A couple of items from this morning...
Jan Hubbard clucks his tongue at Juan Dominguez, because Dominguez felt he had a decent performance yesterday. Hubbard has, for whatever reason, been the guy in the DFW print media who seems to have been the harshest in his assessment of Dominguez this spring...
In the meantime, I wanted to make sure everyone sees this comment from Brian Thomas, who watched yesterday's game, saw Dominguez pitch, and disputes Buck's version of what the radar gun said. Buck claimed Dominguez was throwing 88-91, while Thomas says that the radar gun was showing 91 consistently, and sometimes up to 93.
Hubbard also has a piece on Jon Daniels' short stint (so far) as g.m.
Jim Reeves grouses about the fifth starter situation, saying that the Rangers need to go outside the organization to bring someone in.
A couple of interesting items from the Reeves column...he quotes a "Rangers official" as saying last week that he didn't think that the Rangers #5 starter was among the pitchers in camp, which flies in the face of what Jon Daniels said earlier this week.
And he also says Buck Showalter was talking yesterday about putting John Wasdin in the #5 spot, which, as I said earlier, is asinine.
I just don't get it. I absolutely don't get it. Juan Dominguez has been one of the Rangers' top pitching prospects the last couple of years, pitches quite well as a starter down the stretch last year, and yet, he's being treated like he's Tony Mounce or Brian Sikorski.
The key excerpt:
I'm not sure Showalter trusts him, nor should he at this point.
"It's as important that he develop the trust of his teammates as it is us," Showalter said. "They're watching. They want five guys they can trust, too. I've told Juan that."
What is it that Buck doesn't trust him to do? Because there's not much reason to believe that he shouldn't be trusted with the #5 starter role.
The "trust" issue ultimately doesn't come down to performance...it comes down to attitude, showing up on time, the good face, wearing your socks right, and all those things Buck Showalter is so hung up on.
If the question is about what pitcher gives the Rangers the best chance to win in 2006, among the guys in camp, there is no question, Juan Dominguez should be the #5 starter.
But if you want the guy who has the best face and who will do things the Buck Showalter Way -- if that's more important than pitching well and giving the team the best chance to win -- then Juan Dominguez isn't the guy.
The handling of this situation is an absolute, classic clusterbuck, and as you can probably tell, it infuriates me.