Friday Newsletter time: Group of top minor-league hitters meet with new Texas Rangers coaches
Among those in Arizona who met with Donnie Ecker and Tim Hyers were Josh Jung, Dustin Harris and Aaron Zavala.
The MLB lockout doesn’t not prohibit teams from contacting minor-league players who are not on the 40-man roster, as they are not part of the players association, and the Texas Rangers were in contact this week with most of their top hitters in the system.
Among those in attendance were Josh Jung, Dustin Harris, Aaron Zavala, Josh Smith and Davis Wendzel. Justin Foscue was not there because he just wrapped up a stint in the Arizona Fall League and the Rangers feel good about where he is.
The Rangers summoned around 20 minor-leaguers to Surprise, Ariz., for a hitting camp so that they could get to know new bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and new hitting coach Tim Hyers.
The camp also served as an informal offseason check-in to make sure the prospects are following the plan the Rangers laid out for them late in the season.
So far, so good.
“We're out here getting familiar with the language that we all use and making sure that they really just hear consistent vision from coaches that we anticipate they're working with in the future,” assistant general manager Ross Fenstermaker said.
“It's just an opportunity to see everybody in one spot together before the holidays and make sure everybody's on the right track and path before we kick it into the next gear as we get ready for spring training.”
The work was all done in the cages at the Surprise Recreation Campus. Some players were there only a few days, while others had longer stints.
The good news is that the new messaging isn’t much different from what players have been hearing from minor-league hitting coordinator Cody Atkinson and the staff of hitting coaches throughout the system.
Ecker and Hyers aren’t reinventing the wheel here.
“Cody and the rest of our hitting department, it's a consistent message,” Fenstermaker said. “So to hear from your major-league staff and for it to be directly in alignment with what they've been hearing from Cody and the rest of the group for the last two years, it's powerful and it's consistent.”
Stepping back
Some big news was delivered to media members’ inboxes Wednesday — John Blake is pulling back on his duties as the Rangers’ lead PR man and taking a new role that focuses more on being the club spokesman and working with alumni.
He explained that he had been toying with the idea for a while. He helped navigate the COVID-19 season and the opening of Globe Life Field, and, as he said, 43 years as a day-to-day PR man was probably enough.
On a personal note, John has had a big impact on me during my time on the beat, which now dates 14 years. He has been supportive of the Newsletter and is even a paid subscriber (you should be, too).
Blake’s new title is executive vice president of public affairs. Rich Rice will take over atop the PR food chain, and Angie Swint will handle the TV side.
The hunch here is Blake will still be fairly visible, that the Twitter account @RangerBlake isn’t going anywhere, and that the team’s daily communications will remain among the best in the game. But, hopefully, he will feel that it’s OK to leave a 15-1 game before the final out or just not come to ballpark at all some days.
Card of the week
The Hall of Fame will get much more crowded next year no matter what happens with players currently on the ballot. Two committees elected six players Sunday for enshrinement.
The Golden Days Era committee picked first basemen left-hander Jim Kaat, outfielder Minnie Minoso, Gil Hodges and Tony Oliva. The Early Baseball Days committee elected pitcher/second baseman Bud Fowler, regarded as the first black player in professional baseball, and Negro Leagues star first baseman Buck O’Neil.
It just felt right to choose a card of one of those players for the Card of the Week. To that end, here is Kaat’s 1960 Topps rookie.
It’s not the most famous rookie card of that set. That belongs to Carl Yzstremski a few cards later. Willie McCovey’s rookie card is also in the 1960 set. Those two have been in the Hall of Fame for quite a while.
Kaat pitched 25 seasons, winning 283 games and 16 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1962 to 1977. He has been a baseball broadcaster for more than three decades.
He and Oliva, both 83, are the only players of the six elected who are still living.
Doggy video!
Me, whenever someone says chips and salsa. Enjoy. See you Monday.
