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Friday a.m. stuff

By Adam J. Morris

Yawn.

For the next month, probably won't be much interesting in the morning news roundups.

Just waiting for pitchers and catchers to report.

Maybe I should change the countdown clock to that, rather than Opening Day...

Tim Cowlishaw says the Rangers are better off not matching the Giants' offer for Barry Zito, and has some praise for the Rangers' offseason.

Jan Hubbard talks to Tom Hicks, who says that the Rangers made a strong offer, and I can't disagree with him there.

Evan Grant details the Rangers offer:

The reported offer dwarfs the Rangers' final bid, which included $88 million in guaranteed money for six years. The offer was for six years at an average of $14 million per season. The offer also included a vesting option for a seventh season at $15 million. The option would have vested if Zito pitched 200 innings in the sixth year of the contract. If the option was not picked up, Zito would have received a $4 million buyout.

The Rangers tweaked their offer on Christmas to include the seventh season/buyout. The total worth, if he had pitched seven years, would have been $99 million.

Grant also mentions that the Rangers brought recently non-tendered pitcher Mike Wood back on a minor league deal, along with pitcher Willie Eyre, and signed catcher Guillermo Quiroz to a major league deal.

Quiroz is an interesting guy...former top prospect, a guy with a reputation as a very good defensive catcher who has some pop. Seems like he's being brought in to compete with Ojeda for the backup catcher job, with the thought being that he could be a Barajas-type as a backup catcher.

Grant says that the only free agent the Rangers are really in on right now is Mark Mulder. According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Indians, Rangers and Cards are the three finalists for Mulder.