Texas Ranger’s veteran slugging rightfielder Sammy Sosa, who has hit in each of the 10 exhibition games that he has appeared in, was informed on Thursday that he had made the club and that he will be on the opening day roster.

He then went out and clubbed a titanic Sosa-type solo blast during Thursday’s 15-12 slugfest with the Arizona Diamondbacks which  ESPN’s AP report states, “almost sailed into the street beyond left field at Tucson Electric Park.”

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports;

“Thank you, Lord,” he giggled. “I made the team!”

Yes, what everybody has known since the beginning of Spring Training is now official.

Sammy Sosa, a non-roster invitee to training camp, is being added to the 40-man roster and will be on the Opening Day roster, general manager Jon Daniels said Thursday.

“I made the team!” said Sosa, standing in the visiting clubhouse and doing his best impression of an overexcited rookie getting his first shot at the Major Leagues. “I love it!”

Daniels and the Rangers made that decision even before Sosa hit his third home run of the spring, a monster shot off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Edgar Gonzalez at Tucson Electric Park on Thursday.

“Sammy will be on the team,” Daniels said. “He’s had quality at-bats, the bat speed is there. He’s running well. He is doing everything we’ve asked of him. I know it’s Spring Training, but there is not much more that he can show us. If he brings what he’s shown in Spring Training to the regular season, we’ll be in good shape.”

Star-Telegram Staff Writer Jim Reeves adds;

I know at least three people who are ready to declare this issue settled.

Me, Ron Washington and Sammy Sosa.

“As far as I’m concerned, yes he is,” Washington said when asked if Sosa was on his team. “We haven’t had a meeting yet so everybody else can get aboard, but if you’re asking me that, yes. I done saw everything I need to see.”

The manager’s opinion should count for something, don’t you think?

Washington’s answer wasn’t particularly surprising, of course. What more could Sosa have done this spring? He had the day off Wednesday, leaving his batting average at .464 (13-for-28), his slugging percentage at .821 and his on-base percentage at a ridiculous .483.

It’s not a question of whether Sosa is on the team. It’s a question of whether the Rangers are ready to commit 500 at-bats to him this season.

“Maybe more,” Sosa said with a wink.

“If Sammy is back to being Sammy, then I want his bat in the lineup… he’s centering some baseballs, and he makes everybody else in the lineup better.”

Sosa has worked diligently with hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. He has obviously listened to Jaramillo’s sermon about not pulling the ball all the time. Washington “loved it” when Sosa waited on a slider and then drilled it up the middle for an RBI single Tuesday against the White Sox.

“Anything’s possible with Sammy,” bench coach Art Howe contended. “It’ll be a question of him staying healthy. If he continues to swing the bat like he’s doing right now, he can do anything.

“What I’ve really liked about what I’ve seen this spring is that he’s hitting the ball to right field. He was always a pull hitter, but I think Rudy’s convinced him that he needs to use the whole field, and that will help him stay on breaking balls better, too.”

Sammy, in the meantime, simply remains Sammy. He bumps fists with sports writers, says things like, “I’m doing all right, huh?” and continually flashes that 200-watt smile.

“I feel great at the plate,” he said. “I’m not Nostradamus, to let you know how I’m going to do in the season. I am confident. I feel great. My hand is OK. A lot of good things are going to happen.”

**********************

It appears as if all efforts to rehab Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Kris Benson’s ailing right shoulder without surgery have failed and that Benson will have to have surgery which will shelve him for the 2007 season.

Last Thursday, this blog noted the reports that Benson was attempting to intesively rehabilitate the torn rotator cuff during the 4 week spring training hoping to avoid surgery but that efforts were not working out well.

ESPN’s AP report states;

“At this point, we’re probably looking at surgery,” Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan said Thursday morning. “It hasn’t been determined yet with who or when, but it just reached a point with the rehab that it was getting sore and [he] seemed to take a big step backwards.”

Benson, who started the rehab program on the advice of two doctors in hopes of avoiding surgery, left the team Wednesday to return to his home in Atlanta.

The first 10 days of the rehabilitation process were promising, as Benson concentrated on strengthening muscles around the tear. But last week, during daily two-hour sessions with trainer Richie Bancells, Benson began to experience increased pain, and the discomfort did not diminish.

“I don’t know if it’s just a little bump that I’m going through or what, but the last couple days have been pretty sore. Whenever it gets flared up like it is, it’s tough to get that range of motion,” Benson said at the time.

That setback turned out to be more than Benson could overcome.

“He went through the rehab, he was making progress, things were going well and at one point, he just had this setback,” Flanagan said.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, Off-Season Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.