I am thinking of going on spring break. For those who have been, is it a place that my wife would enjoy also? She likes the Rangers, but I do not know if the heat for a week is all that appealing.    
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                                        

  Hurley, and for that case Kiker, Poveda, Volquez, and Diamand do not matter because there is an underlying problem here. There is no question that these pitchers have good to even excellent stuff. I want one of these pitchers to step up and rid us of it though.
  It may not even be one of these, but someone needs to step up and do it. This "it" I am speaking of is something that can't be taught. I thought Millwood had it when watching his demeanor on the mound, but his "I will only give advice to these kids if they ask for it" contradicts my assumption. Padilla doesn't have it. The only pitcher that truly displayed it was Diamand after slipping of the mound and being laughed at.
  I want one pitcher to show up with the confidence, swagger, and udder dominance in his head that he can pitch a shutout every game out. I want a bulldog that hits a Kinsler like player every time he steps out over the plate. I want a Clemens or Ryan like pitcher that leads with his actions and his words. I want him to confront people and call out players and coaches that do not want to win as bad as him.
  I am not saying the current players on the roster do not want to win, I am saying they do not want to win bad enough. If they did, we would have wins rather than loses. Winners find a way.
  Like I tell my employees at work, I don't want excuses, I want results. The reason why no one in Amarillo Texas is better than me at what I do is because I want it more. I will go longer, harder, and faster than anyone. And if someone is better than me, that is the person I want working for me so I can retire knowing my business is in good hands.
  I want someone to show this on the field. The winning tradition will start there and then spread throughout the organization for years to come.

Hurley: 8IP 0R 0BB 6SO
  I am surprised that no one else has posted yet.
Hurley is pitching lights out. I am not for rushing people, but I believe he may be ready for OKC. This will be his first game past 7IP which is another good sign.

  Going through the minor leauges I noticed no Harrison. I know he must be injured, but remind me what happened.

  Just when I had my wife regularly watching the games with me and even watching some Cowboy's football, she told me yesterday that if the Rangers trade Tex than she will never watch a Rangers game again. Some of you bloggers may understand how great it is to watch a game with your girlfriend or wife.  
  I have never been agianst trading Tex, but to get value you have to give value. With these recent happinings, I have even more of a need for the Rangers to stop sucking.
  A three to four game winning streak would do a lot for this team, so here's to wishful thinking.

If it were legal, would anyone trade up in this years draft for a almost ML ready player. Our middle of the first round players are turning out good but not great. Tex comes to mind as a upper first round guy, but I guess we could have missed on him also if his injury did not clean up.

I do not follow many college games, but I did watch a game with a great looking lefty starter wearing  a ghetto sideways hat. To those who do follow, what is his name and is he the type of player that I am speaking of? Who else falls in this category?

I saw an article that says that the man with Danny Devito's build will not be ready to start at the beggining of the season. I think this is a real boost to our chances. The guy is a Ranger killer, and when healthy a true ace. I forget the name of the lefty starter that will likely replace him in the rotation, but he is no Colon even with his great break in to the big's last year.

Rack up another reason to be excited about next years chances.

Someone at A's Nation had the balls to say that we had a bad lineup. I nearly shit myself. Their anemic offense might have been the worst in the AL last year had it not been for the Big Hurt.

I have all the respect in the world for the A's organization. Doing what they do is unbelievable in today's financial sports world, but the septic system is calling us black.

Our far superior lineup:

1)Loften- Speed threat we have not had in a while.

2)Cat, Fast Freddie- Cat is one hell of a hitter against right handers, and there are far more of those out there; all I know about FF is he is one speedy son of a bitch.

3)MY- Not as much power as you want out of a #3, but the one person I want at bat with the game on the line or at any time for that matter.

4)Tex- I do not have the man love that AJM has for him, but Tex is a top five hitter in the AL or NL.

5)Kinsler- To doubt him would be crazy; I think Kinsler is a #2 hitter, but until Wash brings Blalock out of his deep voodoo curse he is Tex's protection.

