Geoff Young over at The Hardball Times has a piece up called Free Agent Overcompensation.  It’s an interesting look at some of the instances where a compensatory draft pick has worked out considerably better than free Agent signed. 

There is a Ranger mention included.  The Seattle Mariners took Mark Langston with their second round pick in 1981 that they received for the Rangers signing away free agent…..the great Bill Stein.  Sad.

On the right hand side, he also lists several instances where the free agent worked out much better than the draft picks that were received.  It’s definitely not one sided. 

I happen to think that draft pick compensation needs to either go away or be dialed down a notch or two.  It no longer serves its intended purpose as most of the have-nots trade their top players before they make it to free agency.  It has both really helped and really hurt the Rangers this decade.  What do you think?

I’m involved in the National Baseball Congress World Series the next couple of weeks and I thought that I would post a couple of notes on this tournament that would be of interest to some here.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the NBC World Series, it is the National Championship for summer collegiate baseball.  Unfortunately, leagues like the Cape, Northwoods and TCL aren’t involved, but there is still a lot of talent around.  It is a huge deal here in Wichita, since they have hosted the tournament since the 30’s, it has a huge following and the feature game usually has a packed house (Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, former home of the Wichita Wranglers) each night. 

The most interesting note for most of those here is who can be found in the dugout of the Liberal (KS) Bee Jays.  Former Ranger great and the manager of the Seattle Mariners opening day of 2007, Mike Hargrove is at the reigns for the oddly named Bee Jays.  The story goes that he played for the Bee Jays when he was in college and stayed fairly close with some of the people in the community and when he decided to “retire,” they called him up and he said yes. 

There are several people with Rangers ties involved in the tournament. 

2008 43rd round pick Brian Feekin, a left-handed pitcher from Iowa Western Community College, is on the roster for the Beatrice (NE) Bruins.  On the summer, in 43.1 innings he allowed 32 hits and 22 walks, while striking out 56 and posting a 1.05 ERA. 

2001 6th round pick Ben Keiter, a right-handed pitcher from Wichita State, is with the Community Bank Cowboys (a WSU alumni team).  There are no age restrictions as Keiter was released in 2004. 

2007 22nd round pick Donnie Ecker, who was recently released, is a member of the Maxim (CA) Yankees. 

2007 42nd round pick Jason Sowers, a first baseman/catcher from Cowley County Community College, is with the Newton (KS) Rebels after his release this season.  In limited action with the Rebels this summer, Sowers posted a line of .286/.342/.429.

Local college players include

Baylor: Howell Finch, INF (Austin Gold Sox)

Texas A&M: Shane Minks, RHP (Beatrice (NE) Bruins), Darby Brown, INF (Beatrice),

Texas: Lee Johnson, RHP (Beatrice (NE) Bruins); Travis Tucker, INF, (Beatrice); Tant Shepherd, INF (Beatrice); Jordan Danks, OF (Beatrice); Cameron Rupp, C (Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters); Kevin Keyes, OF (Santa Barbara)

Rice: Jimmy Comerota, INF (Clarinda (IA) A’s); Mike Ojala, RHP (Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters); Matt Evers, RHP (Santa Barbara); John Hale, C (Santa Barbara); Chad Mozingo, OF (Santa Barbara)

Texas Tech: Tanner Rindels, OF (El Dorado (KS) Broncos)

Anyway, if you want you can follow the tournament, you can do it here.  The team I coach is the Park City (KS) RANGERS. 

I coach at a small college in Kansas.  We have most of the funds in place to put in a field turf infield.  Obviously, as a baseball purist, its not ideal.  However, with the weather here and our limited field maintenance budget, it helps alot.  Not only with maintenance, but also with recruiting.  

To do it dugout to dugout, it costs about $65,000.  We have about $45,000 secured.  Does anyone out there have any ideas about how to raise the rest of that money.  $45,000 is about all that we can get out of this area.  Our service area population is only about 20,000.  

I would appreciate any ideas or anyone in this area (or out of this area) that might like to get involved.  The school I work at is Pratt Community College.  BTW our only relevent alumni is Terry Tiffee, former Twin who is in AAA with Baltimore right now.  We have also had Torii Hunter's brother, Tram, and Bob Gibson's son, Chris, here.

With all the high draft picks in June's draft, the return of young players in the deadline deals this season and the influx of international signings, it seems to me that the Rangers have a wonderful problem coming up next spring.  Where do all these good/great arms get innings? Looking ahead this is how I see the possibilities for the rotations of Bakersfield, Clinton and even Spokane next year with their opening day age.

