, 3 RBI and his 2nd homerun of the season.
He is now batting a whopping .550
Colby Lewis gave up 3 runs on 8hits and struck out 8 in 6 2/3 innings for the win. Urbina got his 2nd save.

Result:8-4 win over Mariners( Gil Meche making his 1st start since 2000)

Sundays game @2:05 PM Central
Seattle's Freddie Garcia vs. Chan Ho Park for Texas

Record:2-3

I would also like to see Teixeira in the lineup but where would they put him? Blalock is smashing everything, Palmeiro will never be benched and Sierra is doing pretty good.

****, how about that A Rod. Just a monster on the offense!

Sheesh, if he keeps this up for a few more years, i will actually have to admit that he deserves that $25M contract!!

Nobody deserves 25 million dollars a year. Especially not for hitting a little white ball. I am a big baseball fan but have always thought they get payed way too much money. The only people I can think of that come close to deserving that much money is the president and our troop in Iraq.

I'm not sure if the game is over yet but from what I saw it may as well be. A-Rod stole his 1st base and Blalock homered again but when I hurled my remote at the TV it was 9-2. Or was it 10-2?
No matter. Park still stinks and if they weren't so devoid of pitching I would think they should get rid of him and his salary.
At least Blalock is hitting like I thought he would last year.

Molina..game over

Mariners 11
Rangers 2

good point about our troops deserving to make much more than what they make.

My heart goes out to the family of that Native American woman, who was the first woman to die in combat.

She left behind a 4-y/o boy and 3y/o daughter. Man, that hurts?!?!?!

Guess I'm falling a bit behind here.
Anyway, in Wednesdays game the A's won like 13-5 or something.
Sound bad but not without highlights.
Gonzalez hit his league leading 4th homerun, Palmeiro hit his 3rd,
Young stole his 1st base and Teixeira got his 1st big league hit off Mark Mulder.

On a happier note, the Rangers managed to steal one from the A's with a 5-4 victory. Colby Lewis gave up 1 run an inning for 4 straight innings before getting taken out. The bullpen then combined for an incredible 5 1/3 scoreless innings of relief as the Rangers rallied from a 4-0 deficit. Carl Everett went 2 for 3 with 2 runs and his 1st homer of the year. Young went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Diaz went 2 for 4 with his 1st triple as a Ranger.
Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 3rd save.
But the big story was Mark Teixeira's 1st big league homerun. A 3-run blast in the 4th to cut the A's lead to 1.

Friday's game @9:05 PM Central
Freddie Garica's Mariners vs. Chan Ho Park's Rangers
Record:3-6

Thanks for the update, Molina. I wish they had the smarts to go after Shane Reynolds like the way the Mets have pursued him.

Glad to hear Teixiera got his first long one.

Rangers won today. Been rooting for them to beat A's during this series. Angels are struggling; can't let A's clinch division so soon, lolol

I don't think Reynolds is the pitcher he used to be at all but he would still help a little maybe. Why didn't Kenny Rogers want to stay?

The almighty dollar?

I thought I read somewhere that Texas offered him a 2 year deal or something worth a lot more than he is making in his year with Minnesota. Oh.
The almighty dollar in mass quantities.

plus you will take a lot less money if you really want to win and I don't see winning the big one in the rangers future anytime soon.

Wow!
The Rangers 1st winning streak this season.
Chan Ho Park gave up just 1 run on 3 hits through 5 innings for his 1st win and 1st good start of the year. Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 4th save.
A-Rod scored a pair of runs and Palmeiro had 2 hits, the other 2 Texas runs, 2RBI and hit his 4th homer. Only 6 away from 500 now. Michael Young also went 2 for 4 raising his BA to .355
Result-A 4-2 Texas win over the Freddie Garcia's Mariners

Saturday's game @9:05 PM Central
Ryan Drese making his Texas debut vs. the Mariners Gil Meche

Record:4-6

GIoperation..I cannot remember the last time a young player in his prime ever took a pay cut to go on a winning team.

Brent Fullmer only stayed with the Champion Angels this year b/c he tested the free agent market during the winter, and didn't get offers he wanted. FUllmer took a $1M paycut to stay. The way he's playing right now; he's gonna be a huge contract.

Devean George stayed with Lakers for $4.5M per year for 3 years; but that's only b/c he's more your above-average basketball, and not one who's a superstar. He was picked by the Lakers (first Div IIa player ever drafted by the Lakers), and was developed by them. So, when he wasn't getting outrageous "alex rodriguez-like" offers, he decided to re-sign with the Lakers.

Older players in the waning years of their career would certainly take pay cuts to be on a winnning team. It's projected that Pippen might sign with Lakers for the next year at the $4.5M free agent level, much lower than his current level.

But, I don't see a star player in his prime taking paycuts in order to play on a winning team.

Yes, Alex Rodriguez offered to re-do his contract if that would help Rangers get better players.

But, I don't for one minute think that receiving $22M per year instead of $25M per year as taking a pay cut.

Looks like everything is back to normal now.
In a 13-4 loss the Mariners, Glanville hit a solo homer. His 2nd of the year. A-Rod hit a 2-run homer for his 4th of the year.
Young went 2 for 4 raising his BA to .371.
Blalock went 2 for 4 with an RBI raising his BA to .375
Ryan Drese was hammered in his Texas debut only going 1/3 inning.

Sundays game @3:05 PM Central
John Thomson for Texas vs. Jamie Moyer and the Mariners

Record:4-7

That was sure some game yesterday. 13 innings and an unusually solid performance by a ranger starter.
John Thomson gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and struck out 6 in 7 innings unfortunately getting a no-decision. Thomson left the game with Texas trailing 3-2 then Todd Greene hit a solo homer to tie it at 3. His 1st of the season. A-Rod went 3 for 5 with his 3rd double and league leading 5th homerun raising his BA to .356
Palmeiro went 2 for 4 with an RBI. One and maybe his other hit came by beating the Palmeiro shift and hitting the ball to left field.
A rare occurence for him. Anyway, the bullpen was the brightest spot pitching 5 2/3 scoreless innings of relief until R.A. Dickey, in his 1st game of the year, gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Result, a 4-3 13 inning loss to Seattle.

Monday's game @7:05 PM Central
Kevin Appier's Angels vs. Ismael Valdez's Rangers.

Record:4-8

Was rooting for your Rangers to beat the Mariners; now, you guys face us, starting tonight.

Let's see if we can't grab a couple of games here in Texas.

Should be a good one!!

Monday nights game: Rangers-4 Angels-0

This was by far the Rangers best pitching performance of the season. Ismael Valdez gave up just 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7 in 8 scoreless innnings for the win improving to 2-1 on the season. Fransisco Cordero pitched a scoreless 9th dropping his ERA to 1.96
Blalock went 2 for 4 with his 4th homerun raising his BA to .386
Everett went 2 for 4 with a pair of solo homers.
Possibly two of the Rangers slowest baserunners, Palmeiro and Einer Diaz each stole their 1st base of the season.

Tuesday nights game @7:05 PM Central
Jerrod Washburn's angels vs. Colby Lewis's Rangers

Note: Washburn has an ERA under 3 so far so this one might be a tough one to win.

Valdes, who used to play for both the Dodgers and Angels, absolutely has befuddled the Angels in his 2 starts against them.

That was a good pitching performance he put on yesterday.

Angels currently winning 2-0 right now; but it's early.

In Tuesday's 5-4 win over the Angels, the Rangers won their 2nd straight and managed to get their 2nd winning streak this season
Colby Lewis gave up 3 runs over 6 innings for the win to improve to 2-0 this season. Urbina pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 5th save. Christensen doubled and drove in 2 in his Rangers debut. Einer Diaz also drove in 2.

Meanwhile, in Wednesday's game, the Rangers had a 6-2 lead going into the 8th inning but much as the case was last season, the bullpen couldn't hold it. Cordero gave up 5 runs. Only 1 of them earned though. Park started and gave up just 2 runs on 5 hits over 6 innings for his best outing of the year. R.A. Dickey pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to finish the game. It was a big day for the offense as Teixeira hit his 2nd big league homer.
Blalock went 3 fo5 raising his BA to .408
Palmeiro walked 3 times and drove in a pair of runs including an RBI double. Everett went 4 for 5 raising his BA to .333
He also double, hit his 4th homerun and stole his 1st base while scoring 3 and driving in 2. A-Rod went 2 for 4 raising his BA to .310 . He scored 3, drove in 3 and hit his major league leading 6th and 7th homeruns.

Result:Angels-9 Rangers-8

Thursday's game @1:05 PM Central
Calloway for the Angels vs. Ryan Drese for Texas

At least Teixiera got a jack. I always check how the Rangers did in the box scores. I always check on ARod, JGonz, Palmiero, Tex and Blalock.

Of Course. I like to check on Everett too. Hope they re-sign him for a couple more years. I still check Pudge in the box score too

I am rooting for Palmeiro. Nice quiet fellow; no troubles with the Law; fantastic hitter.

the anti-Albert Belle off the field.

hoping Palmeiro is productive for 3-5 more years; if so, that would solidify his chances to get into the Hall

What do you mean by solidify his chances of getting in the hall?
After this season he is as good as in. Only 6 homers away from 500. over 500 career doubles. I am not sure how many hits he has but I think around 2500. He will probably finish with 1700 RBI or so for his career. Plus I heard last year he became the only player in MLB history to have 8 straight 38+ homer, 100 RBI seasons. My second favorite player next to, you guessed it. Pudge Rodriguez.

Another offensive attack from the Rangers.
Everett went 2 for 4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and his 5th homerun raising his BA to .348
Palmeiro scored twice, Blalock had a huge game going 2 for 3 with 3 runs, an RBI and his 5th homerun raising his BA to en unreal .423
Teixeira drove in 2, and Christensen went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI.
Drese gave up 4 runs and struck out 8 in 7 innings for his 1st win as a Ranger.
R.A. Dickey pitched 1 scoreless innings lowering his ERA to 1.93
Urbina got the final 2 outs for his 6th save lowering his ERA to an incredible 1.23
Result:Rangers-9 Angels-7
Rangers win the series against Anaheim 3-1

Friday nights game @9:05 PM Central
John Thomson for Texas @ Oakland vs. Barry Zito

Looks tough but the Rangers momentum on their side.

So much for momentum. I think the A's won 9-0
When I saw that I didn't even look at the box score.
Anyway in yesterday's game, Texas was crushed again.
This time 12-2
Palmeiro hit his 5th homerun and 495th of his career.
Everett also hit his 6th. One shy of league leader Alex Rodriguez.

Sunday's game @7:05PM Central
Colby Lewis for Texas @ Oakland against Ted Lilly

Record:7-11
A little good news.
Rangers are only 3 games out of 1st.

From the early part of the season, it appears that Oakland, Seattle, and Angels are playing each other to basically a standstill.

Winner of AL West will be whoever can win the majority of games against teams in other division.

Palmeiro is red hot!!! Go get that 500 home run!!

It was a good day for the Rangers pitching staff as Colby Lewis went 6 innings giving up just 1 run on 4 hits for the win improving to 3-0 this year. Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for hit 7th save.
Blalock went 2 for 4 with a run scored to raise his BA to .421
Everett hit his 7th homerun in the 7th to give Texas the lead 2-1
The homerun tied Alex Rodriguez for the league lead.
Young and Rodriguez each stole there 2nd bases of the year.
Result: Texas-2 Oakland-1

Tuesday's game @7:05 Central
Pedro Martinez's Redsox @ Texas against Chan Ho Park

Record:8-11

I agree with Podstock. The Rangers have a tough schedule. Don't they face the Yankees and the Red Sox both home and away soon?

I am not sure of Rangers schedule, but the Angels are about to feel the power of the Yankees and Red Sox before April ends. I assume the other AL West teams also will see these 2 teams as they pass through the West Coast

Somehow I don't think it's too fair to judge a team (i.e. Kansas City) until they've played all the other teams at least once. Unfortunately, the way the schedules are that's hard to do.

If only Texas had KC's April schedule!

Here a sad thing about the Rangers.
If they hit homeruns like a normal team instead of always leading the league, they would never win. They probably would have lost last night if not for Everett's solo shot.
Look at the Royals. They don't have just a great offense like Texas but they are still one of the top 3 teams in baseball.
Right up there with the Yankees and Giants.

It's all got to do with pitching.

When a team has a 7-0 lead on Texas, they're looking for outs, so you will see them throwing strikes to Alex, and Palmeiro, and Gonzalez...hence, the huge numbers of homers.

It's so obvious that Texas is a long-ball team. Reminds me too much of the Mets in the nineties.

They had decent pitching back in '98.
Helling, either the number 4 or 5 starter, won his first 6 decisions and finished with 20 wins.
Sele won his first 5 and finished with 19 wins.
Zimmerman had an ERA in the 2.30's and was I think 3rd in ROY voting.
Wetteland saved 40+ and had an ERA of just over 2.
Too bad his back had to give out, or whatever was wrong with him.

yea, I remember what a mistake it was for the Dodgers to release John Wetteland. Man, did that guy have a GREAT couple of years in Texas.

Much like Bobby Thigpen of the White Sox.....whatever happened to him. One year, he was saving 50+ games, then he disappeared off the face of the planet.

Pedro Martinez beat the Rangers. The most shocking news you will ever hear. Right. Anyway, Texas was down 5-1 going into the bottom of the 8th. Then exploded for a whopping 3 runs highlited by a Juan Gonzalez 2-run homer. His 5th of the year.
Unfortunately it wasn't enough as they lost 5-4.
Gonzalez was really the only offense going 2 for 4 with the homer and 3 RBI. Park pitched a decent game for him, giving up 4 runs through 7 innings against a dangerous BoSox offense.
Sierra, Rodriguez and Palmeiro each double.

Wednesday's game @7:05 PM Central
Boston's Tim Wakefield @ Texas against John Thomson

Note:Thomson has pitched very well in his last 2 starts. Hopefully he can hold the Red Sox offense so Texas can have a chance.

Pedro Martinez looks like he's getting his control back. Just 2 starts ago, he was getting rocked for a bunch of runs.

Speaking of control, He walked 6 in 7 innings last night.
The Rangers had scoring opportunities.
They just couldn't do anything with them.

Molina..I should've been more specific. Not talking about control as in balls and strikes.

I was referring to him getting back to his pitching form of last couple of years.

My bad.

It was all about pitching in last nights rain-soaked win over the Red Sox. John Thomson gave up just 1 run on 6 his and only 1 walk over 7 innings for his first Ranger win improving to 1-2 on the season. Cordero pitched a scoreless 8th lowering his ERA to 2.16
Ryan Christensen hit his 1st Ranger homerun to lead of the bottom of the 1st. He also scored twice and stole his 1st base of the year. Blalock went 3 for 4 raising his BA to .422
A-Rod went 2 for 3 nudging his BA over .300
Gonzalez hit a tie-breaking 2 run single in the 6th to snap a 1-1 tie. Everett went 2 for 3 with his 1st triple of the year raising his BA to .344
Michael Young also drove in 2 including a bases loaded walk after Gonzalez 2-run single in the 6 th.
Result:Texas-6 Red Sox-1

Thursday's game @1:05PM Central
Boston's Derek Lowe @ Texas against Ryan Drese

A rod is incredible, huh? I gotta start grabbing a few of his early years card.

It's been 2+ years since that ridiculous salary contract; but he keeps producing.

what an offensive explosion by the Rangers today!! Blew out Lowe before he even got started.

Palmeiro hit 496.

Only been interested b/c I got a ton of his 1987 Topps rookie. And they had been sitting in the commons for a long time before past 2-3 years. Had to pull them out and place them in sleeves in the Baseball Stars box.

I wish I had a ton of Palmeiro rookies. I only got one.
This was just the kind of game the Rangers offense needed.
Mench had 2 hits and drove in a run,
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 doubles putting his BA to .420,
A-Rod was big again going 1 for 2 with 2 runs, an RBI, 3 walks and his 3rd stolen base.
Palmeiro went 3 for 5 with 3 runs, 3RBI and his 6th homerun leaving him only 4 away from 500.
Teixeira replaced Palmeiro at first for a while going 1 for 1 with his 1st big league triple.
Gonzalez went 3 for 4 with 3 runs, 3RBI, a double and his 6th homerun.
Everett went 2 for 5 with 2 runs, 4RBI and his 2nd triple raising his BA to .348
Young went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 2nd triple.
All that and they still left 21 men on base.
On the pitching side of things R.A. Dickey gave up 1 run on 2 hits in 3 innings ing relief of Ryan Drese to get his 1 win of the year.
Shouse and Rosman Garcia combined for 4 scoreless innings each pitching 2. Shouse lowered his ERA to an incredible 1.69
Result: A 16-5 Ranger romp over the BoSox.

Friday's game @ 7:05 PM Central
Mike Mussina and the Yankees @ Texas against Colby Lewis

Note:Both of tomorrow's starters have perfect records
Mussina 4-0/Lewis 3-0
Only difference is Mussina has a 1.86 ERA while Lewis is at 4.43
The Rangers did score 18 runs in a game Mussina started last year.

Record:9-12(tied with the Angels for last)

Given that we play the Yankees tonight, and got blown out the past 2 games, you guys may no longer be tied for last at the stroke of midnight. lolol

p.s. don't actually have a ton, just about 10-13 of them. Kept them b/c I couldn't trade and/or sell them away, lolol

That would still be 10-13 times more than I have.
It is definately going to be a hard game considering the Rangers history against the Yankees and the fact that Mussina is so far perfect with a near perfect ERA.

the one thing that both Texas and Anaheim can be thankful for is that they're both not in the same division as Yankees. It's over for the other team as long as Yankees play 0.500 or better from this point on.

Imagine how well the other teams have to play if Yanks only play .550 the rest of the year?

Scary thought, huh? To be eliminated from winning your division, and it's not even May.

lol

That is what happed to the Rangers the last 3 years.
I am used to it.
You think the BoSox can win the wild card?
It might be tough boing against the ChiSox and Mariners or A's.

Not much happening yesterday.
Very little offense but solid pitching on both sides.
Colby Lewis gave up 3 runs in 6 innings but took the loss in a 3-2 loss to the Yankees. Einer Diaz was Texas big buy going either 2 for 3 with a run scored. Blalock drove in a run. Urbina pitched 1 scoreless inning lowering his ERA to .96

Saturdays game @7:05PM Central
David Wells and the Yankees @ Texas against Doug Davis.

Wells performing well so far after the mess that happened in pre-season with his books.

Yanks are just amazing!!

What was that book thing about anyway?
I remember reading about it but I can't recall what happened.

I didn't read it; but from all the hoopla on ESPN, it was probably about him babbling about stuff he did while in the majors.

