MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rangers Link Dump: 7/5 Edition

Friday was the first true day off I’ve had from the Texas Rangers in weeks, if not months. I’m not going to lie, either: it was simultaneously enjoyable and liberating.

The relentless self-induced pressure to produce relevant, high-quality material on this organization is a tremendous burden to carry, particularly when coupled with the inherent stresses created by everyday life. It is that burden which gives me a particularly deep-seeded respect for those who possess regular, non-baseball associated day (or night) jobs, and yet tirelessly devote themselves to virtual non-stop coverage of Rangers baseball.

Since taking over the reins to Baseball Time in Arlington from the estimable John Vittas last February, I have continually strived to provide some of the most enlightening and informative takes on Rangers baseball available via the digital medium. The enticing brand of detailed statistical analysis and hard-hitting opinions offered by Jason Parks, Craig Barnes and myself continues to grow exponentially in popularity, a trend that we have all worked very hard to establish as the status quo going forward.

So, as we prepare to dive into yet another collection of links and quotes from across the baseball landscape that is uncharacteristically bereft of that aforementioned brand, let me say it again: thank you for your continued support. comments and words of encouragement. A brief holiday weekend tuneup, and we’ll be as good as new.

If only it were that simple for the baseball team we all obsessively follow.

Dallas Morning News: Texas Rangers’ loss to Orioles has Padilla hurting

One game, three injuries to the starting rotation.

Even in the strange, twisted history of Texas Rangers pitching, this may be some kind of record.

By the time a 10-4 loss to Baltimore was complete Friday, the Rangers had lost Vicente Padilla for the game and perhaps his next start with a bruised thumb and a neck strain, and lost today’s scheduled starter, Eric Hurley, to a sore left hamstring.

When they left Orioles Park at Camden Yards, the Rangers were just hoping nobody got singed by a Roman candle while watching the Fourth of July fireworks on the Inner Harbor.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Hurley scratched from today’s start vs. Orioles

Kevin Millwood had to leave his last start early. Vicente Padilla is ailing. Now rookie Eric Hurley has been scratched from today’s start because of his hamstring. Hurley, who won his last decision, hurt his left hamstring before Friday’s game.

“I was doing some sprints today and I pulled up a little lame,” Hurley said. “I should be all right. I don’t think it’s a huge deal. My leg’s been tight the past couple of days.”

Hurley’s spot will be taken by Scott Feldman, who will pitch on his regular rest. Feldman was scheduled to start Tuesday to give the former reliever some extra rest. Hurley (1-1, 3.57 ERA) said he hopes to take Feldman’s spot Tuesday against Los Angeles.

Postcards from Elysian Fields: Fourth of July Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill

Ian Kinsler is second in the league in hitting and said, “Yeah, I can see myself leading the league. I can see myself as any kind of champion. Why not? Somebody has got to do it.”

USA Today: All-Star nod will affirm Hamilton’s climb from addiction depths

[Josh Hamilton] has ventured out a few times with teammates and says he feels more accepted by his Texas teammates than in Cincinnati last year, when no one invited him out. He sensed jealousy and perhaps resentment over the attention his comeback story received

“I even heard comments that I was signing too many autographs for the fans,” he says. “It just got worse as the year went on.”

The discord played no factor in the trade, but, [Wayne] Krivsky said: “There were issues in the clubhouse. Maybe that stuff would have gone by the boards had he stayed.”

Dallas Morning News: Wilson says former teammates created bad chemistry for Texas Rangers

While praising the Rangers’ clubhouse chemistry on a local radio show Thursday, outspoken closer C.J. Wilson said the improvement was attributed as much to subtraction as addition.

Wilson lauded the arrivals of players such as Milton Bradley and Eddie Guardado for their influence in the clubhouse. But he also said there were key players on last year’s team who were more interested in money than in winning baseball games. He also said an unnamed key veteran was “mean” to younger players.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how much better it is now than it was two years ago,” Wilson told KTCK’s Bob Sturm. “And the most obvious thing I can say is, you look at the roster, the guys that we have now versus the guys that we had then.”

MLB.com: Catalanotto hoping to stay with Texas

Frank Catalanotto started July with a three-hit night on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. He wonders if he’ll end the month with a new team.

“I have no idea what to think or if I’m going to be around or not,” Catalanotto said Friday before the Rangers’ game with the Orioles. “I’m curious to see how it’s all going to shake out.”

