And The Beat Goes On: July 25th

Since Sade and John Legend were performing at the AAC last night, how about a nice Neptunes remix of a Sade classic? *

● T.R. Sullivan, Jeff Wilson, and Richard Durrett recap the horror of Brett Cecil tossing a complete-game shutout in front of 40,000-plus in Arlington last night. 

● Here are some of the most pertinent bits from Sullivan's latest trade deadline missive:

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels made it clear on Sunday that his No. 1 priority remains to upgrade the bullpen before next Sunday's non-waiver Trade Deadline.

"We have looked at a few different things, but the bullpen is still our priority," Daniels said. "We're having conversations, but I can't say for sure which way it will go ... 50-50 [a deal gets done], maybe less than that."

Daniels declined to discuss specific trade targets, but it is also known that the Rangers have shown interest in center fielder Carlos Beltran. The Mets also have scouts looking at the Rangers' farm system. Sources said the Rangers like the player and wouldn't mind an outfield that includes Beltran, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz.

[...] 

Starting pitching appears to be even less of a priority, even though the Rangers have scouted Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda and have been rumored to be interested in Rockies right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez.

"We like our starting five," Daniels said. "We like our seven guys, including Hunter and Feldman. I thought Feldman threw the ball well the other day. We've connected on a few guys that might be available, but for us to do something, it would have to be a significant upgrade. If it's not, it doesn't make much sense. We like what we have."

● According to Jeff Wilson, the Rangers' ownership has shown a "willingness" to add to the budget if the right deal presents itself, but no deal is close. Of particular note is that Leonys Martin is drawing interest, but he, Martin Perez, and Jurickson Profar are pretty much "untouchable."

● Troy E. Renck said yesterday that the Rockies were serious in fielding offers on Ubaldo Jimenez, but ... "Texas' brass wants another crack at the ring, and bristles at the idea of Boston or New York swooping in on Jimenez. The Rangers scouted his most recent start. Still, the Rangers aren't yet prepared to make the type of offer the Rockies seek, viewing Jimenez as a No. 2 starter in trade, not a bona fide ace."

● Sullivan's notebook includes stuff on Chris Davis trying to make the most of this latest opportunity, Andres Blanco's slow progress in his attempts to recover from a stress reaction in his back, and Eric Hurley's recent success at Round Rock.

● Matthew Reagan talks about Derek Holland trying to find some consistency. So does Evan Grant. Jon Heyman thinks that Texas could move Arthur Rhodes in what is shaping up as a very weak market for lefty relievers. Jim Bowden says that the Rangers have better prospects as trade ammo than any other contender, and says that Heath Bell is the Rangers' No. 1 trade target.

[* I actually prefer this remix over the one done by the Neptunes.]

Stark: Carlos Beltran Doesn't Want To Approve Trade To Texas

From ESPN's MLB rumor mill, courtesy of Jayson Stark:

Carlos Beltran told a friend this weekend that despite his public statements that he would approve a trade to Texas or Boston," reports ESPN.com's Jayson Stark. He has told the Mets he only wants to be traded to one of seven National League contenders, according to a source familiar with that conversation.

The source, who was not present for the conversation, said Beltran doesn't want to approve a deal to Texas because the Rangers would want him to play center field and because he's not familiar with the AL West. Texas has been described by multiple sources to have ramped up its pursuit of Beltra over the weekend.

The source said he wasn't given the names of the seven NL teams to which Beltran would OK a deal. But only eight NL clubs started Sunday within four games of a playoff spot -- the Phillies, Braves, Giants, Cardinals, Brewers, Pirates, Reds and Diamondbacks. Of that group, six teams -- the Phillies, Braves, Giants, Pirates, Reds and Brewers -- have expressed interest in Beltran at various points this month.

