Wipe that Smiley off.

I've been thinking about the bullet the Rangers seem to have dodged by losing out to the Nationals three July's ago when they were reportedly on the verge of signing Dominican shortstop Esmailyn "Smiley" Gonzalez for $700,000 (outbidding, among others, Boston, which paid outfielder Engel Beltre $600,000 that same summer), only to lose him when Washington swooped in and paid the slick-fielding switch-hitter $1.4 million to sign. When news broke this week that Gonzalez had falsified his identity and age – and not just by a little – he instantly transformed from a 19-year-old whose breakthrough 2008 put him back on the map to a 23-year-old non-prospect named Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, a player whose two-month, .343/.431/.475 numbers in a second Gulf Coast League stint have basically become empty. I'm probably overthinking this, but I wonder if, in May 2007, when Jon Daniels and Thad Levine made the decision to set the Rangers franchise on a new course, one that would start with the trade of Mark Teixeira, the blueprint might have looked different had Gonzalez been at the head of the previous summer's international haul, which included Wilmer Font, Wilfredo Boscan, Kennil Gomez, Carlos Pimentel, Geuris Grullon, Leonel De Los Santos, and Emmanuel Solis. Gonzalez would have gone through Fall Instructs the previous October and would have been on the verge of debuting in the Arizona League when the Rangers decided that trading Teixeira was going to be step one in a large-scale effort to build from the bottom up. He would have unquestionably been the franchise's shortstop of the future at that time. There was an October 2007 report in Baseball America suggesting that when the Rangers engaged Atlanta – one of a few carefully selected targets – in mid-season trade talks regarding Teixeira, the Braves told Texas that they would make 18-year-old shortstop Elvis Andrus or 20-year-old center fielder Jordan Schafer available. But not both. (The report was disputed by Baseball Prospectus's Kevin Goldstein, who said Schafer was unavailable.) In the spring of 2007, as thin as shortstop was in the Rangers system (Joaquin Arias was out the first half and missed nearly the entire season with a shoulder injury), center field was in worse shape. The top hope on the farm for a club that was running Kenny Lofton out to center every day was probably Anthony Webster, who was regressing in his second AA season. Marlon Byrd didn't make his Rangers debut until the last week of May. In June, Texas would draft Julio Borbon, and in July the club would trade for David Murphy and Beltre. But in May 2007, the center field cupboard was bare. Assuming the BA story was accurate, if the Rangers had Gonzalez in the system would they have chosen Schafer (who hit .372/.441/.636 before an early May promotion from Low A to High A, and was on his way to leading the minor leagues that year with 176 hits) over Andrus, who was thought to be one year older than Gonzalez (rather than three years younger than Gonzalez, as we now know)? Would they have gone a different direction with the pick they used on Borbon or the return they demanded from Boston for Eric Gagné? Schafer was suspended in 2008 for 50 games after testing positive for human growth hormone, though he did come back with a solid second half and remains a legitimate prospect. Still, what if Texas ended up with Carlos Alvarez Daniel "Smiley Gonzalez" Lugo and Jordan Schafer, and had no Elvis Andrus and maybe, having spent all that cash on Gonzalez, an international class that ended up including fewer than all of Wilmer Font and Wilfredo Boscan and Kennil Gomez and Carlos Pimentel? Maybe the Nationals saved us. Questions surrounding Byrd's left knee and Brandon Boggs's right shoulder make the Andruw Jones audition a little more understandable. While Byrd expects to be ready for Opening Day and Boggs had a good MRI reading, both will probably be limited as exhibition play gets underway next week. That development, along with Nelson Cruz's addition to the Dominican Republic roster for in next month's World Baseball Classic (he was invited Wednesday once Melky Cabrera withdrew from the tournament), will open up plenty of at-bats for Jones. Here's the audio from Jones's interview with Ben & Skin on 105.3 The Fan yesterday. Lefthander Matt Harrison is expected to get the start on Wednesday when Texas opens its Cactus League schedule against Kansas City. He begins camp as one of the members of the club's penciled-in rotation, along with Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Scott