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Good morning.
Anthony Andro has a write-up on Robinson Chirinos' selection by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America as the inaugural Richard Durrett Hardest-Working Man Award recipient.
Jeff Wilson also writes about the Richard Durrett Hardest-Working Man Award. The award obviously holds special meaning as a token of remembrance to Durrett for his hard work as a Rangers beat writer before his untimely death earlier this year. What a nice thing to do. Kudos, DFW BBWAA.
As Andro notes, in addition to being honored with the Durrett award, Chirinos is looking forward to his hard work paying off again in 2015 as he transformed himself from depth fodder to legit starting catcher in 2014.
T.R. Sullivan writes about Chirinos, and a slew of other altruistic Rangers, helping the Arlington Life Shelter with their annual dinner for the less fortunate.
Calvin Watkins begins his rankings of the top 10 Rangers prospects with Corey Knebel at No. 10 and Travis Demeritte at No. 9.
Dubious franchise alert! Bill Baer expands on this Jerry Crasnick tweet about the Rangers having "mild" interest in wayward Seattle Mariners outfielder Michael Saunders.
Sullivan writes that, after outrighting him for this year's 40-manpocalypse, the Rangers have signed infielder Ed Lucas to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. Lucas holds a special place in my heart for having been acquired on my birthday and writing this tweet:
I asked Santa for more power this year, but he brought me intangibles. Sigh. I get intangibles EVERY year.
— Ed Lucas (@ELuke21) December 25, 2013
Lastly, GoET is getting on his soapbox. Disclaimer: The following opinion is my own.
As always, I checked the Dallas Morning News for content to share. I noticed that Gerry Fraley interviewed Chirinos yesterday, as Chirinos was available to talk with the media after winning the inaugural Richard Durrett award and working with the Arlington Life Shelter. Fraley wrote about everything except the award or Chirinos' thoughts on winning the award. This seemed perplexing to me. Then again, it is Gerry Fraley.
In fact, in several articles Fraley wrote about Chirinos yesterday, he didn't write the name "Durrett" even once. At the Dallas Morning News -- the largest paper in the area -- Chirinos' honor is mentioned in a post with "SportsDay" as the byline author and a copy-and-paste job of the Rangers' press release as the only content offered without any form of editorial comment.
Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, this is pretty innocuous, right? Well, because Gerry Fraley was on the beat yesterday, you'd have a better understanding of the significance and spirit of a well-intentioned honor for a respected colleague, who passed away only months ago, on any number of national or local sources -- including this site -- rather than on the largest source for printed journalism in the DFW area.
I'd like to highlight what Durrett's wife had to say about what an award in her late husband's name means to her because Fraley didn't seem to think it was all that important (quote from Andro):
"I'm totally touched about the award," said Kelly Durrett, Richard Durrett's widow. "One of things I want our kids to remember about Richard was how hard working he was. He had so much dedication and drive and I still don't know how he got everything done in a day. He really did work harder than anyone I know. I think this is the perfect way to honor and to remember him. It's great that this could be done and I'm sure Robinson was someone Richard enjoyed working with and someone who is truly deserving."
So, this is just the latest example of why I will continue avoiding Fraley articles in the morning links when I write them. I don't think he deserves your time or your valuable clicks. I refuse to believe that he's somehow irreplaceable on the local Rangers news scene. It's not like he's just a grump who's remarkable at his job so we should just grin and bear it. I think he comes off as sour at best and spiteful at worst. I feel like the Dallas Morning News would be better served bringing in someone else to team with Evan Grant on the beat. I think we all deserve better than Gerry Fraley.