Rangers Gameday: 7/4 Vs. BAL

Friday, July 4th Game Preview
Texas Rangers (44-42) vs. Baltimore Orioles (43-41)
Vicente Padilla (10-4, 4.13 ERA) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (4-7, 3.50 ERA)
3:35 PM CST in Baltimore, Maryland (Oriole Park)
TV: FSN SW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM, XM 179

Rangers		Yankees
Pos.	Player	Pos.	Player
2B	Ian Kinsler	SS	Freddie Bynum
SS	Michael Young	RF	Nick Markakis
CF	Josh Hamilton	DH	Aubrey Huff
RF	Milton Bradley	C	Ramon Hernandez
LF	David Murphy	LF	Luke Scott
DH	Frank Catalanotto	3B	Melvin Mora
1B	Chris Davis	1B	Kevin Millar
C	Jarrod Saltalamacchia	CF	Adam Jones
3B	Ramon Vazquez	2B	Brandon Fahey

Notes: Per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

This is only the second time since 1996 that the Rangers have played on the road for July 4th. The other time in that stretch was 2004, when they beat Houston in Houston 18-3. The Rangers are 21-7 on the 4th and have won 14 of their last 17. There are no post-game fireworks at Camden Yards today. There will be a show at 9:30 in the harbor.

Deconstructing Ian Kinsler’s Defense (Or Lack Thereof)

There is no doubting that Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler (.323/.381/.533 in 353 AB, 143 OPS+, .313 EqA) has been one of the American League’s most dynamic offensive performers thus far in 2008.

But one of the many long-standing tenets of professional baseball is that superior defense up the middle (at catcher, second base, shortstop and center field) is an absolutely essential component of a true championship-caliber ball club.

Bearing that (and the Rangers’ perpetual championship dreams) in mind, I felt it would be useful to see just how far Kinsler’s defensive game has matured and progressed since last season.

The answer? Probably not as much as we’d like to think. Or perhaps not at all.

Thoroughly inspired by Richard Durrett’s Thursday afternoon investigation of Kinsler’s questionable defensive ability at second base, I quickly rummaged through some numbers at The Hardball Times in an attempt to acquire a better grasp of what currently ails him fielding-wise:

Ian Kinsler - 2006 to 2008 Fielding Statistics
Year	Innings	TE	FE	BIZ	Plays	RZR	OOZ
2006	1,032	7	11	388	321	.827	20
2007	1,136	4	13	362	306	.845	53
2008	734	5	11	251	201	.801	16

“TE” refers to “Throwing Errors,” while “FE,” of course, coincides with “Fielding Errors;” “BIZ” stands for “Balls In Zone,” a fielding statistic that represents the total number of balls that were batted into a fielder’s zone while he was in the field, while “OOZ” stands for “Out Of Zone,” or the total number of outs made by a fielder on balls hit outside of his fielding zone.

“RZR,” or “Revised Zone Rating,” can be thought of simply as the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that he successfully converted into an out; in other words, dividing the number of plays made by the total number of balls batted into a fielder’s fielding zone results in their ultimate RZR.

See anything fishy right off the bat? If not, you probably should. Kinsler has already committed more throwing errors in 734 innings played in the field this season than in the 1,136 innings he posted in the field in 2007, and is on pace to set new career highs in both areas. But what’s even more startling is his apparent statistical regression range-wise, something I did not expect to see when poring over this data.

Not only has Kinsler’s RZR gone significantly backwards (ranking a dismal ninth out of 10 qualifying AL second basemen, and 18th out of 22 qualifying ML second basemen), but with 86 games of the Rangers’ 162-game Major League schedule in the books, Kinsler is well behind his career-high 2007 pace where OOZ is concerned. That’s more than a little troubling, particularly given that Chris Dial’s Defensive Runs Saved metric already pegged Ian as a slightly below-average defensive second baseman last season.

The errors (well, the fielding ones at least) are not nearly as disconcerting as the lack of the range; after all, as the great Bill James once wrote, “you have to do something right to get an error; even if the ball is hit right at you, then you were standing in the right place to begin with.” But compounding the two deficiencies together is a recipe for disaster.

A callback to last September 27th, when Kinsler was kind enough to answer my terribly specific question on his defense:

Joey Matschulat: It’s no secret that you’ve been a changed man at second base defensively, compared to earlier in the season. Do you feel like your month-long stint on the disabled list back in July helped you regain some focus and confidence in that regard?

