Does this facilitate moving MY to third? If so, does Duran stay up to play short, and we option Shelton back to AAA?

why would Hank agree to this? Surely he has to see the move decreasing his value, as I don’t see him being an above average 1bman.

will be in Arlington this year.

Does this mean that Hank can’t play 3B anymore?
If so, then would any team be interested in him in the offseason given that he’d be seen as an average 1B (production-wise)?

This team needs to improve the infield defense in order to be successful.

Success in baseball derives from pitching and defense. Success does not derive from installing the best bat at every position.

The marginal increase in offensive production from Vasquez / Duran / Blalock to Blalock / Cat / Shelton is not worth the decrease in defense.

At third, Hank has become a defensive liability. At first, he’s an asset.

This is really a shocker. There is something clicking with this team and it looks like Hank saw it as an opportunity to get some production out of first base, so he did it. Much like MY moving to short a few years ago. I guarantee it NOBODY saw this coming.

But I’m actually fine with this. That, of course, makes me second guess whether or not I should be fine with it, but I liked the idea of moving Blalock to first (albeit down the road more) for a while.

I think it is stupid to shuffle Blalock around the infield so that Vazquez stays in the lineup and Shelton/Catt move to the bench. Incredibly stupid.

And if we had to endure Laird at Catcher “to increase his trade value”, then shouldn’t that apply to other tradable assets as well?

Blalock at 3b and Cat/Shelton is significantly better offensively with almost no dropoff at all defensively.

Ramon Vazquez’s career numbers are terrible, and german duran has done nothing at all.

Chris Shelton has started to do well, why do this now?

Washington loves Vazquez and wants him on the field. And unless his entire career is the fluke, rather than his 74 ABs this year, he is going to tank offensively, and you’ll be worse off.

But in the bigger picture, unless they are willing to revers this move, they have put themselves in a bad spot. Young needs to move to 3B imo, but Andrus is NOT close to being ready. I’m thinking 2010 at the earliest for Andrus, which would fit nicely with Blalock leaving, not with this move, followed by Young moving next spring.

And my next fear is them filling SS with an overpaid spare and eventually blocking Andrus when he actually is ready.

I just do not see the dominoes falling in a positive way here.

but a couple of guesses:

-less wear and tear on hank and he wants to stay on the field

-washington really believes that hank sucks at third and young sucks at SS and they need to facilitate the switch sooner rather than later.

Just a few weeks ago, the Rangers felt they had a weakness against LHP and that was one of the reasons Shelton was brought up. Well, this move (Blalock 1B, Vazquez 3B and possibly Shelton out) makes them more vulnerable to LHP.

Why would they block their best prospect in the minors? I guess they plan on trading Blalock, but wouldn’t he have more trade value as a 3B?

I thought I read that Max Ramirez played 1B a little while ago. What do you think happens to him if Davis ends up at 1B?

This is definitely a surprise. I laughed at everyone here who suggested this, it’s not a good idea in my view. You’ve diminished the team’s chances for success now, and probably diminshed Blalock’s value as well considering the paucity of 3B available this winter.

is his ranger debut delayed past september then?

i guess they are taking it super slow with him.

though i’m not gonna get too worked up about it. I just want to see Hank back. And I’m still trying to figure out how a Padilla/Gabbard/Feldman/Ponson rotation makes us contenders.

I just don’t get this move right now. This is something you do in the off-season. Not 2 months into the season. This makes no sense unless they plan on moving MY to 3rd right now (which I don’t think they will do, and question if the organization even has the balls to ask him to move again, i.e. Sori).

Like AJM says I think this makes Blalock’s days in Arlington numbered. Which makes me sad. I really like Hank. I just don’t understand why now all of a sudden many players in the organization are moving to 1B or getting playing time there (Davis, JMJ, MaxRam, and now Hank). I understood Davis being moved there, and even MaxRam getting some playing time there. JMJ played 1B in college so I guess that just gives him some more options as well. However this move right now just makes little sense.

now we will have blalock/duran instead of blalock/shelton.

we really didnt need to add another lefty weakness to the lineup.

Why do you think Blalock will be traded in the off season and not at the trade deadline?

I think this is a short term move at best. Think about it this way, there should be several SS hit the trade market later this summer. I would list Orlando Cabrera, Omar Vizquel, Alex Gonzalez (Reds), Bobby Crosby, etc… They make the move now, live with Vazquez at 3B then make a move for a rental at SS and move MY later in the season. Then they roll with a Blalock/Kinsler/Rental/Young IF. They can leave Davis and Andrus in the minors. Maybe they think there will be a greater chance of picking up a SS than a 1B or maybe they want to ease the cries for Davis, I don’t know. But I don’t see any reason to freak out about it until we see how things unfold. If people around here like JD as much as they say they do then give the guy a chance and see what his long term plan is.

Very odd. AJM, do you think it might have something to do with Blalock’s recent problems staying healthy? Are they concerned about a lack of mobility at 3B? Because this is a weird decision to make in the middle of the season like this.

