I think Will and Kevin started a little before the hour…they were taking questions right when I walked in.

Ruben Sierra Jr was an early one. Kevin had a hilarious line suggesting he looks so much like his father, he may have just been formed in a Petrie dish from a cheek scraping (“maybe he has no mother?”). The ceiling on the guy is 5-tool superstar, the floor is “you want fries with that?”

Will talked about Tanner Scheppers, and I never quite settled into thinking “ok, this was a good call.” It’s high-risk – he described Tanner’s shoulder action by punching a fist into an open hand (ie, the “arm bone” into the “rotator cuff” if I have that right), and said that’s the internal action when the player throws a pitch. Bone chips in his shoulder have been an issue. But he might be alright. Might be. He also mentioned Carlos Marmol here, saying to watch him pitch – something is dreadfully wrong with the player’s shoulder…the guy’s arm is about to blow.

There was a question about the overall outcome of the Halladay trade (Beane “turned a small profit”), the catchers (Goldstein is still bullish on Saltalamacchia, and called Teagarden a “frontline backup, second-tier team starter”), Smoak (Goldstein said he has the ceiling of a “switch-hitting Justin Morneau”). Am I misremembering that they said Wilmer had a good year? They came around to saying Anaheim is the better team this year, and much would have to break juuuust right for Texas to catch them, but the Rangers are in ascendancy (and probably will need to worry more about Oakland soon).

Actually they took quite a few questions about non-Rangers players too. They were funny and relaxed, I kept thinking they must have much experience as public speakers.

JD came out and said it’s still surreal that people care about what he has to say (heh…I’d have to say I was all ears for what he had to say). Adam asked him about the offense, especially in terms of what Ron Washington’s influence was supposed to be when he was hired, and the overall answer was that it’s been addressed, and a guy like Rudy talks constantly to batters about improving their approach. Tsi dovetailed with someone’s question about Hamilton later – JD described him as “human” and said the success-more confidence, success-more confidence trajectory he was on last year has not been the pattern this year, even though Josh isn’t really lacking confidence either. He specifically shot down the notion Josh had a bad second half in 2008 (he had a “rough August” and was great otherwise).

He said Davis is a late September call-up, if not earlier. He said they drafted Purke to sign him, and mentioned that they have more time on Scheppers because he isn’t bound to the August deadline of other Rule 4’s. He suggested an earlier signing deadline would be a challenge with negotiations but would help so much with preserving development time for first-year pros (hear, hear).

JD is very bullish on Jurickson Profar. I asked if they had any more money budgeted for the J2 Latin American guys, and he said they’re working some guys out but nobody on the scale of Profar or Sardinas.

Grant Schiller asked for 3 players “not on the radar” that JD had on his own radar – JD again named Profar, Leury Garcia, and (if I heard right) Tim Murphy? Schiller also asked a question about when it’s strategically easier to slide a player off the 40 (right out of training camp most teams’ rosters are set) and a question about players who might help down the stretch, including one not on the 40 (Neftali was the non-roster guy (at that moment), and I think he mentioned Davis, Moscoso, and Madrigal?). Adam asked about Beavan’s strikeout rate, and JD recognized it was very low, but also talked about the player’s youth, and the lack of strikeouts sinkerballer guys usually exhibit. Overall I heard, “we’re being patient with Blake.”

I asked about whether they were interested in Cliff Lee, and I actually didn’t really catch the answer. It was quick.

Someone asked about trading within the division, and JD had a great line about how it’s a macho thing to say (“sure, I’ll trade within the division, I’m not scared”) but it just never happens. He referred to the Rheinecker/Koronka moves as the most recent. He said Jack Z up in Seattle was great to work with – a guy who had sane valuations on his personnel, and got back with answers quickly. Actually there was a lot about inter-GM dialogue… Someone asked whether there was resentment towards JP for maybe misinforming the Rangers about Halladay’s willingness to go to Texas, and JD said there wasn’t. He was complimentary of Kenny Williams’ aggressiveness, and around then said it’s uncommon to ask about a player out of the blue…that usually you wait for a GM to say someone’s available during day to day conversation.

JD is one articulate professional…he didn’t evade, he didn’t obfuscate. But hey, he said Newberg Night is sincerely one of his favorite nights of the year.

And what am I forgetting?