Texas Rangers News, Player Profiles, and More

December 8, 2008

I've posted my profile for my #4 left-handed relief pitcher, Ryan Falcon, on the site. I'm pretty optimistic about Falcon's long-term chances as a decent middle reliever. He doesn't have the natural talent of most pitchers at his level, but his command is absolutely amazing. He'll open up in Frisco in 2009, and I expect to see him in Arlington sometime in 2010. That's all I have for tonight, so have a good night and second day of the winter meetings tomorrow.

-Andy

December 4, 2008

I've finished my profiles for my #17 prospect, Julio Borbon, and my #20 prospect, Carlos Pimentel. Borbon's obviously the more advanced of the two, and I've gotten higher on him as he's shown his ability to take a walk. I think he'll eventually hit a happy medium where he takes an average number of walks, but hits a few more extra-base hits with a high average, because the extra pitches he sees allow him to pick a better pitch to hit. He'll be the starting center fielder in Arlington by Opening Day 2010 at the latest. Pimentel is a much more raw prospect, and that's a given due to his age. However, he's earned his high ranking in my book, because he's shown an ability to get hitters out that are a good deal older than himself. His splits this year were very encouraging, and he is one of my top choices as a breakout candidate in 2009. He'll probably open the year at Hickory, and I think his secondary stuff will improve enough for him to stick as a starter permanently.

My next two profiles will be lefty Ryan Falcon and infielder Marcus Lemon, both part of the Bakersfield Blaze in 2009. I don't know when I'll get the profiles up, but it should be sometime over the weekend I hope. I also still have the Chris Gradoville interview to get up. In addition, I did a Q&A with lefty Richard Bleier, and that will be up soon, as well. Hopefully most of this content will be up by Sunday at the latest. However, I've got finals and papers to do, so no promises. The Baseball America Top 10 list for the Rangers comes out on Monday, and I'll run it down for you then. That's all for tonight, so enjoy the profiles and have a good weekend.

-Andy

December 1, 2008

A lot has happened since I last updated the site. Wes Littleton has been traded to the Red Sox, and our return depends on his roster status come April. We can potentially get a pair of players, and the Red Sox have a deep system, so that's encouraging. The offseason will start full-swing a week from today when the Winter Meetings convene in Las Vegas. I expect a Gerald Laird, Frank Catalanotto, and possibly another catcher move to happen either next week or the week after, so stay tuned for details.

As for the site itself, I put in some good time today to catch up on my profile schedule. I've finished profiles for third baseman Emmanuel Solis, relief pitcher Frank Francisco, and first baseman Mitch Moreland. I'm not high on Solis at all, and I've excluded him purposefully from my prospect rankings, as I don't see him even getting close to reaching the majors as a third baseman. As for Francisco, I'm not sure many have realized that he has just 2 years left with the Rangers before free agency. It's quite possible he reached his peak year in 2008, though I'm optimistic he can maintain for the next year or two. Finally, Moreland burst onto the scene in 2008 with an MVP-type season with Clinton. I expect him to hit his way into AA by the end of this year and possibly into Arlington in late-2010.

My next two profiles will be on Carlos Pimentel and Julio Borbon. I listed Pimentel as a candidate for a major breakout season over at lonestarball.com, so expect a pretty optimistic profile for him. I'm also pretty high on Borbon after his AFL showing in which he demonstrated an ability to do pretty much anything the Rangers asked him to. Those profiles will be up soon, though I don't want to give a date in case I can't do them tomorrow. I'm shooting to provide profiles on major prospects Eric Hurley, Joe Wieland, Tim Murphy, Blake Beavan, and Neftali Feliz before Christmas, with others mixed in, as well. That's all I've got for tonight, so have a good night and enjoy the new profiles.

-Andy

November 22, 2008

I've posted my Michael Schlact profile and interview on the site. The interview is good by itself, so having it paired with the profile was worth the wait. I think Schlact is entering a make-or-break year in the organization, as he's entering what might be his final two years with the club before minor league free agency. He's got the talent to be a breakout candidate, so keep him in mind. He's not rated very highly on my prospect list, but that could change with success at the higher levels in 2009.

I'm going to be working on the other features of the site throughout the day, and will be tinkering with some other things, too. I'm close to getting an interview set up with new Ranger Greg Golson, so that should be enlightening if you haven't read some of the other ones with him. That's all I've got for right now, so enjoy the Michael Schlact features, and have a good Saturday.