6)Blalock- God please bring him back to form; since God will shine down on me a .300,29,100 is guaranteed, and he is a true power threat behind Tex.

7)Laird- Who knows how good he will be, but by far better than Barajas; his sneaky bunt hits rock.

8)Wilkerson- Not to put to much pressure on you, but without another big bat trade, you will make or break our season.

9)Cruz- Lightning in a bottle IF his power potential becomes for real.

In all of the excitment, development came to me. I have alwais loved Rupe, and I think the win difference(Zito-17 overachieving, Rupe-11 moderate) is totally worth the 16 million dollar difference.

I also think it gives Hicks his dreaded financial flexability to sign Tex and MY longterm.

Millwood, Padilla, McCarthy, Tejeda, and Rupe is better than we have put on the mound in a while. Zito would make this rotation great, but that does not seem to be the case.

I think we would all agree that one more big bat added to our offense will make us favorites in the west. Wilkerson and Cruz are the keys to this team being itself and being very good.

All I want for Christmas is a big bat JD, so go out and get it.

  While watching him in the playoffs, he seemed alot like Millwood except for the 4 to 6 MPH on his fastball. The highest I saw it was at 89. He did seem to have good control over all of his pitches. He also threw his curveball with more regularity than Millwood, but the velocity on Millwood's fastball may be the reason for that.
  In case we do not give Zito 102 mil, why not bring in Suppan to be our fourth starter? I do not think he will be great, but 12-13 wins is OK and totally obtainable in my opinion.
 Millwood 16 wins
 Padilla 15 wins
 Tejeda 14 wins
 Suppan 13 wins
 Josh Rupe/Danks at the end of the year 12 wins
  Suppan @ 8 mil a year for three years I would definately do with this years market the way that it is. Also, I have not seen any headlines reporting Suppan signing, so if he has disregard everything you have just read and be thankful there is something new in the diaries section.

I think if Volquez is going to be any good, much depends on Tejeda. The two seem to feed off of eachother being back to back in AAA. I like the fact that people think that "V" is personable, but I would much rather have Clemens demeanor on the mound. If, and i know it is a big if, these two and Millwood are solid, than we only have two spots left in the rotation.

Millwood, Garland, Padilla, Tejeda, and Volquez 2006

I had a glimmer of hope that maybe the Rangers could pull something out of thier asses, but tonight has me relieved for the first time in a long time. I can finally look to next season.

It sucks looking forward to draft picks that won't help for years, but it's better than years' past off seasons. Hopefully we can sign a good free agent starting pitcher and a couple of good bats.

I hate to say it, but the offense is really our downfall this year. The pitching has not been great, but servicable; normally that is good enough with a great offense. This year sucks.

I wonder if we can do it, and if we do is there still a chance? I would say no, but until we are completely eliminated I can't let this season go.

"One in a million."

"So your sayin there's a chance."                                                                                                                                                  

If I did not think that Bonds was getting hurt by all of this, than I would be tired of hearing about it. As it is, he deserves everything he gets and so does everyone else that used any sort of illegal performance enhancers.

It is obvious what he did, and I hope the Grand Jury has the balls to stick him in jail for lying about the things he has done.

One great thing I can say about the entire steroid issue is that Jason Giambi has my utmost respect. It takes a man to tell the truth; it is to bad that today's society glorifies Bonds and does not do the same for Giambi who is having a better year.

My favorite of the night:

"Hank, your wife is a skank."

There is a point you can not pass. It reminds me of the fight in 04'. The next day ESPN said that hecklers were making fun of David Wells' dead mother who had just passed away.

It was to bad that no Red Sox fans have enough balls to tell the idiots enough is enough.

We have not had that much luck during the first week, but this is very good news for us. I would never hope for an injury to anyone(unless we were in the playoff chase), but Carrasco is a definate downgrade from Escobar.

We finally won tonight and I was out playing golf. If anyone is from Amarillo or around and enjoys playing post here. I just dumped off the group I play with on the weekend.

Its official, no more stupid ass bat flipping! Is it just me, or was Boone one of the most annoying players ever?

