This morning, while driving to work, 1560 here in Houston was talking to Lance Berkman. Berkman was talking about being a free agent for the first time, and said that he had his agent call five teams -- Atlanta, Houston, Colorado, St. Louis, and Texas -- to gauge interest once he was on the market. Texas had some interest, although he said when he was closing in on a deal with the Cardinals, the Rangers got a lot more aggressive with him.
He went on to indicate that if it had been about the most money, he could have gotten more from the Rangers than the $8 million he got from the Cardinals, but went on to say that he didn't want to play in the A.L., and additionally, once the Rangers lost Cliff Lee, he felt they were just an "average" team -- that last year was a "lightning in a bottle" season where pitchers pitched over their head, and he didn't think they would be that good in 2011, so he opted to go with the Cardinals.
Moving on...
Anthony Andro has a piece on the DH situation, with Ron Washington saying that the Mike Napoli acquisition won't impact Michael Young's playing time. Washington says Young will still be the primary DH, and will also get time at first base, at second base, and at third base.
Randy Galloway has a column on the possibility of Michael Young being traded, mentioning (among other things) the theory that the Ken Rosenthal story saying that Young should be traded may have come from Young or Young's agent, with Young now wanting out, but then seems to indicate that he thinks Young would already be gone if he or the team really wanted him gone.
Richard Durrett looks at the Rangers' situation at third base for 2011.