Could Salazar be picked up off waivers or traded for a bag of balls to back up Elvis? Of course this would only be necessary if the Rangers decide to go with roster flexibility (Gentry?) over Andres Blanco backing up Elvis and hardly ever playing. Salazar has played SS before and is considered at least a slightly above average defender. He has also played LF, RF, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and has posted a .269 career BA with almost an .800 career OPS.

When you pick someone up of waivers are you forced to put them on your 25 man roster or can you send them to AAA? I realize he has no options left but maybe he could possibly be called up if Elvis gets put on the DL?

In the event Murphy is traded maybe he could be a roster lock 4th outfielder and Andres Blanco replacement. That could provide more roster flexibility since he can play both the COF and all of the infield positions. I think he is a better hitter than Blanco too.

Padres Designate Oscar Salazar For Assignment (MLB Trade Rumors)
By Ben Nicholson-Smith [February 1 at 1:03pm CST]

The Padres designated Oscar Salazar for assignment to create roster space for Samuel Deduno, the team announced (on Twitter). The Padres claimed Deduno from the Rockies over the weekend.

Salazar appeared in 85 games for the Padres last year, playing left, right, first, second and third. The 32-year-old Venezuelan hit .237/.318/.336 in 148 plate appearances. In parts of four seasons with the Padres, Orioles and Tigers, Salazar has a .269/.342/.435 line. His lone DL stint with the Padres occurred last August, when he missed four weeks with a right achilles strain.

In the long thread titled "On Michael Young's "Flexibility"" I suggested that if all Blanco will do is back up Andrus for 5-10 games with MY backing up 2B and 3B that we might should trade him to free up an additional roster spot so Wash could add whoever he thought would best improve the team. As far as backing up Elvis we could keep a SS with options left at Round Rock or Frisco who could be called upon within a day to fill the defensive need in the event of injury. If we add a 25 man roster lock such as Glaus (or other) this would still give us another man in the 25th spot, and if we don't add someone of that nature we would have flexibility in two roster spots. Spots could be open for Gentry, Davis, Tracey, a 13th pitcher, a free agent sign during the season, or a player traded for during the season.

People reasonably objected that when MY starts at DH we have no one to backup the IF other than 1st because to move the DH to the field you have to kill it.

I countered that such an event, the absolute necessity of killing the DH to fill in for an injured Kinsler, Andrus, or Beltre, would likely only happen one to two times a year if that, and that for the benefits of having an extra man (such as Gentry' speed off the bench) it is worth taking such a risk for one or two goofy games.

The further reasonable objection was raised that it would be impossible to allow a non-DL injury for a few days because if MY played at that position there would be no one to back up the IF at all. Further, in such an event you would not be able to call someone up because the injured player would not be going on the DL.

I countered that you don't use options on players every time you send them down, but that you can send them down as many times as you want during a year in which you choose to use one of their options (of which there are three years). A player such as Gentry could be sent down and called up more than once during a season and his spot could be replaced by a SS if the need was there for a few days and the injured major league player was not put on the disabled list.

Some reacted as if there was no possibility of this being a viable scenario, but some seemed to soften their stance toward the end of the thread admitting that such a scenario was viable while maintaining that the benefits were not sufficient to go ahead and trade Blanco. I also do not want to lose Blanco because of his superior glove in the event of injury to the infield for an extended period could be very valuable. But if MY is really going to backup Beltre and Kinsler; I find the likelihood of an Andrus injury rather slim. That makes me think trading him might allow Wash to have a guy or two extra to make the team better. Having Gentry's speed during the vast majority of the season before roster expansion could be a big benefit, or keeping the 25th spot open for rookie pitcher auditions to get their value up for a deadline trade for an ace could also be valuable (at least, it seems, more valuable than keeping Blanco to play SS for 5 games).

Of course all of this would be dependent on Wash's decision that MY can backup 2nd and 3rd as well as logging very minimal time at SS. We could wait to enact such a plan until he has proven his ability in Spring Training. I admit that such a scenario is rather unlikely, but I do think that I proved its viability in the long Michael Young Flexibility thread. The ultimate question is (as Scooby posed to me) what player would replace Blanco? Would the value in the freed 25th spot be worth giving him up?

