Three quality innings apiece from Brandon McCarthy and Luis Mendoza yesterday, asthe Rangers had their first spring shutout since March of 2007. T.R. Sullivan says that McCarthy's cutter was working well yesterday.
Sullivan also has injury updates on a half-dozen players, including notably, Eric Hurley, who has a broken bone in his left wrist that will require surgery. Hurley will apparently only sidelined for a week to 10 days, but it is something that will slow down his return from last year's surgery.
S-T's notes discuss Ian Kinsler's sprained ankle, which will sideline him for a week, and the news that Ranger minor league Steven Murphy has retired.
Anthony Andro takes a look at the candidates for the bullpen in 2010, and there are a bunch of them. Andro identifies four pitchers -- Frank Francisco, Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver, and Dustin Nippert -- as locks, and C.J. Wilson will be in the bullpen if he doesn't win a starting job. That leaves two spots for a plethora of other pitchers, and while I've thought that Neftali Feliz and Chris Ray would get those two jobs, Feliz's struggles with his command of his offspeed stuff this spring suggests that someone like Mendoza or Guillermo Moscoso could end up sneaking in and grabbing a job.
Sullivan has a story about the battle for the Rangers' utility infielder job, with Ron Washington saying the ability to play shortstop is the #1 priority for a utility infielder. The battle right now appears to be between Esteban German and Joaquin Arias, with Arias seemingly having the edge because of his ability to play shortstop, although Washington has been working with German at shortstop extensively this spring.
Tim Cowlishaw says Vladimir Guerrero should be hitting 2nd for the Rangers this season.