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By T.R. Sullivan
Special to The Seattle Times
Hank Blalock is looking to regain the form he showed in 2003 and 2004.
SURPRISE, Ariz. — The Texas Rangers are trying to come to grips with the past, present and future.
The past is not good. The Rangers have finished with a losing record in seven of their past eight seasons, they have been to the postseason just three times in 36 years and they have gone longer than any major-league team without reaching the World Series.
The present is a complete unknown. The Rangers enter the season with perhaps more unknowns than perhaps any other season in franchise history.
Their top three starters were on the disabled list a combined 21 weeks last year, and two key relievers, the right fielder and the third baseman are coming off major surgeries. Their center fielder is Josh Hamilton and their first baseman is Ben Broussard. Closer C.J. Wilson has all of two months experience in that role. Former Mariner Eddie Guardado is Plan B less than two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The future is promising. The Rangers' farm system is ranked fourth by Baseball America after a summer in which they had five of the top 54 picks in the draft and also added nine young talented players in three separate deals involving first baseman Mark Teixeira, outfielder Kenny Lofton and reliever Eric Gagne.
So the Rangers try to forget the past, deal with the present and eagerly await the future. Manager Ron Washington is mainly concerned with the present and he believes the Rangers are going to be contenders, even though most people have already resigned them to a distant third place behind the Mariners and the Angels.
"It doesn't bother me," Washington said. "The game is between the lines. If we execute baseball the way it's supposed to be played, I'll take our chances. We gained experience last year and that can only make you stronger. We added some pieces, and our pitching staff has developed a better understanding of keeping the ball in the strike zone. We have solidified our defense and that's only going to make our pitching staff better.
"My expectations are still the same. We're just keeping it to ourselves rather than beating our chests about it. Let's just let the season progress and see what happens."
The Rangers preach the need for health. All clubs do, but the Rangers have been preoccupied with the subject this spring. They have reason for such an obsession.
The Rangers' opening-day roster is filled with players who have been successful at the big-league level. They just haven't been lately. If these players can repeat previous success and overcome the troubles they've had lately, then being an actual contender is a possibility. If the recent problems persist, the Rangers are in deep trouble.
Take the starting pitching. Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla won 31 games for the Rangers in 2006. They won 16 between them in 2007 while dealing with injuries. Jason Jennings went from 9-13 with a 3.78 ERA for the Rockies in 2006 to 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA for the Astros last year.
If Millwood and Padilla can combine for 31 wins this year and Jennings can finish with a 3.78 ERA and close to his 2006 total of 212 innings, the rotation will be solid at the front. If they are closer to what happened in 2007, pitching will once again be a big problem.
Hank Blalock was an All-Star third basemen in 2003-04. During those two years he hit 61 home runs and drove in 200 runs. In 2005-06, he hit 41 home runs and drove in 181 runs. He missed more than three months last season because of shoulder surgery.
Milton Bradley was an everyday outfielder for the Dodgers when they won the division in 2004 and when the Athletics won in 2006. But this is a guy who, because of multiple injuries, has had more than 400 at-bats in a season once in the past eight years.
Then there is Hamilton, the immensely talented outfielder who missed more than three professional seasons because of drug problems. He got one more chance with the Reds last season, made the most of it and then was traded to the Rangers in the offseason.
He has been a huge hit in Rangers camp and was hitting better than .500 the first half of the Cactus League. His raw power and jaw-dropping batting practice blasts have reached almost mythical proportions. Hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo declared that Hamilton has more power than former Rangers Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa.
But mythical talent does change that fact that he has all of 298 major-league at-bats.
That's the Rangers all across the board. The only sure thing for the Rangers might be shortstop Michael Young hitting .300 and finishing with 200 hits. The Rangers talk about second baseman Ian Kinsler getting ready to move into the elite class of offensive players — perhaps even a 30-30 season — but he too has been on the disabled list in each of the past two years.
All the Rangers know is they have a chance — at least a chance — of putting behind them eight years of frustration.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that losing gets easy, because it's tough," Young said. "At the same time, we've lost in the past, but it has nothing to do with 2008. If we can find a way to go out there and hop on the same page as teammates, anything is possible."