The really pecuilar thing about this -- provided it's true, which is not a complete certainty, since Stark's source wasn't actually present for the conversation between the Mets and Beltran -- is Beltran being under the assumption that the Rangers want to play him in center field, rather than in a corner outfield spot. Actually, the other strange thing about this is his reluctance to green-light a deal because of his lack of familiarity with the AL West ... it'd be one thing if he was saying, okay, I've got my roots planted in New York and don't want to leave my family even for a couple of months, but that doesn't appear to be what he's saying. I would guess that this is about him trying to put himself in an advantageous position where his next contract was concerned, but that's only a guess.

Strange ... and, if true, disappointing.

Wherein Texas Signs Some Guys

... such as right-hander Merkin Valdez, who has been inked to a minor league deal six days after opting out of his minor league deal with Triple-A Albuquerque (Dodgers), where he had posted a 3.58 ERA with a 0.2 HR/9 (not an accomplishment to be overlooked, given the homer-friendly nature of Albuquerque's home ballpark), 4.3 BB/9, and 7.7 K/9 in 50.1 innings. It's very doubtful that we see him at the major league level this season, but he does have some major league innings on his arm, so he has that going for him. He's also named Merkin, which I consider another plus.

More significant, however, is that the Rangers have officially signed Venezuelan left-hander Yohander Mendez (6' 5", 175 lb.) and outfielder Eduard Pinto (5' 10", 155 lb.) to add to their growing collection of Latin American prospects from this year's July 2nd signing period. Here's what I had written about Mendez about three weeks ago:

This signing has yet to be confirmed by an English-speaking source, but there have been multiple Twitter-based reports out of Latin America suggesting that the Rangers have signed Mendez to a seven-figure bonus; this wouldn't come as an immense surprise if true, as he has been prominently linked to the Rangers by Baseball America. The story here is, of course, one of projection: his mechanics are described as smooth and fluid (which is unusual for most pitchers of his size), and he brandishes a solid mid-to-high-80s heater with good arm action, as well as a curveball and a change-up that he has reportedly shown some feel for.

If the fastball can develop to the point that it reaches the low-90s (or higher?) with consistency, and his command and off-speed stuff can develop correspondingly, he will prove to be a very alluring player to follow as he ascends through the system. If those tools don't properly develop, the likelihood is that he'll stall developmentally, which occurs all too often with young talent procured both internationally and domestically. It is what it is, and the reality is that failure could very easily strike every name listed here, as well. The other reality of this game, though, is that you don't have to hit on every player, or even most players, or even some players ... because it requires only one or two big successes to justify all of the vast resources poured into the amateur talent markets.

I know nothing whatsoever about Pinto, beyond the fact that he played for Magallanes in last year's Venezuelan Winter League and the fact that he's a bit on the small side physically. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and suggest that his defensive skill set and/or hit tool have a better chance of being calling cards for him than the future projection on the power tool.

Update No. 1: Jeff Wilson tweets that Mendez gets $1.5 million (not surprising, given that he was apparently the top lefty in this year's July 2nd class) and Pinto gets $300,000.

Update No. 2: More info from Ben Badler and the Baseball America crew:

Mendez's bonus surprised some international scouts because his fastball is mostly in the mid-to-high 80s right now, though he does have a clean delivery, projectable size, and some feel for his secondary pitches. Pinto played against professional competition last winter for the Navegantes in the Liga Paralela (the minors of the Venezuelan League) and hit .329/.396/.409 in 164 at-bats.

[...]

One of the players with better feel for the game than most is Eduar Pinto, a lefthanded Venezuelan outfielder. Pinto played in the Liga Paralela (the minor leagues of the Venezuelan League) last winter as a 15-year-old. Against professional competition, he hit .329/.396/.409 in 164 at-bats for the Navegantes, with 19 walks and 11 strikeouts. Pinto doesn't have great size and his power is limited, but his feel for hitting and putting the bat to the ball are well beyond his years. His speed is also an asset. 

Eric Nadel Calls Young's Walkoff

Jamey will have this for everyone soon enough in a more archivable format, but I need to have this now, beginning with Elvis's game-tying sacrifice bunt:

And the dagger:

[Direct links available here and here.]