Not like it's gonna be appearing on NY Times best seller list any time soon

Saturday's Game:
Doug Davis made his 1st start of the year and gave up 4 runs in his first 2 innings. Down 4-0 in the 2nd, Palmeiro Sierra hit a 2-run homer and Palmeiro followed with a solo shot. His 7th of the year and 497th of his career. A sac fly tied it at 4 in the 2nd.
Young also triple in the inning for hs 3rd of the year.
In the 6th with Texas trailing 5-4, Alex Rodriguez hit his 8th homerun of the year to tie the game at 5 which would eventually force extra innings. Urbina gave up 2 runs in the 11th for his 1st loss as a Ranger. Result: Yankees-7 Rangers-5

Today's Game:
Alex Rodriguez went 5 for 5 driving in 6 on 2 doubles raising his BA to .326
Palmeiro went 2 for 4 with a double and drove in a run.
Sierra went 2 for 5 and drove in a run.
Young went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI.
Christensen stole his 2nd base of the year.
Einer Diaz came in as a pinch runner.
He scored twice in the game and walked in his only at bat.
Result:Rangers-10 Yankees-7

that offense in Texas is a fantasy league's dream.

Man, all those hits, RBIs....talk about helping you win the fantasy baseball stats

Rangers are killing the Blue Jays with offense these past two games, it's unreal.

A. Rod is just out of this world. I think he had 3 hits also in yesterday's game.

Yeah, he had 3 yesterday. And 4 the day before and 5 the day before that. The guy is amazing. Anyway, in Tuesday's game against the Jays, Texas pounded them for 16 runs on 17 hits and a 16-11 victory. Christensen hit leadoff and scored twice.
Everett went 2 for 4 with 4 runs, 4 RBI and his 8th and 9th homeruns tying A-Rod and I think Soriano for the league lead.
A-Rod went 4 for 6 with 3 runs, 3 RBI, his 7th double and 9th homerun tying for the league lead.
Gonzalez went 2 for 5 with 2 runs, 5 RBI and his 7th and 8th homeruns.
Mench went 2 for 4 with a double.
Greene homered and drove in 2.
Diaz went 1 for 1 with a double and a run scored.
Cordero pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 1st save.

Side-note:Former Ranger Frank Catalanotto went 4 for 6 with 2 runs scored.(He was one of my favorite Rangers the last 3 years.)

Yesterday's game was another offensive explosion with Texas pounding out 11 runs on 18 hits against the Jays in an 11-3 win.
Everett hit leadoff and went 2 for 5 with a double and drove in 2.
Blalock went 2 for 6 with his 6th double.
A-Rod went 3 for 6 unfortunately all singles.
Palmeiro scored twice.
Gonzalez went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and his 9th homerun.
Sierra went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored.
Christensen again scored twice.
Diaz had one of his better games going 2 for 5 with a run and RBI.
Young had a huge game going 3 for 5 with 2runs, 4 RBI and his 2nd homerun of the year. A 3-run shot in the 9th of Kelvin Escobar
Drese had by far his best game of the year giving up just 2 runs, 1 earned on 7 hits in 6 innings for the win(2-1)
Erasmo Ramirez in his major league debut walked Delgado to start his career then struck out Josh Phelps to end the game.

Thursday's game @6:05 PM Central
Colbey Lewis for the Rangers @ Toronto against Roy Halladay

Note:Looks like the offense might cool off a bit with both teams best pitchers going at it tonight.
A-Rod has 12 hits in his last 17 at-bats for a 7.06 BA the last 3 games.

****nnn, Palmeiro hit his 498th career homer today. This guy is on a roll!!

8th homer of the season.

if blalock continues to hit infront of arod he might just hit .400 he is benefitting something nice by hitting infront of arod, I would be curious to see what the difference in his batting avg, hitting 2nd v/s 6th where he sometimes hits, and it doesn't hurt that he can swing that bat.


heya molina
was I shipping you the topps series 1 cards, if so I dropped them in the mail, I don't know what happened and why it took so long but that was the second envelope that took so long coming to me.

Juan Gonzalez is hot. I knew he would; it's his last year in his contract. He tied with Griffey, Killebrew and Mantle (11th) on the all-time multi-homer games list.

Gi, thanks a lot. Hope the cards get to me quicker than the envelope got to you. Thanks to you my series 1 set is now complete.

Here is your daily Rangers update.
For starters they hit 4 homeruns in a 7-6 loss to the Jays.
3 of them were solo shots. Just goes to show you can't win by the homerun ball. Everett batting leadoff for the second game in a row hit his 10th homerun and drove in 2.
Palmeiro went 3 for 4 with his 8th homerun and 498th of his career.
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with 2 solo homers giving him a league leading 11 on the year.
After Colbey Lewis gave up 7 runs in 2 innings the bullpen combined for 6 scoreless innings as the Rangers kept pecking away. They had Lamb on 2nd with 2 outs in the 9th needing just a well placed single to tie the game. Obviously it didn't work out that way.
Shouse pitched 2 scoreless lowering his ERA to 1.13
Fultz and Cordero lowered their ERA's to 2.25 and 2.12

Friday's game @6:05 PM Central
Joaquin Benoit pitches for Texas @Cleveland vs. Jake Westbrook

Man, after seeing what Angels did to Cleveland pitching staff, your Rangers must be drooling on the plane ride there.

Angels padded their hitting and pitching stats for 2 games; yesterday's game was a rain-out

Molina, how many ABs does Teixiera have so far?

Teixeira is batting .188 with 12 hits in 64 AB's.
Not quite as good as expected but he should bring the BA up as he adjusts.

Friday's game: Indians-6 Rangers -5
Rodriguez hit his 10th homerun of the year in the 1st. One behind Gonzalez for the league lead.
Young went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored raising his BA to .311
That was pretty much all that happened on the Rangers side of things.
Benoit gave up 4 runs in a bit over 5 innings of work in his 1st start of the year.

Today's game went better as the Rangers came back from a 5-4 deficit to win it 6-5.
Young hit leadoff and went 2 for 4 scoring a run and driving one in raising his BA to .318
A-Rod keeps his hot bat going as he went 2 for 4 with his 8th double and drove in 2 raising his BA to .345
Everett went 2 for 4 with his 6th double and 3rd triple of the year raising his BA to .327
Lamb went 0 for 1 with a run scored and his 1st stolen base of the year.
Christensen went 2 for 4 driving in 2.
On the pitching side of things Todd Van Poppel made, I think, his 1st start since 1998 also with Texas.
He gave up 5 runs, only 3 earned, on 5 hits in 4 innings of work.
The bullpen combined for 5 scoreless innings of relief.
Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 9th save lowering his ERA to 2.03
Sunday's game @ 12:05 PM Central
John Thomson's Rangers @ Cleveland against Ricardo Rodriguez

The Rangers bats fell silent yesterday as C.C. Sabathia held baseball's hottest offense to 1 unearned run on 4 hits over 8 innings. A-Rod hit his 9th double and stole his 4th base.
Donnie Sadler also stole his 1st base and that was about it on offense.
John Thomson pitched a very good game giving up just 3 runs on 5 hits over 8 innings in a complete game loss.
I believe it was the Rangers 1st complete game of the year.

Tuesday's game @ 7:05 PM Central
Toronto's Roy Halladay @ Texas against Colbey Lewis

Note:Alex Rodriguez stole 9 bases all of last year and has almost half that total so far this year. He is on pace to steal 21 bases this year, which is also good for those that have his etopps card for performance bonus.

Record:14-17

Juan Gonzalez won the co-player of the week honors last week batting 9 for 5 with 5 homers and 10 RBI.
He was the co-winner along with Barry Zito who went 2-0 with a .60 ERA in 2 starts. All 5 homers came in a 3 game set against the Blue Jays.

In Tuesday's game, the BlueJays came to Arlington with a bang.
They beat Texas 15-5 hitting 5 homeruns including 2 by Delgado tying him for the league lead.
Everett hit leadoff and also hit his 11th homerun driving in 4 of Texas 5 runs.
The only other run was off Hank Blalock's 6th homerun of the season. He also hit his 7th double.
A-Rod stole his 5th base putting him half way to his total all of last year. Brian Shouse pitched 2 perfect innings of relief in what was a complete massacre for the Texas pitching staff.
The starter Lewis and relievers Yan and Powell combined to give up 15 runs in 6 innings.

In Wednesday's game the Rangers got back on track with a solid pitching performance from Benoit and the bullpen to beat Toronto 5-4. Benoit made his 2nd start of the year giving up 3 runs on 5 hits striking out 6 in 5 innings.
The bullpen combined for just 1 run over the next 4 innings.
Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 10th save lowering his ERA to 1.88
Everett did what a leadoff man is supposed to do walking twice, scoring a run and stealing his 2nd base of the year.
Teixeira went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 RBI.
Gonzalez stayed hot going 3 for 4 with 2 runs, an RBI and his 12 homerun. A-Rod also hit his 11th.
Texas was down 3-0 going into the 2nd. in the 4th Gonzalez homered to tie the game at 3. In the 6th A-Rod homered t gie Texas a 4-3 lead which the bullpen managed to hold on to.

Thursday's game @ 1:05 PM Central
Corey Lidle's BlueJays @ Texas against Ryan Drese

Note:Delgado also hit his 12th homerun putting him and Gonzalez in a tie for the league lead.

Delgado can hit! He's always been a tremendous power hitter. Should be interesting to see how his career plays out.

Tim

194 for 532-37 doubles-56 homers-134runs-171RBI-125BB-.365BA

These are the number Delgado is on pace to reach after 35 games this year.
He had a huge your in 2000 then had a couple of slightly off season compared to that year but he looks better than ever so far. Future hall of famer.

I totally, and respectfully, disagree. No way is Carlos Delgado even on the minds of Hall of Fame voters.

Are you kidding me?!?

Let's see how he does once he's had over 10-13 years in the majors.

On a side note: Palmeiro hit 499th homer today. Boy, with 500+ homers and 3000 hits eventually...those are good enough statistics that he'll eventually be voted in, even though he's not a 1st ballot Hall of Famer

If Delgado stays at his current rate of production for 10 more years he will finish with way over 500 homeruns.
How can Palmeiro not be a 1st ballot HOF'er?
He will hit 500+ homers, possibly 3000+ hits. Might reach 600 doubles. If he stays healthy maybe 1800 or 1900 RBI.
The guy must still be fairly underrated.

Another thing.
In one respect he is a better hitter than Ruth was.
Last year Palmeiro became the 1st player in baseball history with 8 straight season of at least 38 homeruns and there is no reason to believe he won't do it again this year.

palmeiro hits number 499 in 8-6 loss to Jays.
He has been slumping lately though.
He only went 1 for 5 dropping his BA to .246
It was his 9th homer of the season though.
Everett went 3 for 4 with 2RBI and a double raising his BA to .333
Diaz went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored.
Young went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and his 3rd homerun raising his BA to .315
Friday's game @ 7:05 PM Central
Jake Westbrook's Indians @ Texas against John Thomson

Ok!
Who would have thought that when I bought tickets to tonights game in March that I could see Palmeiro's 500th homer.
I'll be in the lower porch in right field.
Actually, I'm going to the game to get Arod's Bobblehead.
I have 4 of each of the last 2 given out of him and will get 4 of these too.
A bonus homer by Palmerio will make the ticket stub worth a bit more.
Will I go to Sunday's game if I have to? Yes.
I have 2 of his game used bats auto'd by Palmerio and would like a 3rd if I can trade him for the 500th ball. LOL

You are one lucky dog.
Good luck catching #500.

Well,
He didn't and I'm back home with the bobbleheads and wondering if I should go back tomorrow afternoon in case he hits one then.
I would have to get tickets and then go into work. The tickets would be unused.
What do you think?

500th watch going on today; even ESPN spotlighted Palmeiro's at bats.

But no go today!!

Tomorrow is another day.

He will get it one of these days. I don't really care when just as long as it is in front of the home fans. Milestones like that are supposed to be done at your home ballpark.

Saturday's Game vs. Indians
Everett scored twice to lead the league in runs scored.
Young hit his 3rd double and drove in the 1st run on the game.
A-Rod went 2 for 5 with and RBI and his team leading 10th double
Herbert Perry played in his 1st game of the year and went 1 for 4 with a double and an RBI.
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with an RBI.

Sunday's game @2:05PM
Ricardo Rodriguez for Cleveland @ Texas against Colbey Lewis

Note:The Rangers optioned Mike Lamb to Oklahoma to make room for Herbert Perry coming on the DL.

Another note about the game.
I believe his name was Ron Young, but anyway, if there is actually anyone who doesn't know he was one of the POW's in Iraq. He was invited to sit in the Rangers dugout wearing a Rangers jersey and through out the first pitch of the game.
I believe he is Todd Greene's cousin.
If I am mistaken on any of this please let me know.
I like to have my facts straight.

Wow! This had become quite the BIG thread Molina! Good Job on keeping it up! :)


BGray

when perry comes back where does blalock and texiera go.

btw, which one of them is going to be the first one traded,

and any ideas who the rangers are going to send the cubs for the trade, we will take blalock.

If they do send Blalock I will be enfuriated.
Anyway, they might as well send Perry is they would take him.
He is a pretty good player but doesn't really have much future on the Rangers. The need Teixeira and Blalock since they are still n rebuilding mode. Once Palmeiro retires Teixeira steps in to take over and Blalock holds down 3rd. That is what I would like to see happen.

Thanks for the compliment BGray.
I take my Rangers very seriously.
Always nice to recognized.
Especially by the top dog around here.

you are right I think Perry would do ok holding down the hot spot for the my cubbies as they have belhorn, who just is ready to be there everyday, so for a short term fix perry would probably ok, there are rumors they are looking to put a deal together for mike lowell, but everyone wants juan cruz and the cubs aren't ready to deal him, as baker and the exec's see him blooming, or he could turn around and be a mike harkey.

although I would welcome blalock or tex.

Mike who?

mike lowell from florida I believe, the 3rd baseman.

Guess it is your turn to call me an idiot now.
I know who Mike Lowell is.
I meant the Mike Harkey.
I don't think I had ever heard of him.
Forgot to specify who I was talking about.
I think Lowell would help out the Cubs as 3rd.
One of the better hitting 3rd baseman.

Originally posted by Molina00
Another note about the game.
I believe his name was Ron Young, but anyway, if there is actually anyone who doesn't know he was one of the POW's in Iraq. He was invited to sit in the Rangers dugout wearing a Rangers jersey and through out the first pitch of the game.
I believe he is Todd Greene's cousin.
If I am mistaken on any of this please let me know.
I like to have my facts straight.

Yes, you were right. He was also given a locker and took batting practice. Pretty cool!
I'm sitting here at work now with a plan.
If Palmeiro hits a homer, I'll shoot from work to pick up some tickets. It's the next best thing to being there.
Then, back to work a bit more.
I'm still wore out from last nights game. The Garlic Fries got to me.

Are un-used tickets from games where players reach milestones like that worth anything or is it just what it is worth to the collector?

Hey Molina, did you ever get a chance to look for any of that football to trade for those Ranger player's I had???

Sorry. I completely forgot. I have had a lot of trades and stuff going on. Gets a little hard to keep track of everything sometimes. Post who you like and I will see if I have anything.

Ahman Green, Shockey, Portis, Urlacher, and Burress...Just let me know whenever you have a chance, I am in no big rush!!!

and in his last at-bat before the Rangers head out on 6-game road trip, Palmeiro becomes the 19th player to hit 500 home runs

And Texas wins 17-10, by a touchdown margin, lololol.

What a way to end a disappointing homestand.
A 17-10 win over a team they just couldn't get anything going against. Of course the big story was Rafael Palmeiro's 500th homerun. A 3-run shot in the 9th.
Palmeiro went 2 for 5 with 2 runs, 3RBI and also hit his 7th double. His 500th was his 10th of the year.
Everett went 2 for 5 with 3 runs, 3 RBI and his 12th homerun raising his BA to .331
Blalock went 4 for 5 with 2 runs, 4 RBI raising his BA to .387
Only problem was all of his hits were singles.
Christensen went 2 for 3 with 3 runs, 2RBI, his 3rd double and 2nd homerun.
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with 2 runs and an RBI.
Young went 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored and his 3rd stolen base.
Gerald Laird, in his 1st major league start, went 1 for 4 with a run scored.
Benoit pitched 2 perfect innings in relief of Colbey Lewis for his 1st win improving to 1-0 on the year.

Tuesday's game @ 6:05 PM Central
Benoit's Ranger @ Boston against Casey Fossum

Well, I didn't get to go to the Ballpark because he hit the home run to late in the game for me to get there in time.
The unused tickets of event games like that are worth more than the actual ticket. A few people collect stuff like that.
The Rangers also gave out some sort of sheet or card to all the fans that were at the game. I'll look on Ebay later and maybe pick one up.

They gave it out in anticipation or after he hit the HR?

They gave it out after.
Each usher gives them out to the people in that section.

Originally posted by Molina00
Guess it is your turn to call me an idiot now.
I know who Mike Lowell is.
I meant the Mike Harkey.
I don't think I had ever heard of him.
Forgot to specify who I was talking about.


Mike Harkey was suppose to be the next stud pitcher for the cubbies, around 10 or so years ago, he came up, pitched had a few good starts, only never to be heard of again. they had high praises on him like they do cruz.

Kinda of strange how some guys with loads of potential come to the big leagues, have little bit of success, bottom out, and then just disappear.

GIoperation...Harkey was in Cubs organization, if I recall correctly. His baseball card was an absolute hot commodity, b/c folks were projecting him to be one of the best hard-throwing right handers since Clemens.

He fizzled out.

Remember Tom "Flash" Gordon of KC Royals --- same thing happened with this dude.

I somewhat disagree about Gordon.
He was and still is a fairly good pitcher.
He was a decent starter and was putting up fairly good strikeout totals. Then got converted to closer and I think had a 40 save season. Now a quality middle reliever. If I had a team I would like to have him in my bullpen.

Iggy, right, he's a decent reliever.

But when he came up, he was touted as one of the best starting pitchers in years.

I had a ton of his rookies.

And they're lying around the house here somewhere.

lol

yeah "flash" still has a couple years left as a reliever. but the mike harkey guy was going to be the best thing since sliced bread.

Gioperation...I thought Brien Taylor, signed out of high school by Steinbrenner for an incredible $1M (first to get that back in early 1990s), was the next best thing since sliced bread?

He was left handed pitcher. Never knew what became of him. But he sure gained a lot of publicity for someone who did as much in the majors as I did.

lolol

Rangers lose. Again.
Thomson pitched quality game giving up just 2 runs on 3 hits over 6 innings but Cordero gave up 3 runs in an inning and 2/3 of work for the loss.
Blalock hit his 8th homerun.
Gonzalez went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and his 13th homerun.
Redsox won 5-4.
All 4 Texas runs came in the 6th.

