Rangers Link Dump: 11/12 Edition
Joey Matschulat
A death in Kevin Millwood's family has derailed his plans to attend conditioning camp in Arlington. - Stephen Shooter/Flickr.comSome miscellaneous tidbits collected from here and there as I feverishly prepare for a 15-minute group presentation later tonight in everybody's favorite subject, Compensation Administration:
● Scott Feldman, Matt Harrison, Tommy Hunter, Eric Hurley, Doug Mathis, Josh Rupe, Michael Ballard, Thomas Diamond, Neftali Feliz and Derek Holland (Brandon McCarthy will join the fray later this week) are all participating in the Texas Rangers' first-ever conditioning camp for its young pitchers this week, designed to teach the future of the organization proper nutrition and exercise techniques while building lower-body strength and explosiveness (multiple sources)
● Kevin Millwood had intended to attend the camp according to strength and conditioning coach Jose Vazquez, but a death in his family derailed those plans; nevertheless, Millwood has already dropped 12 pounds since the end of the regular season and has positively altered his diet; Vicente Padilla is not in attendance (Evan Grant, Dallas Morning News)
● Feldman, Harrison, Mathis, McCarthy, Dustin Nippert, Kason Gabbard, Luis Mendoza and possibly Diamond will compete for the three vacant rotation spots come spring training; Hurley, for whatever reason, is not listed (T.R. Sullivan, MLB.com)
● From Hurley: "I expect to be in the Rangers' rotation and I'm going to do everything necessary to earn that. I am not going to accept anything else from myself" (Mike Hindman, Dallas Morning News)
● Mathis (right shoulder inflammation) will be ready to throw soon, C.J. Wilson (bone spur surgery) feels so good that he asked to pitch in the Fall Instructional League to prove his left arm was healthy (a measure the organization deemed unnecessary), Ian Kinsler (sports hernia surgery) has been cleared to resume working out, David Murphy (sprained right knee) is healthy, Joaquin Benoit (sore right shoulder) is "responding," and McCarthy is feeling some pain in his right middle finger, though the Rangers are not concerned (Anthony Andro, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
● While the Rangers have sent director of Pacific Rim operations Jim Colborn back to Japan to take a second look at 22-year-old Junichi Tazawa and to determine just how much damage would be inflicted on the team's long-term relationships with their counterparts in Nippon Professional Baseball if they did sign him, they probably don't have enough payroll space to meet his probable signing bonus demands of $7 million anyway (Evan Grant, Dallas Morning News)
● The Rangers may take a look at free agent right-hander Ben Sheets, but are "wary of being burned by big contracts" (Justin Sablich, New York Times)
● According to general manager Jon Daniels, Texas is not interested in pursuing closer Trevor Hoffman (Anthony Andro, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
● With the acquisition of pitching coach Mike Maddux, the Rangers' odds of bringing back Eric Gagne increased (Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports)
● NPB's Hanshin Tigers are preparing to float right-hander Kenshin Kawakami -- one of several Japanese pitchers previously linked to the Rangers -- a four-year deal worth approximately $18 million (Patrick Newman, NPB Tracker)
● The agent of free agent third baseman Casey Blake -- a purported player of interest to the Rangers -- says that it is "reasonable to think he'll get a three-year deal" (Ken Rosenthal, FOXSports.com)
● Kansas City right-hander Zach Greinke plans to employ a "wait-and-see" approach before agreeing to a long-term contract extension, noting that he is "comfortable" in his pitching ability and doesn't have a problem waiting until he becomes eligible for free agency after the 2010 season; Royals general manager Dayton Moore acknowledges that a failure on the team's part to lock Greinke up "could" prompt the Royals to trade him, but not at any point in the foreseeable future (Bob Dutton, Kansas City Star)
● If the Braves' attempts to trade for Padres ace Jake Peavy fall through, Atlanta could turn their attention to the Giants' Matt Cain using many of the same trade pieces (David O'Brien, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
● The Angels will not send a formal contract offer to Mark Teixeira before their exclusive negotiating rights window expires at midnight Thursday (Mike DiGiovanna, Los Angeles Times)
● Texas has re-signed right-handers Kendy Batista and Kazuo Fukumori to minor league deals (Matt Eddy, Baseball America)
● Outfielder Julio Borbon (78 AB, .295/.415/.423) and first baseman Justin Smoak (28 AB, .393/.469/.571) are terrorizing the Arizona Fall League (MLB.com)
And finally, your obligatory catching update via Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe:
The Rangers need pitching and have catching to deal, which makes them the ideal trade partner for the Sox. Quite simply, there is no better fit. Texas has four catchers on its 40-man roster -- Gerald Laird, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden, and Max Ramirez -- and one major league evaluator recently suggested that the Rangers would be willing to deal two of them (so long as Ramirez is one of the two).
