Thursday Morning Links

Jurickson Profar is unbothered, apparently, by starting the season in AAA. "It's good for me," said Profar, accenting the word "good" with finger-quotes, "I'm getting to [finger quotes] play everyday [/finger quotes]. I'm going to face a lot of [finger quotes] veteran pitchers [/finger quotes], so I'm sure I'm going to get better," concluding with a fit of what was either sarcastic eye-rolling or a demonic possession.

(the previous paragraph was sponsored by Mike E)

Michael Kirkman had a rough outing in the Rangers' last spring training game. "First time I've seen him go bad," said Ron Washington, apparently after stepping through a rift in spacetime from a universe in which Michael Kirkman doesn't exist.

Way to go, Randy Galloway, you sure showed that strawman! Galloway says that a "vocal minority" among the Ranger fanbase felt that Jurickson Profar should have replaced Michael Young in the final month of 2012, and that doing so would have saved our season. I think the unnamed vocal minority would say that it was not the papercut that was Michael Young's September that killed the Rangers but the shotgun blast that was his April to August, and that it was not replacing Michael Young with Jurickson Profar that would have saved us but replacing Michael Young with literally anyone not named Michael Young or Jeff Francoeur.

In T.R. Sullivan's notes column, Ron Washington says that Craig Gentry and Leonys Martin will share centerfield duties, probably in a straight hustle / natural-athleticism platoon. We also learn that Julio Borbon is awaiting the inevitable, and I'm not saying the outlook is grim but I heard he brought Nolan Ryan's fastball back to life.

Also, Chris McGuiness is back from the Rockies, while Coty Woods (we hardly knew ye!) is now a Rockie yet again.

Washington says that Robbie Ross and Michael Kirkman will be the setup men to start the season.

Leury Garcia has read the scouting report on Ron Washington, and put an apple on the teacher's desk yesterday by reaching on a sacrifice bunt and then stealing second.

Nick Tepesch is apparently impressing the Rangers brass by not getting rattled by bad outcomes, though I saw Matt Harrison cry once and now he's the Opening Day starter.

Alexi Ogando will be eased back into starting by facing the Astros, the bait dog of the AL West.

Ron Matejko has his Rapid Reactions to Wednesday's game. He also says there are still questions about outfield playing time, the ultimate disposition of the fifth starter job, and why Walter White left a book signed by Gale Boetticher on his toilet for anyone to find, and that by looking at 21 Spring Training games in isolation Mitch Moreland might not be the completely unremarkable player his career suggests he will be.

Finally, here's an interesting article about insect head transplants.