Wednesday's game @ 6:05 PM Central showing on Fox Sports Net
Benoit and the Rangers @ Boston against Casey Fossum

I skipped the last 2 games because they weren't worth mentioning, but yesterday's game is very much worthy of mention.
The Rangers beat Roger Clemens and the Yankees 8-5 in 12 innings.
Everett scored twice, drove in a run and walked 3 times. He is batting .326
Blalock was the hero going 2 for 7 with his 9th and 10th doubles of the year and a whopping 6 RBI.
Young went 4 for 6 with 2 runs scored and his 4th stolen base raising his BA to .326
Aaron Fultz struck out 3 in 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Colbey Lewis. He lowered his ERA to 1.88
Dickey pitched 2 scoreless innings for the win improving to 3-1 on the year.
Urbina struck out 2 in a scoreless 12th for his 11th save.

Saturday's game @12:05 PM Central
Ismael Valdez and the Ranger @ New York against Andy Pettitte.

Note:Slightly irrelevent but I thought it a little interesting.
In the '98 and '99 post-seasons combined, the Rangers have scored only 2 runs. Both off Andy Pettitte. Both were RBI by Juan Gonzalez.

By Clemens losing, this means his next 2 starts will be against Boston AT Boston, and then again back at Yankee Stadium,

And he nees 2 more victories for 300.

Ironic, eh??

Rangers beat the Yankees again, this time with pitching.
A 5-2 victory. They are now 3-2 against the Yankees this year.
Everett was most of the offense going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI raising his BA to .331
Perry went 2 for 4 with and RBI.
In Ismael Valdez 1st start off the DL, he gave up just 2 runs on 5 hits over 5 innings for his 3rd win(3-2).
Cordero struck out the side in a perfect 8th and Urbina pitched a perfect 9th for his 12th save.
Tomorrow's game will be a little bit tough as John Thomson goes up against one of the top pitchers in all of baseball, Mike Mussina.

So much for what I said about the Thomson, Mussina matchup being a tough one. The Yankees didn't even come close.
The pitching of John Thomson was definately the story in this as he pitched a 3-hit complete game win giving up only 1 run.
Also striking out a season high 8 but walking a career high 5.
It didn't matter much as the offense got the job done leading Texas to a 5-1 win and there first sweep at Yankee stadium in team history. Everett went 2 for 5 with and RBI,
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with a run scored and his 11th double.
Palmeiro was 2 for 3 with 2runs, and RBI and his 8th double.
Juan Gonzalez hit a 2-run homer in the 4th to give Texas a 2-1 at that point. Young also stole his 5th base.

Tuesday's game @ 7:05 PM Central
D.Brazelton and the D-Rays @ Texas against Joaquin Benoit.

Note:In yesterday's game, Thomson threw a career highg 134 pitches in getting his 2nd complete game of the year.

Once again it was all about pitching as the Rangers defeated the D-Rays in a 5-2 victory. Benoit pitched a gem giving up just 2 runs on 4 hits striking out 8 over 7 innings for the win (2-1).
Urbina struck out 1 in a perfect 9th for his 13th save.
Blalock was the big guy going 3 for 4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and his 8th homerun raising his BA to .365
A-Rod also pitched in a 2-run shot. His 12th of the year.

Wednesday's game @7:05 PM Central
Jim Parque for Tampa Bay @ Texas against Alan Benes.

Note: The Rangers have now won 4 games in a row. With the way things have gone for Parque it could 5.

Ever since Palmeiro started approaching and then getting 500 homers (not to mention 1-2 seasons from 3000 hits), I find myself strangely engrossed in everything he does daily in the statistics box.

lolol

Being a Ranger fan I have been that way ever since he came back to Texas in 1999

No pitching this time. Rangers down the D-Rays 8-7.
Texas teed off on Jim Parque for 5 runs on 7 hits including 2 triples in 2 1/3 innings. All 5 runs coming in the 3rd.
Young went 3 for 5 with 2 runs including a bunt single, scored raising his BA to .329
Teixeira hit his 2nd triple, 3rd homer and drove in 4 as the difference in the game.
Palmeiro went 2 for 4 with his 9th double.
Sierra went 2 for 3, Todd Green in for Einar Diaz went 2 for 4 wiht an RBI and his 1st career triple.
Cordero pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win(2-4).
Urbina pitched a scoreles 9th for his 14th save.

Thursday's game @ 1:05 PM Central
McClung's D-Rays @ Texas against Colbey Lewis

Note:Rangers looking to extend winning streak to 6.

It was the kind of game we expect from the Rangers.
Completely devoid of pitching on both sides as the Rangers downed the D-Rays 10-8 for there 2nd consecutive series sweep pushing the win streak to 6.
Blalock hit his 9th homerun on drove in 3.
A-Rod hit homerun number 13.
Gonzalez went 3 for 4 with his 11th double raising his BA to .290
Teixeira scored twice and drove in 2.
Diaz went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI and hit his 1st homerun as a Ranger.
Young went 2 for 4 raising his BA to .333
Urbina struck out 2 in a perfect 9th for his 15th save.

It was back to being pitching as the Rangers beat the Orioles 5-3
In Valdez 2nd start off the DL, he gave up 3 runs on 10 hits.
Doesn't sound very good but they were all singles.
Dickey and Cordero combined for scoreless 7th and 8th innings.
Urbina struck out 2 in a scoreless 9th for save number 16.
Palmeiro hit his 11th homerun. His 1st since hitting number 500 nearly 2 weeks ago. He also drove in 3.
Sierra pinch hit for Christenson and hit and RBI double.
Young went 3 for 4 with his 4th homerun raising his BA to .343
Second in the AL to Hank Blalock who went 2 for 5 and is batting .361

Saturday's game @ 7:05 PM Central
Baltimore's Omar Daal @ Texas against John Thomson

Note:The Ranger starters have combined for 2 complete games this year. Both of them by Thomson

Record:23-24

If they win their 8th straight tonight that will put them at the .500 mark.

****, the Rangers are one hot team; although they finally lost one tonight, and fell behind the Angels into last place.

That is a pretty good division when only 3 games under .500 is last place. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever. I just wish they would have made it close.
Young went 2 for 4 with his 6th and 7th doubles of the year.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with homeru number 14 tying Gonzalez for the team lead and 2nd in the league to Delgado who has 15.

Sunday's game @ 2:05 PM Central
Former Ranger ace Rick Helling @ Texas against Joaquin Benoit

Record:23-25
Standing:Last 8 1/2 games out.

There was just slight lack of pitching in yesterday's game which resulted in the Rangers dropping there second straight after winning 7 in a row.
Everett went 2 for 4 with his 8th double and 14th homerun raising his BA .327
Blalock went 1 for 2 with 2 runs scored and 3 walks.
He is now batting a major league high .363
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 3 runs, 1 RBI and his 15th homerun tying Delgado and Soriano for the league lead.
Palmeiro went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI, his 10th double and 12th homerun raising his BA to .282
Teixeira only had 1 hit in 5 at bats but it was his 4th homerun of the year and he drove in 4.
Young went 2 for 4 with an RBI raising his BA to .349 solidifying his place in second in the batting race.
The only good thing on the pitching side was Aaron Fultz with 2 scoreless innings of work lowering his ERA to 1.91

Tuesday's game @ 6:15 PM Central
Colbey Lewis and the Rangers @ Tampa Bay against Reyes and the D-Rays.

Molina...sweet thread! I should be here every day! Where in the world is Kevin Mench? I heard he got into some trouble when he was sent down this last time....is that the reason he hasn't gotten called up? I mean with Sierra doing so badly it would seem Mench, Ludwick or Nix would be called up. Oh well.

Looking for the Rangers to start a new streak tonight in Tampa...I will be at all four games in Baltimore! Sweet!

BTW Molina it seems we may have a lot in common. Both being Ranger and Lord of the Rings fans. Have you ever read Terry Goodkind?

I never heard what happened to Mench.
Ludwick is having a good year for Oklahoma so far I think.
They should give him a chance.
Anyway, I have never heard of that book.
What is it about?
I don't have a lot of time for reading.
Working full time and will be starting back to school on June 9th.

By the way, it is lookin' good so far.
Rangers up 4-1 in the bottom of the 9th.
Urbina on the mound.
He is having some year.
Looks like another winning streak is about to start.

Terry Goodkind is the author of the sword of truth series...it has 7 books....and I have learned more from those books then I ever learned in high school or college....If you or anyone else gets a chance to read those you should do it...you won't regret it. (I have read the series three times)

Mench took the full 72 hours to report and the organization wasn't happy...well that is what I heard anyways.

Rangers win 4-2!

The series is fantasy similar to LOR.

The Rangers got rid of Yan today for a prospect. Grabbing him was a mistake anyways. Should have used that money to go towards Kenny Rogers. 4 hitter against Oakland in the 6th.

Rogers probably didn't want to stay with Texas anyway.
He only has a year or two left and probably wanted to win before he retired.

It was timely hitting and excellent pitching as the Rangers downed the D-Rays 4-2.
Palmeiro hit a solo homer in the 2nd.
Texeira hit a 2-run homer also in the 2nd.
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 15th homerun.
The league top 2 batsman, Michael Young and Hank Blalock, were a combined 0 for 7.
Colbey Lewis got back on track giving up just 1 run on 4 hits striking out 5 in 5 innings for the win (4-3).
Shouse, Rosman Garcia and Cordero combined for 3 scoreless innings of relief.
Urbina pitched he 9th for his 17th save.

Wednesday's Game @ 6:15 PM Central
Alan Benes and the Rangers @ Tampa Bay against Gonzalez(Don't know his 1st name).

Record:24-26

Quality starting pitching from Valdez and timely hitting from Blalock and Sierra resulted in an 8-4 Texas win over the Orioles in Baltimore.

Valdez gave up 2 runs on 4 hits over 5 2/3 innings improving to
5-2 on the year(I think 3-0 since coming off the DL).
Cordero struck out 3 in 2 2/3 scoreless innings for his 2nd save.
Everett went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored.
Blalock went 3 for 3 with his 11th and 12th doubles.
A-Rod walked twice, hit his 12th double and drove in a run.
Palmeiro drove in 2.
Sierra was the hero though. Hitting his 3rd homerun and driving in 3. With Texas holding a slim 6-4 lead in the top of the 9th, Sierra completely smashed a pitch from Willis Roberts into the right-center field seats. I believe estimated at about 415 feet.
It gave Texas and 8-4 lead and all it needed to down the O's.

Friday's game @ 6:05 PM Central
John Thomson and the Rangers @ Baltimore against Omar Daal

Record:25-27

If anyone was wondering why there hasn't been a Ranger update in a couple of days,
well,
there was nothing worth mentioning.
Not much today either.
A-Rod scored twice and drove in 2 hitting his 16th homerun.
Rangers lost 5-4.
Yesterday was 8-1
Friday was just as bad.
It doesn't look to improve much going up against baseball's best team.
The Atlanta Braves.

Hey thats when the Rangers will win....lost against the Indians and the birds and sweep the Yanks and Braves.

What kind of team are they anyway?
They get blown out by the big losers but sweep the Yankees.
Maybe they can beat the Braves.
If they only win one against them I want it to be Valdez's start.
Just since he is there best pitcher.
3-0 since coming off the DL

Rangers lose again. This time it was a semi-rare bullpen meltdown. Valdez pitched a decent game giving up 4 runs over 7 innings. 3 in the 3rd and 1 in the 4th then settled down for 3 scoreless innings before being relieved by Aaron Fultz in the 8th.
Texas had a 5-4 lead at that point.
Fultz walked one in a third of an inning then Showalter made a stupid move bringin in Urbina with only 1 out in the 8th.
An Urbina who hadn't pitched in a week.
He took care of Vinny Castilla in short order then gave up a game winning 2-run pinch hit homer to Andruw Jones.
On the offensive side, Young scored a run and walked twice.
Blalock went 2 for 4 and drove in a run raising his ba to .355
Gonzalez went 2 for 5 with his 17 homerun.
A 3-run shot in the 1st of Russ Ortiz giving Texas a 3-0 lead.
Teixeira went 2 for 3 with his 6th homerun to lead off the 2nd giving Texas a 4-0 lead.
Result:Braves-5 Rangers-4

Wednesday's game @ 6:05 PM Central
John Thomson's Rangers @ Atlanta against Greg Maddux

Maddux is pitching baby!!

Have to root for Maddux to get as many wins as possible. I think he's only about 15 wins away from 300!!

I think he's more like 22 or 23 games away. All he needs, I figure, is to win about 10 more games this year and it's more guaranteed that he'll get it next year. I'm also cheering for him--as much as I don't like the Braves.

He still has 3 or 4 years left in him and is only 23 wins away.
Unless he gets hurt serverely, he will make next year.

Correction. Maddux is not 22 wins away with his 8 innings effort last night. It's unbelievable to think that someone can throw only 71 pitches over 8 innings. It's no wonder Maddux has been such a good pitcher. Anyway, not a lot happened last night on the Ranger front. Blalock and A-Rod went 2 for 4 and
Diaz went 2 for 3.
Diaz, Palmeiro and A-rod doubled.
Blalock hit his 1st triple of the year.
Result:Braves-5 Rangers-2

Thursday's game @ 12:05PM Central
Victor Santos making him Ranger debut @ Atlanta against former 20 game winner Mike Hampton

yup, once Maddux is getting those pitches on the black being called strikes, it's over for the other team.

Maddux was on.

22 wins away, huh? If he can win 10 more this year, he should be able to break it next year. Recovering well after a horrific start

Rangers lose again and are swept by the Braves.
The biggest thing for Texas was Blalock going 1 for 5 with 2Rbi and Greene going 2 for 4.

The Rangers Traded Ruben Sierra to the Yankees yesterday for rookie OF'er Marcus Thames.
The trade ended Sierra's 3rd stint with Texas and will begin his 2nd with the Yankees.
Who all thinks he will be back in a year or 2?

Another day and yet another crushing loss for the Rangers.
Young hit his 9th double and drove in a run,
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 2 runs, 3 RBI and hit his 10th homerun.
A-Rod went 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored, his 15th double and 7th stolen base.
Gonzalez went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and his 1st stolen base.
Everett went 2 for 5 with his 15th homerun.
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with his 7th homer.
Donnie Sadler went 1 for 1 with 2 runs scored and his 2nd double.
The only bright side on pitching was Rosman Garcia with 2 scoreless innings of relief to finish the game.
Result:Expos-13 Rangers-10

Nothing to shout about here.
Young went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and the bullpen was solid.
Park got hit hard in 2 innings and the Rangers couldn't recover.
In Doug Glanville's return to the Ranger lineup, he went 0 for 5 leaving 6 men on. I am starting to know how Tiger fans feel.
only difference is they are getting good pitching but no offense.

Hey i've been hearing that the Rangers are looking to trade Urbina to the Yankees. Do you think it will happen and if so who will it be for. Some have said for weaver and others have said for a minor league pitching prospect and juan rivera.

They don't need another OF'er. Although, Gonzalez an Everett will be free agents. Maybe they do.
Anyway, thay could definately use Weaver.

"They don't need another OF'er. Although, Gonzalez an Everett will be free agents. Maybe they do.
Anyway, thay could definately use Weaver."

Even without Gonzo and Carl the Rangers have too many good young outfielders to be trading for more. Laynce Nix, Kevin Mench (who is in the majors! Yes!), Ryan Ludwick, and it looks like Teixeria is turning into a left feilder.

This is what I would like to see happen.
Whenever Palmeiro retires, Teixeira take over at 1st.
Have possibly the youngest and most inexperienced OF in the majors with Mench in left, Ludwick in center, and Nix in right.
I still remember a game on TV last year.
Ludwick was catching a ball about at the warning track in center and blowing a bubble doing it. Also blew a bubble while he was swinging at a pitch.
Either great concentration or somewhat abscent minded.
I think Mench should have been a starting OF'er this year.
He did too good last year.

It sounds good to me.

This is what the Rangers lineup should look like IMO next year.

Ludwick CF
Blalock 3B
Arod SS
Raffy DH
Tex 1B
Mench LF
Nix RF
Laird C
Young 2B

Although Buck has taken a liking to Carl Everett. Either way the Rangers will have a very young team next year.

Mench would have started I believe in left but he was hurt remember? Besides if Mench had been playing in left we wouldn't have seen what Carl Everett could really do.

with a homer today, Palmeiro's one homer behind Sammy "corked bat" Sosa!!

That's pretty incredible, huh?

And he's about 250 or so hits from 3000.

Let's hope he stays healthy.

and the Rangers stopped their 9-game losing streak

I tried to do this this morning but I was having internet problems so I will post the update now. Now that everyone probably already knows but oh well.
For starters the Rangers finally won a game.
The first time in about a week and a half.
The Rangers hit 4 homers last night but I think it was the typically solid pitching from John Thomson that won the game.
Thomson gave up 3runs over 6 innings for the win improving to
4-7 on the year.
Everett went 2 for 5 with an RBI,
Blalock only went 1 for 5 but he made his 1 count.
His 11th homerun with 2RBI.
Palmeiro went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored, 2 walks and his 14th homerun pulling within one of Sosa on the career list.
Teixeira went 1 for 5 with his 8th homerun.
Young was the big guy goint 2 for 4 with 2 runs, 2RBI, his 5th triple and 5th homerun.
Diaz doubled and drove in a run and Glanville went 2 for 3 with a run scored.
Urbina pitched 1 1/3 scoreless for his 18th save.
Result:Rangers-9 Mets-7

Record:26-36

what would've been the chances that Palmeiro ends 2003 with MORE career homers than Sosa, huh?

I never thought it would happen.
It still might not if Sosa goes on one of his hot streaks.
But it looks promising.
I don't think Palmeiro really has hot streaks.
He just stays consistent.
How many homers has Sosa hit so far?

Looking okay so far. Scoreless going into the bottom of the second. Ismael Valdez looks sharp over 2 innings. Before the game was the pre-game ceremony honoring Palmeiro's 500th homerun. Unveiled a painting of Palmeiro. Only thing wrong with it was he was facing the wrong way. Reggie Jackson said a few words and a video flashback to his first homerun as a Cub.
I was not aware that when he first came to Texas he wore #3.
Same as A-Rod now.

Update:Gonzalez just singled to lead off the Texas 2nd to bring up Palmeiro.

Palmeiro followed up with a single to center to put 2 on with nobody out for Teixeira.
Teixeira grounds it through the hole into left to load the bases.
Looks like trouble for Florida.

Ball one inside to Mench.
High strike to even count at 1-1.
Ball two down low. Count:2-1.
Slammed foul down the first base side. Count:2-2.
Smashed into the leftfield corner but just foul.
Popped back out of play.
Fouled off.
Ball 3 almost got away from Pudge for a wild pitch but not quite.
Strike 3.