Ian Kinsler: Yes. Art Howe and Ron Washington worked with me five days a week at 2 p.m. every day on footwork and hand positioning when fielding ground balls. Earlier in the season, I tried to incorporate what Wash wanted me to do without knowing how to do it. I think I lacked some confidence in it because I was uncomfortable. The time on the DL allowed me to gain confidence in what he was trying to teach me. I played short all my life and this was the first real in-depth course I got at playing second base. It’s been rewarding.

Roughly nine months later, I’m not quite sure what to think anymore.

Do you?

Yankees Pummel Stunned Rangers Staff, Win Series Finale 18-7

Four miscellaneous thoughts as the Matschulat household feverishly prepares for a 4½-hour Thursday afternoon road trip down I-35 to the land of the Round Rock Express:

● Yes, manager Ron Washington was in a really tough spot with Frankie Francisco, Josh Rupe and Eddie Guardado all unavailable due to either lingering physical maladies or excessive pitch count totals. I understand that. I comprehend that.

But, at the same time, there’s no getting around the fact that Washington set flamethrowing rookie Warner Madrigal up to fail by throwing him into the fire in the manner he did. Making your big league debut in front of 50,000-plus at Yankee Stadium is bad enough, but in a one-run game against the top of a potent New York lineup? Come on.

I’m not saying the outcome would have been any different if Washington had, say, flipped Jamey Wright and Madrigal (making the former the seventh-inning guy, and the latter the eighth-inning guy). But if Wright survives and Madrigal is summoned to face a less-intimidating batch of hitters closer to the bottom of the Yankees’ batting order in the bottom of the eighth inning (a role that he is likely more comfortable in than the seventh inning, given his recent minor league work history), there’s a far better chance that this game, at the very least, doesn’t become an 18-7 rout.

Then again, I have to ask: what on earth was the team planning to do if extra innings broke out? I have to somewhat question the wisdom behind carrying Madrigal over Triple-A Oklahoma right-hander Wes Littleton, who admittedly isn’t lighting the world on fire (4.91 ERA in 36.2 IP this season), but is at least capable of going two or three innings.

Perhaps Washington was set up to fail by his own superiors. But that’s a whole lot of conjecture already.

● Rehabilitating first baseman Hank Blalock has to be seeing shades of Gerald Laird (circa 2004), when the 24-year-old backstop tore a ligament in his left thumb on a May 20th tag play at the plate, and came back from the 60-day disabled list some two months later to find Rod Barajas had taken his job. It took more than two seasons before he was able to reclaim his starting role behind the plate.

The way Chris Davis is dominating all facets of the game right now, Blalock may never get an opportunity to play first base for the Rangers. And, at this stage, I’m not certain we can classify that as such a terrible thing.

Imagine the howls of discontent that will arise from this fanbase if Davis continues smashing one home run every 6.33 at-bats (while simultaneously maintaining a batting line comparable to his current .316/.381/.824 offensive clip), and Blalock’s return forces him back to the minors?

● The next time you roll through Corsicana, Texas (home of Navarro Junior College, Davis’s alma mater) en route to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or some point in-between, do yourself a favor and stop at the world-famous Collin Street Bakery.

You’ll thank me later.

● Turns out money can’t buy you everything, after all.

* * * * *

Dallas Morning News: Short-handed bullpen ruins Texas Rangers’ sweep dreams

With a chance to sweep New York in their final regular-season series at Yankee Stadium, the Rangers found themselves constantly trying to patch holes Wednesday.

And, no, we’re not talking about doing a little emergency carpentry on the 85-year-old stadium.

On the way to an 18-7 loss – a game the Rangers led heading to the bottom of the seventh inning – they found out that maybe their roster is just a bit short of being a full-fledged contender at the time.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton up for Derby

A virtual lock to be in the starting outfield for the American League for the 79th All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on July 15, the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton has already informally accepted a preliminary invitation from Major League Baseball to participate in the Home Run Derby on the day before the game.

Hamilton declined to confirm whether he had been asked but a source close to the situation verified that Hamilton had been approached by someone with MLB.

Asked if he would participate if officially invited, Hamilton responded “absolutely.”

Dallas Morning News: Texas Rangers’ Feldman to get extra rest

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels disputed reports that 16-year-old Dominican right-hander Michel Inoa rejected a bonus offer of $5.2 million to sign with Oakland for $1 million less.

