Derek Holland News

By ANTHONY ANDRO There will be no postseason awards for the Texas Rangers this year.Two days after Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, the Rangers' Ron Washington finished fifth in the AL Manager of the Year count.The Los Angeles Angels' Mike Scioscia won the award, with 15 of the 28 ...

Would have gotten to this sooner, but, hey, Roddy Piper was the guest host on RAW last night.

As brilliant as Felix Hernandez was in 2009, it was harder to muster up a passionate Cy Young case for him, because Zack Greinke was demonstrably just slightly better.

Perhaps the biggest news to come out of last week's GM meetings was that the Detroit Tigers might need to shed significant payroll and that could make a slew of still-young, but established players available.

The biggest storyline of the Texas Rangers' 2009 season was a pitching revolution that saw the club spend more than a month in first place and remain in contention deep into September.

Looks like most of the newspaper staff in town have been assigned to the Cowboys this weekend.

As I mentioned last week, although the Texas Rangers had a very successful 2009 season, they still have a shopping list that needs to be addressed this winter in order to build upon their success and hopefully take the next step towards making the postseason.

Clint Hurdle plans to have a simple philosophy as hitting coach of the Texas Rangers , emphasizing a team-oriented approach and doing whatever it takes to score one more run than the opponent.

Tim Scheppers or Crow? Jim Callis If you can guarantee health, I'd take Scheppers.

For much of the last decade, it's been kind of a tradition for Rangers officials to look at the surprising team in the playoffs and pronounce said club a model to follow.

The Kyodo News is reporting that 18-year-old lefty Yusei Kikuchi has chosen to stay in Japan rather than come to the United States to play professionally.

In their bid to become big-time players in the burgeoning international talent market, the Rangers are doing everything they can to woo 18-year-old Yusei Kikuchi to bypass professional baseball in Japan, stiff-arm a dozen MLB clubs, and sign with Texas.

The Rangers intensified their courtship of a young Japanese left-handed pitcher by sending one of their own young left-handers on a weekend recruiting trip across the Pacific Ocean.

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels confirmed that left-hander Derek Holland was in Japan on Monday to meet with Yusei Kikuchi, an 18-year-old left-hander who is considering whether to bypass the Nippon Professional Baseball draft to play in the United States.

Here's the post-mortem on the pithcers list from the 2009 book. With this finished, I'm now delving into writing player comments, beginning with the Twins.

The Dodgers are easily the most interesting team to watch this post season. WTF is there to enjoy watching Yanks-Angels? I'm rooting for some wholesomely debilitating swine flu, and perhaps a slip and fall or three Best case scenario: Arod cranks a liner right into the melon of that no-talent hack of a girlfriend, and Jeets pulls his groin on a ...

Give the Texas Rangers credit. They possess the ability to make news during the playoffs even without participating in them.

Finding the 10 most significant games from a mass of 162 isn't easy and probably is very debatable, especially in a season that saw the Texas Rangers left for dead what seems like a dozen times.

Marlon Byrd is expected to be back in the lineup on Friday night when the Rangers open a three-game series with the Mariners in Seattle.

Up and down the Texas Rangers ' clubhouse, players point to the improvement in the pitching staff as a big reason for the club turning around its present fortunes.