The big Rangers story this morning is still Tom Hicks attempting to hang onto the Rangers by constructing a new local ownership group. His favorite buzz word here appears to be "local." Evan Grant lays out Hicks' thought process, and one of Hicks' comments here is that he has been working on this for a while:
"I have initiated my own process," Hicks said Wednesday. "I want to have other local prominent families involved in a group that would own the team and sizable commitments have been made. This would allow us to have continuity on the plan that we started five years ago. This process has never been about wanting to sell the Rangers. It has been about finding a way to monetize our assets to retire most, if not all, of the debt."
Richard Durrett considers the question of why Hicks is going through the process of collecting bids if he intends to keep the club after all. I have to think that he'd be doing it for the benefit of MLB owners.
Gil Lebreton discusses that angle as well and suspects that other owners aren't going to see Hicks as a great candidate moving foward.
T.R. Sullivan discusses the start of free agency tonight and looks at what the Rangers might do if they lose Marlon Byrd, as well as their approach on the pitching front.