Saturday morning Rangers things

Opening Day is just 29 days away.

There was some off-field news yesterday, although I'm not sure if it is big news or not.

Jon Daniels was promoted to President of Baseball Operations (while keeping his general manager title), and Rick George was promoted to President of Business Operations.

Although Daniels says that the only real change will be in his and George's business cards, Jeff Wilson's article in the S-T (linked above) has this interesting note towards the end:

Daniels said that the resulting promotions were first discussed during the off-season, and some thought was given to promoting one of Daniels’ assistants to GM. The key sentiment, though, was that Daniels needed to ensure that the operations staff remains in place.

Similarly, Anthony Andro writes that the organization wants Daniels, in his new role, to focus on "keeping the organization's top personnel from leaving for other opportunities."

Gerry Fraley writes that the promotions could increase the odds that the Rangers sign Kyle Lohse, because a newly empowered Jon Daniels will have the authority to end the Alexi Ogando in the rotation experiment, put him back in the bullpen, and give Lohse a $14 million per year deal which would allow Lohse an opt-out.

That sounds like a terrible idea, to me.

There was a game yesterday between Texas and Seattle, and the Rangers lost.

Gerry Fraley has his Game Report up at the DMN Rangers blog.

ESPN Dallas has the Rapid Reaction to the game up.

ESPN Dallas also had a blog post up about Mitch Moreland showing yesterday he can hit lefties.

Jeff Wilson's game story also focuses on Moreland getting hits against lefties yesterday.

The game story at the Rangers' website talked about Moreland continuing to be hot at the plate.

Keeping with the "lefthanded hitter playing every day" theme, Andro writes that David Murphy is looking forward to getting a chance to play every day for the first time in his career.

I'm not optimistic that Murphy and Moreland will hit enough against lefthanders to warrant playing time against them. But I guess they're going to get a chance to do so this season.

Colby Lewis threw a bullpen session for the first time since undergoing surgery last July, and he said he went better than he was expecting, although Ron Washington emphasized afterwards that they weren't going to rush Lewis back or accelerate his schedule.

The S-T's notes talk about Nelson Cruz having a strained chest muscle, Colby Lewis having a successful bullpen session, Engel Beltre being undecided about playing in the WBC, and Matt Harrison's slider problems.

The Rangers' website notes talk about Josh Lindblom, Jason Frasor, Beltre and the WBC, and Moreland playing against lefties.