Rambling On.

This past week, I've been struggling with a pretty serious case of writer's block. None of my loosely thrown together processes have worked, at all, and I end up staring at the same sentence over and over, before wearily hitting delete, again.

I was going to write about two minor league games tonight, Frisco v Corpus and Memphis v Round Rock, but as life has it too many people in my neighborhood were watching too many other things for me to be able to watch more than a second of jumpy, laggy, stoppy stream at a time. So I was then going to write about soccer, but I got as far as a hackneyed analogy between being a goalie and life before I just stopped. I could write about basketball, but the NBA (non-Mavericks division) falls far below curling on the list of sports I'll willingly turn on my TV to watch. 

Somethings that I can write about in baseball happened, though. Two guys got a little closer to the big leagues, today, as the Rangers promoted submarining righty Ben Rowen to AAA Round Rock, and change-up/screwball specialist Alexander Claudio to AA Frisco. I love this time of year, around the minor league all-star breaks. If a mid-season (non-injury-replacement) promotion is going to happen, it usually happens now, and every single one makes me smile at least a little bit. 

To the technical side of things: Rowen takes his low-80s fastball and variety of slightly odd breaking balls to Round Rock, where he'll face some very advanced hitters, including one Oscar Taveras. This is yet another level where he'll have to prove himself in the eyes of those who doubt that a gimmick like a submariner could ever get a "real" hitter out. Claudio brings to Frisco (skipping a stop at A+ Myrtle Beach) a devilish change-up that usually sits in the high 60s to go with a 84ish MPH fastball and a slider around 73. It's much the same story for him-can a guy without "heat" get more advanced hitters out in a slightly more hit-friendly environment? If predictions could tell us, they wouldn't have to play the games. 

Travis Demeritte, the Rangers' second pick in the draft this year, introduced himself to professional baseball with a home run. He then struck out in his next two plate appearances, proving himself to be a) a rookie and b) quite possibly ready for Hickory. The rookie-league Rangers have two Aussies, RHP Tim Kennelly and OF Todd McDonald, only one of which I'd heard of before today. Spokane's website gives me the simple declaration "Postponed: Rain" which really isn't surprising, given the Spokane's location. 

I was going to write something else entirely tonight, but sometimes a brief and odd look around the minor leagues is the only thing that works. 

Accuracy on the Claudio numbers is thanks to Nathaniel Stoltz.