A few items out there to peruse related to the Rangers this morning...
There are items in the DMN and and in the S-T praising Adam Eaton for a solid outing in his Rangers "debut," going two innings in an intrasquad game. I don't think results in these sorts of situations matter all that much, unless they are indicative of some sort of physical problem or development of a new pitch or something like that, although it is obviously better to perform well now than to not perform well. Still, if a player does well in spring training, the tendency is to go excited, and if someone doesn't do well in spring training, we can dismiss it because it is just spring training...
The S-T also has a nice quote from Kam Loe, responding to Mark Connor's comment that Loe was already pitching like its the seventh game of the World Series:
"I want to be in the seventh game of the World Series this year," Loe said, "so if I'm pitching at that level already, I guess that's a good thing. I just want that job so bad that I came in here on a mission."
The DMN has a feature on Connor today, emphasizing how much more laid back Connor is than his predecessor, Mr. Hershiser...
The Philadelphia Daily News looks at the curious fact that the top of the Rangers' rotation consists of three ex-Phillies...Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, and Adam Eaton, with two of those guys departing under less than the best of circumstances.
The piece also has a reminder of the rude awakening that may be in store for Padilla:
Padilla declined to speak when approached recently. However, after the trade, he appeared at a news conference in Texas and appeared to pin his problems on the cozy dimensions of Citizens Bank Park.
"I'm excited about pitching here," he said. "I feel like I have a little bit better chance here and more confidence to throw any pitch. It seemed like any fastball could be a home run there. I'll be comfortable throwing what I like to throw. Over there, sometimes I was scared to throw a fastball. A fly ball was a home run. Here, I'm going to do much better."
Rangers manager Buck Showalter joined the chorus. "He's coming from probably the most hitter-friendly park outside of Colorado, so this is an upgrade," he said.
I don't see how anyone can reasonably believe that Philly is more hitter-friendly than TBIA...