Rototimes.com gives a fantasy-oriented preview of the 2009 Rangers. Its the usual scouting report for the team: stellar hitting, abysmal pitching. The notes about the individual players make are interesting to read, however, and are backed by interesting stats and analysis.
Baseball Time in Arlington breaks down the five best and the five worst rightfielders in Texas Rangers history. The "best" list includes the usual names that you might expect; what I found most interesting were those fortunate enough to make the "worst" list.
Mike Hindman dissects Elvis Andrus and discusses other Rangers prospects to skip several minor league levels to get to the bigs. He concludes that the Rangers haven't been so successful at this game: Laynce Nix and Benji Gil being the most recent (Gil actually remained in the majors until 2003, and was spotted in the Mets system as late as 2005). This excerpt from the article shows what kind of season Andrus is likely to have, based on his performance last year in AAA:
"As the league's youngest player, Andrus hit .260 / .302 / .310 in April. He improved to .278 / .343 / .322 in May, upped it to .309 / .385 / .397 in June and peaked in July with a .333 / .382 / .423 line before regressing just a bit with a still very fine August (.303 / .351 / .393). Yes, he made 32 errors last year, but more than half (17) came in the first two months of the season and he made just three errors in August."
There is talk of the team's desire to sign Josh Hamilton to a long term contract during Spring Training. This is a no-brainer. Do it. My desire to get this deal wrapped up quickly stems not only from Hamilton's value as a baseball player, but also from the fact that I recently received a Hamilton jersey as a gift.
And Jim Reeves gives an appropriate response to Tom Hicks.
14 days until Spring Training!
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