Kevin Goldstein looks at the A.L. West farm systems today, praising the Rangers for their collection of pitching talent while noting the paucity of positional prospects. He identifies Anthony Webster as the guy he's higher on than most in the Rangers system, and lists The Human Rorschach Test as his "Don't Believe the Hype" guy:
Considered by some the team's top position prospect, shortstop Joaquin Arias is still a lot more promise than reality. He can hit for average, but a lack of power and plate discipline leaves him better suited for the bottom half of the lineup, while his plus defensive skills are tempered by inconsistent play and high error totals.
Also of note, Goldstein is pretty bearish on Jered Weaver, saying that if he reaches his ceiling, he'll probably be Jeff Weaver, which most folks would probably consider to be a major disappointment.
Goldstein is also going to be doing a chat over at the Newberg Report on Wednesday, March 8, at 2 p.m. to discuss the Rangers farm system. I'd definitely encourage everyone to check it out, if you can...
Also at BP today, Will Carroll has a blurb in his UTK column about Los Dos Franciscos being on schedule, and has some love for T.R. Sullivan and Jamey Newberg being on the official Rangers' website...
And there's a chat with Steven Goldman at BP from earlier today...nothing specifically Rangers related, but hey, it is baseball talk...
And along the same lines, Beyond the Box Score is doing team previews right now, with some really in-depth analysis of each team heading into the season...definitely worth checking out...