Texas Rangers Baseball Thread

[BigTex]

Mike Maddux is returning as pitching coach.

[Mark]

And Dayton Moore has been added to the management team.

[Mark]

We've lost Gaylord Perry at the age of 84.

Gaylord Perry was my all-time favorite Ranger.

[jellowrestling]

We've lost Gaylord Perry at the age of 84.

Gaylord Perry was my all-time favorite Ranger.

I think it's obvious that the veteran junk pitcher in the move "Major League" is based primarily on Gaylord.

I've probably mentioned this before, but when I coached JV baseball, I had a pitcher who threw a soft knuckleball that would break a little bit, sometimes. But we made it an effective pitch by having him warm up throwing balls with a tube of KY jelly conspicuously in his belt. The KY-ball would break about 18 inches. When we trotted him out on the mound, he was almost always effective, because the opponents were looking for the "greaseball". Kid won 12 games with nothing but junk.

[BigTex]

Rangers sign Jacob deGrom to a five-year contract.

[BigTex]

Twins sign Joey Gallo to one year deal.

https://www.mlb.com/news/joey-gallo-twins-deal

[Mark]

Good luck to the Twins....

Joey Gallo is Bo Gentry.

[BigTex]

Let's see how he does without the shift.

[Mark]

I hope it works out for him, but you first have to put the bat on the ball.

[Mark]

The Rangers have now added Nathan Eovaldi to the fold.

[BigTex]

48 days to spring training

[BigTex]

Yankees sign Willie Calhoun to a minor league contract.

[Mark]

Former Ranger great Darren O'Day is hanging up his spikes...

“The mental, physical, and time demands have finally outweighed my love for the game,” wrote the 40-year-old submarine reliever. “When I started in 2006, I didn’t know if I was good enough to compete in MLB, but I was determined to keep going until someone told me otherwise. I hope anyone out there who does things a little different can find inspiration in my story.”

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/ ... ement.html

[Mark]

And former Ranger great Brad Wilkerson [snicker] has been named assistant hitting coach for the Yankees...

The Yankees announced Monday that Brad Wilkerson will join their MLB coaching staff in 2023 as an assistant hitting coach. Wilkerson replaces Hensley Meulens, who moved on to become the lead hitting coach with the Rockies in November.

Wilkerson played parts of eight major league seasons with the Expos/Nationals, Rangers, Mariners and Blue Jays between 2001-2008, tallying 788 hits, 122 home runs and an overall .247/.350/.440 career batting line. He was selected 33rd overall by Montreal in the 1998 MLB Draft and finished second for NL Rookie of the Year in 2002. His playing career officially came to an end in the spring of 2010, when the Phillies cut him loose from a minor league pact with a camp invite.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/ ... coach.html

[rusty]

Are the Rangers some kind of baseball team?

I didn't even know they were still around.

[Mark]

Former Ranger Ronald Guzman is trying to reinvent himself as a pitcher...

A couple of weeks ago, it showed up in the transaction logs that the Giants had signed first baseman Ronald Guzmán to a minor league deal. The club today announced to reporters, including Grant Brisbee of The Athletic, a batch of players that would be in camp as non-roster invitees. Among them was Guzmán, though he was listed as both a pitcher and an infielder. Video of Guzmán pitching recently appeared on social media, with the Instagram account Dominican Baseball Solutions sharing some footage back in December.

The fact that the Giants are announcing Guzmán as a pitcher suggests that they are at least somewhat willing to give him a real shot to prove himself in that capacity. He doesn’t yet have any professional experience as a pitcher, though the Instagram post linked above says that he was hitting 96 mph on his fastball, as well as throwing a slider at 82 mph and a changeup at 84.

Guzmán is now 28 years old, so making a transition to pitching will be difficult but the switch is not totally unheard of. Perhaps the best recent example is Anthony Gose, who spent many years as an outfielder but struggled at the plate and converted to pitching in 2017 at the age of 26. He eventually made his way back to the big leagues with Cleveland in 2021 and tossed 27 2/3 MLB innings over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery late last year and will likely miss the entire 2023 season.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/02/ ... layer.html

[Mark]

I hope this works out okay. I'm not much of a Kinsler fan...

The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve hired four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler as a special assistant to general manager Chris Young. Kinsler is slated to serve as the manager for Team Israel in the upcoming World Baseball Classic but will begin his duties in this new role with the Rangers following the WBC.

Kinsler, 40, was a 17th-round pick by the Rangers back in 2003 and, despite that humble draft status, reached the Majors early in the 2006 campaign. He never looked back. Kinsler finished seventh in AL Rookie of the Year voting after turning in a .286/.347/.454 batting line with 14 home runs, 27 doubles, a triple and 11 steals in 120 games, and by 2008 he’d made the first of those four All-Star appearances.

Kinsler spent eight seasons in a Rangers uniform, hitting .273/.349/.454 with 156 home runs and 172 steals in 4791 trips to the plate. Traded to Detroit prior to the 2014 season, he went on to play another six years with the Tigers, Rangers, Red Sox and Padres. The Rangers inducted him into their team Hall of Fame this past summer — the 26th player to receive that honor.

In his new position, Kinsler will join a handful of former big leaguers — including some former teammates — in providing some insight to the baseball operations staff. He joins Michael Young, Darren Oliver, Colby Lewis, Nick Hundley and Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez as a special assistant to Young. The Rangers didn’t provide concrete details on Kinsler’s duties in his new role, noting only that he’ll assist Young “in many facets of baseball operations.”

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/02/ ... young.html

[BigTex]

Kinsler probably wants to stay close to the Warstic headquarters in Dallas.

[BigTex]

New rules for position players pitching.

331055897_1015411112756245_5975590782152749446_n.jpg (176.28 KiB) Viewed 941 times

[Mark]

New rules for position players pitching.

331055897_1015411112756245_5975590782152749446_n.jpg

Stupid rule.

The anti-shift rules are also stupid new rules.

The anti-pickoff rules are also stupid new rules.

I'll reserve judgement on the pitch clock.