Star-Telegram.com: Texas Rangers

Even when he wins, Rangers-Stars owner Hicks can’t win

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:40 CDT

GIL LeBRETON

The voice on the phone sounded exhilarated — as energized as ever.

And that was even before Saturday afternoon, when Tom Hicks’ favorite college football team rocked the Cotton Bowl.

Contrary to local belief, you see, Hicks has plenty to be happy about.

For one thing, the NHL regular season has begun, and Hicks’ Dallas Stars are being prominently touted as Stanley Cup contenders.

For another, team president Nolan Ryan returned from Arizona beaming with good news about the youngsters working out in the Texas Rangers’ fall camp.

And last, but far from least, Hicks has an undefeated, first-place soccer team.

As a resident local sports mogul, he has made his mistakes. John Hart and Chan Ho Park easily come to mind.

But I remain baffled by the wrath, from area fans and media alike, that mere mention of Hicks’ name seems to inspire.

Never mind that Jerry Jones let the best head coaches he ever had get away — twice. Never mind that Jones won’t fire the worst general manager the Dallas Cowboys have ever had — himself.

Jones still walks on water around here, fueled by the three Super Bowls that Jimmy Johnson won for him. (Don’t dare bring Barry Switzer’s name into this).

And Hicks? Other than in Austin and at the Stars, Inc., offices, he curiously remains broadly scorned on the global sports scene.

I don’t get it. And I especially don’t understand the rancor that the fans in Liverpool have for him.

Hicks didn’t buy his share of the 106-year-old Liverpool Football Club, I suspect, because he loved sharing a pint at Anfield and hanging out in Ringo’s old hometown. It was an investment, and the Liverpool club, with its cramped, ’70s-style stadium, presented an attractive opportunity.

News of Hicks’ and George Gillett’s joint purchase of the team was roundly applauded. But at that point, Liverpool fans apparently expected the two foreigners to disappear — and, oh, leave behind their checkbooks.

In the English Premier League, money is the sole official language. There is no trading of players between teams. There’s no amateur or college draft.

Instead, players are bought and sold. Cash is king. The more you have of it, the more that you can spend on acquiring better players.

The exact mentality, in other words, that some disgruntled Rangers fans want Hicks to employ in baseball.

First, though, Hicks wants to build Liverpool a modern, larger stadium, boosting the seating capacity from 45,362 to more than 71,000.

More Liverpool fans will get to see their beloved Reds play. Yet, they’re mad at Hicks for the idea, if I’m reading the tabloids correctly, because he’s had the audacity to — gulp — borrow money to build the new stadium.

To the Brits, debt is truly a four-letter word. The more debt a soccer club has, the fewer good players you’ll be able to buy during the transfer period.

Nolan Ryan expects Texas Rangers pitchers to shape up

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:10 CDT

By JEFF WILSON

SURPRISE, Ariz. — The record shows that Eddie Stanky’s most significant contribution to the Texas Rangers came in 1977, when he won the only game he managed for them after Frank Lucchesi had been fired.

Existentially, though, Stanky deserves partial credit for the 51 games Nolan Ryan won in a Rangers uniform.

It was Stanky, a former middle infielder working as the New York Mets’ director of player development, who drilled into Ryan how to be a major leaguer during his first Fall Instructional League.

"I learned more about baseball than I knew ever existed," said Ryan, the Rangers’ president. "I left there with a completely different perspective that there was a heck of a lot more to baseball than I ever had an understanding of."

So, when he says he wants to change the culture of pitching in the Rangers’ organization, Ryan channels some of what he learned in 1965 and hopes some of that finds its way into the minds and souls of every right-hander and left-hander.

The culture shock began during the 2008 season, and it continues here at the Fall Instructional League. Ryan envisions a future big-league staff that is as tough as it is talented, and he believes the process starts with teaching the best in the system while they are still young.

"You’ve got to start with them from square one," the Hall of Famer said. "We have an opportunity to take this young group of talent that we have and start letting them understand the way we’re going to approach this and what our expectations are. It’s a good time to do it."

Ryan doesn’t want the Rangers to be known only as a club stocked with hitters who put the fear of God into pitchers. He wants Rangers pitchers to put that fear into opposing hitters.

