Embracing adversity.

One left-handed hitter has managed to take Derek Holland deep in his two pro seasons. Last year, including the Texas League playoffs (when Frisco right fielder Dustin Majewski volleyed a ball over the fence), Holland allowed only four home runs all year. But only one by a lefty – Cubs prospect Dylan Johnston, whose solo shot with two outs in the ninth on May 10 knotted the Clinton-Peoria game at 2-2 and prevented Holland from locking down what would have been his first and, so far, only complete game as a pro. While he's far from a slap hitter, power is not among the key components of Julio Borbon's offensive game. He's hit seven home runs in his two pro seasons. Only two of which came off lefthanders. The one time either Holland (who pitched for Spokane in 2008, and Clinton, Bakersfield, and Frisco in 2009) or Borbon (who played center field for the AZL Rangers and Spokane in 2008, and Bakersfield and Frisco in 2009) saw the other teed up in a lefty-on-lefty battle that ended with a home run was on August 24, 2008, when Borbon took former Rangers southpaw Chris Michalak deep in the eighth inning of a 9-3 Frisco win over Midland, a day after Holland led the RoughRiders to a 10-1 victory over the same RockHounds. Until yesterday. Holland was called on to pitch the eighth inning of the Rangers' first intrasquad game of the spring Monday afternoon, entrusted with an 8-1 lead. He faced five batters, retiring none. He allowed four runs, three earned, with the big blow coming off Borbon's bat, as Holland hung an 0-2 slider that Borbon jerked over the right field fence for a three-run bomb. Holland has given up more than three earned runs in an entire start only three times as a pro. It's tougher at this level, even when the hitter in the box is on a similar development path. The organization had to feel good about Borbon's moment. He's a big part of the plan here. But I bet, as far as Holland is concerned, management is not all that disappointed about the result, and very interested to see how the young southpaw responds. Part of the process is learning to deal with adversity, which Holland, like a lot of blue-chip prospects, hasn't had a lot of experience with. It's inevitable in the big leagues, and demonstrating the ability to handle it is one of the final and most important pieces in the maturation from prospect into big leaguer. "A home run is home run," Holland said after yesterday's game. "You just tip your hat and go on. You've still got to pitch and can't let something like that bother you." Good. "Yeah, he beat me once. Show me you can beat me twice." Good. Bet you want the ball again, right now, huh? "I want to be out there right now. Working." Excellent. Aside from the Holland-Borbon bout, here's some more microscopic sample to overreact about from Monday's game: Brandon McCarthy, getting the ball in the third, buckled down with a man on third and one out, striking out Taylor Teagarden and Frank Catalanotto to end the inning. Thomas Diamond struck out one in a perfect seventh. Kevin Millwood, Kris Benson, Willie Eyre, and Tommy Hunter each allowed one hit in a scoreless inning of work, while Elizardo Ramirez set the side down in order in the eighth. Brendan Donnelly and Guillermo Moscoso each walked the two batters he faced. Nelson Cruz hit a first-pitch grand slam off Doug Mathis, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia crushed a two-run blast off Eddie Guardado. Overreact: Saltalamacchia hit .158/.220/.224 against lefthanders last year, .311/.426/.451 against righties. Same story in winter ball: .158/.273/.368 against southpaws, .447/.587/1.043 against righthanders. Good to see him do some damage against an established lefty. Joaquin Arias singled, doubled, and tripled in three trips. Maybe more significant was the "SS" next to his name in the box score (though one local report suggested his arm strength is not fully back). Michael Young singled twice in two trips and committed a throwing error on a slow roller up the line. Andruw Jones singled twice in three at-bats, striking out in the other. Elvis Andrus singled in three trips, driving in a run, but what matters is he played the entire game, meaning the left wrist discomfort that slowed him for a few days is apparently not a big issue. Ramirez will play for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. Cruz (Dominican Republic) and Catalanotto (Italy) are the other two Rangers playing in the tournament. Travis Metcalf won the Home Run Derby at Sunday's FanFest at Surprise Stadium, defeating Kansas City catcher J.R. House in the finals. Other contestants were German Duran and Justin Smoak from the Rangers and Kila Ka'aihue and Corey Smith from the Royals. Benson's minor league deal has a May 5 opt-out. Good. There's no pressure to save an Opening Day spot for him. Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated reports that if Benson hits all workload incentives, he could earn a little more than $2 million. Not likely. Contrary to multiple reports, it turns out Texas did not attend Chad Cordero's throwing session on Wednesday. The club plans to watch the former closer throw this week, when he's expected to step things up from the first session's 70 percent effort. The Cubs released lefthander Bill White after he failed his physical. Check out the video interview T.R. Sullivan did with Young in the top right corner of texasrangers.com. Really good stuff. Looking forward to more of those. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports points out that Andrus, whose late father was a physics professor, taught himself English as he was coming up in the Braves system by listening to music, notably hop-hop and country music because they "tell the best stories." Omar Vizquel tells Passan that Andrus has "the perfect personality" to settle in as a big leaguer. The Dodgers' signing of second baseman Orlando Hudson pushes the Rangers supplemental first-round pick (compensation for the loss of Milton Bradley) down one slot to number 42, and the club's second-rounder down to number 60. It's that latter pick that Texas would forfeit if it were to sign Ben Sheets before the June draft. If Manny Ramirez, Juan Cruz, and Orlando Cabrera sign with anyone but their 2008 teams, both Rangers picks drop one slot each. There are a few Type B's left as well, which may or may not affect the supplemental first, but will affect the second-rounder if those players find new teams. In a hypothetical posed in this week's edition of "Ask BA," Baseball America executive editor Jim Callis was asked what Washington could get for the first pick in this year's draft if the trading of draft picks were permitted. Given that San Diego State righthander Stephen Strasburg is considered "the best righthanded pitching prospect this decade and should reach the major leagues within a year of signing" and a pitcher whom "[s]ome scouts would take . . . over Rays lefthander David Price," Callis notes the price would be high. His proposal: For the sake of argument, let's take a look at the Rangers, who have the best farm system in baseball, and are deep at certain positions. They could afford to give up first baseman Chris Davis (with Justin Smoak on the way) and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia (with Taylor Teagarden and Max Ramirez on hand), and maybe they'd be willing to part with the 14th overall pick to get Strasburg. But it's unlikely Texas would add righthander Neftali Feliz to that package, and I'd want Feliz. . . . The Rangers probably wouldn't give up lefty Derek Holland or shortstop Elvis Andrus either. That's a crazy package to put together for a player who has never thrown a professional pitch and who would still have to be signed – his advisor is Scott Boras – but I thought it would be worthwhile to share that here because it's further proof of a point I've been pushing for about a year now: the next time (and next few times after that) that a Josh Beckett is floated on the market by a team who knows it can't keep him long-term – and I'm not talking about a C.C. Sabathia-type two-month rental – general managers will instinctively target Texas and its unparalleled prospect depth, just as Callis did. MLB Network, which has made ESPN completely obsolete for me, is airing a one-hour feature on Josh Hamilton this Friday at 8:00 p.m. It will be the new network's first player documentary. Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this weekend that Hamilton's grandmother, Mary Holt, is dying of Stage IV cancer. That makes me very sad. The Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League traded outfielder Carl Everett and lefthander Vic Darensbourg to the Newark Bears for righthander Jose Garcia and catcher John Pachot. The Wichita Wingnuts of the independent American Association claimed righthander Mark Roberts off waivers from the Sioux Falls Canaries. Matt Harrison will start Wednesday's exhibition opener against Kansas City. Millwood goes Thursday, Scott Feldman Friday, McCarthy Saturday, and Vicente Padilla Sunday. Pitching coach Mike Maddux's goal is for each to go two innings, after which the plan in their successive starts is to get through two innings again, then three, four, five, and six, before scaling back down to four innings in each starter's seventh and final spring training appearance. Padilla and Feldman are slated to start today's intrasquad game, and supposedly every pitcher who didn't work on Monday will see action. If that's the case, today's box ought to include Dustin Nippert, Frankie Francisco, Josh Rupe, Warner Madrigal, Derrick Turnbow, Luis Mendoza, Joe Torres, John Bannister, and Omar Poveda. And Neftali Feliz. If Max Ramirez takes him deep, so be it. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com If you want to be removed from this list, please e-mail me at newbergreport@sbcglobal.net