Texas Rangers position players report Sunday, but some fans already feeling angst
For those who didn’t hear, Fake News is at it again.
The trivia team comprised of some Texas Rangers media members that occasionally includes club personnel and local bar crawlers, reclaimed its place atop the DJ Trivia podium Tuesday.
The winning question: What does the S in Harry S. Truman stand for?
If you said nothing, you’re correct.
The locals here aren’t fond of Fake News. They spend 46 weeks a year taking turns as the weekly winners, only to see the outsiders come in and dominate for six weeks.
The tears in their beers might be real.
Tough.
But the return of Fake News also means the return of spring training and the return of the Surprise Five from Rangers camp.
1. To those fans out who can’t believe general manager Jon Daniels didn’t get a center fielder this off-season, you have an advocate.
He asked the media during the winter meetings which player we would love to see him acquire. Any player.
My answer: Mike Trout.
What is Daniels waiting for?
Of course, that’s not realistic, but the other end of the spectrum included names like Billy Hamilton, Cameron Maybin and Kevin Pillar. They all signed this week, the first two taking minor-league deals.
They would have been cheap. They would have filled a need. But there is a reason they were available in February.
Would they have been any better than what the Rangers already have on the roster? Not overall. Yes defensively, but no offensively.
Plus, they would have blocked the development of some younger players.
If not the just-signed center fielders, why not sign corner outfielders Marcel Ozuna or Nicholas Castellanos, stick them in right field and move Joey Gallo to center? That’s simple: The Rangers don’t want Gallo to play center field full-time.
The takeaway here is that simply because there are names out there and players available doesn’t always mean that the Rangers are going to have interest or even attempt to sign/acquire them.
Granted, the Rangers are without a true center fielder and they are at least a bat short. Danny Santana, though, has played center the past three seasons (including the minor leagues) more than anywhere else. Scott Heineman can play out there, and so can Adolis Garcia and Nick Solak.
Hand-wringing everywhere.
Here’s a Surprise Five guarantee: The Rangers will have a player in center field for Opening Day on March 26. He might even perform better in 2020 than many are expecting.
2. Solak, it appears, will be on the Opening Day roster.
Manager Chris Woodward was effusive in his praise of the utility player, who continues to work at third base and in center field in addition to his home at second base.
Woodward is prepared to get Solak three or four games a week, thus keeping any rust from gathering on his bat.
Moving Solak around also gives Woodward the chance to get everyday players a day off more often than normal.
Solak enjoys center field. He’s athletic enough to run around and make plays, and he worked this off-season on building arm strength to have more zip on throws from third base to first and from center to the cutoff man.
A utility role isn’t an easy task, especially not for a rookie. The general line of thinking is that Solak will work as hard as he can and do as much as he can in the positions where he is lacking in experience.
3. Rougned Odor is in camp after a few days in Mexico to straighten out his visa situation. Ronald Guzman is in camp after a few days in the Dominican Republic sorting out his visa.
Now that they’re here (still early for position players, by the way), they have to start answering tough questions about the road ahead. Each has done so the past two days.
Guzman was first, talking Thursday. Odor followed him Friday.
They have struggled with sifting through the analytics presented to them last year, often clouding their minds during at-bats. They believe they have found a way to mix what they have always done with what the Rangers’ data says will make them better.
That’s otherwise known as the process.
The key for each is sticking to his approach.
Anyone else remember hearing that before?
When a hitter is knocked off course, he will often lose faith in his swing and start pressing. Pressing and abandoning approaches lead to chasing. Chasing leads to easier outs and sub-par batting averages (.205 for Odor, .219 for Guzman) in 2019.
Guzman has the more immediate challenge. As Woodward said he told Guzman, how will he react when Greg Bird has a two-homer game? He must stick to the process.
And if/when Odor is hitting .185 after two weeks? Same thing.
Eventually, though, results will matter. Maybe not this spring, so long as the coaching staff sees progress within the process, but eventually.
4. The only pitcher who hasn’t thrown a bullpen session in the first three days of camp is left-hander Brock Burke, whose shoulder discomfort to end the season flared up again in December.
He’s on a throwing program, currently at 90 feet, and he might not be ready at the start of the season.
Kyle Cody, who is returning from Tommy John surgery in 2018, is throwing bullpen sessions but likely won’t be pitching in games until mid-March.
His innings will be limited in 2020, his first full season back. He pitched well during the instructional league in the fall, but the Rangers still want to be cautious with him this year.
They want him to pitch from start to finish, but they have to find the balance that will allow him to do so.
And if he’s good and has some innings left come September, the Rangers might need him or want to take a look at him.
5. Finally, a reminder about journalism these days: It’s not free.
A few of my Twitter followers (@JeffWilson_FWST) and some who have liked my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JeffWilsonStarTelegramTexasRangers/?ref=bookmarks) have complained recently about the Star-Telegram’s paywall.
Newspapers long ago made the mistake of not charging for online content. Now that digital is clearly the future of the industry, almost all of us have started to require a subscription for full access.
We’re no different than other outlets that require subscriptions, and for us to survive, we need people to subscribe.
Click on the link on the embed below. It will take you to a subscription offer for only the Star-Telegram Sports content for only $30 in the first year. That’s less than $3 a month.
No one is trying to rob you blind. No one is trying to con you into anything. It’s a good price for good content, especially the Rangers, Cowboys and TCU.
When you do subscribe, tell them the Surprise Five sent you.
