There is great news today. Baseball is happening again. Pitchers & Catchers!
The following people must now be present and accounted for in Arizona as the Texas Rangers officially begin their quest to defend the American League Championship and do 2010 one better:
Pitchers
Omar Beltre, Dave Bush, Fabio Castillo, Cody Eppley, Scott Feldman, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, Derek Holland, Tommy Hunter, Eric Hurley, Zach Jackson, Michael Kirkman, Colby Lewis, Mark Lowe, Seth McClung, Darren O'Day, Alexi Ogando, Darren Oliver, Zach Phillips, Arthur Rhodes, Tanner Scheppers, Pedro Strop, Yoshinori Tateyama, Mason Tobin, Ryan Tucker, Brandon Webb, C.J. Wilson
Catchers
Kevin Cash, Jose Felix, Mike Napoli, Taylor Teagarden, Yorvit Torrealba, Matt Treanor
Richard Durrett lists six unanswered questions lingering as the Rangers begin Spring Training.
Evan Grant apparently feels six questions isn't enough to sate our inquiring minds and rolls with ten questions facing the Rangers this Spring. (Lots of good stuff here however it is behind the DMN pay wall.)
The dirty little secret of the official report date is exposed by T.R. Sullivan in that he has an article up with quotes from just about everyone already. It seems most of the pitchers, catchers, and some of the position players have already reported and are ready to go. So ready in fact, Matt Harrison is predicting a Cy Young Award in his near future.
Also, I hate to be a bummer on such a glorious day, but since Michael Young is still a Texas Ranger, we are going to be reading articles about his trade request situation until something is resolved. And for now, since Michael Young is still a Texas Ranger, in a couple of days, he's going to officially have to report to Arizona as one. Jeff Wilson writes that the Rangers expect Michael Young to report to camp later this week as no significant progress has been made in attempts to trade him.
Of course, that is not halting the rumors from drooling out of every leaky writer's faucet about which team de jour is interested in Michael Young but would need the Rangers to eat most of his salary to even consider a trade. Yesterday it was Ken Rosenthal reporting interest from the Diamondbacks while Ozzie Guillen's love for Michael Young was toyed with in Chicago. Place your bets on today's contestants. I'll say Detroit Tigers.
It is 11 days until the Rangers first Spring Training game.