In case anyone is wondering I am watching the game right now.

Bases loaded 1 out for Einar Diaz.
He has driven in the only 2 Ranger runs over the last 3 games.
Up and away. Count 2-1.
Fly out to deep center to score Gonzalez from 3rd.

Runners on the corners with 2 outs for Glanville.
Strike one on the outside corner Count:0-1
Swing and miss at one outside the strike zone. Count:0-2
Looped a single into center to score Palmeiro from 3rd.
Teixeira takes third on a throwing error by Pierre in center.

Runners on the corners with 2 outs for Michael Young.
Fouled off. Count:2-1
Strike 2 up and in. Count:2-2
Ball 3. Count:3-2
Grounded foul 3-2
Slammed to third. Fox knocks it down but can't hold on.
Teixeira scores from 3rd.

runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs for Hank Blalock.
Blalock smashed it back to the mound.
Marlin pitcher Phelps just barely knocks it down to avoid being hit.
Scrambles to get the ball and just barely throws out Blalock at 1st. Looking good if Valdez can stay sharp.
3-0 now.

Sosa's got like 6 homers this year, and 505 for career

And yea, I think Palmeiro's just consistently good.

Not one of those "brady Anderson 50-homer season, and then disappearing into the abyss" players

I am really hoping he plays 2 more years.

Sure fire Hall of Famer if he can get that 3000th hit

I estimate if he stays healthy he will get his 3000 hit in 2005 so all he need is two more years.
Anyway, after scoring just 2 runs in their last 3 game(both driven in by Diaz) the Ranger busted loose for 13 runs on 18 hits against Marlin pitching.
In the second inning Texas scored 3 runs all on 6 singles.
In the third they scored another 3 runs. This time on 5 singles.
All of Texas first 12 hits were singles before Hank Blalock doubled.
On a night set aside to honor Rafael Palmeiro's 500th homerun he didn't dissapoint at the plate going 2 for 3 with a walk, runs scored and an RBI.
Rangers crushed the Marlins 13-2
Batting
Young: 3 for 5 with a run and an RBI
Blalock: 1 for 5 with his 15th double and a run scored
Rodriguez:1 for 5 with a run scored
Gonzalez: 4 for 4 with 4 runs scored and 2 rbi. All singles.
Sadler: 1 for 1 (Pinch hit for Gonzalez)
Palmeiro: 2 for 3 with a run, and RBI an a walk
Lamb: 0 for 1
Teixeira: 3 for 4 with 4 runs, 3 RBI and his 9th homerun
Mench: 1 for 4 with a 3-run homerun. his 1st of the year
Diaz: 1 for 3 with 2 RBI
Glanville: 1 for 4 with an RBI
Pitching
Valdez: Win(6-2) 6IP 6 hits 2 runs 2 ER 1BB 2K's
Fultz: 1IP 1H 1K
Ramirez:1IP 2H
Powell: 1IP

I guess it is time to dig my topic out of the cellar.
Same old story. Rangers lose to the A's.
It was a pretty good game though. They only lost 4-3.
Young and Diaz each doubled.
Gonzalez hit an RBI triple.
Erasmo Ramirez pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings dropping his ERA to 3.68

Todays matchup.
Rangers Mounce vs. Barry Zito and the A's

Another crushing loss for the Rangers.
A game they should have won but lost 4-3.
The same score they lost their previous game to the A's.
Mench went 3 for 6 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scores raising his BA to .295
Rodriguez went 3 for 4 with his 17th double, 17th homerun and drove in 2 to raise his BA to .299
Tony Mounce pitched a gem only allowing 1 run on 4 hits over
5 2/3 innings but the bullpen couldn't hold on.
Urbina gave up a run over 2 innings for the blown save.
Dickey gave up a run over 2/3 innings for the loss.

It doesn't get any easier as Texas goes up against Mark Mulder this afternoon at 2:35 PM Central time.
At least I will have something to do at work.
I can catch the game online.

In the second of the battle for the silver boot against the Astros, the Rangers just looked normal. Dropping the game 9-5.
Blalock went 3 for 5 with his 18th double and 12 homerun raising his BA to .340
Palmeiro hit his 15th homerun and drove in 2.
The bullpen combined to give up just 1 run on 2 hits over 5 innings of work.

Taking a walk off Pedro isn't hard, but getting a hit? That's tough.

What are you talking about?

Pitching was the story in yesterday's game against the Astros.
Joaquin Benoit pitched 5 2/3 solid innings giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out 8. The bullpen combined to give up just 1 runs on 2 hits in 3 1/3 innings of work. Such solid pitching wasn't enough though as the Rangers only run was supplied by a first inning Mark Teixeira solo homerun. His 10th of the year.
Meanwhile Berkman homered and drove in 2 to lead the Astros to a 3-1 win over the Rangers as they were swept 3-0 in the battle for the silver boot.
Next game will be against Barry Zito probably leaving Ranger fans wondering, where is the light at the end of the tunnell?
It looked like Texas was going to have there best year since '99 until June rolled around. Now they are doing worse than I can ever remember.

Ranger suffer crushing loss at the hand of Barry Zito.
Tony Mounce had a little bit of trouble walking 5 in 5 innings but did not allow a run. Rosman Garcia and Cordero combined for 3 perfect innings of relief. Urbina came on to close out a 1-0 ballgame. Instead of closing out a rare Ranger shutout, he stayed true to Ranger form by giving up 3 runs on 2 hits in the 9th taking the loss. The Rangers had no offense whatsoever in this game. The best Being Everett and Mench each going 2 for 4.

RANGERS WIN!!! RANGERS WIN!!! RANGERS WIN!!!
Young went 2 for 4 with his 13th double and a run scored,
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with his 3rd triple and drove in 3,
Everett went 2 for 4 with his 18th homerun, 3rd stolen base and drove in 3,
Sadler went 2 for 4 with his 1st triple and a stolen base,
Ramos gave up 2 runs on 4 hits over 6 innings for his first big league win(1-1).
Urbina got the final out for his 19th save.
This win snapped an 8 game losing streak and a skid which saw the Rangers fall from 1 game under .500 to 20 games under .500
Hopefully this means the offense is getting back on track and they are going to start winning again.

Rangers win again. Texas was down 6-2 going into the bottom of the six when they broke loose combining for 7 runs over the next 3 innings to win 9-8.
Young went 2 for 5 with an RBI raising his BA to .320
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI raisin his average to .336
A-Rod went 2 for 5 hitting his 19th homerun of the year.
Palmeiro went 3 for 4 with 2 runs, 3RBI and 2 homeruns giving him 17 for the year.
Mench went 2 for 4 with his 8th double and a run scored.
Donnie Sadler went 2 for 4 with and RBI, his 3rd double and 2nd triple.
Cordero got the win pitching a scoreless 8th(3-6)
Urbina gave up 2 in the 9th but still got his 20th save.

Looks like Texas is back to normal.
All offense and no pitching.

After getting absolutely murdered by the A's, Texas rebounded nicely by beating the Astros 10-7
Blalock went 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored,
A-Rod hit his first triple of the year and scored twice,
Palmeiro hit his 18 homerun, scored twice and drove in 4,
Everett hit his 13th doubles and stole his 4 th base,
Mench hit his 9th double, scored twice and stole his first base,
Diaz went 3 for 5 with his 9th double and drove in 3.
Benoit gave up 4 runs over 5 innings but managed to get the win(3-3).

As is usually the case when the Rangers have good pitching,
they have no offense. Such was the case again yesterday as the Astros downed the Rangers 2-0
Tony Mounce gave up 2 runs, 1 earned, and struck out 5 in 6 very solid innings of work but the offense couldn't break through.
At one point, Texas had the bases loaded with 1 out and Hank Blalock hit into a double play. Gonzalez went 2 for 4 raising his BA to .289 and that was the extent of the Rangers offense.
Today's game will be Ramos vs. Villone

The Rangers closed out the Lone Star series in pretty good fashion with solid bullpen work and timely hitting as Texas set down the Astros 8-5. The Astros had 5 runs on 5 hits and the Rangers 8 runs on 8 hits. Texas was down 3-0 going into the 5th before the offense woke up combining for 8 runs over the next 5 innings.
Young went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored raising his BA to .315
Blalock went 0 for 3 but walked twice and scored twice.
A-Rod hit his 2nd triple and drove in 2,
Gonzalez also drove in 2,
Mench went 2 for 4 with 3 rbi and hit his 2nd homer of the year.
Palmeiro added his 19th homerun, a solo shot.
On the pitching side Ramos walked 7 and gave up 3 runs over 3 1/3 innings then gave way to Santos who pitched near perfect innings. Rosman Garcia struck out 2 in a perfect 7th for the win.
Urbina faces 1 batter in the 9th and struck him out for his 21st save.

Next game:John Thomson's Rangers @ Anaheim against Ramon Ortiz and the Angels.

Palmeiro looks headed for a 40-homer, 100+ RBIs season.

There's rumor that Palmeiro, who doesn't want to DH, is looking to get out of Texas.

Texas wants Palmeiro for life, if he's willing to DH.

If Palmeiro can maintain his consistency for 2 more years, 3000 hits and 550 homers beckons.

Heck, he just surpassed Sosa, after being a couple of homers behind Sosa when season began --- who'd thunk Palmeiro would've 19 homers; and Sosa about 8-10?!?!?

It always helps when the other guy(Sosa) has been hurt and suspended. I sure hope he can finish with Texas. He only has a couple of years left anyway, I would think.

Rangers win again!!! Texas has now won 4 of there last 5 games. Looks like things are starting to turn around and Texas got a rare mixture of good pitching and timely hitting in a 6-3 win over the Angels.
Young went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored,
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 1 runs scored,
A-Rod hit homerun number 20 and drove in 3,
Teixeira hit his 11th homerun and walked twice,
Thomson gave up 3 runs on 3 hits over 7 innings for the win(5-9),
Urbina pitched a scoreless 9th for his 22nd save.
Even with 2 homers and 6 runs in the game Texas offense still didn't really get the job done. Blalock, Glanville and Diaz each left 5 men on. Young stranded 4 and Palmeiro 3. That is 22 men left on base between 5 players. But they won and that is what matters.

ANAHEIM -- The Rangers are going forward with their youth movement and Carl Everett won't be a part of it.

On Tuesday, the Rangers traded the veteran outfielder to the Chicago White Sox for cash considerations and two or three minor-leaguers to be named later.

Texas will pick from a pool of eight prospects and the club's choices will determine the number of players received, according to Rangers GM John Hart. The Rangers expect to complete the deal by the All-Star Game break.

"They are young players not at the Major League level, yet. They are players we like at the same time," Rangers general manager John Hart said. "It's another piece of what we have been talking about the last few weeks, the team going younger and moving on.

"It's a combination of pitching and position players."

Outfielder Ryan Ludwick has been recalled from Oklahoma to take Everett's spot on the 25-man roster.

"There were certain players on the White Sox we asked for and didn't get. There were others we asked for and got in the deal," Hart said. "I have to take off my hat to Carl. I can't say enough about what he has done for us this season coming back off a tough year last year."

Everett, who is 2-for-19 in his last six games and is 6-for-40 in the last 12 contests, agreed to waive his no-trade clause. He was not in the lineup Tuesday against the Angels. He is hitting .205 in the last 34 games to drop from .333 to .274, his lowest since April 15 when he hit .270.




"First, I'm gonna miss these guys. They are a great bunch," Everett said. "Unfortunately, we are not winning and you know how things happen."

The outfielder hit 11 home runs and 36 RBIs in the last 52 games, but only one home run and three RBIs in the last 13. For the season, he has 18 home runs and 52 RBIs.

Everett, who was acquired in a trade with Boston before the 2002 season, has made 28 starts in left field, 13 in center field, 26 in right field and one at designated hitter.

"I came to Texas to win and I thank John Hart for putting me in a position to win," Everett said. "It's a good situation to go into, but it's been good here.

"It's been great here, but right now I'm on another team and I'm going to play the game hard and play to win like I always have. Now it's in Chicago."

The trade marks the second successful attempt by the Rangers to bring young players into the organization. Last week the club tried to trade Juan Gonzalez to Montreal for prospects, but the outfielder exercised his no-trade clause and vetoed the deal. The first week of June, the Rangers traded Ruben Sierra to the New York Yankees for a Triple-A outfielder.

"It's tough saying bye to Carl," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "He's been great. If every young player approaches the game the way Carl does, we're in good shape.

"They are getting a professional player who brings it every day. Nobody brings more intensity or wants to win more than Carl Everett. It will be a good addition for them. It was a good move for us."

Jesse Sanchez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

I personally am sad to see him go. He was a very important part of their offense this year and will be weakened by his departure. Hopefully Ludwick can mash like he was for OKC.

Everett was traded as the Rangers were defeated by the Angels 7-5.
Michael Young had a huge game going 2 for 4 hitting his 6th and 7th homeruns of the year and driving in 3.
A-Rod hit his 21st homerun and drove in the Rangers only other 2 runs. Mench went 2 for 4.
Dickey, Shouse and Powell combined for 3 near perfect innings of relief.

Today's game:Joaquin Benoit vs. John Lackey and the Angels.

In Thursday nights game the Rangers jumped out to an early 5-2 lead and held on to beat the Angels 6-5.
Hank Blalock was the big story as he went 3 for 5 with 3 runs, 2 RBI, his 19th double, 13th and 14th homeruns.
Gonzalez went 2 for 5 and drove in 2,
Mench hit his 10th double and also drove in 2.
Tony Mounce gave up 3 runs over 5 1/3 innings for his first win
(1-3).
Urbina struck out 2 in perfect 9th for his 23rd save.

The Rangers ruffed up Kevin Appier for 5 runs on 6 hits over 2 2/3 innings.

Texas will be back at the ballpark for the 4th of July game today with Santos going up against Freddie Garcia and the Mariners.

Juan Gonzalez provided the fireworks on the 4th of July as the Rangers set down the Mariners 7-3.
Texas was down 3-0 after 3 innings then busted loose for 5 in the 4th highlighted by a Juan Gonzalez 3-run homerun. His 19th of the year.
Blalock went 2 for 4 and is now batting .334
A-Rod went 2 for 3 with his 20th double, 3rd triple and drove in a run.
Todd Greene went 2 for 4 with 2 doubles and drove in a run.
On the pitching side of things, Victor Santos only lasted 4 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks.
Dickey pitched 3 scoreless innings for the win(4-3)
Ron Mahay struck out 3 in 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Urbina set down both batters he faced for his 24th save.

Today's game:Jamie Moyer's Mariners against John Thomson.

Note:Mahay has now given up just 2 hits and 2 walks in 7 scoreless innings as a Ranger while striking out 8.

John Thomson gave up just 2 runs over either6 or 7 innings of work but got a no-decision in Saturday's game against the Mariners. Juan Gonzalez hit his 20th homerun and drove in both Ranger runs as the Mariners beat the Rangers 3-2 in either 11 or 12 innings.

Powered by 2 homeruns and great pitching, the Rangers downed the Mariners 5-1 Sunday evening.
Ismael Valdez was the big story giving up just 1 run on 4 hits over 6 innings for the win(7-5)
Rosman Garcia and Fransisco Cordero combined for 3 scoreless innings to finish things off.
Michael Young went 2 for 4 with his 14th double and 8th homerun.
Palmeiro hit his 20th homerun,
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with his 16th double and scored a run,
Mench and Ryan Ludwick each walked twice and scored a run.
Mench was also hit in the head by a pitch but was uninjured.
Doug Glanville also pitched in with a couple of RBI.

Next game:Tuesday, Kyle Lohse and the Twins at Texas against Tony Mounce.

Powered by 4 doubles, 2 homers and very solid relief pitching, the Ranger, after falling behind 5-0, managed to defeat the Twins 8-6. Tony Mounce started and gave up 5 runs in the 3rd but the Twins did not score another run until the 9th.
Young went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI raising his BA to .319
Blalock went 2 for 4 and is now batting .330
A-Rod drove in 2,
Palmeiro hit his 21st homerun in the 2nd off Kyle Lohse,
Gonzalez also hit his 21st homerun in the 3rd off Lohse and finished with 2 RBI,
Todd Greene went 2 for 4 with 2 runs, and RBI and his 7th double.
Teixeira hit his 11th double and drove in a run,
Mench went 2 for 2 with 2 doubles and a run scored.
Jay Powell pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the win(2-0)
Shouse, Garcia and Mahay combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
Urbina gave up the Twins final run in the 9th but got his 25th save of the year.

Todays game:Long-time Ranger Kenny Rogers and the Twins @ Texas against Joaquin Benoit.

Note:The Rangers have now won 4 of there last 5 game.
In the 5th innings Kevin Mench was hit on the wrist by a pitch from Juan Rincon. He will now be out 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist. A crushing loss for the Ranger as he was one of there hottest hitters .344 over the last 25 games.

Pitching was the story as the Rangers defeated the Twins 4-1 to win there 3 straight game and 5 of there last 6.
Joaquin Benoit gave up just 1 run on 4 hits over 7 innings for the win.(4-4)
Urbina stuck out 2 in a scoreless 9th for his 26th save.
Teixeira hit his 12th homerun in the 2nd off Kenny Rogers to give Texas a 1-0 lead. A-Rod hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 6th to break a 1-run tie and give Texas a 3-1 lead.
Ryan Ludwick went 2 for 4 with his 1st double of the year.
Young also contributed a run with a single to left that scored Ludwick. Texas got 4 runs on 7 hits over 7 innings off former Ranger ace Kenny Rogers.

Todays game:Rick Reed for the Twins @ Texas against John Thomson

I think Palmeiro's sacrificing his BA for homers.

He's at about 0.250 when he's much much better, more like near a 0.300

But, at least he's hitting homers!!

He was caught up to Sosa, until Sosa got hot this past week.

wowow...assuming Palmeiro continues this pace and plays 2-3 more years -- you are looking at a 600 homer and 3000 hits batter!!!!!

I don't know if he will make it 3 more years but it is possible.
A while ago I heard something like Texas wanted to make him the DH but he still wants to play 1B. I hope that doesn't cause any problems when signing the FA comes around. He does lose a lot of what would be hits due to the Palmeiro shift. That is contributing to the drastically lower BA. Only batting .240 now.

Texas slugged 4 homeruns and got a solid performance from John Thomson in defeating the Twins 9-4. They swept the Twins and have now won 4 straight and 5 of ther last 6.
Young had a huge game going 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 3RBI, his 15th double and 9th homerun. A 3-run shot in the 5th off Rick Reed. He is now batting .323
Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with 2 homers and 4 RBI. The first was a 3-run shot with 2 outs in the 1st off Rick Reed. The second was a solo shot in the 4th also off Reed.
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with his 13th homerun.
Thomson gave up 2 runs, 1 earned, over 7 innings for the
win(6-9).

