March 6 – The Thursday List: Still Working Out A Few Early Kinks

…and I’m not talking about a Sunny Afternoon with Ray and Dave Davies.

One of the fun and frustrating aspects of the early days during Spring Training is that as Ranger fans we have been starved for any kind of real baseball since September, so the tendency is to over react to a couple of very bad or very good outings. We have to remind ourselves that  Spring Training is for shaking off the winter, stretching out the muscles and most importantly, as the DTFC’s John “Birdy” Sweet has always advised us, to learn how “to pace yourself" for a long season. 

Let’s take a deep breath, start off at a leisurely pace and take a look at this week’s list:

1. Overdoing it:  If you were listening to Eric and Victor this past weekend (and if you weren’t – why not?) then you heard Eric mention his conversation with Jerry Narron about Josh Hamilton.  Narron admitted that he might have contributed to Josh’s time on the DL last season because he played Hamilton a little too much. Jerry said it was hard to sit him down because he was having such a tremendous start. He felt that he probably should have rested him a bit more often since Josh had only been back playing baseball full time for a year and wasn’t quite up to enduring the grind of a long major league season. 

2. Name that Prospect #5: The only guess, Montgomery Clift, couldn’t have been  too serious (since it was ventured by Mrs. Schmenge) and of course was wrong.  The Tulsa uniform should have been one of the clues to identify 1B/OF Jason Jones.   Jason, the Rangers 13th round draft choice in 1999, spent his entire six year career in the Texas organization and did get 107 AB’s with the major league Rangers during the 2003 season.  He retired after the 2004 season with a very nice .285 career (minor league) BA.   

This week on the right is another multiple name those prospects from the Charlotte Rangers of yesteryear.

4. Something that might be worth starting to worry about: Brandon McCarthy. My suggestion to Nolan Ryan is - it’s great your teaching him about throwing a better curve ball – maybe next you could teach him a little something about toughness and conditioning.

5. Close call: I was glad to hear that Hank Blalock and his family were not injured in the car accident in which they were involved the other day.  I just didn’t know anyone could actually drive at 40 mph on Bell Rd. during March.

6. If you are going to over react: How about touting Franklyn German? The “ample citizen” – as Baseball Mom referred to him when she saw Franklyn in OKC last summer - is sporting a 0.00 ERA in 3 IP with 5 K’s and 3 hits.  (EDIT: and I promise I wrote this note on Tuesday night before Jamey Newberg mentioned it in his report this morning.)

Let’s also mention that more than one local wag has said Jason Botts will have to hit his way on to the 25 man roster.  Botts is hitting .333 with 2 extra base hits, a .385 OBP and .583 SLG – compare that to “secret weapon” Ben Broussard’s .083 BA /.100 OBP / .100 SLG with no extra basehits – how’s that for some over reaction?

7. No kinks  on this blog:   Again, this week kudos Anthony Andro on the Star Telegram blog Foul Territory for blogging during the games with interesting tidbits and keeping those of us who have to work for a living updated during the day.

8. He knows how to pace himself:  Belated Happy Birthday to my mentor and friend Jamey Newberg.

The first non-sequitor of the 2008 season:  I won’t even be thinking about the Rangers – Twins game on May 22nd.  This is where you'll find me.

“It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage” – Marla Hooch