Still more Rangers stuff out there today for y'all to check out...
Mike Hindman looks at last year's BABIPs for the Rangers pitchers, and the numbers once again illustrate that the poor infield defense had a crippling effect on the team's run prevention.
Evan Grant, meanwhile, is singing the praises of Elvis Andrus's defense, and in particular raves about a diving stop Andrus made on a ball up the middle to start a 6-4-3 DP. I know that one of the most frequent complains about the shortstop play last year had to do with the refusal to ever dive for balls, particularly on balls up the middle...it sounds like we may see more diving stops by Andrus the first two weeks of the season than we did all of last season from shortstop.
Grant also suggests that Brandon McCarthy could end up pitching out of the bullpen, rather than Scott Feldman, if Kris Benson makes the team, although it sounds like it will almost surely be Feldman who moves.
T.R. Sullivan says that Feldman's role is the hot topic right now, and Feldman has this underwhelming comment about his previous work in the bullpen:
The Rangers have thought about it and discussed it because they still have Kris Benson in camp, they are still uncertain about their middle relief and they know Feldman has been a reliever before.
"I didn't pitch very good as a reliever either," Feldman said after the Rangers 8-5 victory over the Royals.
Murray Chass writes at length on his blog about Nolan Ryan's role as president of the Rangers.
Meanwhile, over at U.S.S. Mariner, they are disappointed about both the news that Brandon Morrow is heading to the bullpen and the news that Jeff Clement is heading to AAA, speculating that Clement could be dealt before Opening Day to a team that still sees him as a potential option at catcher. I think the M's are less dangerous with Morrow in the bullpen and Clement in AAA than they are with Morrow in the rotation and Clement catching, so that is fine with me.
I did a little Q&A with the SoCal Sports Hub about the Rangers and the 2009 season, which you can check out here.