Todays game:Runelvys Hernandez and the Royals @ Texas against R.A. Dickey making, I think, his first career start.

Game note: 8 of Texas 9 runs came off homeruns. Solo shots by Gonzalez and Teixeira, 3-run shots by gonzalez and Young.

Podstock- Last night I was thinking the same thing...but hey can anyone blame him? He is noted as a pull hitter so they put the shift on every time up...that is a whole lot harder to get base hits when you can hit the ball the other way. I

Molina- The Rangers do want raffy as the DH next year...if you have noticed T-Rex is getting a lot more playing time at 1b than raffy. In order for raffy to stay a Rangers he must take a pay cut next year and be the DH. BTW I think he will play at least 3 more years.

Has anyone heard anything on Rusty Greer?

I know they are grooming to Tex to take over first and I think he will do a fine job. You guys see the play he made last night?
I don't really remember if it was a hard hit line drive or what but he had to run his heart out to beat the runner to first.
I just hope Raffy's 3 more years will be with Texas.

Even as good as he was and comes back healthy, I bet Greer is finished as a Ranger. With Gonzalez, Mench, Nix and Ludwick they don't really need him. Seems like his problems started when the Rangers traded Gonzalez to the Tigers and began their downward spiral. He hasn't played a full season since they won the division in '99.

The Rangers were torn to pieces by the Royals yesterday so there isn't much to say about the game.

In other Ranger news, closer Ugie Urbina, who was leading the AL in saves with 26 was delt to the Marlins for 3 prospects.

Rangers deal Urbina for prospects
By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com



Ugueth Urbina notched 26 saves for the Rangers before being traded to the Marlins on Friday. (Tony Gutierrez/AP)



ARLINGTON -- The Rangers took yet another step in their trek toward a youth movement.
On Friday, the Rangers acquired three prospects from the Florida Marlins in exchange for reliever Ugueth Urbina, the American League leader in save with 26.

The three players acquired were left-handed pitcher Ryan Snare, outfielder Will Smith and highly touted first base prospect Adrian Gonzalez.

"This move, I think, clarifies the direction in which we are going," Rangers general manager John Hart said. "We feel saddened on one hand to lose such a professional as Ugie Urbina. He was a great free agent sign for us. The guy is leading the league in saves for us. He came over here as advertised, and did a great job for us."

All three players were in Double-A in the Florida system and will start at the Double-A level in the Texas system. Neither of the three will likely play for the big-league club this season, but will be strongly considered for spots on the 40-man roster this winter, Hart said.

"There where a number of other clubs that did come into play, I don't want to get into to much as to what the clubs were," Hart said. "There has been a lot of activity on Ugie as we've gone through the last several weeks. We just felt that we looked at all of the opportunities, all of the potential deals, this one was clearly this best one so we made it."

Gonzalez, 21, the first overall pick in the 2000 June amateur draft by the Marlins, was hitting .307 in 36 games for Double-A Carolina. He began the season at Triple-A Albuquerque and has a .271 average in 75 total games this season. He has 17 home runs, at least 30 doubles and at least 90 RBIs in each of the last two seasons.

He had surgery on his right wrist in the offseason.

Smith, 21, hit .293 with five doubles and 13 in 34 games with Carolina. He has hit .299 during four minor league seasons. He averaged 15 home runs in 2001-2002.

Snare, who is currently on the Marlins' Major League roster, is 5-4 with 3.67 ERA in 18 starts for Carolina. He went 12-4 with a 3.21 ERA with three different minor league clubs in 2002.

The Rangers, who have made trades with the White Sox for Carl Everett and the Yankees for Ruben Sierra this season for prospects, will continue to test the trade market. The club continues to explore the possibility of trading outfielder Juan Gonzalez. Gonzalez, who has a full no-trade clause, vetoed a deal to Montreal last month.

"We're going to continue to talk as we go forward, obviously we have some limitations as to where we can go," Hart said. "We'll continue to try to be creative, see if there's ways for us to help the Texas Rangers. Whether it's traditional or nontraditional, we'll continue to look."

That said, the Rangers are pleased with the moves they have made so far and the prospects that will soon be in the system. The club will get at least two prospects and possibly three from Chicago in the deal for Everett.

"With what we're going to be able to bring back from Chicago we have a chance to take what I think is a strong player development system now and really give this a hit," Hart said. "We're bringing back good players. This is a franchise that is going to commit to youth. We are going to try to acquire as many young players as we can talented young players. Obviously you try to work from your area of weakness if you can. You'd like to bring back a lot of pitching. We have really, with trade today, strengthened our system with young players that are going to play here in Texas."

So in Urbina's absence, Francisco "Coco" Cordero is the top candidate to replace Urbina as the team's closer. Jeff Zimmerman, who is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, is also a candidate for the future.

"I think clearly we're going to take a look at some of our own youngsters here," Hart said Coco got an opportunity to do it last year; he's had a chance to watch Ugie. I think he's been very effective for us in the setup role. Obviously we keep monitoring Jeff Zimmerman. It might not be something that happens in the near future, but at some point Zim's going to be back."

Rangers manager Buck Showalter said Cordero will get a chance to prove himself in the closer role, but will also use a closer-by-committee if necessary.

"We think it's a very good move for us," Hart said. " I've been on the other side of the equation, and these are deals that are fun to make both ways. They're a little more painful to make when you're sitting in Florida's seat."

Jesse Sanchez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Doug Glanville hit his 1st homerun since April and went 2 for 4 in the Royals 8-2 romp over the Rangers.

Even when the Rangers don't play there is still Ranger news.
In Hank Blalock first career all-star game at bat he hit a pinch hit 2-run homer to win the game for the American League team.
I think it was in the 7th or 8th.
Unfortunately I missed the game.
I was involved in trade negotiations online and my brother was playing nintendo so I couldn't use the TV or go to another room.

The Rangers are off to a better 2nd half start then they were at the beginning of the season. Solid starting pitcher and powerful offense led the Rangers to a 12-6 win over the DevilRays at Tropicana Field. Texas combined for 4 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers and 1 steal.
Young went 3 for 6 with 3 runs, 2 RBI, his 16th double and 6th triple. He is now batting .323
Glanville went 4 for 6 with his 3rd double and 2 RBI
Gonzalez went 3 for 5 with 2 runs, 4 RBI, his 17th double and his 24th homerun.
Marcus Thames homered and drove in 2 in his first game as a Ranger
Sadler went 2 for 3 with 3 runs, an RBI, 2 walks, and his first homerun of the year.
Teixeira also had his 1st career stolen base.
Thomson gave up 3 runs and struck out 9 over 7 2/3 innings for the win(7-9)

Tonights game:Ismael Valdez vs. Jeremy Gonzalez

The Ranger were swept 2 games to none by the Orioles in a 12-6 loss on Tuesday.
Young drove in 2 and stole his 9th base,
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and his 15th homerun.
A-Rod went 4 for 5, with his 8th stolen base but only scored 1 run.
Laynce Nix went 2 for 4 with his first career double.
Diaz went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 3rd homerun.

It was vintage Rangers with poor pitching and just enought offense to squeeze out a win. Texas hitters pounded Jarrod Washburn for 10 runs on 9 hits through 3 1/3 innings.
Young went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 10th stolen base.
Glanville went 4 for 5 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and his 4th stolen base.
A-Rod hit his 23rd homerun, scored 3 and drove in 2.
Shane Spencer hit his first homerun as a Ranger and drove in 4.
Marcus Thames also pitched in with a couple of runs scored.
Erasmo Ramirez struck out 3 in 2 2/3 scoreless innings for the win his first win. (1-0)
Cordero got his first save of the year as the official closer. His 3rd of the season overall.

Result:Rangers-12 Angels-9

The Rangers were hammered early on, rallied to come back , but the bullpen couldn't get the job done as the Rangers lost to the Angels 9-6 to plit the 2-game series.
Blalock went 2 for 5 with 2 runs, 2 RBI, his 20th double and 16th homerun.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with homerun number 24.
Jason Jones his what I believe is his first big league homerun.
Laynce Nix also pitched in his first big league blast.
Ranger reliever combined to give up 5 runs over 5 1/3 innings.
Only 1 of those 5 runs was earned.

boy, Palmeiro is struggling mightily, isn't he?

And the Rangers haven't picked up his option yet.

yikes!!

are they really planning on letting him go at the off season

He really is having problems.
I don't think it is just the Palmeiro shift anymore either.

If they don't re-sign I won't be too happy but at least they have what looks to be a very good replacement in Teixeira.
I think he does need to play a couple more years though to ensure himself of HOF induction. Couple more productive years and they can't keep him out.

I always like it when somebody besides me replies to this topic.

Young went 2 for 5 and is now batting .320
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 9th stolen base.
Palmeiro scored twice, drove in 2, walked twice and hit his 22nd homerun.
Spencer went 2 for 4 with a double and 3 RBI.
And that was about all that went well for Texas in their 11-5 loss to Moyer's Mariners.

I don't think they have any intention of keeping palmeiro, especially since they want to move him before the deadline - i will be sad to see him go - ever since i met him while in high school i thought he is one classy guy

and he might be the only HOF'er to promote viagra haha

lololol..he might be the only Hall of Famer to promote Viagra, but I'd bet he won't be the only one using it

hehehe

The Ranger finally got back to their winning ways as John Thomson and co. managed to rough up the Freddie Garcia and the M's 7-3.
Young went 4 for 5 with 2 runs scored
Blalock went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI and his 21st double
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, his 4th triple and 10th stolen base
Palmeiro went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI
John Thomson gave up just 3 runs on 8 hits strikin gout 7 over 8 innings of work.
Cordero struck out the side in a 1-2-3 9th.

Today's game @9:05 PM Central
Joaquin Benoit(5-5 5.65 ERA) vs. Ryan Franklin(7-8 3.50 ERA)

Do you guys think your GM will part with John Thomson before the deadline and if so to who?

They can't really afford to lose Thomson.
He is there best pitcher, sadly enough, and need to hold onto him if they want to build on the rotation. If only Park and Valdez could pitch like they did in LA and Benoit could start pitching like I think he can, they would have a pretty decent rotation.
It really doesn't make any sense to trade Thomson.
he wouldn't cost too much to re-sign either, i wouldn't think.

Molina---If you think about it they could do the same thing this year as they did last year with Valdes. Trade him for some prospects and then sign him again in the offseason. Of course if they want to resign him.

Good point. That would be a good way to strengthen the farm clubs. Keep trading him and then re-signing him in the off-season.
I don't think they need more minor league pitching though.
The pitchers they have need to start playing like they are capable of.

Oh I agree. Players like Beniot and Lewis really need to step up. I think the Rangers are getting plenty of prospects to try and lure in teams for trades...kinda like stocking up. It looks to be like a complete rebuilding year next season though. I mean the infield is set but the rest of the team is going to look like a AAA ballclub....wait they look like that now.

Another thing---I am really getting frustrated with Raffy....I wouldn't mind letting him go somewhere...like the O's for Ponson or something (unlikley) cause he really isn't helping much.

Yeah, he has a good game now and then but has been mainly a bust this season. He should still hit 30+ homers but definately one of the worst years as a Ranger for him I think.

No sooner do we finish saying how bad Palmeiro is doing than he has one of the biggest games of his career. It was all about the offense in the Rangers 10-1 romp over the Mariners.
Young went 2 for 5 with 3 runs scored and is batting .324
Blalock went 4 for 5 with 3 runs scored, 2 RBI and his 17th homerun, a two run shot in the 5th. Now batting .321
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI
Palmeiro was the big story going 2 for 4 with 2 homers and a career high 7 RBI. He hit a 3-run shot in the first off Ryan Franklin then a grand slam in the 7th off Arthur Rhodes.
Benoit gave up just 2 hits and struck out 7 over 7 incredible innings for the win(6-5).

Todays Game @ 7:05 Pm Central
Boston's Tim Wakefield @ Texas against R.A. Dickey

don't give up on raffy - he may be old but he must have remembered his viagra yesterday

If he can just play 2-3 more years, and be average, he will get those 3000 hits, and possibly 550-575 homers, even 600 isn't out of the realm of possibility, as he's at 514 right now.

He could finish the year at 525-530.
Then hit say 35 each of the next 2 years which is about average,
That would put him right at 600.
Definately a possibility.

Texas had 4-2- lead going into the 7th but the bullpen suffered a complete collapse as the Rangers were crushed 14-7 by the Red Sox.
Spencer went 2 for 5 and drove in a run
Glanville went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and hit his 4th homerun
Diaz went 2 for 4 with his 11th double and 2 RBI
R.A. Dickey gave up just 2 runs while striking out 6 over 5 solid innings of work.

the Rangers tried to rally scoring 3 runs in the last 2 innings but didn't even come close to overcoming Boston 12 runs over the 7th and 8th innings.

Rangers vs. Redsox update

Laynce Nix hit his 2nd career homerun.
a 2-run shot in the 2nd giving Texas a 2-0 lead.
Mark Teixeira hit his 14. A 3-run shot in the 3rd to give Texas a
5-0 lead.

Rangers vs. Redsox 5th inning update

Hank Blalock crushes an upper deck homerun to right field.
A solo-shot, his 18th of the year. Now 6-1 Texas.
Alex Rodriguez beats out an infield single and the game is over for Redsox starter Ramiro Mendoza.
Teixeira is hit by the pitch to put 2 on with 2 out for Jason Jones.
Jones walks to load the bases for Laynce Nix.
Nix walks with bases loaded to make it 7-1 Texas.
Greene strikes out to strand the bases loaded but Texas puts 2 more runs on the board.

molina - been to a game at the ballpark yet?

No not yet.
I want to go with my dad some time but he has had to go to Seattle on business a lot lately. He just left today which is the 3rd time in a month he has gone up. I will get to a game one of these days.

Rangers get sweet revenge crushing the Redsox 9-2 with some early homeruns.
Blalock hit his 18th homerun of the year, a solo-shot in the 5th off Ramiro Mendoza and stole his first base of his career.
A-Rod went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored
Teixeira went 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored, 3 RBI and hit his 15th homerun. A 3-run, 2-out shot in the 3rd off Mendoza.
Nix went 2 for 3 with 2 runs, 4 RBI, with his 3rd double and 2nd homerun, a 2-run shot in the 2nd off Mendoza.
Robert Ellis gave up just 2 runs on 6 hits over 7 innings for the win. (1-1).

Game note:A-Rod, Teixiera and Nix were a combined 8 for 12 with 1 double, 2 homers, 7 runs scored and 7 RBI in yesterday's game.

Very timeley hitting and solid pitching led the Rangers to their second straight win over the Redsox.
Shane Spencer went 2 for 4 with an RBI double and 2-run single all off Pedro Martinez.
After Spencer's 2-run single in the 6th, there was no offense until Alex Rodriguez his a 2-out, walk-off grand slam in the 11th.
His 25 homerun of the year. He also stole his 11th base.
Einer Diaz did his part gunning down Damian Jackson and Lou Collier trying to steal 2nd.
Colbey Lewis outdueled Pedro giving up just 2 runs over 6 innings while Pedro gave up 3 runs over 6 innings.
Erasmo Ramirez pitched a scoreless 11th for the win.(2-0)
Result:Rangers-7 Redsox-4

The Rangers tied the club record for homers in a game hitting 7 in a 10-3 rout of the Indians.
Michael Young homered to lead off the game. His 10th of the season.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, hit his 26 homerun and stole his 12th base.
Palmeiro scored twice and hit his 25th homerun.
Teixeira went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 4 RBI and hit his 16th and 17th homeruns.
Todd Greene went 2 for 4 hitting 2 solo homers giving him 6 on the year.
John Thomson with another solid outing gave up just 3 runs on 5 hits over 8 innings for the win. (9-10)
Texas knocked out Billy Traber early scoring 6 runs on 5 hits in just 2 innings.

Note:The Rangers have now won 4 of their last 5 games.

Man I have been impressed with the recent starting pitchers...they have posted an era under 3 in the past 7 games.

If they can just keep it going they might finish the year with a starter who has an ERA under 5.lol

They are definately playing great Bball right now.
This is what they are supposed to do.

Surprised they're playing well...after the overhaul.

I think John Thomson has done a solid job this year. Speaking of starters, wonder when Chan Ho Park is gonna show his face?

During the game last night they showed him in the dugout.
Not quite the same as being on the mound. It's too bad he doesn't have much trade value anymore or I would say trade him.

The Ranger had a slugfest for the second game in a row against the Indians hitting 4 doubles, a triple and 3 homeruns in a 9-7 win over Cleveland.
Young went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and doubled twice giving him 24 on the year.
Blalock went 3 for 5 with his 22nd doubles, 2nd triple and drove in a run.
A-Rod scored 3 runs, and his a 2-run homer in 3rd to make it 5-3 Cleveland.
Palmeiro went 2 for 4 a double, his 26th homerun and drove in 4.
Nix had the only hit from the bottom of the order hitting his 3rd homerun.
Erasmo Ramirez pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings in relief to pick up his 3rd win.(3-0)

Game Notes: Hank Blalock was a homerun shy of the cycle.
The top of the order, 1-4, was a combined 7 for 16 with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers, 8 runs and 7 RBI.
The bottom of the order, 5-9, went 2 for 18 with 1 homer, 1 run and 2 RBI
Texas has now won 4 in a row and 6 of their last 7 games.

Indians @ Rangers 5th innings update&
Cleveland scored 3 runs in the first of R.A. Dickey then A-Rod and Palmeiro hit back-to-back homers to pull within 3-2.
Texas scored 2 more runs in the bottom of the 2nd to take a 4-3 lead. Former Ranger Ryan Ludwick homered in the 3rd for Cleveland to tie the game at 4. Bottom of the 3rd, Einar Diaz hit a 3-run homer to give Texas a 7-4 lead which is the current score going into the bottom of the 5th.

Guys I believe they said Park would not pitch again this season...if you ask me that is a plus...I would let him try at the start of next season and if he doesn't do good...release him and pay him his money he is taking up roster space.

If by some miracle he gets back to pitching the way he did with LA, it probably would be best to get rid of him. It wouldn't free up any cash to sign a new guy though would it?
Wouldn't they still have to pay his salary?

Rangers break out the bats, again, to win the finale of the 3-game set with the Indians 9-5.
The offense may have had another big day but I think the real story was Rangers starter R.A. Dickey.
He gave up 3 runs in the 1st innings then settled down to give up just 1 more run over the 6 innings. Overall, he gave up 4 runs on 7 hits over 7 innings for the win to even his record at 5-5.
Cordero struck out 2 in a scoreless 9th for his 5th save.
A-Rod went 3 for 5 with his 28th homerun and drove in 2.
Palmeiro went 3 for 5 with homerun number 27.
Marcus Thames scored 2 runs.
Einar Diaz went 2 for 4 with 2 runs, 3 RBI and his 3rd homerun.
Early in the game Ramon Nivar reached first base on an error then scored the first run of his career.
Later in the game he tripled for the first hit of his big league career. He also drove in a run.

