The Texas Rangers made their first move of the Baseball meetings in Nashville when they sent CF Freddy Guzman(triple a oklahoma) to the Detroit Tigers for INF Chris Shelton. Shelton has spent most of his time with the Triple A organization up there but did play 107 games for them at the Major League level in 05-06. He batted .299 with 18 home runs and 65 RBI's the only line that did not look all that good is that he had 161 strikeouts in 468 at bats not that great. Despite acquiring Shelton from the Tigers the Rangers do not see him as their everyday first baseman and are looking at doing some changes in Texas.
The Rangers do have a clarity now of who they are looking to acquire now and that list now includes: LaTroy Hawkins and Eric Gagne for reliever rolls, Milton Bradley and Corey Patterson for their corner outfield spots, and they are very interested in Sean Casey the free agent first baseman that the Rangers see as someone that can be a good leader in the clubhouse. Out of all of those we do know that the Rangers offered LaTroy Hawkins a one year deal with incentives for a second year...but it is believed that the Colorado Rockies have changed their minds and are now countering the Rangers offer. The other one we know the Rangers were interested in meeting with is Eric Gagne and they had a meeting scheduled for last night but that was postponed due to the LA Dodgers and the Andruw Jones deal. The thing is if the Rangers can get just let's say four of those guys which we know will never happen this team would look to contend in the 08 year if their starting pitching where to stay healthy. The Rangers do need offense and you can see that they are addressing that now and they need some relief pitching and they are definitely going after that...and they need outfield help and they are going after that...so as long as Tom Hicks holds his end of the deal which you read in earlier blogs he is not great at then this team could be something in the future and maybe even sooner than what people think.
Other notes: The Rangers have met with the Minnesota Twins to see what would be asked of them for Johan Santana and they DO NOT seem to be in the running for him at this point or ever in their and my lifetime.
The Rangers have been in touch with the Japanese player Fukudome but have not really had any more dialogues with him and it is speculated that he will stay in Japan and not come to the US to play baseball.
Washington stated yesterday at the Winter Meetings that his goal for next year is that they win just ten more games. If we win ten more games then maybe we can win 12-15 more and then we might have a chance in the division which seems to be all the Anaheim Angels now that they added veteran pitcher Jon Garland from the White Sox and added Torii Hunter to man their center field.
One last thing: I want to know why the Rangers have not went after the well let's say the former astros right fielder Luke Scott I know he is not the biggest upgrade in the majors but hey the kid hit in Houston so just keep him a texan and move him up north...what do u think? Well, that is the latest in the Rangers world so stay tuned to this blog and I will have the latest and greatest rangers news.