Daniels said the Rangers were prepared to offer Inoa more, but that Inoa’s agents said the pitcher had already committed elsewhere.

“We’ve scouted Michel for more than two years; our guys probably know him as well or better than anyone else,” Daniels said. “We were prepared to offer him significantly more than he ended up signing for. Unfortunately, we were told we wouldn’t have that chance, as he was committed elsewhere. That’s the way it goes in that market sometimes.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Rangers’ Ian Kinsler tough to catch

Ian Kinsler’s next stolen base will take him into uncharted personal territory.

His three steals Tuesday night pushed him to 23 for the season, matching his career high set last year with almost half a season to go. His minor league high was 19 at Oklahoma City in 2005.

He has been caught only once this season and that was on a pickoff play. He hasn’t been caught by a catcher since last September. His 95.8 percent success rate (23-of-24) is second in the majors.

Baseball Prospectus: Future Shock: AL West Notebook

All but buried in a rotation that includes top prospect Neftali Feliz and 2007 top pick Blake Beaven, six-foot-five lefty Derek Holland is making a name for himself with a 2.64 ERA in 15 starts, and generating the scouting buzz to match. Southpaws who can touch 95 mph are a rare commodity, and Holland has done that this year, although his heat usually sits in the low 90s; he’s missing bats with both his heater and a plus changeup. His slider is average, and there are some concerns about him throwing across his body, but his size and the two plus offerings have him on a lot of people’s radar these days.

FOXSports.com: Red Sox might be wise to wash hands of Manny

The Rangers will be a team to watch at the deadline, acting as both a possible buyer for bullpen help and seller of veteran talent. Right-hander Vicente Padilla, the subject of inquiries from the Mets, Yankees and Brewers, among other clubs, is perhaps their most intriguing commodity. The Rangers, however, only would move Padilla if they received quality young pitching in return.

Padilla, who turns 31 on Sept. 27, is on pace to produce 14-plus wins and 200-plus innings for the fourth time. His contract — $11 million this season and $12 million next season with a $12 million option for 2010 — isn’t terribly excessive for that type of performance. And his makeup, an issue in previous stops, has not been a problem in Texas.

MLB.com: Young leaves game against Yanks

Rangers shortstop Michael Young left Wednesday’s game with the Yankees after three innings with what club officials said was a “mild strain of his left groin muscle.”Young had a similar problem earlier this year against Tampa Bay and ended up missing just one game. He has also been dealing with a sore left calf muscle and a hairline fracture in the tip of his ring finger on his left hand.

Rangers Gameday: 7/2 Vs. NYY

Wednesday, July 2nd Game Preview
Texas Rangers (44-41) vs. New York Yankees (44-40)
Luis Mendoza (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Sidney Ponson (5-1, 3.50 ERA)
6:05 PM CST in New York, New York (Yankee Stadium)
TV: FSN SW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM, XM 176

Rangers		Yankees
Pos.	Player	Pos.	Player
2B	Ian Kinsler	LF	Johnny Damon
SS	Michael Young	SS	Derek Jeter
CF	Josh Hamilton	RF	Bobby Abreu
RF	Milton Bradley	3B	Alex Rodriguez
DH	Frank Catalanotto	DH	Jason Giambi
1B	Chris Davis	C	Jorge Posada
C	Max Ramirez	2B	Robinson Cano
LF	Brandon Boggs	1B	Wilson Betemit
3B	German Duran	CF	Brett Gardner

Searching For Arms In Little Venice

Of the 224 Venezuelan players to ever play at the Major League level, care to guess how many were signed, developed and promoted to the show by your Texas Rangers? Two.

Both players signed as international free agents in the summer of 1986 along with a skinny Puerto Rican kid by the name of Juan Gonzalez. The supposed jewel of that free agent class was a thick left-handed pitcher named Wilson Eduardo Alvarez.

Alvarez excelled as a prospect and even appeared in five games at the AAA level as an 18-year-old, posting an ERA of 3.78. He started one game at the Major League level for the Rangers before being dealt to the Chicago White Sox along with Scott Fletcher and 609 Career Home Runs for Harold Baines and Fred Manrique. Alvarez promptly pitched a no-hitter two years later in his second career start. Control problems and weight issues eventually drove Alvarez out of the game, but he left his mark with 1,330 career strikeouts and a career ERA of 3.96 in 1,747 innings.