Note:Rangers have now won 5 game in a row and 7 of their last 8 to even their home record at 29-29.

Blalock cracked his bat and now has to break in another one.
That's why he was 0 - 4 last night.
I know this because the Rangers called me at 6:00 PM last night and offered to sell it to me.
I'm picking up the bat at 4 pm tonight.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Lucky dog you.
Wish i could afford to get one of those.
It shouldn't take him too long to break in another one.


Slight mess-up on the score.
Texas won 8-5, not 9-5.

ARLINGTON --- Rusty Greer can't play the outfield with reckless abandon like he used to back in the day.
He knows that.

He might not ever play another game for the Texas Rangers.

He knows that, too.

But even at the age of 34 and after undergoing three major surgeries within the last year and still needing procedures on his hip and knee, Greer undeniably remains in his prime.

As a human being, just not as a baseball player anymore.

"I am very comfortable with what I have done on the field, so if I never play another game, I'm certainly not a person who is going to feel like I missed out on something," he said. "I have the cake, I have the icing, and if I get to come back, it will be the cherry on top."

Greer hit .300 for four consecutive seasons (1996-99) and his .305 career average is 19th among active Major Leaguers. He is one of only four Rangers to record 100 RBIs and 100 runs scored in at least two seasons. His community involvement, fearless style and ability to play with pain made him a fan favorite.

Now, his body is telling him to slow down. Actually, it has been. He played in 62 games in 2001 and 51 in 2002.

"I played 10 years and every day for seven years," he said. "Because of the way I played, I'm in this position now. I'm not going to worry about that. In other words, I've had a pretty good life and a pretty good time at what I have been doing."

Rusty Greer / OF
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 195
Bats/Throws: L/L

More info:
Player page
Stats
Hit chart
Rangers site



Last August, Greer underwent surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck. In November, he had surgery to repair a rotator cuff tear in his left shoulder and last month, he underwent a reconstruction of his ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, better known as Tommy John surgery.

He said the shoulder and elbow surgeries can combine to take 12 to 24 months of recovery time and he does not like the prospect of rehab on his left elbow, right hip and right knee all at the same time for fear of any type of setback. That said, he is foregoing the final two procedures for his mental health, not his physical health.

"At some point in time, you can only rehab so much and that's kind of what I'm getting at," he said. "I rehabbed my shoulder for six months in an effort to get it to the point where I could have elbow surgery. That's not fun.
"[Knee and hip surgeries] will put me in good shape to play, but you can't understand the mental side unless you are in my shoes. When I say, 'I'm tired of having surgeries and I'm sick of it,' I am. That's why I am going to avoid them. The benefit of having them would solve any future chance of having the injury again and would certainly improve my after-baseball life. But I'm just tired of having surgeries and the rehab that comes with it."

Greer, who is in the second year of a three-year deal worth almost $22 million, met with Rangers manager Buck Showalter and general manager John Hart about the his future last weekend. Showalter is fond of Greer and wants him to be more involved with the organization in some capacity. He has hinted as Greer as an option at DH in 2005 for the league minimum, possibly out of sheer respect.

A role similar to former Rangers pitcher and current special assistant John Wetteland is perhaps one of the answers for Greer and the Rangers franchise when his playing days are over.

"I would dg something like that," Greer said. "That's a way to stay in the game without actually playing. Really, in the end if you are a baseball person, that's all you really care about. It's not always necessarily playing the beginning of the game as long as you're here in some capacity."

Those thoughts alone show that Greer has recognized that his future playing days are uncertain. But he does, however, knows at least two things for sure -- he wants to retire as a member of the Texas Rangers and he does not want to play anywhere else ever.

"Throughout my career, I have stayed in one spot -- for less money because I liked it and I liked the people," he said. "At 36 [in 2005], with three 5-year-old kids who are about to start school, I want to try to be unselfish, probably for once in my life. I want to think about them. It would be nice if they could see me play for sure, but the impact of packing and moving and being gone for six or seven months might be of greater detriment than anything positive just because I want to play another year of baseball."

The surgeries on his body have helped him recover physically, but the time off the field has also benefited him psychologically. The outfielder has long ago reached a point in his life where the word "retirement" is no longer a taboo.

He would like to retire as an active player, but if he doesn't, he doesn't.

It's that simple.

"I have had enough time to get over it, so to speak," Greer said. "I'm not going to say I miss going on the road and that kind gf stuff, but I definitely miss the clubhouse and being around the guys. But the time at home with my kids has been nice. It's almost been kind of a good weaning process in case this is the last go-around and I don't get to play again. I'll be adjusted to civilian life, so to speak."

It sounds to me like he might not play again. I always enjoyed watching him play. He was a key component of the Rangers powerful offense for almost a decade helping them to 3 division titles. I hope some way can be worked out where he can stay with Texas. whether as a player or assistant of some kind.

I hear that. I mean the Rangers really are not Rangers without Greer....I remember him hitting in the third hole before Gonzo.....seemed like he had a hit every time.

He is definately one of the better Rangers in club history and might be missed almost as much as Pudge. I hope he can comeback healthy. Have a big year at the plate and still be able to play the field.

Texas was down 4-2 going into the 8th.
Alex Rodriguez led off the inning homering to left field to make it 4-3 and start the Rangers rally.
In the 9th off Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest closer in baseball history, Palmeiro pinch-hit and drew a rare walk from Rivera than was pinch ran for by Laynce Nix. Donnie Sadler laid down a bunt that Rivera threw away at first base to put 2 on with none out. Hank Blalock pinch hit for Todd Greene and crushed a single to left the scored both runners to give Texas a 5-4 lead that would hold. Cordero finished pitching a scoreless 9th for his 6th save as the Rangers defeated the Yankees 5-4.
Ramon Nivar also picked up his first career stolen base and A-Rod swiped his 13 bag of the year.

Today's matchup:Joaquin Benoit vs. Mike Mussina

Note: Texas has now won 6 of their last 7 and 8 of their last 10 games.

Hey Ranger-ites!

I caught the last portion of the Yanks-Rangers game last night.

Lots of fun... the visitors come from behind to win in Yankee Stadium with the legendary Ernie Harwell calling the game. The only thing that would've made that game sweeter was if it was the Tigers playing instead of the Rangers.

molina sounds like gm 7 of the 2001 WS a rare blown save by mariano riveria

What a sweet win...Blalock is on his way to being a star.

I was watching the game on foxsports net so I had Josh Lewin.

I really didn't think they could do it but the big guys came through off the bench. it used to be the Yankees dominated the Rangers but the past couple years the Rangers have had the Yankess number about as much as a team can.

as far as I am concerned, Blalock is a star. His first career all-star game at bat, he hits a game-winning 2-run homer off one of the tops 3 closers in baseball, then hits a game-winning 2 run single off another of the tops 3. He just needs a big hit of smoltz now.

really u watched it on fox sports net i saw it on espn it was great u missed it lol al michaels ernie harwell and joe morgan and o yeah chris berman it was annoyin sometimes u got bermans it back back back gone out of herre home run and then u got harwells awesome signature line best line ever that ball is long gone, i saw kevin costner congrautate giambi on the homer. Nick Johnson's homer was da bomb upper deck shot real awesome good thing the rangers pulled it out

Believe it or not, I actually miss Josh Lewin. Not that who we have is bad, but Lewin and Gibby really had a nice thing going for use a couple of years back.

I saw that it was on ESPN too but I like Josh Lewin.
Sometimes his and Tom Grieve start to ramble about pointless stuff and it gets funny sometimes. I like watching them.

I remember watching a Rangers game at Comerica where Lewin was announcing and Luis Alicea hit a homerun for Texas.
Shortly after Alicea homered the game was blacked out in my area. It had just started so I missed most of it.

Rangers vs. Yankees 3rd inning update

Currently tied at 4.
Palmeiro hit a 1-out 3-run homer off Mussina in the first.
A-Rod hit a solo shot, his 30th of the year, with 2-outs in the 3rd to tie it at 4.

On the evil empires's side, Enrique Wilson hit a 1-out, 2nd inning grand slam off Joaquin Benoit to give New York a 4-3 lead.

Texas scored 5 runs in the first off homeruns by Blalock, Teixeira and Nix. That was all they would score for the entire game but held on to win 5-3.
Blalock went 2 for 4 with his 20th homerun and now batting .322
Palmeiro went 2 for 3 and scored a run
Teixiera hit a 2-out 2-run homer in the first for his 18th of the year to lead all AL rookies.
Nix also hit a 2-out, 2-run homer in the first for his 4th of the year.
R.A. Dickey seems to have found his place on the team giving up just 3 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6 over 6 innings for his 6th win of the year.(6-5)
Ron Mahay pitched 1 2/3 scoreless inning in relief to lower his ERA to 1.88
Fransisco Cordero pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 7th save lowering his ERA to 2.90

I am very excited about the way some of the rangers pen has been pitching. Mahay, Shouse, Cordero...I mean pick up a few starters and the Rangers are not half bad.

The bullpen has definately been a strength lately.
And Thomson and Dickey have been pitching very solid.
If they can just get Park and Valdez healthy and Benoit get gain control, they will be set. Probably not the playoffs but at least a .500 season. The way some things have gone this year, Ranger fans have good reason to optimistic.

Indeed....I mean they are a young talented ballclub and they won't look the same next year...but I think in a few years they will be contenders.

Colbey Lewis pitched liked a guy fighting for a spot in the rotation in the Rangers 5-4 win over the BlueJays.
Lewis gave up just 2 runs and struck out 5 over 5 innings for the win(5-7)
Cordero was shakey over 1 2/3 innings but managed to get his 8th save of the year.
Young hit his 7th triple of the year and scored a run.
A-Rod hit his 31st homerun and scored twice and is once again looking like a challenger for the homerun title.
Palmeiro hit his 1st triple of the year and drove in a run.
Teixeira hit his 17th double and scored a run.
Todd Greene hit his 7th homerun.
Nix went 2 for 4 and drove in a run.
Nivar also went 2 for 4 and stole his 2nd base of his career.

John Thomas pitched 1 2/3 innings and was on his way to another very solid outing and what looked to be another win until a rain delay ended the game for him. Joaquin Benoit took over.
After being demoted to the bullpen, Benoit came in relief of Thomson and 3 runs over 5 innings for relief for the win(7-5).
Aaron Fultz pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to finish the game.
On the offensive side, Young went 2 for 4 with his 8th triple and scored twice.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 and drove in a pair.
Jason Jones walked twice and scored twice.
Todd Greene went 2 for 4, hit his 8th homerun and drove in 2.
Thanks to a 5-run 5th that saw Greene hit a 2-out 2-run homer, the Rangers ripped the Tigers 9-3.

Tomorrow's game will be Jeremy Bonderman vs. Juan Dominguez making his major league debut for Texas.

Rangers Notes:The Rangers have won 2 in a row and are now just 3 games behind the Angels. As hot as they have been the last couple weeks, they have a good shot at moving out of the cellar for the first time this year.

Juan Dominguez pitched 4 scoreless innings then totally caved in.
He allowed 4 runs in the 5th and couldn't get out of the inning.
One bright spot was he did not walk a batter over 4 2/3 innings.
A-Rod went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, hit his 23rd double and stole 2 bases giving him 15 on the year.
Nix went 2 for 3 with an RBI.
Erasmo Ramirez struck out 3 in 3 perfect innings of relief lowering his ERA to 3.08
Tigers won 7-4

Alex Rodriguez hit a 2-run homer in the first, Palmeiro hit a 3-run homer in the 2nd as the Rangers scored 6 runs over the first 2 innings off Detroit starter Mike Maroth.
Young went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 26th double.
A-Rod hit his 32nd homerun and drove in a pair.
Palmeiro went 2 for 4, scored twice, drove in 3, hit his 2nd triple and 29th homerun.
Blalock was moved down to the 7 spot in the order and went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and his 24th double.
R.A. Dickey pitched another solid game giving up 3 runs over 6 innings for the win(7-5).
Brian Shouse pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief work.
Cordero got the final 2 outs for his 9th save.

Today's game @7:05 PM Central
Roney for the Tigers against John Thomson looking to even his record at 10 on the year.

Note:The Rangers have now won 6 of their last 10 and are only 2 1/2 games behind the Angels.

Texas scored 1 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd an 3rd and one more in the 4th. That would be all their scoring but it was enough as John Thomson pitched another very solid game giving up just 3 runs while striking out 6 in 7 walkless innings to even his record at 10-10.
Cordero pitched a 1-2-3 9th for his 10th save lowering his ERA to 2.89
Blalock walked twice and drove in a run.
Shane Spender went 2 for 4 and hit his 10th homerun of the year.
Nix went 2 for 4 and drove in a pair of runs.
Nivar went 2 for 4 and scored a run.

Texas beat the Tigers 3-1 over the 4-game series.

Tonight's game @ 7:05 PM Central
The Whitesox will send former Ranger,
Esteban Loaiza(15-5 2.24ERA) to the mound against Texas starter Colbey Lewis(5-7 7.84ERA).

Note:The Rangers have won 5 of their last 7 games and are 9-4 in the month of August.

Texas scored 3 in the 3rd, 4 in the 6th and 3 more in the 8th to crush the whitesox dealing them their 3rd straight loss.
While the offense had a big day the story in this game was Colbey Lewis. Lewis gave up 4 runs on 7 hits and struck out a career high 10 in 7 2/3 for the win(6-7)
Young went 2 for 3 with 3 runs scored, 3 RBI. He hit his 11th homerun and stole his 11th base of the year.
Palmeiro went 3 for 5 ith his 14th double and drove in 4.
Jason Jones doubled and drove in 2.
Sadler pinch ran for Jones in the 6th and scored twice.
Nivar went 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 1 RBI. He hit his 2nd triple and stole his 4th base.

Rangers have won 6 of their last 8 and are now 10-4 this month.

Young went 2 for 4 and scored twice.
Blalock went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, a walk and hit his 21st homerun.
A-Rod went 1 for 3, walked twice, scored 3 runs and stole his 16th base.
Palmeiro went 2 for 3 with his 15th and 16th doubles and drove in 2.
Teixeira hit his 19th doubles and drove in 2.
Todd Greene hit a 2-out, 3-run homer in the first for his 9th of the year.
Jason Jones hit his 2nd homerun of his career. A 2-out, 2-run shot in the 3rd of Colon.
Erasmo Ramirez pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief lowering his ERA to 2.79

Rangers have now won 7 fo their last 9 are 11-4 in the month of August.

A-Rod was the key to victory going 2 for 4 with his 5th triple, 33rd homerun and drove in 3.
Teixeira hit his 20th double and drove in a run.
Diaz went 2 for 3 with his 12th double and drove in a run.
And that was about it for the offense.
In Juan Dominguez second start for Texas he gave up 4 runs on 4 hits striking out 5 in 4 innings for a no-decision.
Jay Powel pitched 3 scoreless innings for the win(3-0)
Ron Mahay pitched a perfect 8th to lower his ERA to 1.88
Cordero pitched a scoreless 9th for his 11th save to lower his era to 2.85
Result: A 6-4 win for Texas to sweep the Whitesox

Texas has now won 8 of their last 10 and are 12-4 in August.
Currently on a 5 game winning streak.

I took 16 innings for the Rangers to finally beat the Tigers 4-2 at Comerica Park.
Palmeiro went 2 for 7 with a run scored and hit his 17th double.
Spencer went 3 for 7 driving in 2 and hit his 11th homerun.
That was about all the offense for Texas until the 16th inning rolled around. With the game tied at 2, there was a man on with no outs. Alex Rodriguez hit the game-winning 2-run homer for his 34th homerun of the year giving the Rangers their 6th straight victory. In a game like this, pitching was obviously the key though as Texas starter Ismael Valdez just 1 run on 3 hits over 6 1/3 innings in his first start since coming off the disable list.
Brian Shouse pitched 1 perfect inning dropping his ERA to 3.27
With Texas leading 2-1 in the 9th, Corder gave up a run to the Tigers to force extra innings.
Erasmo Ramires followed Corder with 3 scoreless innings dropping his ERA to a 2.53 mark
Ron Mahay followed by striking out 7 in 3 scoreless innings of work lowering his ERA to an incredible mark of 1.71
R.A. Dickey pitched the 16th and final inning.
He struck out 1 in 1 perfect inning for his 1st save.

Todays game @ 6:05 PM Central
John Thomson vs. Mike Maroth

Rangers have now won 6 in a row and 9 of their last 11 games.
Also a major league best 13-4 in August.

Palmeiro went 3 for 4 and drove in a run.
Nivar went 2 for 4, drove in a run and sole his 4th base.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI and hit his 6th triple and 35th homerun.
Thomson gave up 4 runs over 8 innings for the win(11-10)
Shouse pitched 1 scoreless inning striking out 2 for his 1st save.

Rangers have now won 7 straight and 10 of their last 12.
Now 14-4 in August

The big story last night was R.A. Dickey.
6 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikouts over 9 scoreless innings.
It was the first shutout pitched by a Ranger starter this year.
The best game of Dickey's career improved his record to 8-5
Young hit his 9th triple, scored and drove in a run.
Blalock went 2 for 3 and scored and drove in a run.
A-Rod went 0for 3 before hitting a towering 2-run homer in 8th.
His 36th homerun of the year.
Teixeira also pitched in with his 19th homerun of the year.
Nivar hit his first big league double and Nix got his first career stolen base.

Texas has now won 8 in a row and 11 of their last 13.
Now an incredible 15-4 in August.

Tonight's game @ 7:05 Pm central
Colbey Lewis(6-7 7.57 ERA) vs. Bartolo Colon(10-11 4.25 ERA)

The Rangers are now tied with the Angels for 3rd in the AL west.
With a win tonight and an Angel loss, the Rangers will be out of the cellar for the first time this season.

The Rangers win streak was stopped at 8 games as Bartolo Colon dominated the Rangers hitters. All he allowed were back-to-back jacks in the 6th to A-Rod and Palmeiro.
It was A-Rod's 36th or 37th which I think makes him the AL leader. I don't think he will hit 50 again but he could win his 3rd straight homerun title. It was also Palmeiro's 30th of the year giving him his 9th straight 30 homer season and is just a few RBI from his 9th straight 100 RBI season. It would also be the 10th time in his last 11 season's hitting 30+ driving in 100 or more.

John Thomson pitched a 4-hit shutout against the Whitesox who hammered Texas for 12 runs in Saturday's game.
The line for Thomson was 9 IP-4 H-1 BB-6 K
It was the 12th win for Thomson giving him a 12-10 record and dipping his ERA below 5.
Blalock hit a 2-out, 2-run homer in the 3rd. His 23rd of the year.
Teixeira hit his 21st double and drove in 2.