He hopes to accomplish that by having pitchers throw batting practice, having them working deeper into games and being in good enough physical condition to do so.

Those things happened in 2008, and the Rangers have the numbers to show that their more advance pitchers logged more innings. While the overall task isn’t easy, it might not be as difficult because the Rangers have fewer veterans who are set in their ways.

Instead, pitchers like top prospect Neftali Feliz and former first-round pick Kasey Kiker, among others, are the main targets. Feliz represents the next wave of talent to arrive in Arlington, with a possible big-league debut in 2009.

"The biggest thing is just get them accustomed to our routine here so they have an understanding when they leave here what’s expected of them," Ryan said. "We need to work with them and try to help their development along."

Both had one-on-one time with Ryan during his five days the past two weeks at the Surprise Recreation Complex, and they agree there’s no better person to motivate them to improve than Ryan.

Feliz, who made his fall debut Tuesday with two perfect innings, worked with Ryan on placing his blazing fastball and slider low and away.

"He introduced himself and said we were going to start working on a couple things," said Feliz, who wants to pitch in the big leagues next season. "I’m grateful that I have him around. He’s a great pitcher, so I’m lucky to have him."

Kiker was urged by Ryan to be at full-strength for the start of spring training, something arm issues might have prevented the past two springs. He is on an advanced conditioning program full of explosion exercises that will become the norm throughout the system for next season.

The challenge is as much physical as mental. Pitchers will learn how far they can push themselves, which can translate on the field into finding the stamina for an extra inning or finding a way to battle through a jam.

Rick Adair, the Rangers’ minor league pitching coordinator, said he likes the idea of pushing a pitcher’s limits. Pitch counts haven’t been eliminated, especially at the lower levels, but they aren’t as confining on the top-level pitchers as in years past.

"If you make a pitch count an objective, a pitcher usually ends up pitching to a number instead as opposed to competing in the game," Adair said. "If guys go deeper in the game, from a pitching standpoint you feel better about that."

That’s the Nolan Ryan culture shock, with an assist to Eddie Stanky, and the Rangers’ top young talent is learning.

Will it be glitz or grit in World Series?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:34 CDT

By ANTHONY ANDRO

The teams in the league championship series have been raised in different ways.

The silver-spoon teams — the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers — are competing against two gritty franchises, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia, in the league championship series.

The Red Sox and the Dodgers have all the glitz. They have won 12 World Series titles, have loyal followings nationwide, and a payroll to match their lofty heights. The Red Sox opened the season with a payroll topping $133 million. The Dodgers started with more than $118 million in salaries, and that was before they picked up Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox.

Philadelphia and Tampa Bay have one title between the two. Philly fans boo their own team. Tampa Bay didn’t even have that many fans show up to watch a first-place team this season, burned by the franchise’s futility since its inception. The teams’ combined payroll? Just $8 million more than the Red Sox’s.

So how will the battle of Glitz vs. Grit come out?

NLCS: Philadelphia vs. Los Angeles

Season series: 4-4

All that glitters

Philadelphia: Surprisingly, the Phillies have been able to win with starting pitching. Cole Hamels has been the team’s ace, but Brett Myers has rebounded from a horrendous start and has pitched better in the postseason. Jamie Moyer continues to be solid despite being 45. In a long series, the Phillies are going to need another starter to step up. Joe Blanton could be that guy after he beat Milwaukee in the divisional round.

Los Angeles: Ask the Cubs how good the Dodgers’ starting pitching is. Veteran Derek Lowe has big-game experience and set the tone for the divisional series in Game 1. Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda also have playoff experience now and each has a victory. Los Angeles starters allowed only three earned runs in the divisional series. Either Greg Maddux or Clayton Kershaw (from Highland Park) could provide depth.

The dirty truth

Los Angeles: Despite the addition of Manny Ramirez and his amazing run production, the Dodgers still struggle to score. Only Washington, San Francisco and San Diego scored fewer runs in the regular season than Los Angeles’ 4.32 a game. The Dodgers can’t rely on the home run ball, either, although home runs helped them against the Cubs. They ranked 13th in homers in the NL.