More On Hamstring Strains

While brushing up on my knowledge of hamstring strains this morning for the front-page post, I stumbled upon this May 2010 post from Will Carroll on an Edgar Renteria hamstring strain that does, I think, shed a little bit of light on how hamstring strains can vary in severity:

Edgar Renteria (strained hamstring, ERD 6/15)
The difference between who someone is and who we think they are is often pretty big. A lot of people still see an elite-level shortstop when they look at Renteria, who's hitting the DL with a Grade II hamstring strain. He really hasn't been that since he was in Atlanta. Now 34, Renteria is seeing a lot of things change. As he tried to run out a bunt on Tuesday, his hamstring changed and it appears to be in a bad spot. Renteria grabbed at his hamstring, as is natural, but grabbed very high. The location of a muscle strain is important, because location influences function. The strength, thickness and ability to rest a muscle all changes with location. Usually, the thickest part (or belly) of the muscle is easiest to overcome. The top of the hamstring is often stressed because of imbalances in strength between the quads and the hamstring, and by the activation of the glutes during a sprint. Renteria will miss well into June with this one. The Giants are hoping Juan Uribe can play well enough to let Renteria buy some time to heal up.

For what it's worth, it did appear that Beltre grabbed a spot that was pretty high up his leg last night ... and Renteria ended up missing only three weeks. I don't know what that means, if anything, but I figured somebody else other than myself would find that interesting.

Brandon Webb To Undergo Rotator Cuff Surgery

... on August 1st, per Anthony Andro. After throwing 1315.2 innings during his age 25-29 seasons, it appears that Webb's goose is finally cooked, and what could have been a Hall of Fame-caliber career is on the verge of being done.

One does wonder if the Rangers won't sign Webb to a minor league deal this coming off-season so that he might be more closely monitored by Dr. Keith Meister -- who will be operating on Webb's rotator cuff -- and be able to use the Rangers' facilities, but I think that okay I just completely lost interest in whatever else I was about to write

Fun With Traffic Numbers

So, this month now figures to be the most trafficked month in BBTiA history, with 80,000 visits and nearly 160,000 pageviews over the last 14 days alone, which brings me back to those days back on MVN when Jason and I were doing good to average a couple of hundred visits per day ... but beyond that, I figured I'd throw down a few stats on the people who visit BBTiA, courtesy of Google Analytics (from Jan. 1-present):

Top Countries

United States (96.1%; the rest are all below 1% each)
Canada
South Korea
United Kingdom
Australia
China
Rwanda (?!)
Italy
Hong Kong
Mexico

Top States

Texas (65.5%; the rest are all below 4% each)
California
New York
Oklahoma
Illinois
Virginia
Florida
Georgia
North Carolina
Washington

Top Texas Cities

Dallas (24.5%; the rest are all below 6% each)
Austin
Fort Worth
Arlington
Houston
Plano
Irving
San Antonio
Denton
Carrollton
Lubbock
Richardson
Amarillo
Addison
Abilene
College Station
Garland
Keller
San Angelo
Frisco 

Most Frequently Used Browsers

Internet Explorer: 35.9%
Safari: 23.0%
Mozilla Firefox: 22.3%
Google Chrome: 11.5% 
Mozilla Compatible Agent: 3.5% (?!)

Top Operating Systems

Windows: 65.9%
(46.3% on XP, 34.4% on 7, 18.5% on Vista, less than 1% on everything else)
Macintosh: 14.7%
iPhone: 10.8%
Android: 3.5%
iPad: 2.6% 

So, there you go.

JJT Leaves The DMN For ...

ESPN Dallas:

Columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor will join ESPNDallas.com beginning Monday, Aug. 1, it was announced Wednesday.

Taylor will write about everything from the Dallas Cowboys' quest for a Super Bowl ring to Texas high school football. He will also contribute to ESPN 103.3 FM, the flagship station of the Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers.

