Deception the focus for Texas Rangers pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez

Pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez has the kind of natural movement on his pitches that helped make him a top prospect. Gonzalez has focused his off-season on working to have more deception between his pitches.

After his rookie season in the big leagues in 2015, Gonzalez has focused on creating more deception between his slider and changeup.

Both pitches routinely came over the plate at around 88 mph in 2015. He’s trying to replicate his arm speed for both pitches to deceive hitters.

“I can manipulate the ball good enough, but if you’re throwing a ball that is cutting at 88 and you throw a changeup that’s cutting at 88, too, there’s no difference,” said Gonzalez, who is returning home to Florida for a couple weeks before reporting to Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 11.

He’ll throw his fourth bullpen session near his home in Florida this week at Elevate Academy, formerly owned by New York Yankee Bucky Dent.

Memories of Prince

Tom Wilhelmsen will get to know his new Rangers teammates better in a couple of weeks in Surprise, but he already knows several. He played with Justin Ruggiano and Chris Gimenez while with the Seattle Mariners. He also remembers playing with Prince Fielder in Class A when both were with the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 2003. His memories of Fielder?

“Mammoth home runs,” said Wilhelmsen, who is not surprised Fielder went on to be a perennial All-Star. “Absolutely, you knew it. You could just see it walking out on the field, you knew he was going to be an All-Star, you knew he was going to be a home run champion.”

Lazy River

Grab your beach towels.

The Frisco RoughRiders are hoping to make a splash this summer. The Rangers’ Double A affiliate plans to build a lazy river behind the right-field wall and have it completed early this summer.

Owner Chuck Greenberg said the oval-shaped design will be longer than 200 feet and 30 percent longer than an Olympic-size pool. A wall of water will fall across the entire front of the river with water curtains 22 feet wide and 18 feet high behind it.

The river idea, which should be formally announced soon, follows massive improvements Greenberg implemented in 2015, including a new video board, sound system and an LED lighting system on the outfield wall.

“They’re great, but you can see things like that at other major league facilities in the market,” said Greenberg, who joked that he dreamed up the idea after a late night pizza and a “bizarre dream.”

“I wanted to come up with something that would be the signature visual element of the ballpark for as long as it’s here. Something that will be completely unique that no one else will replicate,” he said. “It also enables us to hold Vegas-style pool parties on the off days. It will make us a hospitality company that plays 70 baseball games.”

The river will mainly be used on a group reservation basis, but the club plans to make each Thursday night and other select nights open to individual fans with the purchase of special lazy-river game tickets.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Deception the focus for Texas Rangers pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez."