On Jones, Davis, Byrd and Blalock

Cruz, Davis and Byrd are really getting the shaft here.

If CD loses any time to this has been at all I’m going to put my head in a vice.

but i’ll hold judgement until the season actually begins. I just have a hard time believing this will ultimately effect Chris Davis much.

Baseball IS a talking sport

I think with or without Jones, Cruz was going to be getting bumped about 1/3 of the time. I think Hamilton is going to be played in RF about 60 games and the Rangers will use Byrd in CF on those days and as I have maintained throughout unless I see Cruz or Hammy being played in LF I don’t think its an actual option during the season.

And if Jones continues his previous couple years production then I don’t think we have to worry about anything because he won’t be played much if that happens. As much as Wash wants to win do you really think he’d roll out there with Jones if he is putting up a .220/.270/.350 line. I highly doubt it.

Davis will probably sit against the top lefties in the league which probably isn’t a bad thing anyway.

My only contention is that Marlon Byrd is a Washington favorite. I think that he’ll find a way to get Byrd on the field and that a slow start puts Nelson Cruz in great jeopardy of playing time.

because I highly doubt there are takers for cat even if we eat, say 4 million of the 6. Hicks evidently refuses to eat the entirety of the contract. Therefore, Cat will be very difficult to trade IMO.
I think this whole deal may be posturing on the part of the Rangers in an effort to deal Byrd/Blalock/Cruz/Murphy for something of value and then that would allow Jones to actually get normal playing time. I think ppl are overplaying this…

I don’t know nothing though.

and doesn’t hit, he won’t play much, if at all…and eventually be cut. I don’t see him starting the season with the Rangers will effect much…

Davis’s numbers against lefties in AAA and the MLB.

Even blalock has shown improvement vs lefties, but if someone has to lose at bats to jones it needs to be him, with byrd in for murph and Davis just an everyday player.

I agree with some of this, but I really think you’re over reacting in regards to Davis. I still expect him to see time against lefties, with Balock getting most of the time on the bench. And I think JD does as well.

If that doesn’t happen then I think it’s another mistake that will eventually cost Wash his job.

Ultimately it’s the job of management to put the best 25 together (mostly; obviously you have to take development into account, otherwise Boggs would clearly be a better fit on the 25 than Jones). There’s no doubt that this team could use an additional right handed bat that can be inserted into the lineup against lefties. If you can’t trust your manager to use that additional bat properly then you need to get rid of the manager, not leave the additional bat off the roster.

He can at least play infield positions, albeit poorly, and he won’t take time away from other players the team needs to look at. Good pinch hitter too.

It is ironic that by trying to improve the club vs LHP by DHing Jones and putting Blalock at 1B, the Rangers are probably worse off at the plate and in the field. Just how good of a firstbaseman is Blalock? Hopefully it won’t take JD long to realize that Jones is toast and he will call up Ramirez to be the RH DH if they are still concerned about facing LHP.

At times this spring I’ve found myself wishing they had just gone ahead and fired Washington last year.

his own rope.

Well, this is very different from Nevin/Sosa in that Jones isn’t being given a starting job. The role is very well defined as a part time role.

Actually, I think this mostly has to do with Cat. If Cat were right handed with a decent track record against lefties, Jones would be gone, and, instead, it would be the right-handed Cat taking a few ABs away from Davis. Either way, any type of a slow start by Davis puts him on the bench, and he may be there against top-tier lefties even with a hot start, given his relative inexperience as a MLer. Sitting a lefty against tough LHP is just the way managers have always managed, unfortunately.

pos.

Not that my opinion weighs anything, but like posteriors, everybody has one including me. I’m not against a RH DH, and I think Rudy is astute at diagnosing batters’ capabilities. But I can’t understand any rational attempt to explain why Andruw Jones should be kept. To me, the two OF positions that are a lock are Hamilton and Cruz. Any of the remaining pack have value (Murphy, Boggs, or the two good fielders in AAA Borbon and Golson). Andruw? Won’t hit, and no longer a premium fielder. End of assessment.

This (forgive me for even bringing it up) smells like a John Hart “advisory”, again pushing for a veteran (oh yeah, tried and true) reincarnation. Of course Rudy takes any such assignment, it’s his stock in trade. If the Rangers blow this by keeping AJ around, I have less passion for the team than the game in general. I love baseball. I don’t love manuvering the player assets just to try to be right.

and deservedly so. Pathetic.

