The Rangers have added pitchers Michael Kirkman and Zac Phillips to the 40-man roster, protecting them from being taken in the Rule 5 draft.

Kirkman, 23, combined to go 9-8 with a 3.48 ERA (56 ER/144.2 IP) in 26 games/25 starts this season for High-A Bakersfield and Double-A Frisco.  He recorded 61 walks against 118 strikeouts, holding opposing batters to a .251 (136-542) average with 10 home runs.  Kirkman allowed more than 4 earned runs in just 2 of his 26 outings this season.  He began the year at Bakersfield, his first action at the High-A level, going 4-1 with a 2.06 ERA (11 ER/48.0 IP) in 8 games/7 starts.  He was promoted to Frisco in late May, going 5-7 with a 4.19 ERA in 18 games/starts for the RoughRiders.  The club's fifth round selection in the 2005 June draft, the Lake City, Fla. native is entering his sixth professional season in 2010.

Phillips, 23, was a combined 2-3 with 4 saves and a 1.39 ERA (12 ER/77.2 IP) in 36 games/3 starts for Bakersfield and Frisco.  He recorded 75 strikeouts against 30 walks, as opponents batted just .163 (46-283) for the year.  Phillips allowed just 2 home runs all season, an average of one in almost every 39.0 innings.  He threw more than 1.0 inning in 23 of his 33 relief appearances (69.7%) and held left-handed batters to a .137 (16-116) average for the year.  Phillips was selected in the 23rd round of the 2004 June draft, a draft-and-follow player who signed the following May.  He has pitched primarily as a starter in his pro career before appearing in relief in 2009. 

With the addition of Kirkman and Phillips, the Rangers now have 37 players on the club's 40-man roster.

Mike Scioscia is the A.L. Manager of the Year. Ron Washington tied for fourth place with Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu.

Scioscia received 15 of 28 first place votes. Ron Gardenhire finished second and had six first place votes and  Joe Girardi was third.  Washington recieved one first-place vote, one second and 11 third-place votes and tied former Rangers coach Wakamatsu for fourth place.

Bailey beat out Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus. Rick Porcello was third.

Bailey was an All-Star reliever for the Athletics who had 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA. He is the seventh Athletics player to win A.L. Rookie of the Year since 1974 when Mike Hargrove was the only winner in Rangers history.

The Athletics have had eight Rookie of the Year winners, tying the Yankees for most ever by an A.L. team. The Dodgers have had 16.

Bailey received 13 first place votes. Andrus received eight and Porcello received seven.

Norm Lyons retired.

Many changes around the Rangers this off-season - so what else is new - but sorry to see that Norm is stepping down from being Vice-President of Community Relations.

The Rangers are losing a great person, even if he was wrong every year.

Every year.

Each April, Norm would come up to me and say, "This is the year! I have a feeling that this is going to be it. Better not make any plans for October."

Actually there's little doubt that we'll still hear from Norm next April and every April from here on out. Maybe one day he'll actually be right.

2010?

How about those Cowboys?

1. Do you think Elvis Andrus should be the American League Rookie of the Year?

2. Who do you think will be his biggest competition?

3. Who should be the American League Manager of the Year?

4. Vladimir Guerrero anybody?

5. Do you think John Lackey would be a good investment?

My first Spring Training with the Rangers was 1989 in Port Charlotte. Eddie Chiles was in the process of selling the team and it was the biggest story surrounding the Rangers.

Jim Reeves was all over it. He had the sources and he was the one who broke the story that Chiles was selling to George Bush.

The night he broke the story we were supposed to have dinner at Barnacle Bill's on Englewood Beach. Revo, James Walker, Mike Perry and I. Revo loved his stone crabs.

But he loved breaking news more and he stayed behind to work the story. Still remember him screaming at a source through the phone.

"I want this story and I deserve this story!" he screamed.

He got the story while I drove Walker and Perry to Barnacle Bills.

"There are great baseball writers and great reporters," Walker opined from the back seat. "Revo is a great reporter. I'll take a great reporter every time."

Jim Reeves, who is retiring from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was a great writer and a great reporter for 40 years. They refer to the sports section as the toy department at the newspaper but it's still news and Revo broke more news than any of us.

Here was his lead the night the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs and the Mets beat the Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

"Hold on to your hats and take your seats, the Red Sox just grabbed their throats. The World Series is going to a Seventh Game."

He covered the Rangers for 11 years. He was at the end of his run when I showed up from Denison in 1985. Four years later he was a columnist when they put me on the Rangers beat.

We did the World Series together in 1989. Giants-Athletics. We were back in my adopted hometown of San Francisco and sitting in the upper deck at Candlestick Park before Game 3. It was a gentle roar at first and then a giant concrete bowl filled with 60,000 people started rocking violently in the second worst earthquake to ever hit the city.

Revo had one of those battery operated television sets and he was watching the news. Our nerves were all still on fire with aftershocks when he uttered those words that I will never forget as long as I live.

"The Bay Bridge has collapsed."

We covered that story together and at least a thousand more over the next 17 years. He was the columnist, I was the beat writer. There were many others with us. Tony DeMarco, Simon Gonzalez, Jennifer Briggs, Roger B. Brown, Gil LeBreton, Galyn Wilkins, Randy Galloway, Johnny Paul, Mac Engel, Carlos Mendez, Jesse Sanchez and Kathleen O'Brien. And many others.