He will make his first appearance on the Ben and Skin Show at 11 a.m. Thursday.

I'm not clear on whether this spells an end for "The Soul Patch" on Sunday mornings over on The Ticket, but I would guess he'll be keeping that gig if his role on ESPN Radio is to be that of a "contributor." That said, there's a content-sharing deal in place between the Ticket and the Dallas Morning News, so I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not certain as to how all of the pieces are going to fall into place on this.

And, of course, Anthony Andro and Jennifer Floyd Engel have just defected from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to FOX Sports's online platform, so this leaves the two major dailies in the DFW area with Evan Grant, Jeff Wilson, Drew Davison and Gerry Fraley as everyday Rangers beat writers, and Randy Galloway, Gil LeBreton, Tim Cowlishaw, and Kevin Sherrington as the primary columnists.

Update: JJT confirms on Twitter that The Soul Patch is no more. I guess KTCK could always give Killer Kellison and T.C. Fleming a show on Sunday mornings called "We Like Steak."

Buster Olney On Alexi Ogando

I had noticed while digging through Brooks Baseball last night that Alexi Ogando boasted both his best average fastball velocity (95.8 mph) and best peak fastball velocity (99.1 mph) of the season last night ... and today, Buster Olney further remarks upon Ogando's strong performance last night:

A) Ogando dialed up his highest heat of the year, throwing 87 fastballs at an average speed of 95.8 MPH, a season-high for velocity. His average fastball velocity increased for the third start in a row, all of which he has won. His fastest pitch was a 99.1 MPH fastball that Maicer Izturis fouled off in the third inning with a 3-2 count. It's the fifth time in his major league career that Ogando has hit 99+ MPH, but the first time he has gotten a strike.

B) The Angels were unable to keep up with Ogando, recording 12 missed swings. He recorded 10+ missed swings for the third game in a row, his longest streak with 10+ since a streak of four games from April 23-May 13. In his career, Ogando is 8-0 in 10 games when he has recorded 10+ missed swings.

C) In many cases, Angel hitters didn't even try and keep up with Ogando. The Angels took 17 called strikes, four more than Ogando has gotten in any start in 2011. Ogando hasn't lost a game in his career when he has recorded 10+ called strikes (7-0 in 10 games).

For what it's worth, Rangers starting pitchers have averaged 92.1 mph with their heater this season, which is good for the second-best mark in the game this season.

Report: Rangers Trade LHP Zach Phillips To Orioles

... for infielder Nick Green and cash, according to MLB's T.R. Sullivan.

This is part of the residual fallout from Scott Feldman's decision to reject an outright assignment back to the minor leagues, as the Rangers were forced to make room on the 40-man roster in order to transfer Feldman back to the active roster from the 60-day disabled list.

Phillips was placed on the 40-man roster back in 2009 as a means of protecting him from the Rule 5 draft, which Scott Lucas wrote about thusly at the time:

Phillips is a 23rd-round draft-and-follow signing from 2004 and struggled mightily in his introductions to low-A (in 2006) and high-A (2008). Repeating a level for the second time in three years, Phillips and his old-fashioned curve excelled upon conversion to relief and earned a midseason promotion to Frisco. Phillips’ control faltered near the end of his term in Bakersfield but returned in the season’s final month. He also struck out 23% of opposing batters, quite impressive for someone who doesn’t throw terribly hard.

He was then good again in 2010, posting a 2.69 ERA, 0.1 HR/9, 4.6 BB/9, and 8.5 K/9 across 67 innings between Frisco and Oklahoma City, prompting Jason Cole to rank Phillips as his No. 46 prospect in the system:

Projection: Phillips profiles as a middle reliever with the ability to face both left- and right-handed hitters at the major league level. He has some deception in his delivery to go along with an average fastball and solid secondary offerings. Phillips has a chance to stick in the majors as long as he goes after hitters and doesn’t try to get too fine with his fastball––he must continue to trust his stuff.