T.R. Sullivan covers the Rangers for MLB.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2004309154_rangers27.html
Special to The Seattle Times
Hank Blalock is looking to regain the form he showed in 2003 and 2004.
SURPRISE, Ariz. — The Texas Rangers are trying to come to grips with the past, present and future.
The past is not good. The Rangers have finished with a losing record in seven of their past eight seasons, they have been to the postseason just three times in 36 years and they have gone longer than any major-league team without reaching the World Series.
The present is a complete unknown. The Rangers enter the season with perhaps more unknowns than perhaps any other season in franchise history.
Their top three starters were on the disabled list a combined 21 weeks last year, and two key relievers, the right fielder and the third baseman are coming off major surgeries. Their center fielder is Josh Hamilton and their first baseman is Ben Broussard. Closer C.J. Wilson has all of two months experience in that role. Former Mariner Eddie Guardado is Plan B less than two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The future is promising. The Rangers' farm system is ranked fourth by Baseball America after a summer in which they had five of the top 54 picks in the draft and also added nine young talented players in three separate deals involving first baseman Mark Teixeira, outfielder Kenny Lofton and reliever Eric Gagne.
So the Rangers try to forget the past, deal with the present and eagerly await the future. Manager Ron Washington is mainly concerned with the present and he believes the Rangers are going to be contenders, even though most people have already resigned them to a distant third place behind the Mariners and the Angels.
"It doesn't bother me," Washington said. "The game is between the lines. If we execute baseball the way it's supposed to be played, I'll take our chances. We gained experience last year and that can only make you stronger. We added some pieces, and our pitching staff has developed a better understanding of keeping the ball in the strike zone. We have solidified our defense and that's only going to make our pitching staff better.
"My expectations are still the same. We're just keeping it to ourselves rather than beating our chests about it. Let's just let the season progress and see what happens."
The Rangers preach the need for health. All clubs do, but the Rangers have been preoccupied with the subject this spring. They have reason for such an obsession.
The Rangers' opening-day roster is filled with players who have been successful at the big-league level. They just haven't been lately. If these players can repeat previous success and overcome the troubles they've had lately, then being an actual contender is a possibility. If the recent problems persist, the Rangers are in deep trouble.
Take the starting pitching. Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla won 31 games for the Rangers in 2006. They won 16 between them in 2007 while dealing with injuries. Jason Jennings went from 9-13 with a 3.78 ERA for the Rockies in 2006 to 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA for the Astros last year.
If Millwood and Padilla can combine for 31 wins this year and Jennings can finish with a 3.78 ERA and close to his 2006 total of 212 innings, the rotation will be solid at the front. If they are closer to what happened in 2007, pitching will once again be a big problem.
Hank Blalock was an All-Star third basemen in 2003-04. During those two years he hit 61 home runs and drove in 200 runs. In 2005-06, he hit 41 home runs and drove in 181 runs. He missed more than three months last season because of shoulder surgery.
Milton Bradley was an everyday outfielder for the Dodgers when they won the division in 2004 and when the Athletics won in 2006. But this is a guy who, because of multiple injuries, has had more than 400 at-bats in a season once in the past eight years.
Then there is Hamilton, the immensely talented outfielder who missed more than three professional seasons because of drug problems. He got one more chance with the Reds last season, made the most of it and then was traded to the Rangers in the offseason.
He has been a huge hit in Rangers camp and was hitting better than .500 the first half of the Cactus League. His raw power and jaw-dropping batting practice blasts have reached almost mythical proportions. Hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo declared that Hamilton has more power than former Rangers Juan Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa.
But mythical talent does change that fact that he has all of 298 major-league at-bats.
That's the Rangers all across the board. The only sure thing for the Rangers might be shortstop Michael Young hitting .300 and finishing with 200 hits. The Rangers talk about second baseman Ian Kinsler getting ready to move into the elite class of offensive players — perhaps even a 30-30 season — but he too has been on the disabled list in each of the past two years.
All the Rangers know is they have a chance — at least a chance — of putting behind them eight years of frustration.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that losing gets easy, because it's tough," Young said. "At the same time, we've lost in the past, but it has nothing to do with 2008. If we can find a way to go out there and hop on the same page as teammates, anything is possible."
T.R. Sullivan covers the Rangers for MLB.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2004309154_rangers27.html
