According to ESPN, the Texas Rangers have avoided arbitration with shortstop Elvis Andrus, agreeing Tuesday to a three-year deal worth between $14-15 million.
Andrus, 23, will avoid arbitration for the remainder of his career with Texas thanks to the contract. He batted .279 with five homers and 60 RBIs with 37 stolen bases in 2011.
It was Andrus’ third season in the league as the club’s starting shortstop. He was second in the AL rookie of the year balloting in 2009, hitting .267 with six homers and 40 RBIs with 33 stolen bases. He had a .265 average with no homers and 35 RBIs with 32 stolen bases in 2010.
Texas Rangers OF Josh Hamilton, who has battled drug and alcohol addictions, said he “had a moment of weakness” and drank alcohol on Monday night. Hamilton addressed the media on Friday and explained the details of the incident.
Is a good talk a good talk when you’re talking to Roy Oswalt? See, here’s what I mean. He would be a nice (not great, but nice) addition to the Rangers’ roster. However, didn’t he run up to Philly to win a title? I thought that was titletown? I know he’s getting older and he wants to win a World Series, but when you see a guy start chasing like this, you have to wonder how much loyalty he has in him to a team that is very close-knit and very emotional. The Rangers are more than a team–they’re a family.
Now that Prince Fielder is off the table with his big nine year contract that he signed with the Tigers, the Rangers cannot speculate about what they would do if they signed him. So, it seems that the talks they were having with Josh Hamilton had to intensify. Besides the fact that some of the higher-ups wanted Hamilton, it is pretty much a done deal now. Josh Hamilton has to remain a Ranger or the Rangers have no help in the hitting department. Well, they have people, but Hamilton is the help–the cleaner.
Bob Simpson, co-chairman of the board of the Texas Rangers, says that he would rather have Josh Hamilton over Prince Fielder. Why you ask? Well, read his comments on the subject:
“We’ve got guys, frankly, like Josh Hamilton that I would love to see re-signed. My personal preference, at this moment, would be to re-sign him instead of having Fielder. But we could all debate that.”
“Everybody dreams about having both. Sometimes you can’t have both at some level. If they came around to something we’d do, we’d look at him. But we don’t think it’s likely.”
Yu Darvish has just signed a deal for about $60 million with the Texas Rangers. He’s coming over from Japan to great fanfare. However, as we talked yesterday about the young pitchers for the Rangers learning defense from Greg Maddux, we now have to deal with a young pitcher who is just coming across the Pacific.
Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux is bringing in his brother Greg Maddux to work on defense with the lineup for the Rangers. It’s a good move for a club that needs to make fine improvements so that it can stay on top and avoid a major letdown after losing two World Series in a row.
This is a good way for Greg Maddux to stay in the game, and it’s a smart way for his brother Mike to use his connections. With 18 Gold Gloves, Greg is probably the best-fielding pitcher that ever played baseball. So, pairing him with lots of young pitchers who need to learn the finer points of the game is a good idea.
Josh Hamilton has, wisely, had an accountability partner with the Rangers to help keep himself on the straight and narrow. His father-in-law, Michael Dean Chadwick, was going to do that job for the Rangers but he has backed out of the position.
The reason that Chadwick could not take the job was because he would have to leave his family who are in North Carolina and travel with the Rangers all season. First of all, even considering to do that for someone is really cool, but I can understand why you wouldn’t want to do that, ultimately.
Let’s be honest. If you wanted to learn how to be a starter in the Majors, you couldn’t go wrong talking to Pedro Martinez. I know, I know. Some of you would recommend learning how to get free money, but I think many of us forget that Pedro was just as pivotal in 2004 for the Red Sox as Curt Schilling was. He made just as many great starts and threw just as many critical games for them. He just didn’t have the bloody sock.
So, what can Neftali Feliz learn from Pedro? Everything! He talked about it this week:
The Rangers do need to get more production out of first base, but does that mean that they need to sign Prince Fielder to do it? All indications have been that the Rangers would really like to reach a deal with Yu Darvish. Many people also believe the team can’t afford both guys, but it has been reported that they could structure contracts such that that would be possible.
