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Posted on Fri, Mar. 28, 2008

Hey, Rangers fans, here's the good news

By JIM REEVES

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Notebook leftovers, opinions and observations on the last day of Texas Rangers camp in the desert:

Surprisingly, despite injuries that slowed some pitchers and will leave Brandon McCarthy recuperating here for a few weeks yet, there have been more bright spots for the Rangers this spring than sore ones.

Let general manager Jon Daniels count the ways.

"Obviously Josh [Hamilton] has been a big story this spring," Daniels said, ticking off his spring highlights. "[David] Murphy has been equally impressive. The way Ian [Kinsler] has taken to the leadoff spot. Hank [Blalock], the last two weeks, has had very good at-bats.

"Gerald [Laird] has played well. [Vicente] Padilla looks more like the 2006 Padilla than the 2007. [Kazuo] Fukumori and [Franklyn] German in the bullpen. [Luis] Mendoza, you have to feel good where he's at."

Let me add, too, that Jason Jennings has stayed healthy and made steady progress, that Milton Bradley is starting to swing the bat like the Rangers had hoped and that Kevin Millwood is right where he wants to be to start the season.

Manager Ron Washington on having four left-handed hitters facing Seattle southpaw Erik Bedard on Opening Day: "I'm not concerned because of the quality of the left-handers we have.

"They have to learn how to fight lefties. I still believe if a lefty makes a mistake, they're going to make him pay. If we get deeper into the season, and they show that they can't handle lefties, we'll make an adjustment."

Nolan Ryan quickly settled comfortably into his role as club president when it comes to the baseball operations at camp, sitting in his golf cart behind the screen to watch the pitchers work and quietly observing how Daniels and other staff members go about their business.

But back in Texas in the business operations? That's another story.

"I go back there," Ryan said with a wry grin, "and scratch my head."

There's no question that Ryan will have an impact on the Rangers and sooner rather than later. Scouts and others have been impressed with his quiet authority during his visits here this spring.

There are definitely changes coming.

"I tell you one thing that's going to change next year," Ryan said as he tried to figure out just exactly what minor league pitcher he was watching throw in the bullpen. "We're going to put names on the backs of these uniforms. We've got about four pitchers wearing No. 19 and they all look alike."

Count Ryan among those deeply impressed by Hamilton's power this spring.

"He hits some balls you just can't believe," Ryan said. "I've told people that I think he'll hit some shots on the roof of the Home Run Porch [at The Ballpark]. And he made a catch the other day; you'd have sworn nobody could have gotten to that ball."

Kinsler, beginning his third full year with the Rangers, has the look of a seasoned veteran.

"He's growing up. He's maturing," Washington said. "He really wants to do that job, and he has an idea how to do it."

Here's some irony for you: The oldest member of the Rangers' staff, 81-year-old super scout and consultant Mel Didier, is about the only one who refuses to scoot around camp in a golf cart, preferring to walk.

How quickly Mark Teixeira has been forgotten. New first baseman Ben Broussard is wearing Tex's old No. 23.

Hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo's first impression after spending some time with highly touted 18-year-old outfield prospect Engel Beltre, part of the swag the Rangers received from Boston in the Eric Gagné trade: "He's talented, and he's got that same swagger that Sammy Sosa and Ruben Sierra had. He knows he's good."

If you're keeping score, in the past two years, the Rangers have traded Alfonso Soriano, Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Francisco Cordero and Teixeira and will not have a single player on their opening day 25-man roster to show for it. You have every right to wonder how much better this team would look if those five players were still here.

Uh oh. The Boston Globe ranked the managers for its baseball preview section last week after national baseball writer Nick Cafardo talked to "hundreds" of general managers, players and scouts. The two new managers, Trey Hillman of Kansas City and John Russell of Pittsburgh, were automatically slotted at 29th and 30th, respectively, because they have no track record.

No. 28? You guessed it, the Rangers' own Washington.

That means that three of the five men the Rangers interviewed to replace Buck Showalter after the 2006 season held down the bottom three spots in the rankings.

However you might feel about the Rangers deciding to keep Laird as the starting catcher and sending Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Triple A Oklahoma, at least they didn't just keep Salty around to try to justify the Teixeira trade.

Kevin Mench was so upset and disappointed when he was told he was being sent to Oklahoma on Tuesday after losing out in his battle with Jason Botts for a roster spot, he refused to speak to members of the media.

By Wednesday, he was apologizing, saying he was afraid he'd say something he might regret later. He came in to play first base in Thursday's game with the Royals.

What's a guy have to do? That must be what Oklahoma first baseman Nate Gold is asking himself. All he's done the past two seasons is hit 60 home runs and drive in 206 runs at Double A and Triple A combined, yet with the Rangers spending the spring looking to find a right-handed hitting first baseman to pair with Broussard, Gold's name was never really even mentioned as a possibility.

The Rangers' braintrust needs to be careful that it doesn't pigeonhole players without giving them a chance. It made that mistake with Travis Hafner not long ago.

OK, you've been asking for a prediction on the Rangers, a very unpredictable team because of so many injury question marks, but here it is: 78-84. If McCarthy and John Patterson wind up with 25 starts each, those numbers could easily flip-flop.