This just came across from the DMN:

Rangers starter Adam Eaton says he may miss three months and surgery may be an option for the injured middle index finger on his right hand.

Two starts, eh? Well, I guess we need a more permanent option for another starter. And we’re just about out of time, as we broke camp this afternoon. More here on the DMN site.

I’m not sure when this was posted, but I just noticed this morning that ESPN has their Rangers Season preview posted. It’s available here.
Of their 10 writers, 9 of the 10 picked the Rangers third. Only one picked them anywhere else, that was Steve Phillips, who picked ’em second. They consider the front office a weakness, specifically pointing out Jon Daniels this way:

A constantly rotating front office can’t be good for business, and Jon Daniels is the latest to give it a whirl, the Rangers’ third GM of the 2000s.

I don’t think I agree with that. Melvin to Empty Golf Shirt to Daniels. That’s a bit harsh on Daniels to blame him when he hasn’t had a full season, and has what most people consider to be a very good first off season.

Well, this afternoon it was announced that R.A. Dickey had won the battle for the fifth starter spot. That means our 2006 starting rotation is now..
Kevin Milwood
Adam Eaton
Vicente Padilla
Kameron Loe
R.A. Dickey
That’s not too bad given the way our rotation has looked the last few years. Hopefully they all stay healthy. Forget that. In Wednesday afternoon’s game, Adam Eaton had to leave due to injury, and will be going for an MRI. From the initial response, it looks like he’ll be on the DL to start the season. Sigh.
I wonder if Atlanta will send us John Thompson for some bullpen help? That would be fine with me. :)

The slew of roster moves this week begins. On Monday night, we released Eurbiel Durazo, and placed John Wasdin on waivers.
Durazo isn’t that much of a shock. He’s not 100% healthy (I think), and there didn’t appear to be a spot for him. On the broadcast tonight, Jon Daniels said that they knew he wasn’t going to make the team, and told him now, so he could have a little extra time to hook up with someone else. His contract stated he had to be told by Wed whether or not he was going to make the club.
Wasdin is a little more of a surprise, although he hasn’t pitched terribly well this spring. I thought he was a servicable, if not great pitcher during his time here, and my intial response was “That was a surprise” until I looked at his numbers.
This probably means that Fabio Castro will likely (IMO) be on the roster when the season starts Monday.

A special thanks to Matt over at Bevo Sports for tipping me off to this story. Apparently Texas longhorns coach Mack Brown, along with Darrell Royal will be throwing out first pitches on opening day for the Rangers on April 3rd. This isn’t a huge suprise to me, as the Rangers have been doing a Texas Hero tradition for opening day first pitch for as long as I can remember. Here’s Matt’s full story.

In an exclusive interview earlier today on SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket, Texas Rangers’ owner Tom Hicks announced that on opening day the Texas Rangers will honor the 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorns, with Mack Brown and Darrell Royal throwing out the first pitches.
This comes on the heels of the Rangers going after Roger Clemens, a former Texas Longhorn himself. I wonder if this is just one more tactic in trying to lure the indecisive Roger Clemens to the Rangers?

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).