I've Been Thinking...

A few random thoughts….

I’m dismayed: At the reaction to the Matt Purke situation. When a draft pick has “signability” issues – there’s a little more of a risk involved – it’s a roll of the dice and the Rangers have been very lucky with their “signability” picks in the past - it didn’t happen this year. I understand the reality of situation – Matt wanted a Porcello like contract, he’s going to TCU in order to put himself in a position to ask for that kind of deal or maybe better in two years – (he’s taking a bit of risk too – injuries and other unknown factors could change things pretty quickly). I know many Ranger fans in the blogosphere are disappointed, but there is something inherently wrong with criticizing a kid for making the choice to attend college. Just my opinion, but if your life is so tied up in the fortunes of any sports team that you are publicly mocking an 18 year old for pursuing higher education - then maybe it’s time to re-examine your priorities.

Let’s see: Darren O’Day, Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton and now Pudge – does anyone remember when Jon Daniels couldn’t do anything right? (That’s a left handed compliment and an apology JD).

Someone needs to ‘splain this to me: In his last 32 games Hank Blalock has 130 AB’s with: 2 count ‘em 2 BB’s with 35 K’s and 4 Home Runs and is hitting .192 in that span. Chris Davis during his last 29 games before he was sent to AAA: 93 AB’s 3 BB’s – 37 K’s and 3 HR’s - he was hitting .215 So the notion that sending Chris down and keeping Hank in the lineup everyday because he’s a veteran hitter is just pure bunk in my estimation. I won’t even talk about the difference in the defense between Hank and Chris. Suffice to say that during many games we watch together Baseball Mom will often remark – “Chris Davis would have had that one” – and most of the time she’s right. I was a big Hank Blalock fan, I drove up to Tulsa to watch him in AA. But what “gifts” Hank had are gone.

The future of this Ranger team has arrived ahead of schedule and Chris Davis is part of that future – and he should be playing first base everyday during this stretch run – learning along side all of the other young players on this team. Every Hank Blalock AB and inning at first base is setting back the plan for the future just a little bit more.

Be sure to read: The Newberg Report daily minor league wrap-ups this week. Our good friend Grant Schiller ,who is in Hickory watching the Crawdads, is filling in for Scott Lucas for a few days.

Thank You Phil: Derek Holland, Tommy “Big Game” Hunter, Neftali Feliz – good things happen – bad things happen. (see my blog entry of April 19th ).

An observation from Frisco: If you are worried about Blake Beavan – stop. The blue notebook says that his last home start that I watched – he threw 71% of pitches for strikes (92 pitches – 66 strikes) he only game up 2 extra base hits (back to back doubles) and by my count 4 of the 7 singles he gave up were of the excuse me/doink/dying quail variety – seems the batters were not getting good swings on the ball. Can’t help but think that the more Blake learns to pitch and works on his control that excuse me swings will turn into K’s.

By the way: Where are all those missives on Martin Perez’s pitching in Frisco? Is it possible that maybe Perez was pushed up the ladder a little too soon? Something this organization would never do (tongue firmly planted in cheek).

Finally: here’s a quote that sums up the plan, this team, its fans and this season, so far:

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstien

Good Thought – Marla Hooch