Hey fellas,

I've been away from the computer for a few weeks because I've been busy being a brand new daddy to my brand new baby girl, Gillian Rose. She was born on July 29th weighing in at 8lbs 13oz.

I've included a pic to show you what baseball team she's decided to root for. I promise, I had nothing to do with her attire. ;)

via photos-e.ak.facebook.com

I received a letter from BNY Mellon Shareowner Services explaining that my info was was on a tape that was lost during a transfer.

http://breachblog.com/2008/03/27/bny.aspx

It says most of those affected are People's United customers or stockowners. I do not own stock, nor am I a customer of People's United Bank. I'm trying to figure out what companies BNY works with, so that I can figure out why they might have my info.

Has anyone else received this letter? Is there a list of affected companies outside of People's United, Disney, and MetLife?

I'll call on Monday, but I'm completely confused as to why they have my info.

The races are close, we're almost there:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080630&content_id=3033588&vkey=allstar2008&fext=.jsp

Vote Here!

Is it ballot stuffing? Sure! But our guys deserve their spots.

If we can even get a single player up 1 slot, I'll be impressed.

Have fun, and vote as much as you can!

via texas.rangers.mlb.com

Remember to report your vote totals when you're all done.

Go Rangers, get em' in!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3452336

I'd say that house is just about clear?

What a frustrating season for those fans. I feel for fans of really boring teams. Bad teams is one thing; but watching a really bad team that has maybe 2 interesting players is another.

The Rangers have had some bad seasons, but at least the offense kept it interesting.

Make sure to vote on July 1st in The Great Big Rangers Vote!

via texas.rangers.mlb.com

We all know how close a lot of our beloved Rangers are to starting the All-Star Game.

Well, here's an idea to organize one last push for the guys.

On July 1st (Tuesday night) at 7:00pm CST, we amass on LSB under one thread and vote as many times with many email addresses as we can in an effort to get our guys in.

Spread the word to Newberg's site, MVN, Grant, and other Rangers affiliated websites. Have them meet in thier own threads, or tell them to meet us here.

All you have to do is vote as much as possible

, and list how many times you voted in the thread.

The idea is a bit silly, but it would be a cool group-based activity that we could all take part in and help our guys out.

To view MLB's coverage of the ASG click here
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2008/index.jsp

Current AL vote totals:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080615&content_id=2934561&vkey=allstar2008&fext=.jsp

Let's get it done.

I'm curious as to what you all think the roster will look like on the final day of the season.

I want an "in contention" roster, and a "not in contention" roster.

You can not add your own injuries in. This is the "Hopefully, nobody is hurt at that time" roster.

Add your own possible trades, and call-ups.

I'll add mine once I figure out what I think they will be. Should this be a FanShot? No idea.

1/3 of the way in:

Record: 7-2

Pitching stats (MLB Ranks):

ERA: 1.71 (1st)
WHIP:  1.03 (2nd)
BAA:  .189 (2nd)
Saves: 4 (3rd)
Save %: 100% (1st)

Interesting stat while searching: Seattle's staff leads the league in HBP for May with 6

Batting Stats (MLB Ranks):

R: 37 (t-9th)
HR: 10 (t-2nd)
OBP: .292 (t-20th)
SLG%: .402 (16th)
OPS: .695 (18th)
SO: 70 (Last)
XBH: 28 (t-5)


2008 Fielding %: .977 (t-29th)

Just throwing it out there for the hell of it. Pretty interesting stuff.

We're 16% of the way into the season, about 1 month. All you can say right now is: Wow.

What a trade on both sides so far.

Could this have turned out any better for Cincy + Texas?

Volquez is now 4-0 w/ an ERA around 1.00, and hasn't surrendered a HR yet.

Obviously, we know the story with Hamilton.

So here's the question: If the success on both sides hold up for the entire season, do you still like the trade as much as you may have before the season started?

I do. With a bevy of rotation talent on the way, Volquez was expendable. CF has always been a huge hole here, and Hamilton takes away from a good deal of the offensive void left by the departure of Mark Teixeira.

Another question, if for some reason Julio Borbon pans out and makes it to Arlington quicker than expected (which is a longshot), what do we do? Do we shift Hamilton to LF/RF? Would Borbon be an upgrade defensively in CF?

Just some random questions I had earlier. Thoughts?