Some hither, others yon.
Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Hank Blalock:
The best development of the first month of the Rangers season is not the streak of five-inning starts or Adrian Beltre’s health and production or the first-place perch or Nomar Mazara. It’s Elvis Andrus playing as well in the field and at the plate as he’s ever played, whether you base it on the numbers or what the approach looks like. Especially given how his 2015 season ended, it’s just huge. He’s not only gotten past October 14 — it appears at age 27 he’s found a new level . . . . I’m not sure it’s the second-biggest story, given that it’s happening a couple hundred miles away, but the adjustments Joey Gallo’s made in his own approach and execution at the plate in Round Rock are up there . . . . one of the best writing tips I ever got was when T.R. Sullivan encouraged shorter paragraphs . . . . so, oops.
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My surgeon and P/T and at least two readers have given me the following advice in the aftermath of my quad injury: Do no more than your doctor tells you. And do no less . . . . I think that probably applies to what Elvis Andrus is doing right now, and it really fires me up . . . . The Rangers’ team ERA since the Robinson Chirinos injury: 3.22. Slow clap, Bryan Holaday and Brett Nicholas.
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What if even half of Ryan Rua and Ryan Cordell and Andy Ibanez and Travis Demeritte and Ronald Guzman and Pedro Payano and Yohander Mendez and Brett Martin and Connor Sadzeck and David Perez and Jairo Beras and Richelson Pena, each of whom is showing signs of taking that next step, have moved onto those lists other teams’ pro scouts are responsible for keeping? None of them is going to carry a deal (and I don’t mean a Yovani Gallardo-type deal — I mean a Cole Hamels-level deal), but neither could Jerad Eickhoff or Alec Asher or Blake Beavan. You have to have secondary pieces like that to close big trades, and a few weeks in, there just might be some Rangers prospects moving themselves into that range. That’s good . . . . There’s a reason I don’t include Luke Jackson or Matt Bush in that list. Their value, at least during this season, is probably greater here than as trade chips . . . . It’s early, obviously, but Houston is in a dead heat for the second pick in the June 2017 draft, though at the moment San Diego and Minnesota would draft ahead of the Astros because their 2015 win-loss records were worse.
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Interesting usage pattern as far as Bush goes. Used on back-to-back days to open Frisco’s season but, a week later, transitioned strictly to two-inning assignments, every four days . . . . Jackson, meanwhile, is getting one-inning assignments, but has yet to pitch on consecutive days (or even on just one day’s rest) . . . . the opening to the syndicated “Tarzan” show was, by far, the best part of the show.
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If Chi Chi Gonzalez is settling into a groove anywhere close to what he’s shown in his last two AAA starts (13-5-2-2-5-10), then you’d feel better keeping A.J. Griffin in the big leagues once Yu Darvish returns, assuming the rest of the current rotation is all healthy at that point . . . . and assuming the club doesn’t experiment with a six-man rotation, an idea Jeff Banister apparently addressed in a radio interview this morning on 105.3 The Fan . . . . the lead competitor for Griffin’s rotation spot in camp, veteran Jeremy Guthrie, is 0-4, 11.50 (.342/.395/.539) in four starts so far this season — for San Diego’s AAA club . . . . Why don’t kids make salt maps in elementary school anymore? . . . . If I were a team in the AL East, AL Central, or National League, I’d rather play Texas in April, May, June, or July. That has nothing to do with the weather.
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Ian Desmond before his three-day break (one day out of the lineup, one team day off, one rainout): .109/.180/.109. Desmond since: .379/.486/.759 . . . . Prince Fielder just got two days off (one day out of the lineup, one team day off), and there’s heavy rain in the forecast in the Metroplex tonight . . . . Every single Progressive Insurance commercial is wince-terrible, except the “Sprinkles are for winners” one, and this extension of it makes me happy . . . . I think I’ll be happy with a split of these first two at home with the Blues . . . . I say that now, of course.
