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Good morning.
Via Stefan Stevenson’s Surprise Five, it appears that bench options have been the stars of camp thus far for the Rangers.
Evan Grant offers his takeaways from the Rangers tying the defending champion Cubs in a back-and-forth 9-9 affair yesterday.
Stevenson recaps what can only be described as the weird, rare exciting spring training game that ended in a tie.
Dave Sessions writes about Pudge Rodriguez getting the warm and fuzzies while visiting the Hall of Fame and I get the warm and fuzzies every time I think about Pudge being a Hall of Famer.
Levi Weaver has an excellent video interview with Jake Diekman about his struggles with ulcerative colitis. Give it a view.
Grant writes that a kinship between Diekman, Tony Beasley, and the Rangers’ team shows a sincere brotherhood.
Stevenson writes that today is a big day for Tyson Ross as he is set to throw his first bullpen.
Over at ESPN, Tony Blengino writes that Martin Perez’s four-seamer is a “problem pitch” that needs to be ironed out if ‘Teen is to take the next step.
Mike Napoli ranks among Michael Klopman’s favorite All or Nothing sluggers.
JD was on the radio to talk about bringing Napoli back but also to address his relatively quiet offseason and stagnant payroll which I’m reading into as the team is just saving up to sign Manny Machado in 2018 after Adrian Beltre retires a hero and world champ.
Sessions writes that yesterday was Jonathan Lucroy’s last day with the Rangers for a while but that Texas’ catcher is excited to participate in the World Baseball Classic.
Matt Fisher previews what to expect from Beltre and team Dominican Republic ahead of the WBC.
Sessions writes about Jurickson Profar getting the opportunity to play the outfield with his native Netherlands at the WBC.
Jerry Crasnick writes about Profar and Joey Gallo and how they haven’t lived up to their prospect hype just yet but the Rangers are far from giving up on them.
Beltre and Shin-Soo Choo make Joe Posnanski’s cherry-picked All-World team (and Yu Darvish should have!).
And, lastly, Anthony Castrovince uses Darvish as an example for why the five-man rotation might eventually become a thing of the past.
Have a nice day!
