[majesty95]

Spring Winds Blow In Much Needed Change

I arrived back in Arlington in mid-January and was ready to get going on the season.

As I began looking over our roster I noticed I had missed our signing of Cliff Johnson from Toronto. Cliff was one of the league's best hitters last year batting .322 with 35 home runs and 144 RBI. Although he was 37 years old, he was certainly a welcomed addition and would fill the void create by Mickey Rivers retiring.

Mickey calling it quits kind of surprised me. He was one of the better hitters in the league for much of the first half of last season. However, he struggled quite a bit late in the season and had a hard time dealing with the long summers in Texas. Another guy that retired was Bob Lacey. My big free agent signing from last year. Bob was a solid reliever for us but this did not really surprise me. Middle relievers don't really stick around for 40-50 innings per year.

The next day Tom called me and told me that he had dealt Danny Darwin to Kansas City for Don Slaught. "What?!?!" I asked. Tom told me that he thought it was too good of an opportunity to pass up and that Slaught was possibly the best young catcher in the league. We played against Slaught quite a bit and I thought he was a good hitter but I thought I would have preferred to keep Danny and maybe sign a little less touted catcher. But what's done is done and at least we had filled another hole.

A few days later I learned that Tom Henke had signed a deal with the Blue Jays. While I never like to see a good pitcher leave, I had not grown comfortable with Tom in the late innings so I figured we could fill his spot in the bullpen.

Later that week I told Tom that I was concerned about our outfield with Mickey retiring. I told him that Gary Ward seemed to lose range as the season went on and that I would prefer to play him in left field. I told Tom that I had noticed Ron Roenicke had still not been signed and that I thought he would be a good fill in until we could find a long-term replacement. Two days later Tom told me that Roenicke would be joining us at spring training.

Things were looking good.

We broke for spring training about a week later and the day I was scheduled to leave Tom told me that he had purchased Greg Harris from San Diego. I did not know much about Harris but Tom thought he could replace Henke and that he would be a valuable part of the bullpen. I was impressed. Tom was doing everything that we had talked about last fall and even signed the guy that I had suggested.

Spring got started and the presence of Johnson and Slaught had everyone thinking more positively. Donnie was just ripping the cover off the ball in batting practice. Guys would actually stop and watch Don hit line drive after line drive into the gaps. Last year's first round draft pick, Oddibe McDowell, was also garnering a lot of attention in batting practice. Oddibe was hitting long fly balls out of the ballpark with consistency and often our veterans would stop to watch him hit. The attitude had shifted and guys were getting excited about the upcoming season.

Right before we were about to begin playing our spring games Tom called me and told me that he had traded Billy Sample to the Yankees for Toby Harrah. Harrah is ranked among the top three in just about every one of the Rangers career batting categories. He's also a fan favorite and a leader in the clubhouse. I was concerned that he was on the downside of his career at 36 but he was just two years removed form a .304, 25 home run season. At worst, he should still be better than Curtis Wilkerson in the lineup and open Curtis up as a pinch runner and defensive replacement so I welcomed that addition as well.

At this point, I thought we were set. We still needed a starting pitcher but I hoped that Dave Stewart could take the next step and that one of our young pitchers could make the jump and fill a hole. I couldn't wait to get the season started.