So starts a new era in Rangers baseball.
Was out socializing last night, and didn't see the game, but 1 run from Brandon McCarthy in 6+ innings I'll take, even if the Ks and walks weren't where you'd like him. And he's dangerously close to seeing his ERA drop below 5.00 for the season.
Evan Grant writes that Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be catching a couple of days per week and also playing first base, with Adam Melhuse serving as the emergency catcher and also playing first base and third base.
Grant also says that Jon Daniels is heading to Cleveland today to personally discuss the Sammy Sosa situation, apparently with Ron Washington and Sosa.
If the Rangers are going to call up Jason Botts, it puts them in a bit of a tight spot, as far as the roster goes, if (as Tom Hicks said yesterday) Sosa isn't going to be released, because you've got two guys, in Botts and Sosa, who aren't going to play in the field, and another guy, in Melhuse, who is almost never going to play.
But given that Daniels is going up to Cleveland to talk about the Jason Botts situation, I'm guessing Botts is coming up today or tomorrow, and Sosa's playing time will be dropping dramatically.
Grant also has a piece up on the attempts by the team to extend Teixeira:
Only a week before the meeting, Teixeira said the Rangers had never approached him about an extension. He reiterated that stance after the club left Anaheim and traveled to Oakland. A Rangers source, however, said the club had made "overtures" to Teixeira on at least three occasions.
As Teixeira hastily checked out of the Rangers' Cleveland hotel to catch a flight to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, he declined to comment on anything Rangers related. Asked if an extension proposal had ever been brought up to him, Teixeira said, "I'm not talking about any of that. I'm an Atlanta Brave. That's done. I'm very happy. That's it."
Ken Rosenthal trashed Hicks for going public with this:
Hicks can spout off about offering Teixeira about $140 million for eight years, but it was an offer Teixeira was certain to refuse. Everyone in baseball knows that Teixeira's agent, Scott Boras, prefers his clients to determine their values on the open market. Heck, Hicks should know it better than anyone, having signed many a Boras client, including a certain $252-million bauble way back when.
Maybe, in the abstract, Rosenthal is right.
But given that Tom Hicks has been ripped by just about everyone in D/FW (including me, on numerous occasions) for being a tightwad, given that there was a column just yesterday by Jim Reeves taking Hicks to the woodshed for refusing to pony up and pay Teixeira, I don't blame him for going public with the contract offer.
And if, in fact, the response was that he wasn't interested in making a long-term commitment, I think that tells you all you need to know about the Rangers' chances of keeping Mark Teixeira around. He didn't want to be here. And since I rip Hicks when I think he's being cheap, I will commend him for making what I think is a very legitimate offer, and one that I think would have at least gotten the parties to the table and gotten a deal done if Teixeira wanted to be a Ranger for the next 8 years.
Gil LeBreton is particularly harsh in regards to Teixeira and Boras:
Talk about bluffing. Teixeira was hailed by some local sheep for "telling like it is" about Hicks. He chastised the franchise for operating "like a small-market club."
That "small-market" team offered him $140 million -- $60 million more than Michael Young -- to remain a Ranger. But Mark Teixeira said no way.
So who was misleading who here?
In the American League, he was a one-time All-Star. In the National League, good luck. Teixeira isn't as good as first basemen Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, Derek Lee, Lance Berkman or even Carlos Delgado.