The S-T has a brief mention this morning of Brandon McCarthy incorporating a slider into his repertoire, after a mention on the S-T blog last night that he was replacing his curve with a slider to reduce the strain on his elbow.
The reporting of this has me rather frustrated, because this is a pretty big story -- McCarthy's curve was considered to be arguably his best pitch -- and switching from it to a slider, which he apparently is still trying to figure out how to throw for strikes, is a pretty major switch. When did this decision come down? How long has he been working on the slider? Was it suggested by Mike Maddux? Nolan Ryan? Someone else? Did McCarthy come up with the idea on his own? How does this impact how he's viewed by the organization?
This is something that deserves more than a sentence or two, and hopefully, we'll get more details on this in the coming days...
Andruw Jones says he's still confident, despite starting off with a walk, an infield single, and 8 Ks in his first 10 spring PAs, and says that Rudy Jaramillo told him it would take 20 ABs or so to get comfortable with his new swing. I didn't realize that Jaramillo had changed Jones' swing. T.R. Sullivan indicates that it is about adopting Jaramillo's philosophy of keeping back on the ball.
C.J. Wilson would like to close, but will be a setup man this season, although Ron Washington says that if Frankie Francisco can't go in a save situation, Wilson would be the guy who would get the ball.
Sullivan writes on Joaquin Arias, whose career has been pretty much de-railed by a shoulder injury that has robbed him of his arm strength.
He also has some blog notes that include praise for Arias's throwing yesterday and for Travis Metcalf's all-around play.
Randy Galloway has a column about TBIA's reputation as a hitter's park, saying that pitchers need to be stronger mentally, whlie also suggesting that the park is just perceived as hitter-friendly because the Ranger offense is good and the Ranger pitching is not.