Philadelphia: As good as the Phillies are at producing the long ball (a National League-best 214 homers in the regular season), the offense can get stagnant if it’s not hitting home runs. The Phillies tied for second in the NL in runs during the regular season, and scored 15 runs in their four-game series against Milwaukee. But 10 of those came via home runs. Philly needs to be able to manufacture runs behind Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino in the NLCS.

The final analysis

Give us the glitz here. If good pitching is the key in the postseason, then no one is doing it better than the Dodgers right now.

Prediction: Dodgers in six games.

ALCS: Tampa Bay vs. Boston

Season series: 10-8, Tampa Bay

All that glitters

Boston: Experience heavily favors the Red Sox. They are in their fourth ALCS since 2003, and looking for their third World Series title in five years. While they have lost Mike Lowell for the rest of the postseason, they have a healthy Josh Beckett for Tampa Bay. Beckett, who was 4-0 in the postseason last year, figures to get two starts if needed against Tampa Bay.

Neftali Feliz working toward starting 2009 with Texas Rangers

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:29 CDT

Baseball’s first-round series belong to TBS

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:00 CDT

RAY BUCK

When did Major League Baseball throw in the towel?

I think I missed that.

When did MLB fall so far behind the NFL in fan popularity that even the whimper is out of earshot now?

It’s October. It’s unscripted baseball drama. It’s made-for-TV postseason play.

And where can we find our national pastime?

Answer: On our basic cable, that’s where.

If you want to watch pitch-by-pitch of the four divisional series going on right now, you need Time Warner’s TBS cable channel. Because for the second year in a row, TBS holds exclusive rights to the NL and AL first-round series.

We’ve become quite accustomed, of course, to cable TV providing our mainstream sports programming, i.e., Monday Night Football on ESPN and NBA playoffs on TNT. But the fact remains that not everyone has a friendly cable provider.

Of the estimated 114 million TV households in the United States, roughly 40 percent are noncable subscribers. DFW is even at the low end of the cable spectrum.

But if you own it, use it ... because TBS is scoring huge points with its graphics, camera work and all-day/all-night commentary.

Studio host Ernie Johnson gets the ball rolling each day with TBS MLB on Deck. He dishes off to a nice cast of Hall of Fame players-turned-analysts — Cal Ripken Jr. and Dennis Eckersley in-studio, and Tony Gwynn and future HOFer John Smoltz at game sites.

And for the second year in a row, Detroit Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson is proving that he has a future in television when he gets done playing.

Until Fox gets involved in the process and brings us the NL Championship Series starting Thursday, October Ball belongs solely to TBS.

This won’t change anytime soon. MLB has a seven-year, $3 billion deal with the two networks through 2013.

Funny, the NFL has issued some ratings numbers by Nielsen Media Research measuring last week’s viewership of NFL games against the season premiere of Dancing With the Stars.

DWTS was the only television show during the week of Sept. 22-28, according to the report, that drew more viewers (21.3 million to 21.2 million) than Sunday’s Redskins-Cowboys game on Fox.

Meanwhile, TBS has waged a few ratings battles of its own this week.

For example, NLDS/ALDS coverage on TBS already has had to go head-to-head with Law & Order reruns on TNT, That ’70s Show reruns on the FX Network and an ’85 Chuck Norris movie on AMC.

Good thing TBS has game.

Earth to Bud Selig: MLB would be better served with an NFL-style tiebreaker system. All future play-in games, i.e., White Sox-Twins, should be played at the site of the team with the better (not worst) head-to-head record during the season.

Texas Rangers making progress in filling coaching vacancies

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:06 CDT

Next time, Texas Rangers will tell trade suitor, Danks but no Danks

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:25 CDT

JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

About eight innings into the White Sox-Twins game Tuesday, after watching former Rangers prospect John Danks throw a two-hit masterpiece, owner Tom Hicks decided to send a text message to a buddy.

"You owe me one big time on Danks," he noted.

"I sure do," came White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s reply.

Glad we can all have a giggle about trading Danks to Chicago for Brandon "Rehab Start" McCarthy because just about every remaining Rangers fan was vomiting blood watching this Texas lefty dazzle on the big stage.

