Well. Yesterday could have gone better.
We found out Tommy Hunter is out for six weeks with a groin strain, Arthur Rhodes left the game with left wrist tendinitis, and Julio Borbon was lifted after two innings as part of a "teachable moment," according to Ron Washington.
So, yeah. Six days until Opening Day. It can't get here soon enough.
Ron Washington didn't expound on why he lifted Borbon, other than to say it wasn't because of the play in the first inning when a line drive to center fell in front of Borbon.
Richard Durrett has a lengthy piece about the Rangers' decision to keep Neftali Feliz in the bullpen for now, with a couple of telling quotes from Jon Daniels:
If this year's Texas Rangers resembled the group that trotted out on the field in 2008, Neftali Feliz would be in the rotation. This "big question" hanging over camp wouldn't exist.
"If our internal expectations were lower, we may have approached it differently," general manager Jon Daniels said. "I know we would have."
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"In a vacuum, if you ask me which one is more valuable, I'll take the starter 10 days out of 10," Daniels said. "But we're not making this decision in a vacuum."
T.R. Sullivan has a story on the battle for the remaining jobs on the pitching staff, and although he focuses on Daniels saying there's a possibility Alexi Ogando could slide into Hunter's spot in the rotation, I think that's a very unlikely scenario -- either Michael Kirkman or Dave Bush will, I think, end up in the rotation instead.
The S-T's notes include a Q&A with Elvis Andrus, a look at the bullpen battle, and an update on some procedural moves and Brandon Webb.