2011 Outlook: As a 40-man roster member, Phillips has an automatic invitation to big league camp, though he’s an extreme long shot to make the club. The Rangers have two short-relief lefties (Oliver, Rhodes) and two potential long relief southpaws in Harrison and Kirkman. Phillips should start the season at Triple-A Round Rock before getting his first cup of coffee at some point this season. If he gets a look in the majors, he’ll likely be on the Round Rock/Arlington shuttle due to the Rangers’ crowded bullpen and the fact that he has options remaining.

Alas, he didn't really pitch well enough to earn a promotion even during the great magical game of bullpen musical chairs earlier this season, and so here we are now. 

Green's was hitting .208/.276/.357 with 10 home runs in 348 plate appearances at Triple-A as a 32-year-old utility guy capable of playing all of the infield spots and the corner outfield spots (in a pinch), but did play in 104 games for the Red Sox a couple of years ago, and what you're seeing here is a desire to add a bit more middle-infield depth and flexibility to the depth chart behind Andres Blanco (who is currently on the DL) and Omar Quintanilla, who has assumed Blanco's spot as the Rangers' utility infielder for the moment.

Julio Borbon Out For Six Weeks

... after undergoing "ligament repair surgery" on his left ankle, which he injured while sliding into second base during a game in Round Rock a couple of weeks ago. It's the same ankle that he injured while in college, which I would assume was a part of the decision to operate. This very likely puts the kibosh on any talk of trading Borbon (though there was some random report of the Nationals or some such contemplating trading for him despite the injury); if a team did end up feeling reasonably confident that he would make a full recovery and still want to make a deal with Borbon included, it would require permission from the commissioner's office.

And, of course, we could see Borbon up in the majors in a defensive/pinch-running role in September if he's healthy by then, though I very much doubt that either the Rangers or Borbon want to risk pushimg him back into action before he's fully healthy.

On a tangentially related note, the Rangers' medical staff has determined that Neil Ramirez has no structural damage in his right shoulder, but will be shut down for another 7-10 days. He had missed some time with arm fatigue recently, and while this is good news from a long-term standpoint, I have to wonder how this impacts matters if the Rangers had been looking at Ramirez as somebody they could move in a late-July trade.

Ever Want To Hear A Baseball Announcer Quit Live On The Air?

So, here's the backstory: 

Fielders manager Tim Johnson resigned before the game Saturday against the Yuma Scorpions, and in a show of support, 11 players wouldn’t play. The Fielders were upset about not being paid. The players remained on the bench.

Fielders hitting coach Pete LaCock, a former Cub who has seen many strange things, took over as interim manager. He put all listed pitchers in positional spots for the game. Non-pitchers pitched.

To even out the playing field, Scorpions player-manager Jose Canseco did the same. He also named himself starting pitcher.

Canseco pitched six innings and got the win as the Scorpions prevailed 8-3…

Then, Monday afternoon, the Fielders traded nine players and released 14 others they couldn’t trade. The only survivor from Saturday’s game was 27-year-old catcher Alan Rick. The former Cubs prospect only arrived in Lake County on Thursday.

“We want to start fresh,” Fielders general manager Mike Kardamis said. “It’s a privilege to play professional baseball. If these guys don’t want to play here, we will find guys who want to play here. We could have put them on the suspended list, but we don’t want to ruin their careers. The players weren’t happy, and it wasn’t going to be good to make them stay. They can cash their checks tomorrow once the Bank of Waukegan opens.

Yeah, um, I'm pretty sure that the mass holdout had little to do with guys "not wanting to play" there and everything to do with an organization that purports itself to be a professional baseball team not paying its players, but whatever. 

Anyway, it turns out that the Fielders' main play-by-play guy, a friendly chap by the name of Qumar Zaman, wasn't getting paid either. And apparently nobody with the organization thought that it might be a incredibly bad idea to give a screwed-over man a microphone ...

A generous hat tip to Craig Calcaterra for linking this earlier.