-Andy

November 20, 2008

I just put up the Glenn Swanson interview on the site. I haven't had much time to do anything else, so the other things might come up over the weekend. In case you haven't heard, there's been a lot of Ranger news today. Kameron Loe is leaving for Japan, Wes Littleton was designated for assignment, John Mayberry Jr. was traded to the Phillies for outfielder Greg Golson, and Willie Eyre, John Bannister, Omar Poveda, and Jose Vallejo were all added to the 40-man roster before the midnight deadline to add players eligible for the Rule V draft. Long enough sentence for you?

I'll go ahead and give my two cents on the Mayberry trade now. I think we won. I think we picked up a toolsy outfielder in exchange for someone that wasn't going to be fitting into our plans anytime soon. I got a chance to see Greg Golson play this summer, and he's simply the most athletic guy on almost any field he steps out on. He hit a monster homer in the game I attended, and he showed off his good arm. However, there are plenty of times where he looks lost, and he's the product of a Philadelphia system that is better at producing track champions than baseball players sometimes. Over time, though, Golson may turn into a solid center field option if his plate discipline improves. That's not a bad return for John Mayberry Jr., the college 1st-rounder that has less Major League at-bats than both Golson and Drew Meyer.

My Michael Schlact profile will be up soon (probably tomorrow), and it will be paired with an interview. Michael took a good amount of time to give me some quality answers to the questions I asked, so it should be a good read. I've already updated the rosters page to include recent minor league re-signings, and I've placed Greg Golson at #25 on my prospect list, 7 slots higher than Mayberry was, but in the same place on the outfielder rankings. That's all I've got for now, so enjoy the Glenn Swanson interview, and have a good evening.

-Andy

November 14, 2008

I have the profile of #5 prospect, Taylor Teagarden, up on the site. I view him as the Rangers' long-term solution at catcher, so I want him to be the #1 catcher out of Spring Training for the 2009 season. He seems to be fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and ready to catch full-time, so this is the time we should take advantage of that.

In addition to the profile, I have my Mike Grouse Interview up. He's the Rangers Midwest Cross Checker, so he's in the know on Ranger prospects and scouting in general. If you don't know what a regional cross checker does, he explains it very well in the interview. In addition, he sheds some light on what draft day is like and other interesting tidbits of information. It's a great source of information, so read up.

I'll have an interview with Rangers' minor-league pitcher Glenn Swanson up sometime this weekend. I've also finished one with catcher Chris Gradoville, and that will be up next week. My Michael Schlact profile will be up on Monday evening. Michael's also agreed to an interview, so I might have that up around the same time as the profile. Anyway, I have my other features updated, as well, so enjoy the site, and have a great night.

-Andy

November 13, 2008

I have the profile of my #50 prospect, Geuris Grullon, up on the site. In my positional prospect rankings, I have him listed as my 8th-best left-handed starting pitching prospect, but the more I read on him, the more I think he'll end up in the bullpen for good soon. Next year is pretty pivotal for him, and I hope the Rangers push him by having him in the bullpen at Hickory. He only has two more development years left before he's eligible for the Rule V draft, so now is the time to see what he can do.

Both the Ranger Roundup and Around the League features are up for today. In case you haven't noticed yet, both Kevin Gregg and Nick Swisher were moved today, so it was a relatively busy day. One of the players the White Sox got in return from the Yankees for Swisher was former top prospect Wilson Betemit, a player that was speculated to be of interest to the Rangers. It's likely that Betemit is the White Sox new starting third baseman, so he's off the market. Kevin Gregg's return was reliever Jose Ceda from the Cubs, a player that was one of the pitchers on the list we wanted in addition to Matt Murton last offseason for Marlon Byrd. I'm surprised the Marlins got so much for Gregg. On the Ranger front, the only news is that Josh Hamilton won a Silver Slugger award, an award only slightly more reliable than the Gold Glove.

The next two profiles to come up on the site will be Taylor Teagarden and Michael Schlact, unless someone asks otherwise. Both are in pivotal spots this offseason, with Teagarden possibly becoming the Rangers' #1 catcher or even traded, and Schlact eligible for the Rule V draft for the first time this December. I'll have Teagarden's up first, and Schlact soon after. That's all I have for tonight, so have a relaxing evening and tell your friends about the site and newsletter.

