Gamer?

When Alex Rodriguez took a poorly veiled shot at the "24 kids" and recalled questioning, while he was paid reasonably well to play baseball for the Texas Rangers, "What am I in this for?," it was easy to draw a conclusion, because those words appeared in a magazine article he purportedly wrote himself. He didn't have the luxury to claim his remarks were taken out of context. Milton Bradley didn't write Gil LeBreton's Monday column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but I'm not sure how you could take what he said regarding his time in Texas out of context, specifically when asked about the frequency with which he removed himself from the lineup due to injuries that were never severe enough to prompt a disabled list stint: "If I'm being paid, and I've got the commitment to me that I give to them, you make more of an effort to be out there every day." Wow. Did you really mean to say that? "When you're on one-year deals constantly, you've got to put up as good numbers as you can. When you have days where you're not feeling like you can contribute, you're not going to go out there, because you're not going to want your numbers to [be really bad]." Well, OK, there you've admitted to something that most fans think exists – the added incentive of the "contract year" – but it's not just about the on-base and the slug. Durability and reliability figure in, too, I think. (But maybe I'm wrong: the Cubs gave you what you were looking for, in a winter when almost no free agents got what they were looking for.) "So, if you're in a situation like I am now, if they want me to go out there when I'm feeling a little banged up, I've got no problem doing that because they've made the commitment to me." Seriously. Seriously? Are you really saying, after making $1.73 million and then $2.5 million and then $3 million and then $4 million and then $6.35 million over the last five seasons, that you weren't "being paid"? That the Dodgers and A's and Padres and Rangers didn't make a commitment to you? You're really telling a reporter – and as a result, your former teammates and coaches and fans in Texas – that you're more likely now to answer the bell, just because you have a multi-year contract? If he got a multi-year deal this winter to stay in Texas – something he's bitter at having not been offered – would he have gone ahead and told Ron Washington and Michael Young and Chris Davis and Frankie Francisco that they could expect him to make more of an effort to play every day going forward than he made in 2008, now that he was "being paid"? Bradley frequently claims that he is misunderstood. I believed that last year. But can the things he said to LeBreton be misunderstood? Last week he told Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune: "I'm as serious as a heart attack about baseball, and winning." It doesn't quite sound like winning was Bradley's top priority in the second half, when his teammates were trying to stay in the divisional race. Not if you take a close look at what he said to LeBreton. As a Rangers fan, I'm disappointed. And I'm not sure how thrilled I'd be to read it if the Cubs were my team, either. Mike Imrem of the Chicago Daily Herald, one of several Chicago writers to pull quotes from the Star-Telegram piece, highlights Bradley's comments and writes: "Relax, Cubs fans, Bradley said his mindset is different now because the Cubs gave him a three-year deal." Would that really be comforting if you were a Cubs fan? Maybe I make too much of clubhouse chemistry and leadership issues and character – some of the things I praised Milton Bradley for repeatedly during his time here – but I'd react very poorly to what he said over the weekend if I were his teammate in 2008. Evan Grant suggests in his Inside Corner blog that Elvis Andrus's situation shouldn't be compared to Evan Longoria's a year ago when speculating as to whether the Rangers might delay the start of Andrus's big league career by a few weeks to buy another year of control before he can be a free agent. I agree with that. He's certainly holding his own in camp right now (though there's still nearly a month to go), and if he shows he's ready, he's going to open the season as this club's shortstop. But if he's hitting .210 on April 25 and struggling to make the plays he needs to defensively, it wouldn't surprise me to see him optioned for three weeks so he can refind his rhythm. The way he's going with the pitch right now, though, and executing, and making what seems to be a highlight reel play every day at shortstop, I think the odds are that Andrus has played his final minor league game. If you feared that the massive, big league expectations might have been a bit unnerving for the 20-year-old Venezuelan, or that he might have come to camp with a big head, this comment ought to rest any concerns: "I learn something on every ground ball, every at-bat. I'm trying to let the game come to me and just react to every situation and be prepared for everything." Righthander Kris Benson had another solid outing yesterday, lowering his ERA to 2.57 in seven innings of work (four hits, two walks, five strikeouts), and that, combined with the May 5 opt-out date, means the 34-year-old is right on track to fill a rotation spot in Oklahoma City. Andruw Jones is up to .280/.357/.440 in 28 plate appearances (second-most on the team), but he's been a bit rusty defensively. He's finding a rhythm at the plate (after striking out 10 times in his first 15 plate appearances, he's fanned only once