Ranger Notes

As I’ve said too many times before, Drew Edward Meyer is a ballplayer in the best sense of the word. He’s not the guy who will deliver the big homer, but he will do all of the little things that, over time, separate the winners from the losers. Yesterday, Meyer did both: he delivered the long ball and did the little things that win games.

After belting an eighth inning solo shot for his first hit of the spring, Meyer came up again in the ninth and delivered a sac fly to right field to plate Ian Kinsler for what would turn out to be the game winning run.

It was another outstanding day at the office for Kinsler, who appears to be making a joke of the "competition" for the starting second base job: 1-2 with a double bringing him to .375 / .643 / .875 through 14 plate appearances. Star-Telegram writer Kat O’Brien adds that Kinsler also impressed defens! ively, executing a bare hander on a slow roller to get a runner at first.

Jason Botts

drew a walk in a 0-1 effort and Ruddy Yan executed a key sac bunt in the ninth that moved Kinsler to third, setting up Meyer’s game winning sac fly. Yan also scored a run pinch-running for Mark DeRosa in the sixth.

Gerald Laird

(.429 / .429 / .714) may be the most underrated player in Surprise and possibly in the AL West. Not only did he go 2-3 with a triple, but he made two outstanding defensive plays, gunning down the only runner who dared him, making him 3-3 this spring, and making the play on a Juan Pierre bunt to lead off the Cubs first.

First baseman Nate Gold singled in his first at-bat of the spring and third baseman Travis Metcalf drew a walk in his only plate appearance.

Mixed results for Josh Rupe who is ! probably the current frontrunner for the fifth starter slot. Rupe worked a quick, 1-2-3 first and allowed one hit to Marquis Grissom in the third, but faced the minimum as Laird drilled Grissom attempting to steal second base. In the second, however, Rupe struggled, allowing three singles and a double in four consecutive at-bats as the Cubs got to him for a pair of runs. A DeRosa-Arias-Nevin double play stopped the bleeding.

Afterwards, pitching coach Mark Connor told reporters that Rupe was slow to make adjustments in the second, but righted himself in the third by doing a better job of mixing in breaking balls.

The DMN’s Richard Durrett had Rupe down for 25 strikes out of 41 pitches.

Wes Littleton

struggled, allowing two doubles and a run in the ninth, but earned the save nonetheless.

NOTES:

Vincent Sinisi stayed hot, belting a two-run homer for the Paisanos in yesterday's 10-0 WBC route of the Aussies. Sinisi, Italy's starting center fielder, also homered in Italy's exhibition game against Detroit over the weekend.

Reliever Marc LaMacchia, also on the Italy roster, didn't see action, but former Rangers farmhand Pete "Sock-the-Lillies" Zoccolillo drew two walks and scored twice in three trips for Italia.

Durrett points out in today’s DMN that the Rangers set the modern-era record for fewest sacrifices in a season with nine last year. They executed two in the ninth inning alone yesterday (Yan and Meyer).

A reminder that Kevin Goldstein, author of "Future Shock" for Baseball Prospectus will join us for a c! hat at newbergreport.com today at 2:00 p.m. Go the newbergreport.com home page, click on "Chat" (on the left side of the screen), and enter the room to participate in our live chat.

Check out Alan Eskew’s feature on John Danks at texasrangers.com. In our "Prospect Previews" I wrote at length that Danks’s direct and realisitic self-assessment as well as his drive to erase weaknesses from year to year is a big part of what sets him apart. Eskew captures that nicely in his feature.

Edison Volquez

gets the call this afternoon against Oakland’s Joe Blanton at Surprise Stadium.

Say what you want about Mark DeRosa, but remember this: yesterday, he told the Star-Telegram’s Kat O’Brien that it was a "no brainer" that Ian Kinsler could hit big league pitching and was ready defensively for a starting big league job: "I'm not campaigning for him; I want that job more than anybody. I just am not going to be a guy that's rooting against a teammate. That's not beneficial to anybody. ..." And you wonder why baseball people love this guy?

M.J. Hindman

newbergreport.com