“But… But… I don’t want to die! I wanna go to college and… and make fun of all the kids on financial aid!”

been brittle mentally?

“I have corrected my weak link.” – CJ Wilson

Glad that’s settled.

Haven’t read this anywhere else…

http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/02/lets-get-one-thing-straight.html

I almost wish the MRI had showed that he needed surgery. As it sits now, it seems like something that’s just going to be a perpetual thing. I can’t imagine why or how it hasn’t healed in the past 5-6 months.

Reeves article was pretty good except for the part about McCarthy making 22 unforgettable starts in 2007. BMac was pretty good actually when he was healthy

rehired as a pitching consultant, said he’ll be in Spring Training in mid-March when the Minor Leaguers report" I’m scared now. Him being re-hired must have slipped by me when it happened.

I hope that Narron and Hamilton still communicate and that this is because Hamilton feels like he can rely on his family and teammates now.

Gee, you think most would have preferred putting Diamond in the trade? IIRC, Chicago wanted Danks and wouldn’t make the deal otherwise.

<>Hooray, the gang is all here. Infielders Omar Vizquel and Jose Vallejo made it to camp and were in uniform this morning. Vizquel continues to say the right things about being a utility infielder for the first time in his career, and Elvis Andrus has already started to pick Vizquel’s brain. Conveniently, they are lockered next to each other.

<>A batch of one-year contracts for non-arbitration-eligible players are expected to be signed and announced later today. General manager Thad Levine said he wants to have all of those deals completed before the first spring game.

<>Right-hander Jason Jennings said he hopes to throw batting practice tomorrow for the first time this spring. He and lefty Kason Gabbard, both coming off injuries, are the only two pitchers who haven’t thrown BP. The other 27 are up to 10 minutes every other day.

— Jeff Wilson

Link

then do the Rangers cut ties with Catalanotto? Or can they get anything for him a trade? Seems like a NL team would take him if the Rangers eat his salary.

Brandon McCarthy was more than happy with his live batting practice session Thursday. He was ecstatic.

 “I need to turn down the intensity a little out there,” he said "I’m at about 110 percent right now. It’s getting to that point now where you forget about the injuries and it’s not sitting in the back of your mind.

“I can focus on my pitching now instead of wondering, ‘is this going to hurt?’ Days like today are important to get through and be healthy.”

McCarthy and I talked for a column which ran in Friday’s print edition, but he had plenty more to say than what I was able to use there.

 On John Danks’ success with the White Sox: "I’ve always paid attention to what he’s done because I’m a baseball fan and I know my end of things hasn’t gone in the right direction, but I don’t sit here and fixate on what he’s done. I have the mindset that I can control only what I can control.

“I know if I’m healthy and I go out and pitch it’s all going to equal out in the long run. It’s not there, not in the back of my mind at all, but I understand how fans look at it and how it looks from the outside.”

 Even though most of the pitchers are far ahead of the hitters, who are still catching up on their timing, McCarthy’s 10-minutes of live BP were impressive.

 “He looks good. He’s confident in his stuff,” said Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who caught the batting practice session. “He was hitting his spots.”

link

This guy from Croatia says his objective computer system (which, btw, he claims is superior to PECOTA and anything else without giving evidence) has the Rangers at 65 wins. I challenge him on it and he changes it to 71 wins.

I don’t think 71 is really hard to believe, it’s that he’s calling it an objective, computer-generated projection that we should put stock in. If it were like my lame-ass predictions where I put little objective stat work in to it and can’t defend my predictions if someone challenges my reasoning, that would be fine. And I keep asking him why the Rangers are going to be worse and he won’t give me a straight answer. It’s stuff like “the pitching is bad.” Well, that’s just like last year. “Other teams got better.” How does that affect the Rangers? Not everyone can improve, some teams get worse, some teams get better and some teams get better and some things stay the same.