Let’s wait and see what the 25/40 is at the end of ST. A lot can happen in 2 weeks. I still think there’s some sort of trade brewing that we don’t know about that makes all this make more sense.

goes down on a fucking check swing strike 3.

the other 29 teams force JD to keep Cat making this whole thread worthless.

I think he (and Rudy) are lobbying hard for Andruw. JD is giving in on this one, trusting that Wash will use him only against righties. Unfortunately, Wash cannot be trusted to use him correctly. As a “player’s manager”, he has repeatedly given preference to veterans over young guys. Wash will never let a vet languish on the bench. Jones will get ABs against righties if we have a long stretch without any lefties.

And assuming Visquel makes the opening day roster, too. You can expect him to be used more than the typical utility infielder.

two weeks ago, Guardardo was considered a lock for the bullpen. now his name is listed as a candidate like everyone else. we still have a full two weeks of preseason to let this play itself out.

I will say that I thought bringing Jones in was a good idea at the onset. I still think it is worth figuring out if he has anything left. Having even 80% of the old Andruw Jones in CF and sliding Hamilton over to right (where his bat played up, albeit in a small sample size) could be very beneficial to this team. Even 80% remains a huge if today, but he does seem genuinely humbled and ready to work. I am okay with extending the experiment.

On that note, people must remember that Hamilton shouldn’t play every day, so we shouldn’t say he is a lock to do so. All of the worries that people expressed last year at this time regarding what his body has been through physically didn’t evaporate because of one solid year at the plate. If anything, we should be more cautious. Hamilton is this org’s greatest asset.

Using espn.com’s team depth chart as the source…

The Rangers could face 10 lefthanded SPs in thier first 22 games(April). I would only classify one (Lee) as elite. Of the 15 division oponents SPs, 6 may be LHP.

And like clark just posted, there is still 2 weeks left in ST. Maybe Jones will get some ABs vs LHP and show that he can’t handle it.

Why do people in this thread keep acting like Joe Maddon is a terrible manager?

What makes Jones a better option against righties than Cat is right now?

There’s no reason to keep DruwJo around except that Rudy believes that he can “fix” him. The question now is, at what point will Rudy swallow his pride and say, “Alright, forget it, let’s move on to worthwhile human beings”?

/going to Surprise on Friday
/giddy

I mean this is like adding a tomato in a salad why make something that’s already healthy even more healthy? If i’m eating a salad I don’t want to add more healthy stuff to it. The rangers are the Salad and Jones is the tomato that needs to be ate before it goes bad. I say pass on the thousand island dressing, you know? Drop the soap then pick it back up cause how the heck would you get clean? You’ve gotta be a spare tire before you can take the lead, and of course you gotta see the ball to hit it.

and won’t be until I see a pattern emerge. Sure, the blueprints are there, but we’ve also seen JD turn from a repeated trade loser into a winner the past year and a half. Anything can happen.

is that you can’t, apparently swap on player who may well be useless (but might have something left) for a player that is definitely useless (Cat), because of the fear that your manager is an idiot. The even more tiresome thing is that apparently your GM is also too much of an idiot to fire the manager.

On the face of it, swapping Jones for Cat isn’t a bad move because Cat brings so little and has no trade value down the line.

reclamation projects

First off, Chris Davis is going to hit, and continue to hit, so he’ll be in the 7th spot in the order for the first half, then probably hit 5th for the rest of the year. (after Blalok’s kneee gets sprained.
Secondly Jones will eiather hit alot and replace Byrd, who still get traded, or he won’t in which case he’ll be riding pine.

how I feel about the Jones situation yet. I do believe the Rangers’ lefthandedness is a problem that needs to be addressed.

But, for those that have come out with their usual Wash is a dummie schtick, at least have the intellectual integrity to assign the responsibility to the correct person – JD. If you think that this is a disaster in the making and that Wash and Jaramillo are morons that love past-their-prime veterans, than JD is the biggest moron of all because he is the decision maker here.

Not much new.

Universally respected Rangers’ hitting guru Rudy Jaramillo is said to have told some folks at Rangers camp in Surprise, Ariz., this week: "Andruw Jones is back.‘’
Thanks to that bold and meaningful declaration, plus the all-important support of team president Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher who’s now heavily involved in the team’s day-to-day operations

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jon_heyman/03/23/andruw.jones/index.html