Today's game @ 7:05 PM Central
Rangers R.A. Dickey(8-5 4.34 ERA)
vs.
Royals Jimmy Gobble(2-2 6.41 ERA)

The Rangers are 12-4 in their last 16 games and 16-6 in August.

The Rangers went 127 games this season without pitching a starter pitching a shutout and have now had 2(Dickey, Thomson) in the 4 games.

this is kinda off the subject but it is about the rangers

Rangers Captain introduced as official mascot (http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tex/news/tex_press_release.jsp?ymd=20030326&content_id=243095&vkey=pr_tex&fext=.jsp)

Interesting. I wondered why he didn't have a name and they just called him Rangers Captain.

the Rangers finally played something that resembled a good game.
A-Rod went 2 for 4 with 2 walks, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI and 2 homeruns giving his 39 on the year.
Shane Spencer walked 3 times and scored a run.
Laynce Nix hit his 9th double and drove in 2.
Valdez gave up just 1 earned run on 6 hits over 5 1/3 innings but the bullpen couldn't hold on.

Texas jumped out to an early 6-1 lead after 3 innings but the Twins came back to score 6 over the next 3 innings to take a 7-6 lead. The Rangers countered by scoring 4 in the 7th which gave them a 10-7 lead. The Twins the scored 3 more runs in the 8th and 9th innings to tie the game at 10 going into the bottom of the 9th. Texas managed to add 1 more run in the 9th to scratch out an 11-10 win over the Twins.

Blalock went 4 for 5, scored 3 runs, drove in 1 while hitting his 26th double and 24th homerun.
A-Rod went 3 for 3 with 3 runs scored, 2 RBI. He also walked twice and hit his 40th homerun.
Palmeiro went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI and hit his 32nd homerun.
Teixeira went 3 for 5 with his 20th homerun and drove in 3.
Nix went 2 for 4 and drove in a run.
Jason Jones hit his 3rd homerun and drove in 2.
Ron Mahay pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings dropping his ERA to 1.54
Cordero got the win improving to 4-6 this season.

Rangers Notes: The Rangers finished August with an impressive 17-12 record.
Alex Rodriguez hit his 40th homerun giving him 6 straight 40+ homerun season. He is now in a good shape to hit his 50th being only 10 short which would make 3 straight season of 50 or more homeruns.

A-Rod went 1 for 2 with 2 walks and drove in a run.
Blalock went 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and hit his 27th double and 25th homerun.
Teixeira was the big guy going 3 for 4 driving in 3 and hitting his 21st and 22nd homeruns.
Colbey Lewis gave up 3 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings for the win(7-9).

The Rangers rallied from a 3-0 deficit going into the 5th then broke loose for 4 runs and then 4 more runs in the 6th to take an 8-3 lead. Then they almost blew it completely after giving up 4 runs in the 9th as the Royals rallied to 8-7 but Cordero stopped 'em.
A-Rod walked 4 times and scored 2 runs.
Palmeiro hit his 19th double and drove in a pair of runs.
Teixeira went 2 for 4 with his 25th double and drove in 3.
Nix hit his 6th homerun and also drove in 3.
Valdez gave up 3 runs over 5 innings for the win(8-8).
Corder gave up a run in the 9th but got his 12th save.

John Thomson pitched another gem giving up just 3 runs on 4 hits and striking out 8 over 7 innings but the Rangers squandered his solid start by not scoring any runs.
It looked good when Michael Young led off the Ranger offense with a lead-off homerun but that was the end for the Ranger hitters. Down 3-1 in the 9th with 2 outs, the Rangers were threatening when Shane Spencer singled to left.
Jason Jones pinch hit and singled to put runners on the corners with 2 outs for Todd Greene. He grounded out to 2nd to end the game.

In Royal Rookie Jimmy Gobbles first start against Texas, he allowed only 1 run on 4 hits over 7 innings striking out 6.

Rangers will try to get the offense back on track sending Mickey Calloway to moung against Minnesota start Johan Santana.

Rangers were trailing 8-2 going into the 4th.
Texas loaded the bases with 1 out for Michael Young who hit his first career grand slam to pull the Rangers to 8-6.
Spencer followed with a fly ball out then A-Rod with his league Leading 41st homerun to make it 8-7. That would be the end of the Rangers offense.

Young went 3 for 5 with his 13th homerun and drove in 4.
Spencer went 2 for 5 with a run scored
A-Rod went 2 for 5 his 41st homerun.
Jason Jones went 2 for 4 with his 4th double and a run scored.
Gerald Laird went 1 for 3 with 2 runs scored.
Erasmo Ramirez and Jay Powell combined for 2 2/3 perfect innings of relief to finish the game.

Tough loss last night....Its very admirable that you have done this thread all year. That shows a lot of resilliance to me (esspecially since im only a kid) esspecially if your team isn't doin so hott (I know that feeling) Anyway congrats on doing a superb job all year Molina and best wishes to them next year!!

Wow. Thanks Redlegs. I do love the Rangers even though they are stuggling. There have been several instances when they go on a losing streak and don't post but most of the time I try to keep it up. The way things have gone this year, I expect them to make a run at .500 next year. Especially if the young pitching can do like they did on that 8 game win streak. I plan on keeping it up over the off-season too posting on the off-season aquisitions and such. If it is anything like last year, it could be a busy off-season. I have seen quite a few of these official team threads that were started because of me and no longer are receiving posts. Thanks for the support Redlegs.

Yeah its too bad they have a lot that money and they get these results. Your very welcome - sometimes you never know how loud your actions speak - even when you don't think anyone is listening. Best Wishes to the Rangers and yourself Matthew. BTW I hope you like that Pujols!

Oh yeah. I forget to tell you I got it yesterday.
I really like that Pujols. I would say worth waiting for.
Thanks a lot.

And you are right. Most of the time I don't think anyone is paying attention to this thread, but I keep it up because I love the Rangers.

I'm sure the Reds will pick up in a couple years.
Just need to sign of couple pitchers.

Blalock had 2 hits and scored a run including his 29th double.
A-Rod walked twice and scored 2 runs.
Teixeira also had 2 hits and drove in a run.
The player of the game, Rafael Palmeiro, hit a 1-out, 3-run homer in the 8th off Armando Benitez to tie the game at 4.
He also finished with 2 hits.
Rosman Garcia and Ron Mahay eached pitced 2 scoreless innings of relief with Mahay picking up the win(3-0)
Fransisco Corder struck out 2 in a perfect 9 for his 13th save.

Young went 2 for 4 and scored a run.
Palmeiro went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and hit his 35th homerun
Nix scored twice, drove in a run and stole his 2nd base.
Teixeira went 2 for 3 with 4 rbi with his 27th double and 23rd homerun.
Lewis gave up 4 runs over 6 innings for the win(8-9).
Mahay pitched 2 perfect innings dropping his ERA to 1.74
Cordero struck out 3 in a perfect 9th lowering his ERA to 2.92 and getting his 14th save.

Texas hit 4 homeruns, 2 by rookie Lancy Nix, and scored 9 runs over the first 4 innings of the game for their second straight win.
Michael Young went 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored raising his BA to .306
Hammerin' Hank went 2 for 5 with his 27th homerun and drove in 3. He is now batting .313
A-Rod went 3 for 5 with his major league leading 44th homerun and drove in 3 to pull his average up to .299
Teixeira went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and his 28th and 29th doubles.
Nix went 3 for 4 with 4 rbi and hit his 7th and 8th homeruns.
John Thomson gave up just 3 runs over 8 innings striking out 5 and walking only 1 for the win(13-13).

Game Note: This was Laynce Nix's first career multi-homer game.

Only 11 games left in the Rangers season with A-Rod 6 homers shy of his 3rd straight 50 homer season.

Nice job this entire baseball season, Molina.

You are a true Texas Rangers fan.

I gave up on my Angels at the end of July....it was no use updating them since they were basically losing 2 out of 3 games.

but, boy, you sure have done a wonderful job!!

Thanks Podstock. It hasn't been easy sometimes when everything seemed to be going wrong but it looks like they are turning it around. Again. I think they have won 3 in a row now.

It was all about pitching in Thursday's game against the Mariners.
Joaquin Benoit gave up just 1 hit and struck out 5 over 4 innings.
Ron Mahay pitched 2 scoreless innings dropping his ERA to 1.66
Coco Cordero struck out 4 in 2 scoreless innings for the win(5-7) lowering his ERA to 2.85
A-Rod hit his 28th double and scored a run.
Shane Spencer hit his 12th homerun to lead off the 6th to tie the game at 1.
Laynce Nix hit a 10th inning single that drove in A-Rod to win the game.

Once again, it was all about the pitching.
R.A. Dickey trying to get back on track, gave up just 1 run on 5 hits striking out 6 over 6 innings for the win(9-8).
Cordero pitched a perfect 9th for his 15th save.
Michael Young went 3 for 4 with a run scored and his 32nd double.
Blalock also hit his 32nd double and scored a run.
A-Rod scored a run and drove in another.
Teixeira drove in 2.

hey, what's the word going around in Texas on Rafael Palmeiro?

Are they re-signing him?

If not, where is he likely to end up?

I haven't heard what they are going to do with him.
Hopefully they can re-sign him for a couple more years.
I think that is probably how long he has left in him.

well, I think Palmeiro has several good years left.

at his age (how old? 39?), he's got 36 homers with about 110 RBIs.

Hit a homer tonight vs my Angels

Yeah, I guess that's true. He might end up like Nolan Ryan and play until he is 45. He could hit 600-700 homeruns if he does play that long.

Colbey Lewis pitched a gem giving up just 2 runs on 4 hits striking out 6 over 7 innings for the win to even his record at 9 but was greatly overshadowed by the Rangers offensive explosion. Blalock hit a 2-out grand slam in the 2nd off former Ranger ace Aaron Sele. A-rod hit a pair of homers and Palmeiro and Teixeira each hit one.

Michael Young walked twice and scored a run.
Hank Blalock's only hit was his 2nd inning grand slam for his 28th homerun of the season.
A-Rod went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI and hit his 45th and 46th homeruns.
Palmeiro walked twice scored 3 runs and hit his 36th homerun.
Teixeira scored twice, drove in 2 and hit his 24th homerun.
Laynce Nix went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and drove in 1.
Shane Spencer hit his 18th double and drove in a run.
Einar Diaz went 3 for 5 with his 14th double and drove in 2.

The Rangers have now won 3 straight and 5 of their last 6 games. Are now only 2 games behind the Angels.

Here is the latest on Rafael Palmeiro.
http://rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tex/news/tex_news.jsp?ymd=20030921&content_id=538012&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

Looks like he might be staying in Texas since he wants to stay and everyone else wants him to stay. Hopefully his price won't go too high and they can get him for 3 or 4 more years.
Anyone else have any interpretations of this article?

Texas had a 5-2 lead going into the 7th with John Thomson looking like a lock for his 14th win. And then the call to the bullpen came. Erasmo Ramirez and Ron Mahay combined to give up 7 runs in just 1/3 inning in the 7th. The Angels went on to win 11-6.

Michael Young went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and led off the 7th with him 14th homerun.
A-Rod hit his major league leading 47th homerun. A 2-run shot in the 5th off Ramon Ortiz.
Teixeira went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, his 5th triple and 25th homerun.
John Thomson gave up just 2 runs over 6 innings.

I found this article on the Rangers official website.
Looks like A-Rod might get his first day off in three years with Texas.

OAKLAND -- Alex Rodriguez recognized his limit on Wednesday.
The Rangers shortstop admitted he could use some rest and did not start Wednesday against Oakland, likely ending his consecutive-games-played streak at 546.

"I won't go out and play an inning just to continue the streak," he said. "The streak is not important to me. It never has been."

Rodriguez had appeared in 155 games at shortstop and one at designated hitter this season prior to Wednesday. He had played in all 482 games since joining the Rangers before the 2001 season.

Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada owns the longest current streak for consecutive games played in the Major Leagues with 591. Rodriguez's streak was second.

"I'm tired, but I feel good," Rodriguez said. "I feel worn down a little bit. I'll take a day today and tomorrow and finish the season strong in Anaheim."

Rodriguez and Rangers manager Buck Showalter said the decision not to play was mutual. Showalter brought up the idea to the All-Star after Tuesday's 4-3 loss in extra innings.

"He's played everyday. If anybody deserves a day it will be him," Showalter said. "I've talked to him two or three times and I asked him if the streak was a big deal. And he said the big deal is what's best for the club."

Rodriguez is hitless in his last nine at-bats and went consecutive games without a hit for the first time since Sept. 2-3. He is 6-for-27 in his last seven games and is hitting .233 in his last 20 games.

The shortstop still leads the Major Leagues in home runs with 47 and ranks among the league leaders in RBIs, extra-base hits, walks and on-base percentage. He has 344 of his 345 career home runs at shortstop, one shy of the all-time record held by Baltimore's Cal Ripken. Rodriguez is the second player in Major League history with 40 or more home runs in at least six straight seasons.

"I have not had many players bring what he brings everyday in terms of intensity," Showalter said. "I have never had a day where I felt like he wasn't ready to play or work. I can't say that about many players."

"In a way, it was good to get it over with," Rodriguez said after the game. "I'll come back this weekend and next year to start another streak of a few hundred games. I was definitely available if Buck needed me."

Around the horn: Catcher Gerald Laird and infielder Mike Lamb are among the 30 professional players invited to the 2003 Olympic Qualifying Team Trials in Phoenix on Oct. 3-23. Laird and Lamb will each be vying for one of the 24 roster spots on the United States Olympic Qualifying Team that will be managed by Frank Robinson at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games. ... Rafael Palmeiro is one of six players to have played in at least 150 games in 14 seasons. Pete Rose, Eddie Murray, Ripken, Hank Aaron and Brooks Robinson also accomplished the feat the at least 14 times. Palmeiro turned 39 on Wednesday.

Texas hitters hammered Angels pitching for 18 hits including 4 runs in the 6th and 5 in the 7th.
Hank Blalock hit his 33rd double and scored a run.
A-Rod went 2 for 3 with and RBI and his 17th stolen base.
Palmeiro went 3 for 6 with his 21st double and drove in 4 runs.
Rookie catcher Gerald Laird went 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored hitting his 2nd double and first big league homerun.
Ryan Christenson went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI and hit his 7th double of the year.
Jermaine Clark went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI.
Colby Lewis gave up 3 runs over 5 innings for the win to finish the season with a 10-9 record.

Going into the final game of the season, A-Rod needs a 3-homer game to reach 50 for the 3rd straight season.

The Rangers lost their final game of the season 4-1 to the Angels to finish another disappointing season with a 71-91 record.
Though there was not much to shout about in the win column it was a promising year for Texas with guys like Teixeira, Blalock, Dickey and Erasmo Ramirez breaking out and creating much consideration for next season. With typical season from Michael Young and veterans A-Rod and Palmeiro. Even Juan Gonzalez only playing in 82 games had an excellent season.
The Rangers used 22 different position players and 26 different pitchers this season. While Alex Rodriguez failed to hit 50+ homeruns for the 3rd straight year and didn't even hit .300, he did win his first major league homerun title hitting 47.
Rafael Palmeiro hit 30+ homeruns with 100+ RBI for the 9th straight year becoming, I believe, the first player in history ever to do that.

Here is the lowdown on how the Rangers top players performed this year.
1B-Mark Teixeira-in 146 games, he had 137 hits in 529 at bats for a .259 BA. Also hit 29 doubles, 5 triples and 26 homeruns while driving in 84 runs.

2B-Michael Young-In 160 games, Young had 204 hits in 666 at bats for a .306 BA. He hit 33 doubles, 9 triples and 14 homeruns, while scoring 106 runs and driving 72. He also stole 13 bases and was only caught stealing twice.

3B-Hank Blalock-In 143 games, Blalock had 170 hits in 567 at bats for a .300 BA. Blalock also hit 33 doubles, 2 triples and 29 homeruns while scoring 89 runs and driving in 90.

SS-Alex Rodriguez-In 161 games, A-Rod had 181 hits in 607 a bats for a .298 BA. He hit 30 doubles, 6 triples and a major league leading 47 homeruns. Also scored 124 runs and drove in 118 while stealing 17 bases in 20 attempts.

DH-Rafael Palmeiro-In 154 games, Palmeiro had 146 hits in 561 at bats for a .260 BA. He hit an awful 21 doubles but also had 2 triples and 38 homeruns giving him 528 for his career. He also scored 92 runs and drove in 112. Was a perfect 2 out of 2 on base stealing.

RF-Juan Gonzalez in only 82 games, Juan had 96 hits in 327 at bats for a .296 BA. He hit 17 doubles and an impressive 24 homeruns while driving in 70.

SP-John Thomson-Had an excellent year by Rangers standards going 13-14. In 217 innings he allowed 117 earned runs on 234 hits and only 49 walks while striking out 136. He finished with a 4.85 ERA. Also pitched 3 complete games and 1 of only 2 shutouts by a Ranger starter.

SP-R.A. Dickey-Had a very promising first year as a starting pitcher finishing with a 9-9 record. He struck ou 94 while only walking 38 in 116 2/3 innings. He finished with a 5.09 ERA, 1 complete game, 1 shutout and 1 save.

SP-Joaquin Benoit-Showed promise in his first full season finishing with an 8-5 record. In 105 innings, he allowed just 99 hits while striking out 87. He finished with a 5.49 ERA.

CP-Coco Cordero-Had another solid year as closer going 5-8 with 15 saves after taking over after the all-star break. In 82 innings he allowed only 70 hits and 38 walks while striking out 90. He finished with a stellar 2.94 ERA.

RP-Brian Shouse-In his first year as a Ranger, he walked only 14 and struck out 40 over 61 innings of work notching 1 save and posting a 3.10 ERA.

RP-Erasmo Ramirez-Very promising rookie year going 3-1. Over 49 innings he gave up only 46 hits, 9 walks and struck out 28 posting an ERA of 3.86.

RP-Ron Mahay-Had a great year with Texas giving up just 33 hits and striking out 38 over 45 1/3 innings finishing with a 3.18 ERA.

Also, if he can get some playing time, look for Ramon Nivar to make a big splash next season.

If it weren't for the batting average, Palmeiro had a superb year.

If only he wouldn't be so focused on swinging for the fences, his BA would be higher....

He could do some real damage to the baseball stats if he manages this pace for the next couple of years

I was somewhat disappointed when I read this as I have like what Greene has done for the Rangers in his 2 years hear. Hopefully Gerald Laird can be as good a backup as Greene was.

