1 more spot to fill

- Jason Jennings officially on board. 1 more spot to fill out the rotation, which I doubt will spend more than 25% of the year completely healthy.

Four down, one to go for Texas Rangers

12:21 AM CST on Friday, January 18, 2008
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News
egrant@dallasnews.com

ARLINGTON – The Texas Rangers' addition of right-hander Jason Jennings to the starting rotation made one thing crystal clear Thursday afternoon: The team is betting on comebacks.

With the addition of Jennings, who agreed to a one-year deal worth a base salary of $4 million, general manager Jon Daniels said the club believes it has four rotation spots locked up for 2008.

Jennings will join Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla and Brandon McCarthy as sure things, providing they are healthy.

The Rangers believe things can only get better for the quartet. They certainly can't get much worse. In 2007, they combined for a 23-43 record and a composite 5.51 ERA and seven trips to the disabled list. They averaged only 123 1/3 innings pitched last year.

"The bottom line is we didn't get enough innings from our starters last year," Daniels said. "But given better health, I'd expect all of them to regularly go deep into games as they have in the past.

"That's got to be a rallying cry for our starters this year. We need innings from them to give the club a chance to win on a regular basis."

Chewing up innings is essential for the Rangers to compete and has been since the team moved into Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in 1994. Since then, they've had three pitchers go at least 180 innings in the same season four times, all of them from 1995 to 1998 when they won a pair of AL West titles.

The trio of Millwood, Padilla and Jennings has 13 combined seasons of at least 180 innings.

Millwood and Padilla each gave the Rangers 200 innings in 2006, and Jennings pitched a career-high 212 innings for Colorado that season. Elbow problems, which eventually led to surgery, scuttled Jennings' 2007 season.

There is financial motivation for Jennings to get back to the 200-inning plateau. He would max out a series of incentives that would double his salary.

Jennings, who went 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA for Houston last year, has twice pitched off a mound already. He said he expects to be on pace with the other starters when spring training begins next month.

"I feel better throwing the ball than I have the last two years," he said. "I'm hoping to carry that into spring training and into the season."

Daniels said there will be competition for the fifth spot. Left-hander Kason Gabbard, who was 6-1 last year, and right-hander Luis Mendoza, who was very effective and efficient in three September starts, are the front-runners.

Briefly: LHP Bill White, released earlier this month, has signed a minor league contract and will be at spring training competing for a job in the bullpen. ... With 1B Chris Shelton's future uncertain, the Rangers are preparing to look at OF-DH Jason Botts, INF German Duran and possibly 3B Travis Metcalf as right-handed hitting backups to Ben Broussard. If Shelton, who was designated for assignment last week, clears waivers, he would be also be a strong candidate for the backup job. ... The Rangers' winter caravan stops Saturday in Frisco at the Dr Pepper Ballpark with a large contingent of players: Millwood, Metcalf, 2B Ian Kinsler, RHP Wes Littleton and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia.



- Piss poor, just piss poor.

Rangers' average salary ranked 27th in 2007

The Texas Rangers ranked 27th out of 30 clubs last season – ahead of only Florida, Washington and Tampa Bay – with an average salary of $1.645 million, according to final figures released Thursday by the Major League Baseball Players Association.

The Rangers' average salary was below baseball's record average of $2.82 million – a 4.6 percent increase from the 2006 season. Topping the list again was the New York Yankees with an average salary of $7.47 million.

Commissioner Bud Selig said revenue among the 30 clubs topped $6 billion for the first time last season.



- Morrow gets rocked, Stars respond with much needed win. Come back home for 4 straight. And Razor says look for an upgrade via trade very soon.



Hit sparks Dallas Stars in 4-2 win

02:59 AM CST on Friday, January 18, 2008
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Maybe Craig Rivet did the Dallas Stars a favor.

When the San Jose Sharks defenseman buried Brenden Morrow’s face into the glass in the first period Thursday, he awoke a fire that has been lacking in Dallas’ five-game road trip.

The Stars, despite missing injured defenseman Sergei Zubov for half of the game, put together their most complete game in two weeks and took a 4-2 win over the Sharks at HP Pavilion.

"That was huge," goalie Marty Turco said. "Tonight was a classic example of being there for each other all over the ice. It was a true team win."

The victory, combined with Anaheim’s 2-1 win over Nashville, puts the Ducks in first place in the Pacific Division with 58 points. The Stars (26-18-5) end a three-game winless streak and now have 57 points. San Jose (25-14-7) has played three fewer games than the Stars and also has 57 points.

With Morrow trying to play the puck while facing the boards in the first period, Rivet hit the Stars captain from behind. Morrow’s head bounced off the glass, and he crumpled to the ice in a heap. Trevor Daley charged in to fight Rivet and ended up taking an instigator minor a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct penalty for 17 total minutes. Rivet received no penalty on the play but spent five minutes in the box for fighting.

"Trevor Daley responded very well," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "I still don’t know how that wasn’t a penalty."

Daley said he just wanted Rivet to know that kind of hit was unacceptable.

"Any time you see one of your guys laying on the ice, you don’t let that happen," Daley said. "Especially with your captain."

Morrow got up from the hit and spent a good five minutes discussing with the officials why there was no penalty on Rivet. Officials told him they felt he turned into the boards. Morrow had a large contusion under his eye and took stitches over his eye. His face and the front of his jersey were covered with blood.

"It’s a long trip and to have that gut check and find that effort, that’s huge for the team," Morrow said. "We could have packed it away or been disappointed with the refs, but we found a way to win."