He had been one of the D’s in DVD, a reason to hope for Rangers fans, given up for what amounts to an episode of House, and he delivered a shutout to lead Chicago to an AL Central championship.

Yes, Reinsdorf owes Texas.

How about giving us Ken Williams for Jon Daniels in a straight-up GM deal? Or just take JD?

Trading away Danks has to qualify as a fireable offense, at least in most organizations. And yet JD is still GM of your Texas Rangers.

"We have made some mistakes and that was clearly the biggest one we made," Hicks said Wednesday during his postseason postmortem with me.

"That wasn’t just JD. Our staff made the judgment that Danks was two years away, and they were absolutely wrong. The comforting thing for me now is we have a new leader, and if Nolan had been there, we never would have done [the Danks deal]. And we will never trade a No. 1 pick, a left-handed pitcher again."

If it sounds like JD can barely leave his desk without raising his hand and asking Ryan’s permission, well, that is because he cannot.

Oh, they do not say it exactly like this.

They use phrases like "the committee" and "a good team," like Ryan and JD are compadres, equals, which is almost kind of funny.

But let’s be really clear: JD remains as GM of this franchise in name only, and he no longer has the power to ever trade away a Danks or anybody like him. Not without Ryan’s expressed written consent.

Hicks has a policy not to approve a recommendation if Ryan and JD are not in agreement, which really means Ryan has veto power on everything JD does, and JD gets to keep the office and the paycheck while learning from Ryan.

And what about this idea that Hicks possibly whispered in Ryan’s ear that he’d prefer if JD was retained?

"Absolutely not," Hicks insisted. "It was all Nolan’s decision."

I believe Hicks on this. He understood the ground rules when he hired Ryan. He was not coming in to be a "yes man" or as simply a name to be used to sell tickets. Either he had control or he wasn’t coming.

And for all you Hicks haters, time to give him a little credit.

He hired a baseball man. He gave him final say-so. And what he gets for this is a recommendation for another year of JD and Wash. Go figure, right?

Phillies slip past Gallardo, Brewers in opener

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:17 CDT

By ROB MAADDI

PHILADELPHIA — Cole Hamels put Philadelphia in position to win, then Brad Lidge barely hung on. Behind their top two arms, the Phillies grabbed their first postseason victory in 15 years.

Hamels pitched eight brilliant innings, Lidge escaped a ninth-inning jam and Philadelphia took advantage of Mike Cameron’s miscue in center field for a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in their playoff opener Wednesday.

Chase Utley’s two-run double slipped out of Cameron’s glove in the third inning, sending Philadelphia to a 3-0 lead. Lidge allowed a run in the ninth but struck out Corey Hart with runners and second and third to end it.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Thursday, with ace CC Sabathia going to the mound for the wild-card Brewers on three days’ rest for the fourth consecutive start. Brett Myers pitches for the Phillies.

It’ll be tough for anyone to match Hamels’ superb performance. The 24-year-old lefty retired the first 14 batters and allowed two hits, striking out nine.

Lidge, 41-for-41 in save chances during the season, pitched out of trouble. The Brewers had the tying run at the plate when Prince Fielder fanned for the second out. After J.J. Hardy walked to put two runners on, the runners advanced on a wild pitch. But Hart struck out swinging to end it.

Hamels baffled the fastball-hitting Brewers with his dazzling changeup, helping the Phillies earn their first postseason win since the 1993 World Series against Toronto.

The NL East champions were swept out of the first round by the surging Colorado Rockies last year. Hamels lost the opener of that series.

Making his second start since returning from surgery for a torn knee ligament, Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo got rattled after his defense fell apart in the third.

The 22-year-old righty allowed three unearned runs and three hits in four innings, walking five. Gallardo became the second pitcher in major league history to start a postseason game without recording a win that year. He pitched in three games before he injured his right knee on May 1 and had a 1.88 ERA to go with four no-decisions.

Carlos Ruiz started Philadelphia's third inning with a single. Hamels then bunted hard to third baseman Bill Hall, who bobbled the ball, costing him a chance to get Ruiz at second. Second baseman Rickie Weeks dropped Hall's throw to first for an error.

