From July 21st-27th all Baseball Prospects articles are free. I am not sure if this was mentioned already but thought it to be diary worthy incase anybody out therelike me had not seen it on this site.

Also from BP...

... If anyone tells you that Tim Lincecum will be affected in the second half by his All-Star illness, don't believe them. And next time someone mentions the way that the media deals with players now, versus what they did with Mickey Mantle, don't believe that either. ...

Does that mean that Tiny Tim was out getting wasted around New York and just felt too hungover to pitch the next day or am I missing something?

www.BaseballProspectus.com

I was watching the Twins v. Tigers game and had some rando thoughts that I wanted to hear a LSB opinion on.

Brendan Harris was referred to as "The Twins Big Bat."

Hearing this, and seeing how well they have been playing and how close they are to the White Sox (1.5 games back before todays game, 20-6 in their last 26 games including getting swept in Boston) I was wondering if anyone has heard any possble trade rumors between these two teams? With Liriano coming back this team should have a good chance to make the playoffs, but slide Bradley into that DH spot instead of Craig Monroe and that lineup looks much better.

Scott Baker is pretty good. I think its crazy that 4/5 of their rotation from last year has been replaced and their team is still playing this well.

Who is a better young player/prospect these days? Chris Davis or Delmon Young

Also Jayson Stark awarded Ian Kinsler his first half MVP. Other notables were Hamilton and Bradley in the running for MVP, Murphy for ROY. 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3483646

The rules are no more than 2 players from each organization. Current Rangers/ prospects that have played include:

Elvis Andrus, IF (World), 2007

Joaquín Arias, IF (World), 2006

Hank Blalock, IF (US), 2001

Marlon Byrd, OF (US), 2002

Nelson Cruz, OF (World), 2005

Thomas Diamond, P (US), 2005

Germán Durán. IF (World), 2007

Max Ramírez, C (World). 2007

Johnny Whittleman, IF (US), 2007

The Question is: who is representing the Rangers this year?

My Guess is Feliz and Mayberry but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to who would be selected this year.

With the season he is having, did he make a huge mistake turning down the Rangers offer?

I Know teams love his age, the fact he is a switch hitter, and his great defense at 1b but for some reason I have not seen any diaries about what a mediocre year he is having. Are teams going to be willing to commit 20-25 million a year to this guy?

Just for fun Here is how his year compares to David Murphy

David Murphy             Mark Teixeira

.291                    Avg             .262

.336                   OBP            .348

.483                    Slg             .415

6                           Hr                 5

35                        Rbi               27

I was also looking up some stats today and noticed that Ichiro only has 13 rbis this year and after looking it up he has never had even 70 rbis in a single year, with his career low being 51. I know he is a leadoff hitter but I just never realized how low his totals were.

Their bullpen looks pretty terrible, do they have anything of value in the minors besides Porcello? Does Porcello look to be ready while their window is still open (before Guillen, Renteria, Orndonez, Pudge, Sheffield) break down? What could a bullpen arm like Benoit or Guardado (assuming he pitches well) get us from their system?

 http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3323695&name=olney_buster&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3323695%26name%3dolney_buster

This is a link to a story but its insider so I can only read the first few lines so if Buster addresses any of this I have not read it in full.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/specials/spring_training/2008/previews/rangers.html

Nothing too new, Jason Botts left off of the team in favor of Kevin Mench.

Who is the most valuable unsigned free agent of the off-season? After Barry Bonds, it's former Braves and Orioles pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who would be a good fit in Texas. In addition to his well-documented success for more than a decade in Atlanta, Mazzone was more effective in his two seasons in Baltimore than the club's poor record during that time would indicate. Under Mazzone's tutelage, Erik Bedard became a Cy Young candidate and Jeremy Guthrie went from Indians castoff to baseball's best first-year starter in 2007. Mazzone's insistence on pitch-efficiency would be especially helpful to Vicente Padilla and the rest of the Rangers' highly inefficient staff, which walked 668 batters last season, second-most in the majors.

This  is the best advice I have seen in a while, does anybody know why he left Baltimore?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7824474?MSNHPHMA

Sheffield hates Boras, says he will tell other clients about bad things he has done. Also story says Arod has not spoken to Boras since he negotiated his new contract. Also I didnt realize that sheffield is only 20 homers shy of 500 and I wanted to see if people here thought he is a future hall of famer. In my opinion he is not and with the steroid cloud surrounding him, im not sure his chances are good. Im putting up a poll just to see what LSB thinks.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=597

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/alexei_ramirez/index.html

I was wondering if anyone has heard of this Alexi Ramirez guy? Seems pretty interesting especially since he is young and has played OF before. Does anybody like engelsol have any insight on this guy??