At first glance the Rangers should be one of those “the same” teams. I’m fine with a computer telling me they’ll be worse, but I want to see the reasoning if you’re going to claim it’s objective stats and not guesswork. I’m trying to expose his system as either ridiculous or get him to tell me “why,” and he won’t give me a straight answer. But I also don’t know how much is the language barrier.

Has up a preview, at least they’re giving us second place..

Via rotoworld

The Dodgers and Orlando Hudson have reportedly come to terms on a deal.
It sounds like the late interest in Orlando Cabrera was just the Dodgers’ way of pushing Hudson to sign on the dotted line. The Diamondbacks have to be both pleased and disappointed. Having him sign with the Dodgers was their best-case scenario as far as compensation, as they’ll now get the 17th pick in this year’s draft. However, it does make the competition in the NL West a little tougher. With Hudson in town, the Dodgers will probably send Blake DeWitt to Triple-A for more seasoning. They already have Mark Loretta locked into a utility role. Feb. 20 – 2:55 pm et
Source: Arizona Republic

forgot to paste….

<>Shortstop Elvis Andrus didn’t take batting practice the past two days because of lingering soreness in his left wrist, which he tweaked during winter ball. He said the injury is nothing to worry about and he expects to only need to the two days off.

<>The Rangers did not watch free-agent reliever Chad Cordero pitch earlier this week in a showcase for scouts in Anaheim, Calif. General manager Jon Daniels said the Rangers are likely to send a scout to Cordero’s next bullpen session next week. He is expected to throw with more effort than the 70 percent he showed this week.

<>Rangers hitters didn’t take it easy on manager Ron Washington during batting practice. He threw to a group that included Travis Metcalf and German Duran, and they feasted on Washington’s pitches. But Washington quickly pointed out afterward, “You hit only because I let you hit.”

— Jeff Wilson

Link

Decided to start from scratch. All skeleton lineups should be tinkered with, but for the sake of objectivity, these are what three prominant line-up theories would say about the Rangers using their CHONE projections.

They pretty much all would play Byrd instead of Murphy, so differences with Murphy in the lineup are in parenthesis.

Steve Lineup Toy
1) Byrd (Young)
2) Kinsler
3) Hamilton
4) Cruz
5) Davis
6) Blalock
7) Young (Murphy)
8) Salty/Tea/Max
9) Andrus/Vizquel

(FWIW, Byrd and MY are separated by just 1 OBP point, so MY would really be sensible at the top of the lineup in this system even with Byrd.)

Tom Tango
1. Hamilton
2. Kinsler
3. Davis
4. Cruz
5. Blalock (Young)
6. Young (Murphy)
7. Max/Salty/Tea
8. Andrus/Vizquel
9. Byrd (Blalock)

Baseball Musings Lineup Tool (Lower Scoring options, in order, below.)

1. Byrd
2. Hamilton
3. Ramirez (3: Young)
4. Cruz
5. Kinsler
6. Davis
7. Blalock
8. Andrus (2: Vizquel)
9. Young (3: Salty)

2: Vizquel 8th
3: Young 3rd, Salty 9th
4: Young 3rd, Vizquel 8th, Salty 9th
5: Kinsler 1st, Blalock 5th, Murphy 7th
6: Young 3rd, Tea 8th, Vizquel 9th
7: Kinsler 1st, Byrd 3rd, Blalock 5th, Tea 7th
8: Kinsler 1st, Ramirez 3rd, Blalock 5th, Murphy 7th
9: Kinsler 1st, Young 3rd, Blalock 5th, Murphy 7th, Salty 9th
10: Kinsler 1st, Young 3rd, Blalock 5th, Murphy 7th, Salty 9th
11: Kinsler 1st, Young 3rd, Blalock 5th, Murphy 7th, Tea 8th, Vizquel 9th
12: Kinsler 1st, Murphy 3rd, Blalock 5th, Teagarden 7th

(In descenging order of runs per game in each lineup: 5.23, 5.23, 5.22, 5.22, 5.18, 5.15, 5.14, 5.05, 5.04, 5.04, 4.99, 4.98)

All but Tango’s ignore base stealing.