Rangers Spectacular Rally to Leave Arizona: Rangers 6 Diamondbacks 4 and Treanor Trade Thoughts

The Rangers finished their time in Arizona yesterday afternoon against Arizona’s Diamondbacks, not much of any bad in this one aside from Feliz who gave up one run (but really…that’s just nitpicking).

Starting Pitcher Matt Harrison:

Harrison who was named to the starting rotation late last week took his last start for spring training and faired pretty well. In four innings of work Harrison gave up four hits and two runs accumulating three strikeouts for the outing. Not entirely sure of Harrison just yet but if he can repeat an outing similar to this I will be happy.

Other Relievers:

Mason Tobin, Darren O’Day, and Neftali Feliz all pitched in the game (we’ll get to Pedro Strop who also pitched in a moment). Tobin was solid in one inning pitched giving up no hits, no runs and two strikeouts. O’Day gave up one hit but no runs in one inning of work. Feliz also pitching one inning gave up two hits and one run.

The 9^th Inning

This was the rally inning, the Rangers picked up four runs and came back to win. Yorvit Torrealba singled on a line drive to left field and then Jared Bolden replaced Torrealba as a pinch runner. Endy Chavez singled on a soft fly to center field advancing Bolden to third, Craig Gentry then singled to left scoring Bolden and moving Chavez up to second base. Esteban German struck out and then Andres Blanco hit a single to center to load the bases. My favorite non-roster invitee Doug Deeds then came up and took one for the team with an RBI hit-by-pitch, Chris Davis hit a single to right immediately after to score another run and keep the bases loaded. Hot shot pitching prospect Pedro Strop knocked a sacrifice fly to left scoring Blanco and Moreland struck out to end the inning.

Vote for Pedro

Pedro Strop, in addition to picking up the RBI in the top of the ninth picked up the win pitching both the eighth and ninth innings only giving up one run on two hits. The D-Backs came up in the bottom of the 9^th did nothing and Rangers win it 6-4. Pedro is definitely my pick for the last bullpen spot.

Non Game Related- Treanor Trade Thoughts:

I like the move to trade Teanor, not always a big fan of the cash trades but we definitely didn’t need three catchers in the big league club. This means more playing time for Michael Young and Jamey Newberg pointed out in his report this morning “you almost never want to have your backup catcher DH’ing”. Don’t get me wrong here, Treanor did a ton for the Rangers over the last year but I’m comfortable with Napoli and Torrealba and it seemed a little much to have all three, even if Napoli was a DH/Catcher.

This move allows another arm in the bullpen which after Tommy Hunter’s injury had moves to be made. This is a club that has depth at catcher since Kevin Cash and Taylor Teagarden are both talented players who could step up if necessary.

3 more sleeps until opening day!

-Jonathan