I don’t have to do proper research on this, so for this story, I’ll just copy Jamey Newberg’s update on this one.. :)

The Rangers have announced the signing of 1B/DH Erubiel Durazo to a non-roster deal with an invite to big league camp. Durazo had Tommy John surgery in July, but when healthy, the 31-year-old can be one of the more productive left-handed bats in the league.

Today’s the day! The first full squad workout is today. Things are good. :)
Hopefully Newy Scruggs will give baseball more than a passing mention. I used to think that Dale Hanson was the local sports guy who hated covering baseball the most. I remove that opinion. Newy Scruggs would rather it be Cowboys 365 days a year, I imagine.

That’s not good. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Just saw a story about it on the Rangers site. From the article it doesn’t appear that a lot is known about what’s gong to happen, except it was “caught early”, and there are “hopes of a full recovery”.
Still, “cancer” is a very ugly word. VERY – I have that word in my family, and I don’t like it.
The article talks about Rudy hopefully coming back in time for opening day. Boy, if he is there on opening day, whether he’s “suited up”, or just shows up, bet your ass he’s going to get some insane applause. Even if he’s not there, I wonder if Chuck Morgan will announce his name anyway – Chuck, you reading this? :)
All joking aside, I’ll pray for Rudy, and hope this scourge goes away from him quickly. Anyone remember what kind of cancer Andres Galarraga had? I can’t remember right now. Was it the same?
Update: The Ft Worth Star Telegram’s coverage is online now for Saturday. They also have an article about Jaramillo and cancer here. I like what Jim Reeves said in this article about being afraid for the cancer, as Rudy is determined to beat it. Cancer isn’t funny, but this line was. :)

There’s a really great article in Saturday’s Dallas Morning News about our new setup guy, Akinori Otsuka by Kevin Blackstone. Kevin writes really glowingly about Aki (the Rangers players’ nickname for him). Here’s a few quotes from it..

“He asked how I was, asked how the family was doing,” pitcher Brian Shouse said with surprise of Otsuka. “And I was over there [Japan], what, eight years ago? He’s awesome.
Indeed, what so impressed so many at Rangers Camp 2006 was that Otsuka bothered to be here at all right now. His country’s team was scheduled to start gathering in Japan this weekend, so it didn’t seem to make much sense for Otsuka to come to Arizona for a couple of days. Daniels and Showalter all but expected him not to be here and were understanding of the reason. They learned a little something about him this week.
“To show respect and get along with the team,” Otsuka explained with a little help from his interpreter when asked why he came to Surprise at all. “I have to know the situation, the fundamentals.”

That’s really nice to hear, but what I didn’t realize is how popular he is in Japan. Blackstone refers to Japanese baseball players in popluarity as Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, and Otsuka. I didn’t realize was that popular, I just assumed he was “another Japanese baseball player”. Seems like a big mistake on my part.
I know everyone who reads my site probably also reads the DMN, but just in case, you should check this article out. It’s going to make you want to see this guy pitch now. It did for me. :)
Update: The Ft Worth Star Telegram also has an article about Otsuka-san online. You can read that here.

The Rangers signed three players today for contracts for 2006. They are: C Gerald Laird, P CJ Wilson, & OF Jason Botts. While I havent’ seen numbers for any of them, I can’t imagine any are huge contracts, probably not even breaking $500k for each, I’d guess.
No surprises on any of these, it’s not like we wouldn’t have them anyway, as we have control of all of these guys. :)
Update: Saw some numbers on them. C Gerald Laird ($332,000), LHP C.J. Wilson ($331,000) and DH-OF Jason Botts ($328,000).