Bake - LHP Kasey Kiker (20), RHP Omar Poveda (20), LHP Zach Phillips (21), LHP Glen Swanson (24), LHP Broc Coffman (23), LHP Mike Ballard (23), Kyle Rogers (22)

Clinton - LHP Derek Holland (21), RHP Tommy Hunter (22), RHP Evan Reed (22), RHP Jake Brigham (20), RHP Fabio Castillo (19), RHP Michael Main (19), RHP Neftali Feliz (20)

Spokane - RHP Robert Wilkins (18), RHP Carlos Pimental (18), LHP Geuris Grullon (18), RHP Wilmer Font (17), LHP Miguel de los Santos (20), RHP Blake Beavan (19), RHP Neil Ramirez (18)

As you can see, that doesn't leave much room for the 08 draftees. And this list could be further complicated if Omar Beltre and Alexi Ogando are finally freed.  The bullpen situation is equally merky.  

With glaring needs at the big league level at 1b, ss(if we move MY back to 2B where he belongs), LF and CF, there a lot of guys here that could be used to make deals to fill these holes.  

Those of you in the know, please let me know if some of my predicitions are off and how you expect it to shake out.

I know that Adam touched a little bit on these two articles, but he suprisingly avoided mentioning Sosa's quotes in the two.  My guess is he hates him so much that he didn't even read past the title.  

While I have defended Sosa at times, I definately agree that he hasn't been very good overall and he's been awful the last few weeks.  Sosa apparently sees it differently.

From the TR story that he's supporting Bonds, here is a quote in response to being asked about whether Selig should be there.  

"I don't want to go there," Sosa said with a smile. "I'm doing good right now. I don't want any controversy. I'm happy."

Maybe he means that he is "doing good" at staying out of controversy, but that quote is coming on the heels of his player diary from the previous day where he said:

"My numbers are good, but we still have a lot of games to play, and real satisfaction comes from winning games. Personally, I just try to remain focused on what I need to keep doing. I just need to be ready to play every day."

His numbers are good? .243/.297/.449 are good?  While I'm one of the few that hasn't bashed him, I would expect that he wasn't really pleased with them.  I would have hoped that he's expecting more of himself than that.  

 http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070718&content_id=2093667&vkey=news_tex& amp;fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070718&content_id=2093427&vkey=news_tex& amp;fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

I was just checking signing bonuses in the supplemental round and only 7 of the 34 picks were unsigned.  

Of those 7; Borbon, Ramirez and Hunter (who I was under the impression that we took that early because of his signability)

Just fishing to see if anyone knew where we were on Ramirez and Hunter (figuered Borbon would be a tough sign)

It looks like all three of these guys, Beavan, Nash (4th) and Gast (5th) won't make their debuts until 2008 if at all.  

Last question.  I know that if we don't sign Beavan, we get that pick back.  How far down the draft does that go? 1st round? supplemental?

I see a lot of the expectations for what we could get for Teix and it sounds really good, but it is hard for me to believe that it is possible.  

So, I tried to think about an established big time 1B that was traded mid-season to see what to expect in return.

The first that came to mind was Mark McGwire in 1997.  I know that the circumstances that were involved then were different than they are now, but FWIW at least it may be a peak into what we could expect if we hold onto Teix into next season

The return for McGwire:

Blake Stein: 6th round pick in 1994 out of tiny Spring Hill College.

As a 23 y/o in 96: A+ 16-5 2.15 171.2IP 122H
As a 24 y/o in 97: AA 8-7  4.24 133.2IP 128H

TJ Matthews: A quality/established middle/set-up relief guy

Big leagues 95: 1.52 23G 29.2IP 28K
            96: 3.01 67G 83.2IP 80K
            97: 2.15 40G 46IP   46K

Eric Ludwick: 2nd round pick by the Mets out of UNLV traded to the Cards in a deal for Bernard Gilkey.

As a 24 y/o in 96: AAA 3-4 2.83 60.1IP 73K
As a 25 y/o in 97: AAA 6-8 2.93 80  IP 85K
A couple of cups of coffee each season in bigs with very little success.  

Obviously none of these guys really panned out for the A's and I'm not saying that this is what we should expect. I just think that this may show a little bit that we just aren't going to empty the cupboard of someone's farm system for Teix.

Again, I realize that the situation is a little different, but I thought it was interesting.

This is my first diary, let me know if it needs be my last.