Gallardo almost worked out of the jam, though. He retired Jimmy Rollins on a shallow fly and struck out Jayson Werth. But Utley ripped a liner through a swirling wind to center. Cameron took a poor route, raced back and reached up for a backhanded catch only to have the ball bounce out of his glove.

Both runners scored on Utley's double for a 2-0 lead. A three-time Gold Glove winner, Cameron usually makes that play look routine.

Gallardo intentionally walked Ryan Howard and then walked Pat Burrell to load the bases. Gallardo walked Shane Victorino to force in another run, before retiring Pedro Feliz on a fly to center.

Hamels, who didn't get much run support as he went 14-10 in the regular season, didn't need any more. The Phillies had just four hits.

Hart lined a single to right on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the fifth for Milwaukee's first hit. Hamels pitched out of his only jam in the sixth. Craig Counsell singled with one out and Cameron walked. But Hamels fanned Hall on a down-and-away changeup and got Ryan Braun to pop out.

A sellout crowd of 45,929 at Citizens Bank Park withstood a steady rain for most of the game, waved their “Fightin' Phils” rally towels and savored a rare playoff victory.

This championship-starved city hasn't celebrated a title since the NBA's 76ers won it all in 1983.

The Brewers, in the postseason for the first time in 26 years, now turn to Sabathia. The burly left-hander almost single-handedly carried Milwaukee into the playoffs, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA after he was acquired July 7 from Cleveland. But Sabathia is just 2-2 with a 7.17 ERA in four postseason starts.

The Brewers haven't fared well in Philly this year. They were swept in a four-game series here three weeks ago. Manager Ned Yost was fired with 12 games remaining after that series and third-base coach Dale Sveum took over.

Positives in 2008 bring Texas Rangers hope for more

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:53 CDT

By JEFF WILSON

ARLINGTON — The payroll will remain largely unchanged for 2009, and fans shouldn’t expect to be wooed back to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington by the signing of a big-name free agent.

But the Texas Rangers surpassed expectations in 2008, an admitted rebuilding year, to the point where team brass will consider using multiyear contracts to attract free-agent help.

That doesn’t seem like much advancement. Only a year ago, though, the Rangers were committed to one-year deals to plug holes until prospects were developed to fill them.

The early arrival of players like Chris Davis and Matt Harrison had club brass thinking aloud Tuesday that the Rangers are closer to seeing their build-from-within project produce a winning team.

"I really think we saw a lot of positives this year," general manager Jon Daniels said during the season wrap-up news conference. "For what was largely a development year coming in, clearly we’ve seen a lot of growth."

He and manager Ron Washington stood at the longstanding company line that pitching must improve. The Rangers allowed the most runs (967) and had the highest ERA (5.37) in baseball as their injury-plagued starting rotation underperformed and the bullpen was overworked.

Daniels has met with owner Tom Hicks to discuss the 2009 budget, which is likely to hold steady at the $68 million the Rangers spent this season.

While the well-known free agents like CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets are likely out of the Rangers’ price range, they won’t be limited only to major league free agents.

Players in Japan will be considered, Daniels said, after the Rangers’ presence in the Pacific Rim grew in large part because of the relationships Jim Colborn re-established as the director of Pacific Rim operations.

"I do feel like we’re light years ahead of where we were a year ago," Daniels said. "The contacts he has reconnected will have definitely given us a lot of in-roads into that market."

Right-hander Yu Darvish could be with best pitcher to emerge from a potentially deep pool of Japanese players who hope to move to the major leagues.

But the Rangers have a decision pending to exercise the $6.2 million club option on Hank Blalock, who has expressed a preference to remain at first base. Should he be allowed to become a free agent, the Rangers could move Davis back to first and pursue Casey Blake to play third.

Daniels said final decisions will be made during meetings next week in Surprise, Ariz., with scouts and development personnel. Progress, though, has been made, and the expectation is that more is ahead.

Said Daniels: "From this point going forward, it’s about us taking a premium collection of talent throughout the organization ... and having Ron and his staff turning that from a premium level of talent into a championship club."

Hicks on board with Washington

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:23 CDT