The Texas Rangers continue their offseason maneuverings and announced they are inviting eight Minor league players to Spring Training camp to attempt to make the 2012 MLB roster.
Texas Rangers
Wikimedia Commons
The players invited to camp include Mike Olt, Tommy Mendonca, Fabio Castillo, Greg Reynolds, Robbie Ross, Tanner Scheppers, Ben Snyder and Greg Miclat.
The two big names on this list are Olt and Mendonca. Both men are third basemen but Mendonca will get the chance to move to catcher as well, making me wonder if Texas is having second thoughts about Yorvit Torrealba, who has spent the offseason creating lots of controversy.
Mendonca played for Double-A Frisco in 2011, finishing the year hitting .278 with 25 homers and 87 RBIs over 125 games. He made the All-Star team in the Texas League and was part of Team USA when they won the silver medal in the Pan Am Games in Mexico.
Mendonca went through a tough year, two of his closest friends dying in an auto accident around the time of the All-Star game. The player then used baseball to help him focus and deal with the grief of losing the friends that he had known since grade school.
Mike Olt made news for other reasons in 2011. Olt batted .267 with 14 home runs and 42 RBIs for Class-A Myrtle Beach, despite missing two months with a broken collarbone. However, Olt came into his own in the Arizona Fall League where he led the entire AFL in home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage. Washington Nationals' superstar prospect Bryce Harper also played in the AFL and Olt outplayed him.
Olt has a great chance of making the roster based on his ability to move around the infield, allowing the Rangers to keep his hitting power in the lineup if he makes the team.
The other big name here is Tanner Scheppers, who has been to three consecutive Spring Training appearances for Texas. The Rangers considered using him as a starter in 2011 but now plan to look at him as a relief pitcher. Scheppers split time between Frisco and Round Rock last season, finishing with a 4-1 record and a 3.71 ERA.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and awaits the year they finally win the big one.
Source: MLB.COM
Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.
No comments:
Post a Comment