As we get closer to the start of spring training, I decided to do some work on my site. Last night I brought the uniform number history page up to date. If you’ve never visited that part of my site, it’s one of the two totally unique features my site has that no other Rangers site/fan blog has.

What it is is a history of each number from zero through 85+ from 1961 through 2011 (including, obviously the Senators years). I started doing this about 10 years ago, so for the most part I have all the fiddly details from then onwards for guys who were up for just a day or two and never returning. It’s one of those things I enjoy keeping track of, and as everyone has become more connected, I find it’s easier to find out what people’s numbers are. Shout out to Anthony Andro for putting up with my requests about unif numbers during press conferences. Thanks, dude. :)
Anyway, the Rangers have posted uniform numbers for all their 40 man roster guys, so I decided to go update 2011 with that. However, the spring training invite guys don’t have their numbers posted, so I’ll update with them later on. The guys we have right now as NRI’s to spring training are:

• P Zack Jackson
• P Seth McClung
• P Ryan Tucker
• C Kevin Cash
• IF Brian Barden
• IF Esteban German
• OF Endy Chavez
• OF Doug Deeds

Now, German has been here for a few years as a end of the 40 man hanger-on, and has had the same number (6) all that time, so I’d say it’s a safe bet he’ll have 6 again in 2011, as it’s otherwise untaken.

There is one thing I was hoping fans could help me by contributing. If you’ve ever looked at my uniform number history page, I’ve gathered over the years pictures of the various numbers being worn on players. I’ve posted some of them on the bottom of each number’s page as an “example” of that number. The Bo Porter picture above is one of those. But check out the pages, and look at the bottom. I think it makes for a nice little archive of pictures.

The part you can help with is with pictures. Take a look. If you have pictures of any of the players who I do not have a picture of, I’d love it if you could send me the picture for inclusion on these pages. I’m specifically looking for ones that show the player’s name along with the number. Not just the front where the number is, I really want one with the player’s name and number from the back being shown. I know a ton of you have picture archives (I’ve seen ’em on Facebook & Picasa Web Albums), but I’m sure there’s a ton more I haven’t seen.

Please take a look at what you have, and if you have something useful for this project, let me know, I’d love to get it online. Danke. Here’s some of the ones I’ve collected. It’s the guys who are only up for 2-3 games in a season and then never to return are the hardest to get shots of. I’ve started taking pictures off the TV of guys like that – with everything in HD now, it makes for an “ok” picture once reduced in size to about 450 pixels on that page. But it’s not the same as a real pic of a guy in action. So if you have any, I’d really like to hear from you.

Danke, and thanks for visiting.

MLB Network ran a show tonight on the top 50 prospects in baseball. Wanted to mention the Ranger players they had there (Feliz was #7 on last year’s list). They had a countdown that was mosty put together by writer Jonathan Mayo. He had a few rules about the players. They are:
Player must have rookie status.
Based on input from scouts and front office personnel
Ties broken by Jonathan Mayo.
They also had John Hart to do commentary too (which seemed lke some more detail on Rangers players). Anyway, the Rangers players on the list are:
#43 – Tanner Scheppers
#23 – Martin Perez (compared him to Johan Santana & Ron Guidry)
3 was Bryce Harper (WAS), 2 was Jeremy Hellickson (TB), 1 was Mike Trout (ANA).
A bit surprised we only placed two out of 50. A lot of guys we moved out the last few years weren’t in there, either.