In the event of a Murphy trade Salazar could fill both Murphy's backup role in addition to that of Andres Blanco creating an extra roster spot.

By trading Murphy and Blanco you could make room for a Craig Gentry or other without having problems backing up the infield when MY plays DH.

Of course this would only be if JD was including Murphy as part of a good trade, if he could get something really valuable for him. I'm sure this is a long shot and I'm not saying I want to do it either, just running scenarios in the event someone wants Murph bad enough to give us a really nice prospect or two for him.

Joe you are talking to yourself again.

I'd rather talk to myself than defend Ranger haters like Lance Berkman like you have been known to do in other threads.

Haha! Berkaman is a "Ranger hater" now? Right...

YES, da, someone didn't get the Mem. o.

Someone hit the switch and vent the jdb smell please.

lol

Dave, what you wrote was an insult to inane tripe everywhere.

W,

Its jdb not Dave, Dave is jdb. I would call him by his actual name because it helps keep tabs on him.

And, we are actually not supposed to be responding to him. BTW, I don't really hate Berkman, but I would give him some twinkies if I ever met him.

Joe

Holy crap WTF is going on around here? Dave - whoever you are - read my post again. The irony! You think I'm "dumb" because I'm attacking the person who is defending me - but clearly I was saying that Joe is WORSE than "inane tripe" - to compare him to "inane tripe" is an insult to "inane tripe." Get it now?

Jeez.

WWJDD,

I'm sorry I got under your skin in the Berkman exchange but I really thought of it more as friendly banter than anything. I'm sorry you are a softy liberal longhorn from Austin, but you can always reform yourself by voting Republican, rooting for the Horned Frogs, and moving to Fort Worth if you haven't already. Am I really that good at reading people? Are you even pro gun control too? And you call yourself a Texan? There is hope for softies who defend the idiots who bash the teams they root for, I hope there is anyways, for your sake.

Joe

PS Defending jdb has got to be the worst scum of the earth thing anyone has ever done on this site. Or did you not know it was jdb? I certainly hope so.

PPS Someone please switch the vent fan on and clear this shit smell out of here!

Holy crap. Either you ARE jdb, and you're having a good chuckle right now, or you AREN'T jdb, and you're clearly a bigger moron than him. Either way, I am no longer responding to anyone named Joe on BBTIA. You can bait me all you want - I'm not talking to you anymore, since it goes against my policy of not talking to morons.

lol, I can't believe you took this shit so hard man. I sort of meant it when I said I was sorry I got under your skin so bad. All I was doing was defending my team and you took it a little hard, you are probably a Mama's boy and I'm sorry for that too, but it doesn't mean I'm a moron just because you are a mama's boy and can't take a little heat. I honestly thought you were sporting it pretty good until I said you were a liberal or something, not sure where I went wrong.

I feel dumber for reading this thread. Thank you.

TLDR

Joe if you are going to write 1000 words three times in a row then you should expect people to find it annoying, because it is.

Seriously, that was a lot of words to say:

"If the Rangers claim Oscar Salazar off of waivers, can they send him to AAA? Also, please read what I already wrote in the comments to the thread "On Michael Young's 'Flexibility'"."

Also, notice that because you were so wordy, no one actually answered your question about assigning Salazar. The answer being no. A player out of options who is claimed off of waivers must either be assigned to the 25-man ML roster, or else passed back through waivers. In order to assign Salazar to AAA, the Rangers would have to claim him, and then waive him and have no other team claim him.

He looks like he hits and might field. I would rather have him than Blanco and he could do more things.

Yeah, I was thinking he could provide serious versatility that could free up an additional roster spot because he can play outfield. He could be the fifth outfielder behind Moreland, and could back up Elvis. In the absence of a Murphy trade I think he would be better than Blanco anyways.

Honestly, I like the fact that people here give there opinion about just about every issue that comes up, but Joe's posts go beyond what is necessary. I find them similar to Taco Bell's meat: about 35% of it is good but the rest is just filler. I haven't read an entire Joe post in weeks because it takes up too much time, and right when I finish, he puts another one up that's even longer. He should be able to make his point with at least 1/4 of the words.

Thanks for the feedback Ryan from Waco.