I could have seen this happening in the offseason, or in spring training before Metcalf got hurt, but this suprises me.

Speaking of Metcalf, who wants to bet he comes up, and Duran goes down as soon as he’s had time to rehab in AAA?

blalock has another setback and cant return for 2 weeks. And in that time, cat, shelton and vazquez all hit for their career numbers. and this plan gets cancelled.

another player moved to 1B every day? Is there anyone in the system left not taking grounders at 1B?

that this move means that Hank Blalock won’t be a Texas Ranger next year?

It’s much easier to make this move in the offseason if the motive were to begin the shift to 3B of Young.

I’m hoping that something much bigger than a Duran/Vazquez platoon at 3B is in the works, and hoping that it doesn’t signal that Hank’s injuries now prevent him from being a 3B.

Definitly a scenerio he might be thinking.

we won’t have to watch our 1B bat 8th or 9th very often.

....... There is a New York area team that is pretty set at 3rd base but is really struggling getting any production out of there 1st baseman and they play in a ballpard for now that would really fit Hanks swing, (just a thought)

I think people are reading too much into it for this season….

It boils down to Blalock not being very good defensively and the teams run with Vazquez playing 3B. I think Blalock will play 1B except on days when we face a tough lefty…then Shelton will play.

I also think that Metcalf will be called up eventualy to take Durans spot starting against lefties…with Vazquez getting all starts against rightys.

The main question I now have is what happens to Cat?

As far as the future goes….this will pave the way for Andrus at SS, but it will probably be 2010 unless he starts raking here pretty soon…

I think Daniels as a GM and Washington as a Manager are both guys who are big into versatility. With the static state of the outfield and the constant taxation of the bullpen, it might just be a case where they’re trying to get the maximum versatility out of their roster. If Hank can play 1B, it might mean we can carry 1 less position player and add another pen arm. It might now mean he’s there all the time, but he plays one corner IF or the other depending on who’s hot.

I really liked seeing Hank over at third and thought his shoulder had made a nice rebound from that surgery last year. It’s strange to think of him at 1B, but I’ll wait to see how it plays out before forming a real opinion.

Was there this kind of reaction when Young volunteered to move to SS when Soriano came in?

like this move at all, for now and for the future. Vasquez is a good UT player but if he plays regularly his numbers are going to be similar to last year which were not very good.

Maybe he realizes in order to do that he needs far less wear and tear on his body…thus moving to 1st.

I expect Metcalf to finish his rehab assignment in AAA and then being recalled which will send Duran back to AAA so he can get the consistent reps he needs.

As for the future, I also don’t think Andrus will be ready till 2010. A short term one year solution for next season can be found. Young needs to move to 3rd. Blalock will be traded and one of JMJ, Ramierz, or Davis will man 1st next year. It’s better defensively and it focus’ on our three big problems, 1st, SS, and 3rd. The question is what happens with Cat and whether Blalock is traded now or this off-season.

I think this move is a signal to the players by management and one of the veterans that they think the Rangers can win this year.

Moving Blalock to 1st doesn’t really help anything long term. But it does give the team options this year. It may help Hank stay on the field (boost), it gives the team flexibility in acquiring a stopgap piece at any of a number of positions (SS, 3b, 1b are all potential areas to add a piece, considering that Hank and Young can cover the other two)

Davis is great, but he’s at least a year away and in all honesty is not going to help this team win until 2010. Elvis is great, but he’s probably 2-3 years away from contributing significantly. This move is for THIS YEAR, and whether they are right or not, I think it signals that the team is confident that this little streak is more than just two weeks of luck.

not sure why anyone would get upset at JD or Wash here…

Hopefully Kinsler will do the same now…

And Il say it again, they want to put Hank in a position to help the team in two areas…

1. If youre winning and contending, first base helps keep him in the lineup and opens third for young after the season…

2. If youre not contending, send him away as a ok defensive first baseman with a plus bat.

If we are leading the divison in two months, I expect that they will add a third base bat and will certainly look to signing Blalock after the season, otherwise he will absolutely be gone at the deadline

Whittleman looks like he’ll be in Frisco this summer. Why wouldn’t he be with the ML club by next year? By September?

Duran and Boggs continue to struggle at the plate the next week and are sent down to play everyday at OKC.

Cat moves back into a platoon in LF with Byrd. While Metcalf and Vasquez eventually settle into a similar lefty/righty platoon at 3B.

As a couple other LSBers have said, I think this is a move that JD and Wash agreed to when Hank came to them with the idea because of how they have played in May. They now think this team can compete in the West. My only concern is that if the team is close come the end of July, I don’t want to see them trade the farm for a guy like Holliday, Dunn, etc. They still need to keep the longterm goals of this organization in mind. If they can do that and compete then great. Don’t let a third party like Ryan/Hicks come in and say lets blow this thing up and try to win now. That is my biggest fear.

that eventually Blalock had to move off 3B. Defensively, he has the range of a marble statue.

for Cat, considering he has been a platoon 770 OPS defensive liability with the Rangers. I doubt thats in big demand.