-Andy

TRA Launch
October 18, 2008

I thought I'd take the time to introduce what the new site and newsletter will be about. Sign up for the newsletter by emailing me at andy@texasrangersanalyst.com or clicking on the link in the upper left-hand corner to recieve updates through your email rather than checking the site all the time. I've decided that I'm going to make the site available immediately so that you can see the stages it goes through as I add new topics and features. As of the moment, I only have the copies of the player profiles I did on my blog, and I'll have many more to come over the course of the offseason and beyond. Here's a brief outline of the site as I see it:

Home Page: This will be where I continuously update the reader to the new features and additions to the site. I feel that any site I visit should have its new content right up front, so my site should have that same characteristic. I plan on posting the new content by date, with the last seven days being available on page one. Don't worry, all the things that will ever be written will be easily accessible on the site under its proper subject, and it will be archived by date there. In summation, the home page is where you need to go for up-to-date Rangers news.

Player Profiles: Since this is the first section open on the site, I thought I'd give a quick writeup. At the moment, there's no definitive Rangers site that has complete player profiles on all Rangers in a single place. My profiles are made with content found all over the place, whether it's on Ranger-specific sites or national ones. Sometimes fans from other teams know more (or at least write more) about Ranger prospects than Ranger fans do. Therefore, I'm going to undertake the challenging goal of profiling every single Ranger from both the bigs and the farm. It will undeniably take time, but it's been something I've been wanting to see as a fan. The profiles will be sorted alphabetically, by level, and by position, with the viewer having the choice. Hopefully this way people can find all their player information in one place.

Ranger Rosters: This comes from my Rangers Rosters Update blog attached to my TRA blog. One thing that isn't covered enough in all of baseball is minor league roster movement. Sometimes it takes a week or so to figure out that a prospect has moved up a level or that a AAA pitcher that's a candidate to come up for a spot start is indeed on the DL himself. In that spirit, I'll try to make a daily update on roster movement from top to bottom if there is any on a given day. Scott Lucas does a great job of updating in his recaps during the season with the Newberg Report Farm Report, but I'll have this organized so that the fan can see the list in a similar way to the list you see for Majors transactions at MLB.com.

Prospect Rankings/Ratings: One thing every fan site loves to do is rank the club's prospects. I'm not above this. I'm looking at my top 77 prospects list right now (It's 77 only because that's how far I got before being interrupted). I'll try to keep my list dynamic in the way that Jamey Newberg has done with his rankings for TexasRangers.com starting this past season. However, my list will be a bit longer and with links to their profiles (once they're available). I'll also rate the prospects on their tools and give them a grade similar to the John Sickels method, but with my own little spin. Any updates to the list will always be included on the Home Page.

Ranger News/Daily Roundup: I'm having a little trouble deciding whether these should be two separate areas or one combined area. A great feature of most Ranger fan sites is their quick compilation of links to all Ranger-relevant material. I'll do the same with links to the fan sites as well to show what they're discussing at any point in time. I'll summarize each, and it will be an ongoing area organized by date to keep everything fresh. The confusing part for me is that I like to add my own view of Ranger topics, so I'll be using some topics to write my own ideas of situations. This is similar to what I wrote early on with my blog. Any ideas for this section are appreciated.

Injuries: One site I've been a big fan of is baseball-injury-report.com. Rick Wilton does a great job of keeping track of player injuries and how long injuries usually sideline players. All BP subscribers are familiar with a similar technique. I want to keep this section updated with continuous injury news on Rangers from both the Majors and Minors. It will all be archived for future reference. Eventually, I hope to actually archive each player's individual injury history so that it's easily accessible. This is a bit optimistic, but once the player profiles are out of the way, anything is possible.

Around The League: It's important to keep track of all the news around the league, so this section will be the place to find MLB (and MiLB) news. I love following the beat writers and national baseball writers from all over, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep track of the stuff. This will just be an easy place to find up-to-date baseball news.

Links: I use a wide variety of sources, and I'll link them all here, with each divided by category (Rangers vs. National) and amount of use. The sites I link the most to in my site will be at the top so you know where good information can be found.

Forum: One thing I hope to have is a forum or fan post offering. Interaction between fans is such a great part of being outside the actual professional baseball environment. This will be one of the last things to go up on the site.

That's the outline of the site as I have it now. If you go to the site and look, you'll see that it's very basic at best. I'm working with basically introductory web design knowledge, so don't expect too much at the beginning. If there's anyone out there who has knowledge of this stuff and can help me for free, PLEASE HELP! I'd really appreciate it. I hope this marks the launch point of a great Rangers site.

-Andy