Let's check out some Rangers items as they take on the Yankees in the Bronx..
- The Rangers will undoubtedly be on the lookout for relief pitching this offseason, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney.
- Evan P. Grant of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter) wonders what the Rangers would look like had they taken Robinson Cano instead of Joaquin Arias in the Alex Rodriguez trade.
- The Rangers will likely wait to announce the signing of Cuban outfielder Leonys Martin, writes MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. The 23-year-old is still being processed through the customs and immigration, and it could be beyond this week before he is ready to play for the club.
- As he works to rehabilitate his injured shoulder, Brandon Webb tells Sullivan that he would be willing to work out of the bullpen as a reliever if that's what the Rangers need when he gets back. Webb's performance bonuses for 2011 are tied to innings pitched and days on the active roster, but not to number of games started. The right-hander will earn a base of $3MM and could boost the value of the deal to $8-10MM through incentives.
- Colby Lewis will return from paternity leave on Monday but the Rangers won't have to risk losing anyone to create a roster spot, Sullivan writes. It seems likely that either Michael Kirkman or Mark Lowe will be optioned to Triple-A.
Webb in the pen sounds like a recipe for DL time
If the Rangers had taken Cano, they wouldn’t have Beltre, they could’ve traded Young a couple of years ago, and they’d have the money to have paid Lee.
Wow, crazy.
The Rangers had the money to sign Lee. He wanted to go to Philly.
They didn’t offer the years he wanted.
If they offered another 1 or 2 mil a year and added another year or two, he would’ve went to them.
In any case, it would’ve been a lot different than it is now.
why are you talking like you’re cliff lee’s best friend and you know definitively that he would have went to Texas had they offered the money?
Because he knows all and you don’t don’t.
absolutely not, he CHOSE Philadelphia, they already were at 6, maybe 7 (I forget) years, what are they gonna go to, 9?
naturally. 6…7…9
Yes, he would have went to the Rangers if they would have offered him another year at no more per year than they were offering. It wasn’t a matter of money or the lack thereof. It was a matter of the Rangers not wanting to give him another year becuase Lee won’t have anything left by then. He will be washed up.
He took the shorter contract to go to Philly, if he really wanted to stay in Texas he would have stayed.
they had the money to pay lee… which is why they offered more than philly… lolwut?
they had the money to pay lee… which is why they offered more than philly… lolwut?
Webb going to the bullpen would be great.
Webb is never going to pen.. Haha.. Guy is a CY young winner throwing 70 pitches in bullpens.. He will help Rangers win the West in the rotation..
your smugness is foolish
He won the Cy young 5 years ago and has pitched 4 innings in the last 2 seasons.
You are the fool.. He won 22 games just 2 seasons ago.. I love the young kids starting and doing well, but getting a groundball pitcher like Webb into a rotation of flyball pitchers is prob a good idea!
Webb won 22 games in 2008, which is 3 years ago.
In 2009 he pitched 4 innings and in 2010 he didn’t throw a professional pitch.
Not to mention the fact that his velocity is way down. You can’t expect him to be a top of the line starter just because he once was.
C’mon.. Your math is poor.. 2008 was 2 seasons ago.. 2011 season is just 12 games in.. Webb did pitch on opening day 2009!
…and Dice-K went 18-3 the same season Webb won those 22 games..
Love to see him come back and be a 225-innings type guy again, but at this point, don’t even you have to be less than optimistic that will happen?
Colon won the Cy Young in 2005, he should be leading the pack of aces in line for the award this year.
Cannot believe the Yanks started him in the pen!
You are quite the comedian.. Whatever lunch pail
Maybe the Rangers can deal Webb to the Yankees. I believe the standard offer being mentioned by Yankee fans is Montero, one of the “B’s”, Joba and Gardner for a Cy Young ace, right?
With his diminished fastball, Webb would be useless in the pen. I seriously doubt he ever takes the mound for the Rangers.
Another fool amongst us.. He never threw over 88mph.. He is a griundball pitcher with his sinker.. He starts 20 times for rangers this year before he helps them win in October too..
He pitched in the 88-90 range when he was at a Cy Young level. That’s a big difference from struggling to reach 85 and lacking command. I can’t remember where I saw this article but someone did some research and looked at opponent averages against Webb’s fastball during his career. It was a dramatic gap between fastballs that hit his high end and those that sat in the 85 range.
The guy isn’t hurt and he isn’t even pitching to minor league hitters yet. That says all you need to know.
What is this possibly based off of, Bartolo Colon legitimately has a better chance of starting 20 games. He is at least pitching in the majors right now, which Webb still is not. I take it you haven’t heard the Webb scouting reports? He will never be the same pitcher again, which is cool but just accept it and move on.
I bet the Rangers are kicking themselves for not picking up R-Cano. But who says he would be the same player in Arlington as he is in New York? Maybe the coaches there inspired him, something any other coaches may have not been able to do?
Idk. :P
I think at one point the Yanks were trying to trade Cano for Randy Johnson, too. The trade ended up being Javy Vazquez, Brad Halsey and Dioner Navarro for Johnson.
Sometimes a team gets lucky and holds on to a player they didn’t really have high regard for initially.
Here the Yanks were good to sign Cano and lucky to have failed to trade him.
I love how a guy said I wonder what the Rangers would have been like if they took Cano over Arias and you all made it into a Cliff Lee fiasco, how about you guys actually think about what the Rangers would of been like, for example, Cano would be their 2nd baseman perhaps and Kinsler would be where? or how about the infamous Michael Young, No wait, they would of had Cliff Lee who never wanted to leave Philly and was unfairly dealt to Seattle of all places for garbage for no less and flipped by the said Mariners to Texas because I bet all Cliff Lee talked about was Philly, and how great Philly was…..Focus people!!!!
How about we think about what would of been had the Red Sox had their way and was successful in trading Manny Ramirez to the Rangers for A-Rod, which would of meant that Alfonso Soriano would of been the Yanks second baseman and A-Rod would still be a SS to this day and Magglio Ordonez would of been the JD Drew in right field and Nomar would of been a White Sox.
I believe Jon Lester was supposed to go to texas also.
Not true, only real trades that involved Jon Lester was for Johan Santana.
All I want to say is thank you Texas for taking Joaquin Arias instead of Robinson Cano.