ARLINGTON -- Catcher Todd Greene became a free agenct after he cleared waivers and refused an outright assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The move leaves the Rangers with starter Einar Diaz and rookie backstopper Gerald Laird as the only catchers on the 40-man roster. Laird hit .273 in 16 games/12 starts in 2003 for the big league club.

The Rangers have not ruled out re-signing Greene, but are comfortable with Laird's progress.

"I think as we go forward, having Einar and Gerald Laird fits in where we are going in giving our young players the opportunity," Rangers general manager John Hart said. "I'm not going to anoint Gerald Laird because it would be a stretch at this point. But his defense fits and we are not afraid to give him a look to see if he shows us he's ready to go. With Einar here, it gives Gerald a chance to break in and not play everyday. As we sit now, there is a comfort level with Laird and what we have. But we will continue to be active to support the group or add on to it."

As for Greene, he hit .229 with 10 home runs and 20 RBIs in 62 games with the Rangers in 2003. He started 49 games at catcher and two as the DH. He threw out 16 of 53 runners (30.2-percent) attempting to steal. He was on the disabled list from April 30 - May 15 with a strained right groin.

Overall, he appeared in 104 games with Texas the last two seasons and has also played with the Anaheim, Toronto, and the New York Yankees during his Major League career. "With all the moves we have made, it has been with the ability to clear roster space, No. 1. No. 2 it gives the player the ability to check out the market and No. 3, it gives us the ability to retain Todd or any of these players that we are letting go."
The Rangers had to do something with Greene prior to Oct. 10 or the club would have to wait until May 15 to be able to deal with him, Hart said. Last week, the Rangers took pitchers Aaron Fultz, infielder Donnie Sadler along with outfielders Jermaine Clark and Ryan Christenson off the Major League roster.

Downsizing professional scouts: The Rangers revamped their professional scouting department and are not renewing the contracts of professional scouts Tony Howell, Les Parker, Ross Sapp, Richard Seko and Rudy Terrasas.

The downsizing gives the Rangers a more workable number, and will not have an affect on the amateur scouting department. Financial issues were also considered.

"There's a combination of factors that went into the decision," Hart said. "No. 1, we feel there are a lot of areas in the baseball operations department that we can examine and stream line in order to be more efficient. We also felt the department was very top-heavy. Obviously there are very good scouts out there, and it is painful to make these moves, but at the same time, it's part of the business of baseball and we are not the not only club doing this."

Bill Wood, Dom Chiti and Jay Robertson will now serve as special assistants to Hart. Mel Didier and Tom Giordano will remain as senior advisors who will serve on special assignments.

A-Rod won his 7th Silver Slugger award and 3rd straight Hank Aaron award as the American League's top offensive player.

http://rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tex/news/tex_news.jsp?ymd=20031029&content_id=596318&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

And it only took his worst season as a Ranger to do it beating Carlos Delgado by 32 votes.

ARLINGTON -- Alex Rodriguez won the American League Most Valuable Player Award for the first time in his career Monday, capping a season in which he led the AL in home runs with 47, runs with 124 and slugging percentage at .600. Only four other players -- Mickey Mantle, Carl Yastrzemski, Albert Belle and Ken Griffey Jr. -- have led the AL in home runs, runs and slugging percentage in a season.
The Rangers shortstop also finished second in the league this year in RBIs with 118 and was among the leaders in total bases, extra-base hits, walks and on-base percentage.

AL MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Player 1st Total
Rodriguez 6 242
Delgado 5 210
Posada 5 194
Stewart 3 140
Ortiz 4 130
Ramirez 1 103
Garciaparra 1 99
• Complete results >
Since the BBWAA began handing out MVP Awards in 1931, the award has gone to players from a team without a winning record only seven times: Year Player Team Team
1952 Hank Sauer CHC 77-77
1958 Ernie Banks CHC 72-82
1959 Ernie Banks CHC 74-80
1987 Andre Dawson CHC 76-85
1989 Robin Yount MIL 81-81
1991 Cal Ripken BAL 67-95
2003 Alex Rodriguez TEX 71-91


Rodriguez garnered six first-place votes and a total of 242 points to beat out Toronto's Carlos Delgado, who finished second with 210 points. The Yankees' Jorge Posada, the Twins' Shannon Stewart and Boston's David Ortiz placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in a race that saw 10 different players earn first-place votes.

Rodriguez became only the second player to win an MVP Award while playing for a last-place team, as Andre Dawson accomplished the feat while with the Cubs in 1987. The last AL shortstop to win the award was Cal Ripken, Rodriguez's idol, who did it in 1991.

The award is the latest in a series of honors bestowed on Rodriguez this offseason.

Earlier this month, A-Rod was honored with his second consecutive Gold Glove Award as the best defensive player at his position in the American League as selected by Major League coaches and managers before the conclusion of the regular season. He ended Omar Vizquel's nine-year reign as the AL's top defensive shortstop by winning his first Gold Glove in 2002.

For his offensive efforts, Rodriguez earned his seventh Silver Slugger award and also claimed his third consecutive Hank Aaron Award as the best offensive player in the league. And he was the recipient of both the Oscar Charleston and the Josh Gibson Legacy Awards from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at the conclusion of the 2003 season.

Last season, Rodriguez finished second in MVP voting to Miguel Tejada with five first-place votes and 254 total points. He finished second to Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez by three points in 1996 while with Seattle despite hitting .358 with 215 hits and 54 doubles.

He finished sixth in AL MVP voting in 2001, third in 2000, 15th in 1999, and ninth in 1998.

Rodriguez is the third Rangers player since 1996 to win the award. Gonzalez won it in 1996 and 1998, and catcher Ivan Rodriguez won the award in 1999.

Jesse Sanchez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

congrats to A. Rod, even if I don't agree with the voting

I believe A-rod became only the 4th Ranger to win the MVP award.
Juan Gonzalez in '96 and '98
Ivan Rodriguez in '99
and I think Jeff Burroughs did sometime in the 70's or 80's.
Not real sure on him though.

Here is something that wont matter unless your a Ranger fan but,

Rusty Greer and Steve Buechele inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame. Here is the story...


Texas HOF adds Greer, Buechele
Former Rangers inducted at HOF Banquet Thursday
By Jesse Sanchez / MLB.com

Rusty Greer batted .300 for four consecutive seasons (1996-99). (Jesse Sanchez/MLB.com)

FORT WORTH -- Make no mistake about it, Rusty Greer has officially become a Lone Star legend.
Greer along with former Rangers third baseman Steve Buechele were among the 10 inductees at the 26th Annual Texas Baseball Hall of Fame Banquet on Thursday.

"I think it's pretty cool," Greer said. "To me, it's kind of like Cooperstown. I guess it means I did enough right to garner some attention even though I wasn't necessarily trying (to garner attention). It's a special award for me and that's the way I am looking at it."

Greer hit .300 for four consecutive seasons (1996-99) and his .305 career average is 19th among active Major Leaguers. He is one of only four Rangers to record 100 RBIs and 100 runs scored in at least two seasons. His community involvement, fearless style, and ability to play with pain made him a fan favorite.

Former Rangers first baseman and fellow Texas Baseball Hall of Fame member Will Clark inducted Greer into the Hall. Rangers television broadcaster and former general manager Tom Grieve inducted Buechele.

"I think anytime you see two great players get rewarded it's special," Grieve said. "It's very gratifying for someone like me who has known them as long as I have."

Steven Bernard Buechele was born in Lancaster, California and made his Major League debut with the Rangers at the age of 24 in 1985. He went on to play 11 seasons with three different teams before retiring in 1995.

In 1,334 games, the third baseman hit 137 home runs with 547 RBIs and 1,046 hits. He retired with a .245 batting average, 183 doubles and 501 runs scored.

"Obviously it's a great honor," Buechele said. "It's not Cooperstown, but it's the state of Texas so that's pretty cool."

Other inductees:


Jose Cruz, outfielder, Houston Astros, 1975-87: For his career, Cruz spent 19 years in the big leagues as a player and is the current first base coach for the Astros. He racked up 2,251 career hits, 1,077 RBIs and 317 stolen bases.

Wayne Graham, coach of Rice University, 2003 NCAA champions: Graham has led the Owls to nine consecutive NCAA tournaments and four appearances in the College World Series. He has had 30 consecutive winning seasons at the high school and collegiate level.

Frank Mancuso, catcher, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, 1944-47: He was also a top minor league catcher for Beaumont, Houston and Toledo.

Larry Miggins, former outfielder, Houston Buffs. In 1949, he hit 21 home runs and racked up 121 RBIs for the Buffs.

Danny Ozark, manager, Philadelphia Phillies, 1973-79: Ozark was a key member of the 1946 Blue Sox team that won 97 games and lost 40 to compile the best winning percentage (.708) in organized baseball.

Marty Scott, president, Fort Worth Cats; former Rangers farm director A 25th round draft pick by the Rangers in 1977, Scott was named the Rangers Director of Player Development in 1984 and was an integral part of minor league operations in the club until 1994. He recently managed the United States team that competed in the XXXV Baseball World Cup in Cuba in October.

Frank Snyder, catcher, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, 1912-27: For the Giants, Snyder hit .320 in 1921, .346 in 1922, and .302 in 1924. He led NL catchers in fielding three times.

Wayne Terwilliger, former Major League infielder, Rangers coach and current Fort Worth Cats manager. Terwilliger, 78, has been in uniform for 5,000 professional games and the 2003 season marked his 55th in baseball. He was signed by the Chicago Cubs in 1948 and played nine big-league seasons, finishing with a .240 career batting average.

Sounds like if there is a trade it will be with the Yanks or Red Sox.
I would prefer the RedSox so we could at least get Nomar.

Two American League teams that already have All-Star caliber shortstops are on a short list of clubs Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez would accept a trade, according to a published report.
One week after being named the league's Most Valuable Player, and several weeks after a rift with Rangers manager Buck Showalter became public, Rodriguez reportedly told reporters in the Dominican Republic last Friday that he would OK a trade to one of two teams. The Dallas Morning-News, citing a Major League source, identified the two teams in Sunday's editions as the Yankees and Red Sox.

But the Yankees already have an elite shortstop in Derek Jeter -- the team captain -- and Boston's biggest position star is Nomar Garciaparra.

Rangers general manager John Hart could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Rodriguez has seven years remaining on a 10-year, $252 million contract, which includes a no-trade clause. But he has grown weary of losing and the Rangers have expressed a willingness to listen to offers. However, Hart has insisted the team is not trying to trade its 28-year-old superstar who has a .308 career average, 345 home runs and 990 RBIs.

Hart told the Morning-News that the few inquiries he has received regarding A-Rod got no further than, "kicking the tires" and according to the newspaper, the chance of Rodriguez being dealt to either of the AL East teams is "nearly impossible".

Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, told the Morning-News, "We're not going to worry about the trade rumors because we haven't heard anything from the Rangers about waiving the no-trade clause or anything like that."

The biggest stumbling block is A-Rod's contract, which is $5 million more per season than any other existing contract. The Rangers have indicated that they won't absorb any of Rodriguez's remaining salary.

While the Yankees and Red Sox are two organizations that possibly could afford to pay one player $25 million a year, the economic climate makes it unlikely that any organization would take on the contract signed when Rodriguez became a free agent at the end of the 2000 season after spending seven years in the Mariners organization.

A-Rod participated in the playoffs three times with the Mariners (1995-97 and '00) but has played for three straight last-place teams with the Rangers.

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers have agreed to terms with right fielder Brian Jordan, adding depth to the outfield corner position and strengthening the lineup. Terms were not disclosed. The club is also reportedly close to signing outfielder David Dellucci.
The Rangers are still seeking a starting pitcher, a right-handed reliever and a utility player who can also play center field.

"We are really excited about the signing of Brian," Rangers general manager John Hart said. "To this point, he has had a great career. We've watched him over the years and we love his ability and his makeup. He plays hard and he will fit nicely. We are very fortunate to have him."

Jordan will join an outfield that includes center fielder candidates Laynce Nix, and Ramon Nivar along with left fielder Kevin Mench and likely Dellucci. The club has also signed outfielders Chad Allen, Jason Tyner and Jason Conti to minor league deals this winter. Jordan could eventually see some action in center field, as will Dellucci.

Mench, who is recovering from a broken left wrist, is still rehabbing the injury.

"Kevin Mench is not 100-percent and that's something we are concerned about," Hart said. "He has to come into Spring Training and prove he is healthy and if healthy, prove he can recapture it. With thesigning of Brian and potentially the other corner bat, it gives Buck a lot of maneuverability in the outfielder. If healthy, Kevin is our first option to go to. If not we have to protect ourselves."

Jordan, 36, appeared in 66 games in 2003 and hit .299 with nine doubles, six home runs and 28 RBIs for the Dodgers before undergoing surgery on July 11 to repair a partially torn tendon in his left knee. He will be completely healthy by the start of Spring Training.


He averaged .289 with 29 doubles, 22 home runs, 84 runs and 92 RBIs from 1998-2002. He has 12 years experience in the Major Leagues with St. Louis (1992-98), Atlanta (1999-2001) and Los Angeles (2002-03).

"All throughout my career I played through pain," Jordan said. "Last year was a tough decision for me. Last season, the decision was based on Brian Jordan's career. I played for future and I made a decision to take plenty of time and be ready for Spring Training. It was a great decision on my part. I'm looking forward to coming to Texas."
Jordan is a .287 hitter in 1,271 career games with 244 doubles, 173 home runs and 764 RBIs. He posted a career-high 25 home runs with St. Louis in 1998 and again in 2001 with Atlanta. He had a career best 115 RBI in 1999 with Atlanta.

Jordan also spent three seasons in the National Football League with the Atlanta Falcons (1989-91) during which time he was named as an alternate to the 1992 Pro Bowl.

He has a .252 average with five doubles, six home runs and 27 RBIs in 35 career postseason games.

"I think one of the reasons I'm so successful is what I bring to field and to ballpark," Jordan said. "I go out and lead by example. When necessary, I lead by mouth when the situation asks for it."


I think it will be a real good pick-up if he is healthy.
That is the big question though as he is getting hurt all the time and playing with injury. Definately adds some needed punch to the lineup since they won't have Everett, Gonzalez or Palmeiro come opening Day.

The Texas Rangers have tabbed veteran Eric Young to fill their utility role, with hopes that he will provide offense.
Young, who turns 37 on May 18, has agreed to a one-year contract that will become official on next week, when baseball offices are open and the Rangers can clear a spot on the 40-man Major League roster, according to media reports.

Young has played second base almost exclusively, with just four of his 934 defensive appearances at other positions. But he'll be a jack of all trades in Texas, providing a right-handed bat in the designated hitter role and backing up center fielder Laynce Nix and second baseman Michael Young (no relation).

In 2003, Young batted a combined .251 with 15 home runs and 34 RBIs with Milwaukee and San Francisco, which acquired him in August to shore up its bench for the playoffs. As the Brewers' primary second baseman, Young hit .260 with all of his homers and 31 RBIs. He hit .197 with three RBIs in 26 games with the Giants.

Young, a National Leaguer for his entire 12-season career, has a .285 bating average, 73 home runs and 489 RBIs. Young also has 436 career steals, with a career high of 54 in 2000 with the Chicago Cubs and 28 last season.

Young's son, Eric Young Jr., 18, was selected in the 30th round of the 2003 draft by the Colorado Rockies as a "draft-and-follow" player who can be signed up to the 2004 draft.

Rangers giving up on Mike Lamb.
Getting minor league pitcher Jose Garcia in trade.
Here's the story. As if anybody but me cares. lol


ARLINGTON -- Infielder Mike Lamb did not fit into the Rangers plans for 2004, but he appears to have found a new home in the House that Ruth Built.
On Wednesday, the Rangers confirmed that Lamb will be sent to the New York Yankees for Class A pitcher Jose Garcia pending a roster move by the Yankees to create room on the 40-man roster. The Rangers designated Lamb for assignment last week. The club had 10 days to trade or release Lamb or outright him to the minor leagues.

Reached at his home in California, Lamb did not want to comment on the possible transaction.

The Yankees are seeking a third baseman because Aaron Boone is out for the season with a knee injury and Drew Henson, who was expected to fill the role at third base, quit baseball after three seasons as a fulltime minor leaguer. Henson forfeited $12 million on a contract he agreed to with the Yankees in 2001 to pursue a career in the NFL. The Houston Texans own Henson's rights.

As for Lamb, he was seventh-round draft choice of the Rangers in 1997 and had appeared in 357 career games for Texas, hitting .282 with 19 home runs and 117 RBIs. Last season, he hit .132 with no home runs and two RBIs in 28 games for Texas.

Defensively, Lamb committed 33 errors in 129 games started at third base in 2000 and had 18 errors in 71 games started in 2001. He had three errors in 13 games started at third base in 2002. He also played first base, second base, catcher, left field and right field during the 2002 season.

Lamb hit .288 with nine home runs and 46 RBIs in 73 games at Triple-A Oklahoma in 2003. He batted .310 with 58 home runs and 335 RBIs in 496 career minor league games.

Garcia went 10-8 with a 2.52 ERA as a starter at two Class A Yankees affiliates last season.

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

What was that for

The Rangers will have all-star third baseman Hank Blalock signed to a 5-year contract pending a physical which shouldn't be any problem for him. This is really great news for Rangers fans.
And now with the trade of A-Rod they can start re-signing more of their young players to long-term deals.

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers have agreed to terms on a five-year deal with All-Star third baseman Hank Blalock.
Terms of the deal were not announced and the contract is dependent upon Blalock passing a physical. The announcement was made during the press conference to announce the trading of Alex Rodriguez to the New York Yankees for Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later.

"Young players do grow and they become great players who go through the pipeline and they can leave you at a certain point," Rangers general manager John Hart said. "I think with (Tom Hicks) blessing, we agreed with the first of our core of young players who will be the present and the future of this franchise. The best one we could start with is Hank Blalock."

Blalock hit .300 with 29 home runs and 90 RBIs in 2003, his first full season in the big leagues.

Helping the club is the fact the Rangers will save $120 million by trading Rodriguez. But Blalock's agreement is not directly correlated to the Rodriguez trade because Rangers owner Tom Hicks said he approved the deal 2 1/2 weeks ago. What the money saved by trading Rodriguez will do is give the club the flexibility to keep other young players, specifically Michael Young.

"Grady and I talked about our core of young players and what it will look like as we fight through the arbitration process," Hart said. "It's a dangerous game to jump out on a player after one year of experience, but the advantage is you control them for five years. The disadvantage is that you don't know much about them. But we came to Tom with the recommendation that there will be several players approaching arbitration and it might make sense for us to take them out."

The Rangers have not contacted any other young players about a potential contract, but such a move could be coming in the future.

"I want to win so I guarantee I will equip our guys to bring in great talent, Hicks said. "We did that starting today with Hank Blalock."