ARLINGTON - The new Rangers owner tells The 33's Dave Crome about his lifelong love for baseball, how his group along with Nolan Ryan won the Rangers bid and how money will be no obsticle for landing a big named player if the team is in the hunt for a pennant down the stretch.

Thought this might enlighten the crowd not phased by the news today of a possible "trainwreck".  Watch the video right here

Per Larry Stone of the Seattle Times. 

The Seattle Mariners have found a way to get rid of one of their last lingering problems. According to major-league sources, the club is on the verge of trading Carlos Silva, who still has two years remaining on the four-year, $48 million contract given him by former general manager Bill Bavasi before the 2008 season, to the Cubs in exchange for outfielder Milton Bradley.

The deal, which could be announced later today, brings the Mariners an outfielder who has been involved in controversy throughout his career, but also has been an extremely productive player as recently as 2008. That year, with the Texas Rangers, Bradley hit .321, third-best in the American League, and led the league with a .436 on-base percentage. He hit 22 homers, drove in 77 runs, and made the American League All-Star team.

Bradley signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Cubs after the '08 season and suffered through a tumultuous season. He was suspended for arguing with an umpire, and sent home in the middle of a game by Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Bradley, a 31-year-old switch-hitter, figures to play left field and designated hitter for the Mariners. In 124 games for the Cubs last year, Bradley hit .257 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs.

I suck at doing the link thing, so someone can correctly link it :)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thehotstoneleague/2010540975_shocker_mariners_trading_carlo.html

Chuck Greenberg addressed the media by conference call this afternoon. Most interesting thing he said was the Ballpark in Arlington needs a large central video board.

That appears to be the one project that he is most determined about.

ABOUT TIME!!!!!!

In other news....

The Rangers have announced that infielder Esteban German and left-handed pitcher Clay Rapada have cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple A Oklahoma City. Both are still expected to be in Major League camp for Spring Training. They have also signed two players to Minor League contracts with invitations to Spring Training, pitcher Geoff Geary and infielder Ray Olmedo.

Geary was 1-3 with an 8.10 ERA with the Astros last year as a reliever and 1-3 with a 4.95 ERA at Triple A Round Rock. He is 16-10 with a 3.92 ERA in 287 relief appearances with the Phillies and Astros over parts of the last seven seasons.

The Astros acquired him two years ago in a trade that sent Brad Lidge to the Phillies.

Olmedo, another utility infield candidate, hit .250  with six home runs and 47 RBI in 115 games for Triple A Durham in the Tampa Bay organization. A switch-hitter, he has a career .228 average in 198 games with the Reds and Blue Jays.

Just passing along an email from Jamey Newberg...for the non-subscribers:

According to Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com, some teams who viewed the medical reports on righthander Tanner Scheppers, whom the Rangers selected with the 44th pick in last week’s draft, believe he might have a 50 percent tear of his labrum and could eventually need surgery. Like all other clubs, Texas was fully aware of Scheppers’s shoulder situation and, as we know, he underwent a predraft physical exam administered by the Rangers.

According to Mayo’s story, with Scheppers having cleared the physical, the Rangers went into the draft cognizant of the heightened risk but, with the strong state of the organization’s farm system, decided the risk was worth taking given Scheppers’s tremendous upside.

Mayo's Story

thoughts?

Zippy

So...I'm new to the Lone Star Ball community, but have been a Rangers fan my whole life.  I've been posting on the Rangers homepage forums for the past 5 years, yet wanted to try this out.  Obviously it's going to take some time adjusting to the new format of "posting", but I'll catch on!!  I go by the same alias (zippy06) on the Rangers mlb.com forum as well. 

I thought I'd get the brief introduction out of the way :)

I look forward to reading and talking Texas Rangers Baseball with ya'll.

Zippy