The one thing we did better than anybody else at the Star-Telegram was we worked as a team in the true sense of the word. Revo was our leader.

We were successful for one simple reason. Bylines didn't matter. We didn't care who got credit. To this day I still hate those taglines at the bottom of the story that say: "T.R. Sullivan contributed to this story."

Who cares? That's the job. Just get the story. Two things are true...

1. There were a number of news stories that I got credit for breaking that emanated from information that Revo originally gathered. They were really his scoops but they were under my byline.

2. Revo wrote a number of great columns that were originally my idea. I fed them to him for a reason. I knew what was going on the Rangers beat, I knew exactly what needed to be written and I knew exactly what stories Revo would hit out of the ballpark. He always did.

We did our best work in Spring Training. Revo loved Spring Training. I'm not overly fond of it. I love 162. He only had to write one story a day. I had to write two or three. Give Revo one story to work on and give him all day to do it and he was going to take one deep.

Still remember the time in Surprise when Garth Brooks was working out with the Royals and Charley Pride was with the Rangers. Revo got the two country legends together in the dugout to talk baseball, music and life. Revo wrote about it and it was one of his best. A grand slam.

We went to dinner at Padre Murphy's that night with Kathleen. We were waiting on Revo and I told Kathleen, "Heads up, Revo is fired up about his column and he's going to talk about it non-stop all night."

He did, but not from egotism. Revo loved the newspaper business and he loved a great story. He is a dear friend but he is the best newspaper reporter I ever worked with.

Clint Hurdle is going to be the Rangers next hitting coach, an announcement that they apparently are holding off until after the World Series.

So, how is Hurdle going to do?

Apparently Bill James already has an answer for that in his Bill James 2010 Handbook. Here is what James projects for four Rangers players and Justin Smoak as well:

Key Rangers Hitters (by OPS)
Player                                    AB     R   HR  RBI SB   Avg.    OPS
Nelson Cruz                           542     89   36  98    21  .284     .895
Chris Davis                             494     80   30   91    2   .285     .877
Josh Hamilton                         501     75   23   91   11   .293    .860
Ian Kinsler                              575    106   27  84   28   .275     .837
Justin Smoak                         365      48    10  45    0   .274     .793

Bet the Rangers will take that right now from Cruz, Davis, Hamilton and Kinsler right now.

This from the press release:

 "In any season, the vast majority of players play in a manner that seems a natural extension of what they had done before," James says in his new book. "When that happens, our projection should be reasonably accurate."
 
Although he's been in the projection business for almost twenty years, one thing James has no control over is playing time. "It is always my argument that we have no chance of figuring out, in October 2009, who will get playing time in 2010," James says. "But what we should do is try to answer this question: If this player plays, how will he play?"

The Rangers refuse to rule out the possibility of Milton Bradley coming back to Texas.

Club officials aren't expecting it to happen but it's something club officials are definitely talking about as they try to figure out a way to repair an offense that scored 115 less runs in 2009 than in 2008.

A month ago, it seemed impossible that the Rangers would bring back Bradley. Now there seems some hemming and hawing.

The Rangers know that the Cubs are eager to unload Bradley, who has two years and $20 million left on his contract. They know there is a possibility the Cubs could pick up a sizable portion of that contract, a must if the Rangers are going to get involved.

The Rangers know that Bradley had a big impact on their lineup in 2008 when he hit .321 and set a club record with a .436 on-base percentage and a .563 slugging percentage. They know he's the kind of hitter they need in their lineup and they remember how productive Josh Hamilton was with Bradley hitting behind him.

They also know that he only played in 124 games because of physical issues and his 414 at-bats were only the second highest of his career. They also know that Bradley is high-maintenance, even for manager Ron Washington.

But if the Rangers can get him cheaply...

The Rangers are interviewing four hitting coach candidates today: Rusty Greer, Gerald Perry, Thad Bosley and Clint Hurdle. Bet Bradley is a topic of discussion during the process. Perry worked with him in both Oakland and Chicago.

Makes you wonder how much that was a consideration...

Rounding up the usual questions while getting the blog going for the winter. Sorry October was slow but needed a little down time... We are up and running again

1. Would you want Milton Bradley back with the Rangers?

2. Do you think Rusty Greer would make a good hitting coach?

3. Which of the other three candidates stand out for you:

4. Are you surprised that the DFW market has one of the lowest TV ratings in the country when it comes to watching the World Series?

5. How do you think you'll feel when you see Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez celebrating a World Series title?

The Rangers have narrowed their list of candidates to replace Rudy Jaramillo as hitting coach.  They are:  former Ranger OF Rusty Greer, former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, former A's hitting coach Thad Bosley and Gerald Perry who has served at the Cubs hitting coach for the last two seasons.  The Rangers will interview all four candidates on Monday.

More on the website later.

Pitcher Jason Grilli has cleared outright waivers and refused assignment to the Minor Leagues. Grilli instead told the Rangers he is taking his free agency.

Grilli was 2-2 with a 4.78 ERA in 30 games with the Rangers after being acquired from the Rockies in June. He had a 2.00 ERA in June and July but it ballooned to 13.50 in August and 9.64 in September after he missed three weeks with inflammation in his elbow.

The Rangers also took catcher Kevin Richardson off the 40-man roster but are trying to resign him to a Minor League contract. He was 3-for-6 in limited time with the Rangers in August and September.

The Rangers now have 38 players in their 40-man roster