This is a picture of my two children, Seth and Rowan:

Being a father is, for me, both the hardest thing I've ever had to do and the most rewarding thing I've ever had to do. Before they were born, I had no idea I could ever love anything as much as I love these two ridiculous creatures.

I thought about writing something about the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday, but I couldn't. Words are useless. Anything I could think of writing seemed hollow and meaningless. Something like that makes you feel powerless, and is a reminder of both how vulnerable we, as human beings, are and how quickly the world can be turned upside down. I literally cannot think of anything more awful than losing one of my children, and it makes my physically sick thinking about what those parents in Newtown are dealing with right now.

But I felt like I need to say something, at least. Even if its just to say that I don't know what there is that I can say.

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Another Rangers free agent is signing elsewhere. Mike Adams has reportedly agreed to a two year, $12 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. I think we anticipated that Adams would be leaving, particularly given that this was his one shot to get a big payday. Its kind of amazing that Adams has gone from being an undrafted free agent, whose signing bonus when he signed with Milwaukee was probably no more than $1000, to a guy signing a guaranteed $12 million. The Corpus Christi native pitched well in his season-and-a-half in Texas, and hopefully he has success in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Texas won't be getting R.A. Dickey, and it sounds like Toronto is close to consummating a deal with Dickey that would see stud catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud go to the Mets. Comparing d'Arnaud to Ranger prospects, he's probably at least on par with Mike Olt, if not better than Olt.

Evan Grant has a column discussing where the Rangers go from here now that Josh Hamilton has signed with the Angels, and says that Hamilton didn't do anything wrong by signing with the Angels without giving the Rangers a chance to match.

Anthony Andro writes that the Rangers will need to move on now that Hamilton is gone, and mentions Nick Swisher and Adam LaRoche as possible targets for the Rangers.

T.R. Sullivan has a lengthy piece on new Rangers reliever Josh Lindblom, who came over in the Michael Young trade and who is expected to start the season in the bullpen.

In the aftermath of Eli Whiteside being claimed on waivers, the Rangers have waived catcher Konrad Schmidt and outrighted him to AAA. Schmidt will likely share catching duties with Luis Martinez in Round Rock this season.