Getting an early start tonight on tomorrow morning's Rangers news...and I'm going to try to have #42 in the Greatest Ranger ever series up by tomorrow evening, as I'm about halfway through with it right now (it is kind of long)...
Kevin Mench apparently impressed with his performance in a Home Run Derby yesterday, with Showalter indicating that the Rangers need to see more of that kind of power from Mench in 2006. Mench, of course, looked like he was having a breakout year in 2005, but fell apart in the second half, although Evan Grant says that Mench played a lot of the second half with a bad hand. I'd say that we'll see how Mench does now that he's healthy, but given that Mench hasn't seemed to be able to keep himself healthy at any point in his career, that would probably be inaccurate...
Grant also examines Kevin Millwood's role as a mentor, with the Rangers hoping that Millwood can show Thomas Diamond and Josh Rupe (and others down the line) how to succeed in the major leagues. The Rangers have Rupe and Diamond lockering near Millwood and Adam Eaton, in the hopes that the young pitchers can pick up good habits from the vets.
The DMN also has a video report from Evan Grant on the outfield situation. Grant thinks Wilkerson will get the first shot to show that he can handle centerfield, which would mean Kevin Mench would go to right field, with David Dellucci in left field and GMJ as the 4th outfielder, although the performance of Nix (if he does well) and Nevin (if he's awful) could change things around.
The going with the video report, rather than a print report, was kind of weird, particularly the way the DMN does it...it is just a minute and a half straight, uncut shot of Evan Grant in the stands, talking into the camera. I figured that they were doing the video so they could splice in some clips of the players, but no. I'm not entirely sure what the point of doing it in that format was.
T.R. Sullivan also writes on Showalter's reaction to Mench's power show, along with detailing Jason Botts' efforts to make an impression this spring. Sullivan says that Botts came to Surprise on January 1 to work on his outfield defense (which, by all accounts, needs a lot of work just to get to subpar) and to do exercises for his back, since back problems sidelined him last spring.
On the young pitcher front, Sullivan also reported that the Rangers are trying to take it slow with new arrival Armando Galarraga, given that he has pitched over 200 innings since the beginning of last year, and may start him out in extended spring training. He also had this comment on C.J. Wilson:
C.J. Wilson is going slow with a "yoink" in his right hamstring, which means it's not serious but being treated cautiously.
I think "yoink" must be a medical term...
Sullivan also has 20 things to know about Adam Eaton. I was going to make some smart-ass comment to go with this link, but I figure I'll let folks do that in the comments instead...