From the Sonora Desert...Day 1. The First Workout
From the first workout, which included the rare sight of Jim Reeves and Nolan Ryan deep in conversation....
Moment of the Day: Justin Smoak taking Neftali Feliz deep during batting practice although the morning glare from the desert sun kept people from seeing just how far the ball sailed.
Bright spot: Brendan Donnelly caught peoples eye with his batting practice session. He didn't look like a pitcher that needs to go slowly because of past arm problems. Said manager Ron Washington: "I certainly liked what I saw."
Also: Washington after watching Vicente Padilla exhibiting great command in his first batting practice session. Said Washington, "He was hitting gnats on both sides of the plate."
Strategic lockers: Omar Vizquel isn't here yet. When he does arrive, he'll find his locker is right next to Elvis Andrus with only an empty locker between them.
Lesson of the day: All pitchers ended their throwing sessions with two pitchouts. Said Washington, "A lot of times in games you ask pitchers to throw pitchouts and they're all over the place. We want to get them to zero in on doing that. We want them practicing everything they are called upon to do do it."
Pitcher counts: The Rangers have 29 pitchers in camp. That may not be all. There are still free agents available, especially relievers. Among the pitchers that could have an immediate impact are Joe Beimel, Juan Cruz, Will Ohman and Dennys Reyes. Any one of those guys could be a welcome fit in the Rangers bullpen.
Said general manager Jon Daniels, "I'm leaving the door open. There are still a lot of good baseball players out there. We don't have any offers out there but if there is a way to improve the club, we may consider it. Our priority is to make sure we know what we have in camp."
He said it:
"You can throw any pitch you want. Just let me know ahead of time, will you?"
Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia to pitcher Josh Rupe.
I'm not sure about Dennys Reyes. If we have a healthy C.J. Wilson and Eddie Guardado, I think that will be plenty of left-handed firepower for our bullpen. Same goes with spending money on Ohman, although he has good career numbers.
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Do you think the Rangers will make offers to any of those free agents out there?
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
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The pitch out thing reminds me of either last spring or the year before with Washington having the catchers practice tossing the ball to the mound after an inning./
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They should be teaching the Rangers pitchers to throw strikes. We have no problem throwing pitches outside of the strike zone. Did Padilla partcipate or did he just hit the batter? This is what drives me crazy about Washington, the innocuous crap that he does. You can work on that kind of stuff in the last week when you know who the team is. It is simple, throw strikes, and let your defense make the play. How many times last year did we actually pitch out? It is great news that Salty is letting the pitcher decide what he wants to throw, that should help #1 Teagarden win the postion and # 2 really help Salty learn how to call a game which ain't a strength. I want to be a catcher, i just don't want to learn what i need to learn to be a good one. It is my opinion that you do not learn how to be a catcher at the major league level. If you want to learn how to be a major league catcher then go down to AAA or AA and learn your craft. I think you will find that even at that level it is probably too late. Teagarden is far better than Salty and hopefully will be given a fair chance to earn what should already be his.... I believe Ramirez is better defensively and offensively than Salty yet all you hear about is how Ramirez needs to work on his defense. What a joke.
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On Salty's comment, shouldn't the pitcher be throwing what is called???
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