Feldman, and Brandon McCarthy. No pitchers have impressed Ron Washington more in camp, according to reports, than McCarthy and C.J. Wilson, and that's very encouraging, given how the 2008 season ended for each. Both have a lot to prove. According to Washington, "C.J. is really overmatching our hitters." Rumor has it Arias's arm strength is coming back, though he hasn't yet been asked to make throws to first from the left side of the infield. If true, it would significantly increase his value as a utility player candidate (here or in trade). The reason he played in only two games in winter ball was reportedly not a physical one, but rather a family issue. Scott Lucas digs into the numbers to test my theory that Josh Hamilton fared significantly better when Milton Bradley was next to him in the lineup last year. Sometime during camp, the Rangers and Hamilton are expected to discuss a long-term contract. Texas reportedly sent a representative to California for reliever Chad Cordero's Wednesday throwing session (his first off a mound since shoulder surgery last summer). According to one local report, lefthander Joe Beimel turned down a non-roster deal to join Texas about a month ago. The solid 31-year-old reliever (who was drafted by the Rangers in 1996's 26th round but didn't sign) remains unemployed but won't for long, and you'd expect that his interest in coming here has probably diminished, if anything, since Eddie Guardado has signed since Beimel declined the Rangers' first offer. The same local report notes that Jerry Narron won't resume his consulting role with Texas this season. Baseball America executive editor Jim Callis made Neftali Feliz the number one starter and Andrus the shortstop on his Prospect All-Star Team including players signed internationally; Justin Smoak the first baseman on the college version; and Derek Holland as the number two starter on the junior college version. BA's Top 100 Prospects list isn't out yet, but Callis confirmed that seven Rangers will show up, and although Beltre missed the cut, he was "number 101." Goldstein, asked during a Baseball Prospectus chat to identify prospects on his own Top 100 list who could shoot up the chart a year from now, said that of the players he ranked between 51 and 75, Michael Main is the top candidate for a big jump. Goldstein added that Martin Perez "might be the guy not on the Top 100 who could make the highest jump." Kansas City claimed infielder Tug Hulett off waivers from Seattle. Florida signed infielder Dave Matranga to a minor league deal. The Dodgers signed shortstop Johnny Washington to a minor league deal. Need a 2009 Bound Edition to help get you ready for the season? I can ship you one immediately. In 1989, my sophomore year of college, some UT buddies and I spent Spring Break on the ASU campus. We went to spring training games nearly every day. We happened to see two or three Mariners games that week. Seattle ran a 22-year-old (who looked 14) out to shortstop each time, a minor leaguer named Omar Vizquel. I filled one of those cheap little spray bottles with ice water as we headed out each morning to help keep cool while getting a tan. By the third inning of the first M's game we were at, Vizquel would jog our way at the end of every defensive inning on his way to the dugout, grab the bottle, and douse himself. Same thing at the other game or two. Met him after one of the games, and we'd later joke that it would be cool if that kid, the happiest guy to play spring training innings you've ever seen, eventually made it all the way to the big leagues, even for just a day or two. A few months later, that kid was starting in Seattle, and when the Mariners visited Texas in June, we met up with Vizquel after the game (minutes before we very nearly got into a physical altercation with Junior Griffey). He showed us the bat he'd used to get his first big league hit (off Oakland's Storm Davis, three days after Dave Stewart had scared the tar out of him when he stepped to the plate on Opening Day). We all planned to get lunch the next day. I called Vizquel a little before noon the next morning. Pretty sure the phone call woke him. He mumbled, "Who?" I reminded him who it was. He hung up. I remember thinking then that we'd been bigtimed by a kid who would be in The Show for two years, maybe three. I've forgiven the future Hall of Famer since, so I'm not going to get mad at him for getting his dates wrong and reporting to Surprise today, a day later than he was supposed to. =========================================================== 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