Good morning, everyone.
The talk for a while has been that the Rangers are going to focus this offseason on locking up their "core" rather than spending big on players from outside the organization (or, apparently, re-signing their own free agent who they apparently didn't consider part of the "core").
Jeff Wilson's notes include the news that the Rangers have contacted the agent for Ian Kinsler about a contract extension. Kinsler is under contract for next year and has a team option for 2013, and is quoted in Wilson's piece as saying that he wants to stay with Texas.
Joey Matches writes this morning about how good Kinsler has been -- his bWAR from age 26-29 is the tenth highest in major league history for any second baseman -- and looks at the pluses and minuses of locking Kinsler up, along with the cost (he estimates $51 million over three years, which seems reasonable to me).
The biggest concern I have about extending Kinsler is that he hasn't been durable, and second basemen seem have durability issues anyway (Bill James speculated once that that may be a product of the wear and tear that comes with being the pivot man in the double play). But if they can lock Kinsler up this offseason with an extension, I'd like to see that happen.
T.R. Sullivan's notes discuss the addition of infielder Alberto Gonzalez on a minor league deal, Joe Nathan's contract, Craig Gentry and David Murphy being honored, and the importance of February 22.
Craig Gentry suffered a strained thigh muscle in winter ball that has sidelined him. The organization apparently asked him to go to winter ball to get some more ABs.
And Angels beat writer Lyle Spencer -- known as the Jeff Mathis "27 outs" guy -- has a column about how the Angels and Rangers stack up favorably with the traditional powers in the A.L. East.