Spring has Sprung!

Happy Birthday Mark Followill and Jackie Gleason!

Exhibition baseball has now officially begun. There will be a huge horde of media keeping an eye on A-Rod through the spring as we get to Opening Day 4/5/09. Yesterday the Yanks played in Dunedin and battled the Blue Jays. In his first at bat A-Rod was cheered, jeered, and catcalled. His response? A homer in his first exhibition game. Good for a standing ovation. When the real season begins the scrutiny will be more vicious.

Locally there is a lot of speculation on how the Ranger outfield shall fare. David Murphy should be your starting left fielder, being spelled occasionally by Marlon Byrd. If Andruw Jones is truly the real deal he will grab center, possibly doing a platoon with Josh Hamilton. Right field will be a battle for Nelson Cruz Jr. and Josh. You can maybe add Frank Catalanotto for an occasional spot start.

Otherwise I foresee Frank getting traded elsewhere or taking up slack as a platoon DH with Hank Blalock. Hank was the former third baseman. Now it's Michael Young. Elvis Andrus has entered the building at short with help from Omar Vizquel. Ian Kinsler owns second base and Chris Davis will start at first. Here you can debate the merits of having Hank Blalock as a backup infielder or even a Catalanotto for that matter. Here is hoping that the competition for starting positions gets heated.

Kevin Millwood, Jason Jennings, and Kris Benson all appear to be healthier than at this point last year. Vicente Padilla should flirft with 20 wins if given run support and f he avoids the big inning. Millwood is in a contract year so he should eat up close to 225 innings. The maturation of Matt Harrison is at issue and how do Scott Feldman and Dustin Nippert overcome adversity? CJ Wilson is a question mark after surgery. Eddie Guardado is back, and he was happy in Texas in 2008. How well will Eddie and Brendan Donnelly fare in the pen? Does Franky Francisco regain his closer role? Can the Rangers get to the 88 win mark and keep Nolan Ryan happy? Anything is possible. I happily await the start of the 2009 campaign.

When the Mavericks are on a back-to-back they tend to fare very well. This was the case Wednesday night when defeating Milwaukee handily. Andrew Bogut was no factor at all. A 20-2 run right before the half gave Dallas a lead they would not relinquish. Brandon Bass had three major dunks that made me smile and wonder.

Mark Cuban is so great at promoting ideas on the behalf of a player. Thus is wonder: How much longer before we see a reprise of Dan Ackroyd circa 1976 talk about 'The Bass-O-Matic! It cuts, it's dices, it slices. It does it all! Order now!' Or a parody of a Pretenders tune from 1980 'Bass In Pocket'. Or maybe a takeoff of the 1987 hit by the Beatie Boys as you watch videos of slams and moves by Sir Brandon and call it, 'Bass Funky!' I'm just saying. When Brandon Bass and James Singleton are on the hardwood, things tend to get a little nasty...

As banged up as the Dallas Stars are, I wonder if they will pull off a trade right before the deadline? If they do will Les Jackson and Brett Hull seek a defender or a center sort? Brad Richards is sorely missed as I type this. Of late the shots are not going in for the local boys. Starting to feel like early November again. Darnit!

The run of warm summer weather is about to go away. 86 for a high here in Dallas. It topped 91 in Mineral Wells and further west. The winds began blowing hard around 3 today and refuse to let up. A cool front is due to arrive in the next 36 hours or so.

Time for a walk!

Over and out in Big D

Mr Will