The Rangers return to the field today after getting yesterday off -- their only "off" day of the spring. But the competition at catcher continues. The Rangers have some options: • Option A: Make Gerald Laird the starter and veteran Adam Melhuse the backup. Send Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Triple-...

Some links for Wednesday morning... Billy Wagner says he could be pitching in the majors within 30 days, according to Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News. If he returns in mid-July, the Mets would have time to evaluate Wagner before deciding whether to acquire more arms via trade. The Royals signed ten of their draft picks, according to MLB.com's Rustin Dodd....

Evan Grant reports that the final spot on the 40 man roster for the new additions (Dustin Nippert, Adam Melhuse, Jamey Wright, Franklyn German) will be created by putting Brandon McCarthy on the 60 day disabled list. That means McCarthy cannot be activated until May 29, at the earliest. Color...

Taylor Teagarden was among the players shipped back over to the minor league side Friday morning, meaning the back-up catcher will come from the group of Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adam Melhuse, unless the Rangers go and pick up another veteran. I am convinced that Gerald Laird's strong spring has onl...

Why catcher Gerald Laird fails to inspire much confidence among the die-hard fanbase of the Texas Rangers.

No idea why the Pirates and Mets are playing at 1:10 today, but they are and that means I can't watch them. Paul Maholm looks to make some headway after his last good start was wasted against the Brewers and he'll go against John Maine, who's off to a pretty rough start this year. Both today and tomorrow are pretty favorable pitching matchups for us, so hopefully we can...

Why Texas Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia finds himself in a precarious position with just two weeks left remaining until Opening Day.

And it's a doozy. Thankfully, we got our sponsor back, so everything today is brought to you by Papi's Cleaners. If you've got the bases full, we'll clean everything up. 2B Ian Kinsler SS Michael Young CF Josh Hamilton 3B Hank Blalock 1B Jason Botts RF David Murphy DH Gerald Laird C Adam Melhuse LF ...

Why is former free agent Mark Teixeira smiling? Simple. His contract with the Yankees is worth more than what severalof the top spending clubs in MLB have spent this off-season, combined. An interesting bit of data surfaced by ESPN researcher Mark Simon via Buster Olney?s blog on Friday regarding the pace of free agent contracts this off-season (read Long-term contracts down significantly...

Second baseman Ian Kinsler and the Texas Rangers continue to discuss a long-term contract extension, an update on the Rangers' muddled catching situation, and various other odds and ends from Surprise.

The Texas Rangers' rapidly sinking 2008 campaign reaches a crossroads.

I've recently noticed some rumblings from the fans and the media about moving Russell Martin to third base permanently in the near future, and I can't help but question the sanity of those people.For example, Peter Gammons notes that some people in the Dodgers' organization might be open to moving Martin."Russell Martin may have slid backward, and had his attention...

Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Rockies had a disappointing 2008 season going 74 and 88 after being in the World Series the previous October. On top of that, they lost second year SS Troy Tulowitzki to injury for a big part of the year, missing 61 games and 1B Todd Helton missed half the season. Unfortunately for Rox fans, 2009 doesn’t look much better after trading...

This past week 105.3 The Fan put my blog on their website at http://www.1053thefan.com/pages/3988228.php?contentType=4&contentId=3642573. The Fan is the great new sports radio station in town and their website (http://www.1053thefan.com/) has a lot of good content. You should check it out. I think they plan to keep posting my blogs on their site and I’d like to thank Devin...

The continued struggles of southpaw Kason Gabbard; the Rangers finalize a minor league contract with native Texan John Patterson.

For the first time in over 18 months, the Texas Rangers have managed to surpass the .500 barrier.

Micah Hoffpauir hit a three-run homer and reached base three times, Mike Fontenot drove in four runs with a two-run homer and a two-run triple, and Sam?Fuld smacked a solo home run, scored two runs, and threw a runner out at the plate, as the Cubs thrashed the Texas Rangers 10-4 at Surprise Stadium today. box score Ted Lilly got the start, and worked two shutout...