Happy St. Patricks day!

Well, a happy St. Paddys day to everyone - I hope you're all wearing your green shirts. Apologies for the lack of posting this weekend - let's get things back in gear, shall we?

First up, I have some required reading for you: Joey Matschulat, over at Baseball Time in Arlington recently penned his take on the Rangers catching situation - and as usual, his stuff puts mine to shame. Great read - be sure to check it out.

Now, a few notes of the encouraging kind: Kevin Millwood, CJ Wilson and Joaquin Benoit all pitched in a minor league game on saturday, and threw without any problems - Millwood will start his first "A" game of the spring on thursday, while Wilson and Benoit will appear in a minor league game on Tuesday. Vicente Padilla also threw in an intersquad game Sunday, and had no problems - he's scheduled to pitch again Friday, probably in a minor league game, but that's because the Rangers don't want him facing the LA Angels, who he will pitch against in his second start of the season. All of this is incredibly good news - the Rangers obviously need their pitchers healthy, and it looks like everone is finally on the road to recovery.

There's an interesting article up on the Rangers website today, by MLB.com writer Mike Bauman. In it, Bauman talks about the Rangers recent talent accquisitions, and the direction Jon Daniels wants to take the Rangers. This seems to be the first time I've actually seen the Rangers publicly say they are actually committed to developing their young players - which is good news, I suppose, even though some of the club's recent actions might suggest otherwise.

The key qote from Daniels that caught my eye in the article was when he said "At some point, you have to commit to people you beleive in. The only way young players are going to develop is if you give them a chance to learn, and sometimes they learn through failure, a little bit."

That of course, is dead on the mark, something I've been preaching myself both on this blog and elsewhere - but so far, the Rangers have yet to actually realize that philosophy. The catching situation is a perfect example of this - not to beat a dead horse, but playing Laird over Saltalamacchia contradicts JD's above statement in just about every way fathomable - unless, of course, the Rangers don't believe in Salty. That seems to be the Rangers problem right now, deciding exactly who among their young players they do believe in. You can preach about playing your young guys all you want, but until you actually do it, you won't know who among your younger crop of talent you can rely on - and playing spares like Laird, Kevin Mench and Sidney Ponson in their stead isn't going to help you figure that out.

I appreciate the stance JD's trying to take here - I just wish the actual on-field squad would actually be shaped according to the same philosphy. Because otherwise, it just seems like more hot air from the Texas management.