The second and last Venezuelan player to be signed, developed and promoted to the show by the Texas Rangers was switch-hitting SS Cristobal Colon. Colon, who was obviously named after explorer/mass murderer Christopher Columbus, was a marginal minor league prospect that put up a career MiLB OPS of .659 in 1,098 career games. He appeared in 14 career games for the Texas Rangers, putting up a dominant line of .167/.189/.167. He finished out his career in the independent leagues until finally retiring in 2004 at age 35.

What does this mean? It means that the Rangers have let a pipeline of talent go to waste due to poor scouting, poor development and poor front-office support. But times are a-changin’.

Thanks to people like Director of International Scouting A.J. Preller, Senior Director of Baseball Operations Don Welke, various international scouts like Manny Batista and Andres Espinosa and of course Owner and man of the wallet, Tom Hicks, the Rangers have started to stockpile Venezuelan talent at the minor league level. Of course, it’s all about the arms.

Omar Poveda, signed in 2004 out of Tumero, Venezuela, announced himself as a legit prospect after a breakout season at Clinton (Low-A) in 2007. He posted a 2.79 ERA in 125 IP with 120 Ks to only 32 BB. He has a projectable build (6′4″, 220) and sports one of the best change-ups in the system. He has a solid fastball that he can locate and an improving curve that he struggles to command at times. He suffered some minor injury setbacks to start the ‘08 season, but he has since rejoined the Bakersfield Blaze (High-A). The results so far this season have been mixed; his K/IP is excellent, but his control has been spotty. Poveda doesn’t turn 21 until September and should pitch at AA Frisco at some point in ‘09. His future is as a middle of the rotation pitcher at the Major League level.

As I discussed in a previous article (click me), the Spokane rotation is littered with talent and, in this specific case, littered with high-ceiling Venezuelan arms. Having already profiled RHP Wilmer Font, who incidentally was born in the same city in Venezuela as Cristobal Colon, I’d instead like to take a closer look at some of the other exciting Venezuelan arms currently taking the bump in Spokane.

RHP Wilfredo Boscan isn’t yet a household name, but after his early performance at Spokane that could soon change. Boscan, who was born in the same city as Wilson Alvarez, won’t even turn 19 years old until October. His fastball is a ground ball machine. Period. So far this season his ground ball/fly ball ratio is more than 2-to-1. Last season, that ratio was just shy of an unbelievable 4-to-1. He is a ground ball wizard. His fastball has heavy sink and is almost impossible to hit out of the ballpark. Boscan’s secondary pitches are raw and he is still learning how to pitch, but he has projection and should continue to develop as he matures physically. He should pitch in the Spokane rotation for the rest of the year, and he could quite possibly repeat the league next year.

LHP Martin Perez might end up being the jewel of the ‘07 international haul. He made his professional debut at Spokane at the rip old age of 17 (he just turned 17 in April!). Perez throws a heavy fastball that sits in the 88-91 MPH range with sinking action. His secondary stuff is quite advanced for what would be a high school junior. Think about that for a second. What were you doing at age 17? I can’t disclose what I was doing but I wasn’t pitching in short-season professional baseball, putting up a 2.45 ERA so far in three starts. He is 17 months younger than the second youngest player in the league. Again, think about that for a second. I’m not going to attempt to project a 17-year-old so let’s just assume his ceiling is very high.

Will the Rangers finally add number three to their illustrious list of homegrown Venezuelan products? Prospect projection rhetoric aside, I feel quite confident that one of these arms will eventually take their place alongside Alvarez and Columbus. The talent-rich country known to many as Little Venice will finally get another tally on their ever-growing list of major league players. The only question now is who will get there first?

Take Two: Kinsler, Rangers Race To 3-2 Victory Over Yankees

Question: Given your choice of any current Texas Rangers hitter, who would you right now most prefer to see at the plate against future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of a knotted contest at the venerable, yet ostensibly hostile Yankee Stadium?

Take your time, but bear this helpful hint in mind: there’s only one unequivocally correct answer right now.

His name? Ian Kinsler.

The remarkable uptick began shortly after the conclusion of a horrific month of April that found the struggling Rangers sitting at 10-18. Kinsler, the 26-year-old franchise second baseman whom had received a guaranteed five-year, $22 million contract with an attached sixth-year club option, concluded play on May 2nd with a cumulative season batting line of .288/.344/.390 in 118 AB - certainly far from horrendous offensive production, but also far from eye-popping.

