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There’s a really great article in Saturday’s Dallas Morning News about our new setup guy, Akinori Otsuka by Kevin Blackstone. Kevin writes really glowingly about Aki (the Rangers players’ nickname for him). Here’s a few quotes from it..

“He asked how I was, asked how the family was doing,” pitcher Brian Shouse said with surprise of Otsuka. “And I was over there [Japan], what, eight years ago? He’s awesome.
Indeed, what so impressed so many at Rangers Camp 2006 was that Otsuka bothered to be here at all right now. His country’s team was scheduled to start gathering in Japan this weekend, so it didn’t seem to make much sense for Otsuka to come to Arizona for a couple of days. Daniels and Showalter all but expected him not to be here and were understanding of the reason. They learned a little something about him this week.
“To show respect and get along with the team,” Otsuka explained with a little help from his interpreter when asked why he came to Surprise at all. “I have to know the situation, the fundamentals.”

That’s really nice to hear, but what I didn’t realize is how popular he is in Japan. Blackstone refers to Japanese baseball players in popluarity as Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, and Otsuka. I didn’t realize was that popular, I just assumed he was “another Japanese baseball player”. Seems like a big mistake on my part.
I know everyone who reads my site probably also reads the DMN, but just in case, you should check this article out. It’s going to make you want to see this guy pitch now. It did for me. :)
Update: The Ft Worth Star Telegram also has an article about Otsuka-san online. You can read that here.

The Rangers signed three players today for contracts for 2006. They are: C Gerald Laird, P CJ Wilson, & OF Jason Botts. While I havent’ seen numbers for any of them, I can’t imagine any are huge contracts, probably not even breaking $500k for each, I’d guess.
No surprises on any of these, it’s not like we wouldn’t have them anyway, as we have control of all of these guys. :)
Update: Saw some numbers on them. C Gerald Laird ($332,000), LHP C.J. Wilson ($331,000) and DH-OF Jason Botts ($328,000).

Today is the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers. A couple of pictures have popped up of some of the new Rangers. Here’s pictures of Kevin Milwood & Akinori Otsuka during workouts today.

In an announcement that I think surprised no one, Kevin Milwood was named the opening day pitcher for the Texas Rangers. I’m also a Phillies fan, and I remember when he was brought there, he didn’t do well with that label. Hopefully it’s different here, as I really would like one of these signings to work.
Here’s the full story from Yahoo news.

I decided to look up the Rangers spring training broadcast schedule. THat’s not new, I’ve had it on the site already. But I knew the Rangers had about a dozen or so games on KRLD, and three on TV. I decided to check the opponent’s schedules to see what other games we could get coverage on.
MLB.Com for years now has had an excellent package called “MLB.com Gameday Audio” where you can get the audio feeds for all the teams, and all the games all season. It also includes spring training. Usually by now the annual package is avialable for sale, but with MLB pushing the World Baseball Classic they haven’t started selling the 2006 package. But when they do, you might want to invest in it. I don’t know what the price is this year, but in the past it’s either been $9.95 or $14.95. Hell, even if they increase it to $19.95 it’s still a good deal for all the games. You can also listen to the archives of older games too, which is nice.
Anyway, if you have that package, you can listen to the game feeds from the other teams who the Rangers are playing, and that’s where this comes into play. Here’s a list of the Rangers spring training games and whose radio if applicable the game is covered. Even if “none” is listed (there are eight such games), it still could be covered, as MLB.com does broadcasts of their own with their own people from two games a day (one from Florida, one from Arizona). The only problem with that is that their announcers spend way too much time talking aout everything else BUT the game they’re covering. They’ll take emails, and im’s and all that, and meanwhile two outs have happened in the game. That’s fairly annoying.
Anyway, here’s the spring training radio broadcast schedule for the Rangers with more than just the KRLD coverage:

Thu Mar 02 - vs Royals       - Royals Radio
Fri Mar 03 - @ Royals        - KRLD
Sat Mar 04 - @ Royals        - KRLD
Sun Mar 05 - vs Brewers      - KRLD
Mon Mar 06 - @ Diamondbacks  - None
Tue Mar 07 - @ Cubs          - Cubs Radio
Wed Mar 08 - vs Athletics    - None
Thu Mar 09 - vs Royals       - None
Fri Mar 10 - @ Padres        - Padres Radio
Sat Mar 11 - vs Rockies      - KRLD
Sun Mar 12 - @ Mariners      - KRLD
Mon Mar 13 - vs Royals       - None
Tue Mar 14 - @ Giants        - None
Wed Mar 15 - @ Angels        - Angels Radio
Thu Mar 16 - vs Giants       - None
Fri Mar 17 - @ White Sox     - White Sox Radio (also on CSN Sox TV)
Sat Mar 18 - vs Diamondbacks - KRLD
Sun Mar 19 - @ Cubs          - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Tue Mar 21 - vs Angels       - KRLD
Wed Mar 22 - @ Brewers       - None
Thu Mar 23 - vs White Sox    - White Sox Radio (also on CSN Sox TV)
Fri Mar 24 - vs Cubs         - KRLD
Sat Mar 25 - @ Rockies       - Rockies Radio
Sun Mar 26 - vs Brewers      - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Mon Mar 27 - vs Mariners     - KRLD (also on Rangers FSN)
Tue Mar 28 - @ Athletics     - None
Wed Mar 29 - vs Padres       - Padres Radio
Thu Mar 30 - @ Royals        - Cubs Radio
Fri Mar 31 - vs Marlins      - KRLD (in Frisco, TX)
Sat Apr 01 - vs Marlins      - KRLD (in Arlington, TX)

While there’s been several news reports lately about folks reporting early, today is the formal date for pitchers & catchers to report. It’s always a good day. You’ve got to love this day. :)