The Chicago Cubs have reportedly requested permission to talk to Rudy Jaramillo prior to his contract expiring on October 31. I can't imagine the Rangers will say no, and I suspect we'll find out pretty quickly that Jaramillo is joining the Cubs on a big, multi-year deal.
Richard Durrett asks if we, as Ranger fans, miss Vicente Padilla.
Personally, I could care less about Padilla right now. His performance has led some to rail about how stupid Jon Daniels is for getting rid of a terrific playoff-caliber starting pitcher and getting nothing in return. This is the same pitcher, of course, who was on waivers twice this year and wasn't claimed either time. And realistically, whether Padilla was here in Texas the rest of the way or not, he wasn't going to be back next season and wasn't going to get the Rangers into the playoffs.
Padilla was replaced in the rotation with Dustin Nippert, and then Brandon McCarthy. Nippert went 3-2 in Padilla's spot in the rotation after Padilla was released, with the Rangers being shut out in one of his starts and scoring just 3 runs in the other. They went 2-3 in McCarthy's starts in Padilla's spot post-release, but McCarthy pitched well, with two of the losses coming in games where the Rangers only scored 1 run, and the other loss coming in that awful bullpen meltdown against Tampa where O'Day, Wilson and Frankie all were terrible.
Point being...even if Padilla had stayed in Texas and had pitched as well he did in L.A., the Rangers likely would not have been one game better this year, and the Rangers still weren't going to exercise his options for 2010. So I don't care about Padilla being gone.