Evan Grant talks about the ARod opt-out situation, and has some notes from the Instructional League.
Kevin Sherrington writes about the Rangers being one of only two major league teams never to have won a playoff series, and being one of only a handful of teams never to have been to the World Series.
However...he is also guilty of perpetuating an ongoing myth:
Case in point: The Rangers of the mid-to-late '90s hit like Mike Tyson, and all it got them was Burkett's win. Opinions vary, but basically you've got to throw strikes, move runners and play good defense. Most of all, you must remember that good pitching generally beats good hitting. Especially in the postseason, which is why Joe Torre waits to learn of his employment.
In what might have been his last news conference as the Yankees' manager, Torre, perhaps still dazed, reminisced about New York's first playoff series with the Rangers. Specifically, he talked about losing the first game, then going into extra innings in the second. Even at that, he said, the Yankees only won because of a throwing error by Dickie Thon on a wet ball.
The fielder actually was Dean Palmer. No matter. Torre's point was that you never know what might have happened to the Yankees if they'd gone to Texas down 0-2.
Frankly, considering the Yankees' pitching in those days, it probably means they would have won three straight.
- The Rangers do need offense. As currently constituted, the lineup is very weak.
- The 1996 Yankees had a team ERA of 4.65. The 1996 Rangers had a team ERA of 4.66. I don't know how they can be construed as a great pitching team, while the Rangers were an offense-only squad.