After a brief two-game hiatus from the Texas lineup as a result of residual hamstring soreness, Ian threw up another uninspiring 0-for-4 performance at Seattle on May 5th, sending his season batting line plummeting even further - this time, to .279/.333/.377 in 122 AB.

And then something clicked. It’s difficult to say exactly what. Perhaps Ian made a minor mechanical adjustment to his swing (or stance) that allowed him to improve his timing and better turn on the baseball. Perhaps something just mentally clicked in the former 17th-round pick’s head. Or perhaps it was merely the onset of his unquestionable emergence as a Major League superstar. We may never know for sure.

But what we do know is that since the conclusion of that May 5th defeat in Seattle (a 7-3 shellacking that largely fell at the feet of starter Kevin Millwood), Kinsler has freely reigned as one of the best all-around players in professional baseball.

Including Tuesday evening’s 2-for-3, two-walk and three-steal performance, Ian has batted a ridiculous .348/.406/.621 in 224 AB from May 6th onward, while also swiping 16 bases in 17 attempts and clubbing 11 home runs. His current .907 OPS ranks third among all qualifying second basemen in the majors, and first among all qualifying American League second basemen. Coming into play on Tuesday, his .310 EqA and 39.5 VORP ranked fifth and first, respectively, in the American League.

Refer back to the dream scenario I laid out above, which ultimately came to fruition on Tuesday evening as Kinsler stepped in as the lead-off hitter against not just the greatest closer of all-time, but perhaps also the greatest relief pitcher of all-time. In 36.1 innings pitched in 2008, Rivera had been in the midst of his most singular campaign yet, collecting 22 saves in as many tries and notching 42 strikeouts en route to compiling a 0.74 ERA (541 ERA+) and 0.55 WHIP.

Rivera effortlessly fired a pair of cut fastballs towards his foe, the first of which dove low and outside of home plate umpire Bill Hohn’s strike zone, and the second of which was fouled away. Kinsler correctly (and fortunately) guessed that Rivera would attempt to cross him up with a third-pitch heater on the inside corner:

“In my mind, I know he remembered how he got me last year,” Kinsler said. “That’s part of what makes him so good. So, I think he figured I’d made an adjustment on his cutter, and he was going to come in with the sinker. I was looking in the right place when he threw it.”

Moments later, Kinsler - now standing safely upon second base, thanks to the double he had just smashed into the left field corner - took off scampering for third base, exploiting both Rivera’s slow 1.6-second delivery and catcher Jorge Posada’s poor throwing arm in easily swiping his third base of the game. Shortstop Michael Young singled through a drawn-in Yankees infield, snapping the 2-2 deadlock and bringing an ominous hush over the Yankee Stadium faithful.

And C.J. Wilson, for the momentary scare he gave all of us after walking Wilson Betemit on four pitches to begin the bottom of the ninth inning, quietly took a defiant stand and unleashed the high-octane fuel reservoirs, pumping three consecutive 93 MPH fastballs to Melky Cabrera and inducing a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, then blowing away Johnny Damon with an impressive salvo of 95-plus MPH missiles and ending the affair with a harmless chopper to first baseman Chris Davis.

It’s not always easy studying, analyzing and writing about this historically inept franchise. But ultimately edifying baseball nights like the one we were privileged enough to enjoy on Tuesday certainly do make it feel as though all the time, energy and pure, raw emotion I have invested into the Rangers over the last decade has been all worth it.

Concurrently, I’d have to imagine the Rangers front office harbors a similar positive sentiment towards the long-term contract extension they struck with Kinsler back in mid-February - the latest, if not the most high-profile in a rash of pre-arbitration deals across the baseball landscape that, in the end, might well prove to be the biggest steal of them all.

Isn’t winning baseball fun?

Quick Hits: Southpaw reliever Eddie Guardado (left shoulder inflammation) reported improvement on Tuesday, but likely won’t be available to pitch until Friday afternoon’s series opener at Baltimore…sinkerballer Scott Feldman is having his next start pushed back to Tuesday against the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in order to give him extra rest…FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal reports that Texas will not deal starter Vicente Padilla without receiving “quality young pitching in return”…Brandon McCarthy (right forearm inflammation) completed a 45-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday…outfielder Josh Hamilton will receive the “Best Comeback Award” at the 2008 ESPY Awards, to be aired July 20th on ESPN…right-hander Tommy Hunter was promoted from Double-A Frisco to Triple-A Oklahoma on Tuesday.