That leaves Laird, Teagarden, or Saltalamacchia as the centerpiece of any deal.
Clearly, if the Sox wanted Laird, they easily could get him. The defensively skilled Teagarden (who is also blessed with power) and the hyped Saltalamacchia are more desirable targets that will cost more, though Epstein and his baseball operations staff understand the difficulty in finding good young catching. If the Red Sox ever were to
give up a top pitching prospect like Clay Buchholz, Michael Bowden, or Justin Masterson -- the last is unlikely -- this is precisely the kind of deal that would inspire them to do it.So why hasn't a deal been struck yet? As every executive likes to say at this time of year, there are a lot of "moving parts." If the Red Sox can upgrade their offense significantly on the free-agent market, they can make a lesser trade (Laird?) and keep their pitching prospects because the rest of their lineup would allow them to carry a mediocre catcher. At the same time, if the Sox lose on someone like Mark Teixeira, the cost for Saltalamacchia or Teagarden could go up.
Chew on that.
Reader Comments (9)
Another question - do the Rangers end up cutting Catalanotto for the roster spot, since it doesn't appear that there's much of a market. Or can we get something for him?
"Another possibility is Texas. [Ben] Sheets lives in Dallas in the offseason and has a strong working relationship with Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux, who just came over from Milwaukee a week ago. Texas needs to upgrade its rotation, and Maddux is a self-professed Sheets fan who has stayed in touch with the pitcher since the end of the season.
"I would love to have that guy on my team regardless of where I am," Maddux said in a phone interview.
One thing is a virtual certainty: Sheets' name will come up in conversation when Maddux meets with general manager Jon Daniels, assistant GM Thad Levine and the rest of the Texas front office Friday.
"I understand why general managers have concerns," Maddux said. "But as somebody who was close to him, you say, 'It's just a bump in the road.' A healthy Ben Sheets pays his dividends. He's pretty darned good. He started the All-Star Game, and that's not a mistake."
Even if Texas signed Sheets a lot of things would have to break just right for this team to compete for a division title in '09, but it's something worth considering. I wrote the following on LSB a few minutes ago:
"I imagine Texas will make a serious play for Sheets ... just a gut feeling. There’s a confluence of a lot of factors here (Sheets’ proximity to Arlington, Maddux’s recommendation which will presumably hold a lot of weight with Nolan, his relatively reasonable contractual demands and history of success when healthy) and they could ultimately convince Hicks to expand payroll for a special exception like Sheets.
No idea what he could conceivably pull down, but the Jason Schmidt contract could be the model (albeit with some back-loading or deferred money or some such that lessens the financial burden)."
As far as Catalanotto, I don't foresee him being released. The first team to offer up a Michael Hernandez-type fringe prospect probably gets him, though.
I've called him "Blister Ben" a few times due to a certain tendency that he has. Moving down to Texas where we have higher humidity and a little more sweating, it seems to me like this would create more opportunity for him to miss starts. Just a thought.
I would not disagree, though, that if he stays healthy, he could help this club.
On Cat, I hope to see the team kick in $1-2M of his salary and move him for a Hamburger-type just to free the roster spot (and the salary relief would just be gravy). Do you think that doing this in short order would help any with the Rule-5 crunch?
Getting Cat off the 40-man roster would definitely alleviate the Rule 5 controversy to a large extent...he has very little utility to the Rangers at this point, and if holding onto him is the difference between, say, keeping and losing Omar Poveda, that's probably going to be a minor PR disaster for Texas.
Voila: For 3B that's 1 big hope (that Vitters remains a comp w/ Smoak) & 1 big prayer (that Kouz returns to his Minor League OBP), plus 4 extra roster spots.
For trades with teams such as the Cubs, when deciding to add Rule-5 eligible guys from another team, the guys offered would likely have to be clear upgrades over the team's existing players. Not sure your list meets that criteria.
SD is likely motivated by the hope that they can make pickups for free, rather than give up anything of value.
It has been good to see you back posting again.BTW, I now post on TR's page as 'the stork' due to some mysterious account change. Guess I'll stay with it.