Monday Morning Rangers Update

The San Francisco Giants did us all a favor last night by quietly and efficiently ending the most anticlimactic of all seasons so that we may get on with the show. Now the Hot Stove can be lit and rosters can be built for another run at the hilarious dream.

So, congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the 2012 World Series and giving new meaning to the word "torture" every year. This year: tor·ture [tawr-cher] - the act of rendering a baseball championship as fairly unremarkable.

And what better way to look forward to the present of the future than by remembering the past? Richard Durrett does just that by beginning another ten-part series with this one focusing on ten memorable moments from the 2012 campaign. Up first, Durrett writes about the signing of Joe Nathan as the new Rangers closer.

Gerry Fraley writes that now that baseball has closed the curtains on the 2012 season, at this very moment, Monday at 8:00 a.m., Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, Mike Adams, Ryan Dempster, Mark Lowe, and Roy Oswalt are officially free agents. Soon, Koji Uehara will exercise the clause in his contract to join them. After that, Scott Feldman's option will be declined and he'll be a free agent as well. All that change we've been anticipating? Here it comes.

Fraley also provides an update on Engel Beltre and Mike Olt playing for Licey in the Dominican Republic winter league. Beltre had a 4-4 game on Sunday while Olt has been trying his hand at playing right field.

Lastly, here's an opportunity to vote for David Murphy for the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association's Heart & Hustle Award. Someday this award will be named the David Murphy Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association's Heart & Hustle Award, I feel. (Though, a part of me, were I actually going to vote, wants to vote for Melky Cabrera. Yes, somehow Cabrera is delightfully still the Giants' option for the "best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of the game" gritty player award.)