Settled.

The Rangers have avoided arbitration with Marlon Byrd yesterday. They reached a settlement with him worth a little over $3 million for 2009. This means that they have not had an arbitration hearing since 2000.

Byrd, shown here on card number 219 of the 2008 Upper Deck set, is one of four outfielders that Texas plans on carrying into the 2009 season. He is also the most versatile, able to play all three outfield positions with success in 2008. He hit .298 in 2008.

It looks like the Rangers have the outfield nailed down now. As usual the biggest question mark for the team is pitching.

Blocked at the plate.

Don Werner played in just 24 games for Texas in 1981 and 1982. He signed and returned this 1983 Topps card in just six days.

Don lasted seven seasons in the bigs with the Reds and Rangers. Three of those years he appeared in less than ten games. His highest number of games was 50 in 1978 for the Reds.

Werner's biggest problem was that he played behind two of the best catchers ever, Johnny Bench and Jim Sundberg. Obviously Bench was the better of the two but Sunny was just about unbelievable on defense. Gotta feel a little sympathy for Don. Traded from the Reds and thinking that he was now away from Bench only to find Sundberg in the way.

Two down...

Joaquin Benoit, seen here on card number 837 of the the 2006 Upper Deck set, is the second Rangers pitcher to undergo rotator cuff surgery this off-season. Like Eric Hurley, he is likely gone for the season. There is a slight chance that he will be back before the end of the year but the odds are not good.

So, the pitching frustrations have begun already. Benoit was one of the relievers who had to have a good year in order for the Rangers to be competitive. The question becomes now, who will replace him? There seems to still be a lot of competition for the four starting rotation slots but there might be room left over in the bullpen.

Second chance.

Still not a whole lot going on in baseball. Still a lot of free agents out there looking for jobs. Could make the last few weeks before Spring Training very interesting.

Recently I have been sending out cards to retired players and asking them to sign them. What better way to fill the off-season? I have not subscribed to any of the pay-for-addresses sites but have managed to acquire quite a few anyway.

That brings us to today's card, number 17 in the 1989 Sports Card Digest set. Looks like Ruben Sierra is having a pretty good time here. He should be. When this picture was taken he was at the height of his career.

Sierra is retired now and his is one of the former Rangers addresses I managed to pick up. I mulled over whether or not to send to him for awhile and then decided to give it a shot. Some of you may have read my previous post about my experience when asking Ruben for an autograph. I have heard though that he underwent an attitude adjustment since that time. With that in mind I decided to give him a second chance. I'll keep you posted as to how it comes out.

1972 Topps - Jeff Burroughs.

The Rangers are closing on a deal with Marlon Byrd to avoid arbitration and appear to be a wee bit closer on a possible deal with Ben Sheets. Signing Sheets looks more likely since the Yankees re-signed Andy Pettitte. Aside from that, not much is happening on the baseball front.

Due to the lack of action, I am taking this opportunity to continue our march through the 1972 Topps team set. Today we see Jeff Burroughs on card number 191.

After a normal picture on Pete Broberg's card, Topps heads back to the odd angle of previous cards with this one. Jeff was the first pick of the 1969 draft. He debuted with the Senators in 1970 and moved with the team to Texas. After the move he stayed with the Rangers until 1976 when he was traded to the Braves following the season. Texas got five players and $250,000 for Burroughs. Jeff played nine more seasons in the majors after that and appeared for four more teams.

Book 1, Page 26.

Only nineteen days until pitchers and catchers report and still no Pudge signing. I am beginning to get worried that he will have ended his career as a Yankee. Surely that won't mean that the Hall of Fame will put a Yankees cap on his plaque. That would be a disaster.

Oh well, on to happier times. Let's see what today's page holds for us.
1995 Pacific Prisms #137
1995 Panini Stickers #28
1995 Pinnacle #122
Empty pocket
1995 Pinnacle FanFest #10
1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection #122
Empty pocket
Empty pocket
1995 Score #367

The empty pockets are being held for the 1995 Pinnacle Artist's Proofs #122, 1995 Pinnacle Samples #122, and 1995 Rangers Crayola #28.

So, Texas is still talking to Ben Sheets but is "cautious" due to his injury history. Apparently they think that if he remains healthy he could make an impact. Any Brewers fans care to chime in with your thoughts?

I recently added a link to RangersCards.com. This is a pretty cool website that has scans of various Rangers cards as well as stats for players from their Rangers' years. It is linked, by a drop down menu, to sister sites for the other MLB teams. You owe it to yourself to check out the site of your favorite team.

I am also adding a link for I Heart Halos. RWH loves the Angels and his family. He is currently working on getting his two year old daughter addicted to cards and the Angels. He has a lot of interesting Angels commentary. Along with Tastelikedirt, that now gives my links list the whole A.L. West with the exception of the Mariners. Anyone know of a good blog for them?

1972 Topps - Pete Broberg.

Not much to report on the Rangers front today. The club is still playing footsie with Ben Sheets. Ryan and Daniels had dinner with him and seemed to get along swimmingly. Of course, the team hasn't made him an offer yet and he hasn't passed a physical so it may all come to naught.

Thought we would go back to 1972 and take a look at another in the Rangers' first team set. Today's card features pitcher Pete Broberg and is number 64 in the 1972 Topps set. There are a couple of things that are interesting about this card.

First, we can't see up Pete's nose. That is significant after seeing the odd angle of the pictures from the previous four cards in this set. I don't know how Pete, a rookie of all things, managed to avoid the awkward fate of his teammates. Perhaps his photo was taken early enough that the team move had not yet been finalized and so the photographer didn't know to avoid the Washington logo. More likely it was the sideburns. Gotta get those bad boys in the picture.

The second thing that catches my eye is the red. Note Pete's red hat and red undershirt. Note also the Senator's consistent cellar dweller status. That is the true red uniform legacy folks! The Washington Senators wore red, the Texas Rangers switched to blue and should have stayed with it. Sorry, still not over the red is back announcement.