The Rangers are now a week away from their first Spring Training game and the big news from yesterday was the signing of long-time Rangers trade rumor participant Brett Tomko. You can read Richard Durrett's run down about the minor league deal here.
New Rangers DH Michael Young made it to camp on time on Saturday (presumably so did David Murphy but for some reason he didn't get his own press conference about it). Here are some things that people wrote about this:
Jeff Wilson writes on the Michael Young's press conference and concludes that Young is ready to play the game of baseball regardless of the transgressions he feels have been done to him by the club.
T.R. Sullivan echos those sentiments with a ton of quotes from both Michael Young and the front office. However his article also includes a link to a video of Michael Young and Nelson Cruz bro-hugging.
In case you missed Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniel's response conference, here's a video from the Telegram's Foul Territory Blog. One quote I found interesting from Ryan: "I don't think that you have a list of untouchables," Ryan said. "I don't think that's in the best interest of your organization."
Onward to the dirty business of opinions and editorials. In a scene similar to when Michael Young first spoke out about demanding a trade, two local media members write about Young's latest talk with nearly the exact opposite opinion. Enjoy.
Evan Grant writes that Michael Young deserves credit for disarming the situation by merely showing up ready to do his job. Though the main opinion appears to be that Nolan Ryan is finally flexing his pure Texas beef muscles on the "two-dimensional" baseball operations team. Maybe "players as people" will be the new market inefficiency.
To counter, Gil Lebreton says Michael Young's refusal to expand upon his contradictory statements and what has him feeling wronged continues to leave us reading between the lines and not liking what we see.
In news that is thankfully not Michael Young related, it does appear that even though he has a troubled past and perhaps still has issues completely relating to his teammates, Sullivan writes that Josh Hamilton is using his background to assist other ballplayers.
Durrett runs down the top six stories from the previous day from camp. I bet you can guess of whom most of them are about.
Grant confirmed from Ron Washington that he intends to use Julio Borbon as his every day centerfielder.
Anthony Andro has some notes up and among them is a brief Q&A from the most "Who?" player in camp so far this year, Zach Jackson. Jackson was brought in as a NRI from Milwaukee and will try to capture some of that Mike Maddux magic.
Finally, Derek Holland tells T.R. Sullivan about the dangers of texting while driving after losing a friend because of drive-texting. Remember kids, a well-timed "Chicken Butt!" isn't worth your life.