Monday morning items

by Adam J. Morris on Sep 25, 2006 9:19 AM CDT in News Comment 14 comments

The Rangers are now sitting at .500 on the season, needing a split over their final 6 games, all on the road, to have a .500 season on the year.

Seattle lost last night, so Texas still remains 3 games up on the Mariners in an effort to stay out of last place.

Not much to discuss today that wasn't hit on yesterday -- the Buck Watch and the Carlos Lee fiasco are the main things of note.

Jan Hubbard does have an item about Joaquin Arias getting a couple of starts this final week, with Michael Young going to DH for those games. Arias is apparently going to start tonight.

And T.R. Sullivan has a piece on Gerald Laird's September slump, which includes this worrisome thought:

The Rangers have talked about the possibility of re-signing Barajas and keep their catching tandem intact.

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Barajas

The Rangers are going to need a back up catcher. If they resigned Barajas, it would be OK if they just figured out that Laird should get the majority of the time. Maybe just offer Rod arbitration.

Laird's Sept slump is hardly cause for concern. Rod's June OPS is the only month that exceeded Laird's average OPS. Over the year, the only time Rod really put up better numbers than Laird was Sept.

Perhaps Laird is taking a different approach at the plate, and he's having trouble adjusting to the approach. In Sept Laird has had 5 BBs, although in the previous months he had 0, 2, 2, 2, and 1.

Fire Buck, DFA everyone, burn down the stadium.

by WyoRanger on Sep 25, 2006 10:05 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Offering Barajas arbitration

If he accepts arbitration, he's probably looking at $4.5-5 million for 2007.

I don't want to pay that much for a backup catcher.

by Adam J. Morris on Sep 25, 2006 10:13 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

$5 million?

That's higher than any number I've heard tossed around. But even $4 million would be too much to spend for a backup catcher.

But I'd really like a couple draft picks too. I'm guessing JD has been calling around and he'll have a good idea if any clubs are interested in giving Rod a 2-3 year deal. If other clubs are scared off because of Rod's back, then I'd hope the Rangers would be smart enough to follow suit.

Fire Buck, DFA everyone, burn down the stadium.

by WyoRanger on Sep 25, 2006 10:47 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

re:

Even if JD has been "calling around", he's not likely to get any idea of whether any clubs are going to offer him a 2-3 year deal. Why would they tell the Rangers that information, given the ways the rules work?

I'm not sure he gets $5 million, but he gets at least $4 million and likely somewhat more than that in arbitration. The only way I would want him back would be if it was made clear to him that Laird was going to start 125 games, him about 60 games, and he had gotten so little interest before December 9 that he was willing to sign a one-year deal here for about $2 million.

A couple months ago, I thought we could offer him arbitration and gets the draft picks. Now, I think that's too risky and we are just going to have to let him walk for nothing.

by BurntOrange on Sep 25, 2006 11:06 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

4 mill is still

3.5 more than Ojeda makes that could be spent on a pitcher. You could probably have Wells and Ojeda or just Barajas.

by sftxfan on Sep 25, 2006 12:14 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Ojeda

When Daniels traded for Ojeda, Barajas was not having back problems, nor was Laird slumping. As such, Ojeda is not some quick fix, a catcher he did not really want but had to get due to the circumstances. This could only mean that Daniels wants Ojeda; he must believe that he can contribute at the big league level, so it would seem that next year's back up catcher has already been resolved.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Sep 25, 2006 4:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs