Bonus pre-game content, or a shoddy facsimile of such:
● The Rangers will apparently construct a statue of Shannon Stone and his six-year-old son, Cooper, outside the home-plate gate of the Ballpark, and Nolan Ryan intends for it to be finished by the time next season opens up.
● Tom Tango was kind enough to link my morning post over on The Book blog, and stated that it was an "excellent post all-around."
● The Professor has the second installment of his "Prospect Snapshots" series up, and here's a snippet from the section on Neil Ramirez (if you really enjoy Rangers prospect talk, I don't know why you haven't subscribed already):
The development of the CH is the key to Ramirez’s future, as the FB/CB is already major league quality, and with a little added command, would play nicely in a major league pen. But Ramirez has a brighter future than that, and with his improved delivery, better arm action, and more complete arsenal, Ramirez has the potential to be a quality number three starter at the major league level. If the CH reaches it’s ceiling (giving him another plus pitch), and the command refines, Ramirez could be even more. He still has work to do, so let’s not pencil him in the ’12 rotation quite yet, but with a little more time to develop, Ramirez could become a rotation fixture at the major league level by ’13. Not bad for a prospect that many in the industry were hesitate to even label as such only a few short years ago.
● Per the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers are suing Tom Hicks ... again:
A year after the Texas Rangers emerged from bankruptcy court with new owners, former owner Tom Hicks' old team - the bankrupt entity - is suing him, alleging that he enriched himself at the expense of the club.
The complaint, filed Monday in district court in Dallas, centers on Ballpark Real Estate, L.P., a Hicks-owned company that controls parking lots around Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, serving both the Rangers and events at nearby Cowboys Stadium.
Hicks ignored his fiduciary obligations to the Rangers from the beginning of his ownership in 1998, the complaint states, "and embarked on a scheme to build a real estate empire on the backs of the Texas Rangers' players and creditors and fans of the team."
So, there's that.
● Dave Cameron excoriates the Marlins for demoting Logan Morrison to AAA, and here was part of his big finish:
To convince people to come to the park, you have to convince them that you’re trying to win. When you are regularly firing managers and coaches who have done a good job, you lose credibility. When Major League Baseball has to order you to raise your payroll in order to be in compliance with the revenue sharing guidelines, you lose credibility. And when you option a kid to Triple-A because you don’t like his attitude but tell him it’s because he’s hitting .249, you lose credibility. At this point, the Marlins are getting dangerously close to not having any left. If the organization ever wants to win over the city of Miami, they’ll have to break the perception that everything they say is a lie.
This didn’t help. Sending one of the team’s most popular (and talented) players to Triple-A did nothing to help build a connection between the Marlins and the fans they are trying to convince to come to their new park. It also didn’t make the Marlins a better team now, nor is it likely that the move will turn Morrison into a personality that the Marlins would be more comfortable with. In short, the Marlins decided to make a move that would offer no real tangible benefit to the organization, and suffered another credibility hit in the process.
I do think that the situation is more nuanced than the general perception would suggest it to be, but I also think Cameron touches on a good point here -- and while we're still on the subject of credibility, how about the delightfully seedy circumstances under which their new ballpark was financed and constructed? It's at least conceivable that the organization was in the right here, but it's damn hard to convince an already deeply distrustful public of that.
● Earlier today, Evan Grant torched C.J. Wilson as part of his reciprocal interview with the Orange County Register, and it apparently struck a nerve with quite a few people:
5) Does C.J. Wilson ever keep a thought to himself?
A: Isn't that how they roll on the mean streets of Newport Beach?
Look C.J. has come miles and miles as a pitcher, but he loves to hear himself talk and often things that can be offensive to his teammates, other teammates, other cities and other fans come rolling out.
Last week, he chose to prattle on about the park in Oakland (nobody's arguing it's among the worst in baseball). He ripped the fans, then spent two minutes essentially retracting that, then said Oakland A's players hate him -- perhaps that's because they sent an autographed ball to Wilson that said "From the Law Offices of..." after Wilson accused Oakland of playing "lawyer ball" (whatever that may be) by taking advantage of five walks.
Before the Oakland comments, he said he was "pretty sure" there had been "hookers" and "dice games" taking place in the team's former hotel in Detroit. He said this week that there's always a "dumb question" somewhere in the media scrum. Perhaps. Nobody ever accused us of being geniuses, but it doesn't mean he has to utter a dumb response. Showing a little respect and humility will go a long way.
● From Athletics Nation: Everything you ever wanted to know about BABIP. Very nice, cogent, fun-to-read post.
● My morning ESPN.com power rankings comment for the Rangers touches on the offensive revival of their catching corps.
● Remember the sale of the Astros to Jim Crane? Well, there isn't a vote expected on the issue during this week's owners' meetings in Cooperstown, and there are apparently now whispers churning throughout baseball about the potential non-viability of the sale. If you do enough digging around on Crane, you'll uncover some shady stuff.
● Torii Hunter says that he's done trying to recruit players to the Angels, as he had grown frustrated at failed attempts to woo Mark Teixeira and Carl Crawford to Anaheim over the last few years. There's something really funny about this story, but I can't quite put my finger on what that something is.
● Per Evan Grant, the Rangers are still working towards a deal with seventh-round catcher Max Pentecost before tonight's 11 p.m. CDT deadline, and have signed 48th-round pick C.J. Edwards.
Joey Matschulat
;)