The Stars got two goals from Mike Modano (who now has eight points in the past five games) and two assists from Loui Eriksson (who now has six points in the last five games). The two were combined on a line with Niklas Hagman, and Hagman finished with a goal and an assist.

In addition, they spent much of the night checking the Sharks’ top line with Joe Thornton.

"I thought that line was very good tonight," Tippett said.

Thornton tied the game at the 3:23 mark of the third period, but Modano came back and registered the winner at the 12:54 mark. It was Modano’s fourth goal at HP Center this year, and he joked afterward the Stars should maybe move to San Jose.

Dallas has now won six straight in the building -- impressive when you consider the Sharks fans are always vocal and have a solid rivalry going with the Stars.

"It was a fun, revved up game," Modano said. "Sometimes, when you bear down, and you know the crowd is into it, that’s exciting. It’s the challenge of not only the other team, but trying to take the crowd out of the game."

Of course, when you get motivated the way the Stars were after the Rivet hit, emotion is easy to come by. The Stars played a significant chunk without Daley because of the penalties he received from the fight. They also played the third period without Zubov, who aggravated his foot injury. Zubov is listed as day to day.

The Stars also were in a three-game winless streak and were in jeopardy of falling further behind in the Western Conference standings.

"As much as the outside pressure is there, the players want to win even more," Tippett said. "When things aren’t going their way, it hurts. They want to play better. When we come out with an effort like that, it’s so good to see they get rewarded for their work."

And something they believe they can take into games Saturday and Sunday at home.

"We’re leaving here without any excuses," Morrow said. "We came out and had a great effort. Nobody has to feel sorry for us. We can build off of tonight."




- Mavericks killing time.....



Dallas Mavericks' 'D' is improved but doesn't rate an 'A'

While Mavs' defense has improved, Avery says it must get better

01:10 AM CST on Friday, January 18, 2008
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com

There's no quicker way to put the Mavericks on the defensive than to ask about defense.

It's good. Or, at least, it's getting better. Honest.

"It's a whole lot better than it was earlier in the year," Josh Howard said Thursday. "We're still giving up a lot of points, which we shouldn't be doing, but for the most part, we're playing better D."

So don't let those 122 points the Mavericks allowed at Sacramento the other night tell you differently. The fact that the Mavericks kept 10 consecutive opponents below 100 before Monday proves they have made strides defensively.

But before everybody goes all Detroit Bad Boys about the defense, the Avery Johnson precinct must weigh in.

Yes, strides have been made, the Mavericks coach said. But he added that there are some difficult leaps still to take.

Johnson was asked where the Mavericks would stand now if they had started the season at 1 with a goal of reaching 100 on defense.

"I would say we're probably at 75," he said. "It has been improving. But we know a 75 is not where we need to be."

As with every aspect of the team, the hard part on defense starts now. After hosting Seattle on Saturday, the Mavericks (26-12) will hit the midpoint of the season on an upcoming trip to Washington and Charlotte. This is when contending teams try to tighten things up.

Last season, it was in February and March when the Mavericks started to show flaws. They took shortcuts and it came back to haunt them.

This season, the goal is to keep the progression going.

So the Mavericks want to get their defense up several notches in the second half of the season.

"I wouldn't say it's easy to go from 1 to 75, but it's harder to go from 75 to 90 or 95," Johnson said. "The thing for us is that we don't want to be at an 85 now and three weeks from now be back at 70.

"We have to get to a point where we get to the high 80s or 90s, because sometimes even with great defense, great NBA players find a way to make that defense play. We've got to get to that next 10 to 15 percent better before the end of the season, and that's the hard part."

One asset is Eddie Jones' health. The Mavericks have been remarkably better defensively when Jones has played than when he hasn't.

Jones has quick hands and has a way of staying in front of his man, even at his advanced NBA age (36). Howard said Jones helps the Mavericks communicate on defense and "come out of our shell."

So when Jones puts in his 20 minutes, mostly at the start of the game and the start of the second half, he can help set a defensive tone.

"The coach has definitely put me in a great situation," Jones said. "It's perfect. The way he's doing it, I can be successful and the team can be successful."

So as the player with one of the best defensive reputations on the team, does Jones think the Mavericks have improved in that area?

"I think we have, but sometimes there are games when defensive things don't click," he said. "Sometimes teams get on a heck of a run and get so confident that you just can't do anything to stop them. I think that's what happened at Sacramento. Those guys just weren't going to miss no matter what."

But, as Johnson said, the Mavericks can make sure they are as prepared as possible to make the opponents' task as tough as it can get.

That's why defense was emphasized in part of Thursday's practice.

"It was a big point of emphasis, getting our team in five, six, seven defensive situations, looking at some adjustments, looking at how we want to make sure everybody's on the same page to make sure we're sound in that area," Johnson said.

They'll find out in the coming weeks how good their defense really is.


DEFENSE IS KEY
The Mavericks are scoring about a point more per game (101.2) than they did last season. But they remain more successful when they are sharp at the defensive end.


Opp. points Mavs' W-L
Under 80 3-0
Under 90 12-1
Under 96.2 14-4
Under 100 18-6
100 or more 7-6


Note: The Mavericks are allowing an average of 96.2 points this season. Last season, they gave up 92.8.



- Wow. Nothing like Hitler humor.




- Weekend Picks

Green Bay 34
NY Giants 20

New England 40
San Diego 17