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Our neighbor Jones probably doesn’t miss Progresso pizza sauce, Thomas Harris novels, Halleck’s Chicken, those Dr. Haledjian two-minute mysteries, Jellyfish, Shasta soda, or Dan Wilson’s bat flip nearly as much as I do, but I’m only guessing . . . . I will never miss that heavy-plastic thingy I had to wear over my entire quad-mangled leg while showering, which I hate at a level that would prompt me to welcome Rich Harden back to the rotation as an alternative, with apologies to the rest of you . . . . ESPN’s Adam Schefter says Dallas offered its second- and third-round picks (number 34 and 67 overall) to Seattle, presumably to take quarterback Paxton Lynch, but were outbid by Denver’s offer of a late first (31) and a third (94). That’s gonna be interesting to track, for Denver and Seattle and Dallas, for a long time, especially once we see who was taken (and who was available) in those second- and third-round slots tonight . . . . the Dallas offer appears to have greater value than the Denver offer, of course, but one difference between the picks at 31 and 34 is that teams are allowed to guarantee one extra year (five rather than four, I think) with a first-rounder . . . . in the 302 regular season games between now and the end of the 2017 season, who will start the most games in center field for Texas, and who the least, among Delino DeShields, Desmond, and Lewis Brinson?
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Not unrelated and in a more immediate context: Interesting that the frequency of the versatile Jared Hoying’s center field assignments have increased lately at Round Rock . . . . if it’s all the same, I’d like to see Jurickson Profar leading off for the Express . . . . I’ve mentioned this before, I know: I always thought Deion Sanders leaned toward returning punts to his right rather than his left because of his baseball experience. (I bet Apolo Ohno would take a punt return the same way.) Try one day to run from home to second clockwise, that is, rounding third instead of first — see which gets you to second faster . . . . Did you see last night’s Ronald Guzman home run? You should see last night’s Ronald Guzman home run.
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The Rangers’ farm clubs’ records: 11-8, 15-4, 17-4, and 14-7. Meaningless to a very large extent — the Rangers’ Low A club at Gastonia went 58-82 in 1987 with Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Dean Palmer, Wilson Alvarez, and Roger Pavlik — but it’s not like Texas sends 25-year-olds to leagues where the competition is three years younger. While development is a thousand times more important in the minor leagues than win-loss records, winning at that silly a rate is a lot more encouraging than losing . . . . One person cannot make a “concerted” effort . . . . Hope Cody Buckel gets another chance somewhere, if he wants it.
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Speaking of that 1987 Gastonia club, two of its competitors in that season’s South Atlantic League, the Macon Pirates and Charleston Rainbows, had a bench-clearing brawl that spring. One of Charleston’s pitchers, a first-round pick playing his first full pro season, says of Macon’s catcher, a 25th-rounder playing his first full pro season: “I didn’t know him personally, but I knew what his fists felt like” . . . the Rainbow pitcher was Doug Brocail . . . the Pirate catcher was Jeff Banister . . . . journeyman catcher Jerry Goff played with Brocail on the Astros’ AAA club in 1995 and was a fellow catcher in the Pirates’ system with Banister in 1993 . . . Goff also played alongside Spike Owen and DeShields’s father in the big leagues in 1990 and 1992, and with Tony Beasley in 1993 (Pittsburgh/AAA).
Godspeed, Beas.
Goff caught Brian Shouse in 1993 and 1994 (Pittsburgh/AAA) and Keith Comstock in 1989 (Seattle/AAA) . . . he was teammates with Rangers wormhole Esteban Beltre in 1990 (Montreal/AAA) . . . Goff was chosen by the Mariners in the third round of the 1986 draft, 63rd overall, four spots after Texas selected Palmer (whose goings-on I know more about these days than Blalock’s), and 558 spots before Pittsburgh took Banister.
Goff’s kid Jared was born in October of 1994, three years before Jerry retired from the game, and 22 years before Jared would be the first overall pick in the NFL Draft.
I know nothing about Carson Wentz’s dad.
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Three with the Angels. 4, 2, even, or –2.
Let’s go.
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There’s going to be a really cool game-watching party (Rangers/Blue Jays and Stars/Blues) next Thursday night at The Blind Butcher on Lower Greenville, hosted by Paranoid Fan. Acclaimed baseball columnist Jonah Keri is the featured guest. At least a couple personalities from The Ticket will be there, and I plan to be there, too. You should go. Details: here and here . . . . Max has started falling asleep on schoolnights with Eric and Matt’s radio call whispering from his nightstand, to which I suggest: My work here is done.
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He used to finish his “Scattershooting” columns with a joke, so here’s one:
The Angels’ farm system.
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RIP, Mr. Sherrod.