With Holland's start today, and the mostly sluggish offense in June - July, I thought we should poll Rangers' fans about their feelings on the possibility of a Halladay trade.  Keeping this one simple.  Not trying to dissect the 1-2 other players needed for the trade, but get a general feel if Rangers' fans want to see the club go for it in '09 for 2 of the top prospects in the system.

This is the offer to the Jays, they get to pick the two players.

Pics?, Vid? 

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Time warner is awful.. schedule shows the game on FSN HD, but its not playing.. a quick flip to SD, and it has the Astros starting at 7:30.  I'm about to switch to Dish or DirecTV, but I was wondering if anyone found if the games were broadcast over-the-air in Austin, as they are in Dallas?

Filler

If you just have a quote, link, video or photo you'd like to share with the community, try creating a FanShot instead.

Yankees have an aweful outfield and if Xady goes down for a while, they'll need a RH replacement.  Jones and Byrd are options, but I see the Rangers wanting to hold onto Jones until at least the trade deadline. 

Byrd enough to pull a young starter or a decent bullpen arm?

Kat O'Brien article

Nady may need season-ending surgery BY KAT O'BRIEN |kat.obrien@newsday.com April 16, 2009 <!-- sphereit start --> ST. PETERSBURGH, Fla. - Xavier Nady could be headed for season-ending surgery on his right elbow.

No decision will be made until after team physician Chris Ahmad examines Nady in New York Thursday. But Nady, who left Tuesday night's game here after feeling a sharp pain in his elbow, underwent an MRI Wednesday morning, and the initial diagnosis, according to Joe Girardi, is "not good."

This is awful.

TMZ link

TMZ has learned Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a felony hit-and-run car accident in Fullerton, California early this morning -- hours after he pitched in a game last night.

Cops say someone driving a minivan blew through a red light, causing the Mitsubishi that Adenhart was riding in to hit a light pole. Three people were killed in the crash, including Nick.

Cops say the person driving the van fled the scene -- but was later caught and charged with felony hit-and-run. The suspect is currently being treated for injuries in a local hospital.

His last blog entry had a poem and this message at the bottom

The Elysian Fields will be closed for awhile.

Link to TRs blog

Info on Poem's author John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Is there something up with TR, or the MLB blogs?  And what is with the helicopter image?  It looks like comments are closed on the article.

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Jerry Jones completely missed the boat when it came to retaining coaches that Parcells brought in.  Jerry brought in Parcells, b/c he was a 'football guy' and a great talent evaluator-- for both players and coaches.   Jerry needs another 'football guy' in the mold of a Jimmy Johnson, and Bill Parcells.

Jason Garrett was granted permission to talk to the Lions about their head coaching opportunity, and an ESPN report mentions Cowher interested in talking to the Jets.  How does Jerry not let Jason walk, fire Wade, and give the reins to Cowher? 

The window is now for this group of players, if Jerry screws this up, we are looking at another 10 years of misery.

Interesting line in the TR article about Randy Johnson..  maybe this clears up the "why?" behind bringing Conner back.

Article Link

Johnson is also close to Mark Connor, the Rangers' former pitching coach who is still with the organization as a consultant.

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Looks like Boston is making a soft offer to Varitek.  Link to article

Theo doesn't hold onto fan/locker room favorites just for the heck of it.. see Nomar, Manny, Pedro, Damon, etc.  This appears to play into the notion that Boston will need to acquire a young C this year.  Even if Varitek accepts, they'll still need a young C to work in for 2010.  Salty playing well in the AFL couldn't have come at a better time.

Pardon season is coming.  Anyone know how to formally file for a pardon?  It'd be nice to see what Oganda and Beltre might be able to do. 

I'm guessing we'd need to get a couple of character testimonials and some research on the two, but all accounts point to them being taken advantage while young and wanting to play baseball.. not exactly the thing that warrants a lifetime ban from the US.  Thoughts?

Note: If anyone in the Rangers org wants us to stay out of it, let AJM know, and he can nix this thread.

He first spoke with club officials by phone Saturday and accepted the job without a face-to-face meeting.

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Link on DMN Blog: EV on moving MY to 3B

I have to agree with Evan here.  All this noise about moving MY to 3B seems to fit the 80/20 rule.  We only get a marginal improvement by fixing the 20% (fielding) of the problem, but there is bigger chunk to be had by fixing the 80% (pitching).

I believe a team could win the championship with MY at SS.  Let's keep the focus where it belongs-- on the mound.

On the DMN blog -- DMN Rangers Blog.

For a while there Poochy seemed to have been de-clawed, or let go.  I thought hoped that his 'vacation' was going to be his send off.  I don't really see what he brings to any of the DMN sports coverage.  He's doesn't have that fun loving devil's advocate approach, he's posts are annoying and half baked.  I imagine most of the other DMN writers are really annoyed by him.

Per dmn blog:

http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/05/hank-blalock-had-wrist-surgery.html

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Rangers hire former President of the Baseball Hall of Fame to head up marketing efforts.  Interestingly, he seems to have a lot of political ties.. perhaps he could help with the two guys being held back due to the marriage visa scam?

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080430&content_id=2618065&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

Quoting the article to hit word limit:

The Rangers on Wednesday hired former National Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey for the newly created position of executive vice president of marketing and community development.

The DFA of Wilkerson got me thinking about how badly we've missed on scouting for trades.  I'm not whining about past trades, but wondering-- is there a score card for the scouts who gave the thumbs up on these guys?  Do we need to replace the scouts?  Are they good, but JD is not listening to them?

We probably had limited options when trading Soriano, but someone had to have been very persuasive in thinking Wilkerson would be able to come close to matching Soriano's offensive output, otherwise we would have been better off keeping Soriano and letting him walk as a FA-- and getting picks.  A. Galarraga seems to be an anomaly, but someone obviously thought he was less likely than Tejeda to contribute at the MLB level.

McCarthy for Danks still needs to play out, but the idea there was we would be able to skip a year of development for a young, cheap starting pitcher.  Someone had to think that McCarthy would be a significant upgrade over Danks and sell it to management that it was worth the risk, even though the organization really needed to develop a starter from within.

Not to beat the Young <-> Eaton deal further to death, but it seems we at least sold low on A. Gonzalez and mis-judged Eaton's ability.

Obviously, JD is on the face of the deals, but there had to be other voices in the room that were confident these were the right players coming back.  How do you consistently miss this badly?

MLB.com article on bubble players who are out of options.  Interesting to see the names, and definitely opens the door for Botts and Cruz to clear waivers.  

If Dan Johnson is waived, does someone pick up Botts or Cruz over him?

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Anyone have the Gameday link?

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http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/askba/265412.html

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From T.R

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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3160063

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http://dallascowboys.com/news.cfm?id=EEC9EE98-B330-C258-2B7239B2A4FE69F0

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Per Rosenthal

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Gammons on Mike and Mike this morning mentioned that A-rod was really embarrassed by Boras announcing his opt-out during the World Series.

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