Texas Rangers

On Tuesday, Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks announced his intentions to sell off as much as 49 percent of his investments in the Texas Rangers.

Hicks purchased the team on Jan. 7, 1998, from a group headed by the soon-to-be President of the United States George W. Bush. At the time Hicks bought the team for $250 million, and this past April's Forbes Magazine valued the team now at $412 million, ranking 16th out of the 30 Major League Baseball teams.

Josh Hamilton is a special player. We all know that by now. In his first big league season as a starter, Hamilton wowed the Rangers and baseball fans the world over by hitting .304 with 32 home runs and 130 RBI. The sky seems to be the limit for the 27-year-old Hamilton, as his power and consistency should only improve with time.

Not only did Michael Young have to spend his Spring Training learning an entirely new position, but now he is dealing with a left quadriceps injury that continues to nag him.

This past weekend he missed back-to-back games after feeling some tightness in his left quad.  On Tuesday he returned to the lineup, but was only able to last one inning.

After singling in the top part of the first inning and then playing the field in the bottom part, he was pulled from the game. 

On Sunday, Rangers GM Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington sat down with 11-time Gold Glove outfielder Andruw Jones to talk about his future with the team.

During the offseason, Jones signed a minor league contract that would pay him a base salary of $500,000 and up to $1 million in incentives. 

In that contract, Jones had an opt-out clause if he was not placed on the Rangers 25-man roster by today, then he could get out of the contract in hopes of making another major league team.

On June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians held "Ten Cent Beer Night."

The club intended to offer as much eight-ounce Stroh's beer as fans could drink—and for only 10 cents a pop.

Now some background from before the Indians played the Texas Rangers that night.

Six days earlier there was a bench-clearing brawl between the two teams at Arlington Stadium in Texas.

It's been a long time since I've been able to truly raise my expectations for the Texas Rangers. In fact, it's been exactly 10 years. Maybe I'm just tired of writing about a rebuilding program, but frankly the Rangers were in such bad shape it made an excruciating rebuilding program necessary.

This spring has been different, though, for one simple reason. They're ready.

Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, David Murphy, Nelson Cruz, Frank Francisco, Kevin Millwood, and Vicente Padilla are just a few of the players that have spots on the 25-man roster already locked up.

Other names like Josh Rupe, Joaquin Arias, German Duran, Brandon Boggs, Brendan Donnelly, and Andruw Jones are players that are still competing for a spot on the 25-man roster.

Fans are always asking: why do Major League teams bring so many players to Spring Training?

To answer that question quickly—they do it in order to get a good look at how the young players are performing and more importantly how they play against other Major League talent.

But after a few weeks, the teams will begin shorting their rosters in order for their Major League starters to get more consistent and longer game appearances.

On Sunday, the Texas Rangers made their first round of optioning players to the minor league squad in preparation for Opening Day.

Note: All team projections were found using the FEINs projections. An explanation behind projected wins, losses, and other stats can be found here.

1. Los Angeles Angels

This is a projection on the players that I believe will make up the Texas Rangers 25-man Major League roster come Opening Day.

Since Spring Training is still not over, obviously this is not my final list and I will make adjustments by the week and as we get closer to Opening Day.

Those players that are italicized are players that I believe are locks for the 25-man roster, and the stats listed with them are their 2008 season stats.

STARTING ROTATION

Kevin Millwood- 9-10, 5.07 ERA, 168.2 IP, 125 K, 49 BB