The Rangers did ask the Marlins about Josh Johnson and were told he was not available. The Rangers did ak the Marlins about some of their other pitching but didn't get anywhere. There doesn't appear to be a match between the two teams.

But they did talk although there were absolutely no discussions involving All-Star second baseman Dan Uggla, anymore than there were discussions between the Rangers and free agent infielder Marco Scutaro.

At some point during the holiday weekend, Scutaro mentioned to somebody that the Rangers had contacted him about playing third base. The Rangers immediately went into denial mode, not wanting anything to get started about a perceived desire to replace Michael Young.

The Rangers do need a utility infielder now that Omar Vizquel has left town and signed with the White Sox. Word is that he wanted to play in a more "cosmopolitan city" - apparently Uptown Dallas and the Fort Worth Stockyards doesn't cut it - but he may have decided that waiting for playing time behind Young, Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler wasn't going to cut it.

What the Rangers want is a right-handed bat in the middle-of-the-order and Jermaine Dye is high on their list. There have even been suggestions that he might be willing to play first base, which would thrill the Rangers.

But the best bet is that Dye ends up in San Francisco.

The Rangers wouldn't mind adding pitching but they don't want to subtract it so they are not trying to move Kevin Millwood. Word is the Brewers were interested but Rangers general manager Jon Daniels and Doug Melvin haven't spoke in weeks, That might change at the Winter Meetings but the Rangers still need Millwood's arm far more than they need to move his salary.

So far it has been a slow off-season, not only in Texas but across the board. Maybe everybody was waiting to see where Andruw Jones was going to play but now that he is off the market, clubs can start getting serious about Matt Holliday and Jason Bay.

One problem is the World Series ended up going into November, so the free agency period started even later than usual. So the Red Sox and the Yankees haven't started throwing haymakers yet but that could still be to come once the Blue Jays decide what to do with Roy Halladay.

That could be the big domino to fall.

The Rangers would just like to know who their owner is going to be. That's the big domino in Arlington.

What we know about the Rangers ownership situation...

* For some reason, a business transaction has become a big public relations campaign...

* Chuck Greenberg decided to let everybody know that he is working hard to get local investors involved in his ownership. He already has the big ace in Nolan Ryan.

* Ryan is being pulled in all directions like the wishbone off a Thanksgiving turkey. Rangers owner Tom Hicks has a commitment from Ryan to be a part of his potential ownership group.

* Hicks badly wants to retain control of the team and is trying to get local investors to back him up. He scored major public relation points by announcing last week that he also has a commitment from NFL icon Roger Staubach to be a part of his group.

* He missed on Troy Aikman, who is in with the ownership group of the Padres.

* Hicks definitely knows that he still has a major sales job ahead of him with many fans who are quite frustrated with what has transpired over the past ten years. These are the ones who have been pining for Mark Cuban to buy the team. But Cuban's name has not come up.

* Hicks strongly believes the club is headed in the right direction and there is strong evidence in that regard but he still has to convince a large segment of the fan base that is the case. The Rangers just have not been able to get that point across to as many fans as possible. Tom Grieve/Mike Stone and Doug Melvin/Tom Schieffer were much better at selling the direction of the team.

* Dennis Gilbert wants the team badly and has been busy behind the scene trying to drum up support for his cause. Here is what Nick Cafardo, an outstanding baseball writer for the Boston Globe, wrote on Sunday.

Tom Hicks, who has to sell the team because of financial woes, is organizing a group of local investors in an effort to remain majority owner. Is this best for the Rangers? Gilbert, who submitted a sealed bid Friday, is clearly better, a real baseball man who understands how teams work. Gilbert has been an agent and an adviser to White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and his charitable work - for the RBI Program and the Scouts Foundation he started - has earned him great respect around the game. This one is a no-brainer.

* Gilbert might have one advantage. He's likely to have the support of Commissioner Bud Selig. That, in normal circumstances, is huge. Selig often has a huge say in who buys these teams.

* Jim Crane (right), blandly called the "Houston businessman," seems to be keeping a low profile in all of this. Even when he visited with Rangers front office people last month, he didn't ask many questions or talk much. One of his assistants did most of that.

* Greenberg, one the other hand, was much more gregariously warm and friendly with all the people he met during his visit.

* Crane does love baseball. He was a star pitcher at the University of Central Missouri in 1973-76 and a member of the school's Hall of Fame. He funded $1.2 million in improvements to the school's baseball field, which is named after both him and his former coach. They call it James R. Crane Stadium/Robert N. Tompkins Field.

* Greenberg owns two Minor League teams, sold another and has won several awards for marketing and promotional campaigns. He's also a sports attorney who is big pals with Mario Lemieux, the hockey Hall of Famer. But a Cowboys quarterback beats a Penguins puck-handler in Texas.

* Bottom line: None of this really matters!!!

For all the public relations postering, it's not going to matter what Hall of Famer is in your ownership group, how much baseball you've played in your life, how close you are with Bud Selig or how many friends you have in the media.

Understand this: it's all about paying off the debt accumulated by Hicks Sports Group. That's why the team is for sale, that's what the New York banks are interested in and that's also what concerns Major League Baseball above everything else. Hicks wouldn't be selling if not for the oppressive debt.

The proposal that best addresses that situation is the one that will like get accepted. All other considerations take a back-seat to that single stipulation.

This is ultimately a business transaction. Answers should come by New Years Day...Spring Training at the latest. People want this thing done.

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?