Today is the first day of the Rangers offseason.
And you know, I'm glad the season is over. This was a long, not real pleasant season. I was ready for it to end.
Ron Washington told the team that the team needed to improve its pitching, defense, and execution of fundamentals next season...and while that's true, I'm pretty sure I've heard the same thing every year at least since Doug Rader was the manager.
Richard Durrett runs down the anticipated 2008 rotation and the candidates who will get looks if any of the anticipated 2008 starters fall out of the mix.
Evan Grant ranks the members of the 40 man roster in order of importance to the team. I disagree with some of the rankings...I'd put Brandon McCarthy ahead of Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla, Jarrod Saltalamacchia ahead of Akinori Otsuka, and I think Sammy Sosa is too high, of course, but all in all it is a pretty reasonable set of rankings.
Dave Sessions grades the Rangers players on their performances this year. Again, for the most part they are reasonable, but Sessions gives Frank Catalanotto a D+, apparently because his .260 batting average was the worst of his career. Catalanotto had a bit of a down year, overall, but not so far down as to warrant a D+, I don't think...
Meanwhile, looking towards next year, Jon Daniels says the Rangers won't be huge players in free agency, given where the team is and the lack of top notch free agents out there, but (of course) they are expected to go hard after Torii Hunter.