in the next 13), but you would think that regardless of what he does offensively, he's got to show that he hasn't lost his rhythm in center field to earn a roster spot. I still don't see both Jones and Marlon Byrd making the roster, given the overlap in what they ideally bring to the roster, and that's to say nothing of the work that Brandon Boggs (.364/.417/.773) and Greg Golson (.438/.471/.750) have done in camp. Golson has no real chance to make the Opening Day roster, but his ability to play center field does give Texas more options. The Rangers plan to get Hank Blalock some game time at third base later in camp, which is probably an indication that neither Omar Vizquel nor Joaquin Arias would be counted on to play third in a pinch (and perhaps not Chris Davis, either). Grant speculates that there could also be a showcase component to the Blalock development, as the Yankees recently lost their third baseman for six to nine weeks due to hip surgery. For the moment, New York plans to go with former Rangers farmhand Cody Ransom (who squeezed the final out in Yankee Stadium) at the hot corner. Arias is back in camp after the death of his father. Texas will start to officially reassign players to minor league camp in less than a week, and that's usually the time that you see young starting pitchers moved over, not because they earned "early cuts" due to their performance, but because once the schedule gets into mid-March, the big league starters begin to stretch their workload out to the point at which there just aren't enough innings to give the younger pitchers so that they get stretched out as well. But Derek Holland, after a poor first appearance, has been very good in his next two, and there's a real chance that the first wave of reassignments doesn't include the 22-year-old non-roster invite. He's not going to break camp as a big leaguer, but he may get another handful of opportunities to face big league hitters before packing up for the back fields. Holland touched 96 in his last outing, according to ESPN's Keith Law. Matt Harrison is working on a new cut fastball, the key pitch that John Danks added to his repertoire in Chicago. C.J. Wilson's index finger is fine. Brandon McCarthy says his shoulder is fine. Relievers Joe Torres (stiff lower back) and John Bannister (strained oblique) have been limited. Eddie Guardado's lower back soreness has reportedly subsided. Is there a better story in camp than how well Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden are playing? Texas went into camp with unique depth at catcher. The club seems to be positioned even better now than it was a month ago. Catcher Kevin Richardson, who was expected to share duties behind the plate in Oklahoma City, had surgery last week to repair a torn meniscus in his right or left knee (depending on which source you believe) and will miss anywhere from six weeks to several months (depending on which source you believe). Emerson Frostad, who didn't join Team Canada for the World Baseball Classic this year, has replaced Richardson in big league camp. According to Grant, the Rangers might meet with a new immigration law group to further explore the possibility of getting righthanders Omar Beltre and Alexi Ogando into the United States. Hearing Larry King spend an inning in the booth with Eric Nadel yesterday was pretty cool – and clearly very cool for Nadel himself. Hearing Executive Vice President/Communications John Blake relieve Nadel for a couple innings was an unexpected surprise. His style is different from anyone you've heard do Rangers baseball, but he's very good. The onetime Georgetown Hoyas basketball broadcaster (in the Sleepy Floyd [pre-Patrick Ewing] days of 30 years ago) will call the Webcast of today's 2:05 Rangers-Giants game. Good friend Will Carroll does a Baseball Prospectus Radio interview with Jon Daniels here. A teaser, regarding last year's draft: "Our pick came and Tom Hicks was in the room, and I looked at him and said 'Well, there's this high school kid we really like, or there's [Justin] Smoak, who our people love and think could come very quickly.' And Tom said, 'Who's the best player?' I said, 'Smoak.' So Tom said: 'You take the best player.'" The Angels have shut righthander Ervin Santana down with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his elbow and have already decided that he'll probably start the season on the disabled list. Wes Littleton has an ERA of 19.29 in five Red Sox appearances. Don't count on a second Boston player to complete that trade. Milwaukee released Eric Gagné. Toronto reassigned lefthander Fabio Castro to minor league camp, days after getting him through waivers and outrighting his contract. Kansas City released infielder Esteban German. Wow: Read Part 1 of Grant Schiller's interview with Jeff Zimmerman. The Wichita Wingnuts of the independent American Association released righthander Mark Roberts. Negotiations with Josh Hamilton for a long-term deal are "just getting going now," writes Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated. Outstanding. Because if you asked Milton Bradley, there's no sense in Hamilton making a full effort otherwise, since he made less than a tenth of what Bradley earned last year, a year during which the Rangers paid Bradley more than he'd ever been paid to play baseball and, somehow, under his interpretation, made less of a commitment to him than he did to them. =========================================================== 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