Not that he had many chances to even flip a bat after he got off of the juice. Speaking of juice, Barry Bonds distracts us from it by simply dressing like a woman. The funny thing is that it actually worked on some. No one on roids belongs in the HOF. No exceptions.

I can not wait because I think even without Clemens we are contenders. Looking at Anaheim's offense, there is not much to fear behind Guerrero. There pitching is not great.

Oakland, on the other hand, looks to be the favorites if there young offense can click. We all saw how there offense totally sucked in the absence of a few young players (mostly Crosby) during last year's first half.

Our offense is the best in the division, and I have always thought that if our pitching was in between decent and good that we could contend. With Clemens we have to be the favorite to win the west, but I think we are close now. Any thoughts?

Not to blather on, but does anyone get the feeling that when we played Oakland in the past that we were hopeless? I never get that feeling from Anaheim and thus think Oakland is the team to beat.

If you look at the A's sight, some people over there actually like our farm system more than their own.

I guess this is posssible b/c they have had so many prospects brought up last year, but I thought it was interesting that a great system like Oakland who relys on their younger players think we have a better system.

Great compliment I think.

Wade Miller and Chad Bradford (3.86 ERA); if we could pick up either one of these pitchers for a small salary than I believe them to be a great pickups.

Miller has a ton of potential, and Bradford's submarine delivery has always freaked me out. Was anyone else at the 2004 game where Nix knocked in the go ahead run off of Bradford?

That is the kind of game that I need to be attending at the end of next year, a nail biter where we end up kicking the shit out of the A's in a playoff race.

I'm not sure, but if Eaton, Otsuka, and Padilla are free agents next year than we may have one hell of a draft.

Think of the pitchers, relievers or starters, that are ridiculously ranked as 'Type A or B' free agents this year.

So if they all have decent years, than we may have six picks or more in the first two rounds (including supplemental).

I think we should start going after college closers, i.e. Washington's Cordero, Oakland's Huston Street, Etc. Guys like these can step into a bullpen role after only a year in the minors. Hell, forget replenishing the minor's position players, and select nothing but pitchers. At least one has to turn out right?

I may be grasping for straws here, but there is an upside to everything.

In the game of baseball, and in sports period, there are absolutely no certainties. The pitching staff's that we put out in the 1990's while we were in the playoffs were not all that great (I can remember when Darren Oliver, Aaron Sele, John Burkett, etc. gave us a decent chance of winning. If we can't remember back that far, than simply remember back to 2004. It does not take a great pitching staff to get into the hunt for the playoffs, which in all reality is all we can hope for at this time.

Talent and experience definitely help in making the payoffs and WS, but to say that without three good starting pitchers getting to Texas this off-season that we do not have a chance is preposterous. We have all seen weirder things happen.

I have no doubt that Daniels and Co. is going to get some pitchers in here. With the team that we have presently and a couple of decent additions of pitchers, I think we can at least give Oakland and Anaheim a run for there money. I guess if this August is like last August than you can all call me a raving lunatic, but for now I think we have all the chances in the world at WINNING.

Any hope that the Yankees, who evidentally were  also in on Beckett, are so pissed in losing out that they retaliate by taking back Soriano?

If so, I do not think we would want Cano, but Soriano being in NY would allow them to trade Cano for some other over-the-hill veteran player.

Just a thought considering The Boss's need to outspend and outtrade the BoSox.

or does Jamey's newest post hit the nail on the head? We all would have hated to lose Blalock, but dreams overflowed with the thought of Beckett and another starting pitcher in Arlington. To me, this brings an overwhelming sense of optimism this year because

1. With the addition of two good starting pitchers and relief help, all true Rangers fans know that we would be contenders.
2. JD is the man to have at the helm, and I think we are going to pick up the pieces we need this off-season to kick ass next year.
   

This may be coming from out of the blue, but who was it that picked Loe to be the dark horse to make the Rangers starting rotation last year? He was not exactly right, but he has to be given props for his pick. Loe was outstanding out of the blue, and looks to be a good #3 to #4 starter just looking at a small sample size.