Nov 3, 2011 – Rangers announce plans to make some changes in the centerfield and Vandergriff Plaza, including making a more visible visitors bullpen, adding two restaurants, reducing the “bleacher seats” in centerfield from 1,075 to 424, changing the bleachers to actual seats, creating an indoor kids playground, and raising the level of the some railings in the Ballpark. Rennovations are expected to cost around $11.5 million.

Nov. 21, 2011 – Rangers sign a two-year deal with Minnesota Twin’s Joe Nathan to become the Rangers’ closer, allowing for Neftali Feliz the opportunity to be part of the rotation.

Nov. 28, 2011 – Rangers assistant hitting coach and mentor to Josh Hamilton, Johnny Narron is hired as the Brewers’ hitting coach.

Nov. 29, 2011 – The Rangers hire pitching coach Mike Maddux’s brother, Greg Maddux as a special assistant to general manager Jon Daniels.

Nov. 30, 2011 - Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland undergoes surgery on his right wrist.

Dec. 1, 2011 – Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine decides to stay in Arlington after the Houston Astros who were looking to fill their general manager position had asked for permission to speak with Levine.

Dec. 8, 2011 – Rangers lose C.J. Wilson to AL West rivals, the Los Angeles Angels. Albert Pujols signs with the Angels too. 

Dec. 19, 2011 – Rangers win the rights to negotiate with Japanese pitching phenom Yu Darvish. The bid the Rangers placed for Darvish was later discovered to be $51,703,411, with the 34 and 11 in the figure as tributes to Nolan Ryan’s number 34 as a player and Darvish’s 11.

Dec. 23, 2011 – Rangers’ catcher Yorvit Torrealba strikes an umpire in the face after disputing a strikeout in a Venezuelan League game.

Dec. 26, 2011 – Torrealba apologizes and is suspended for 66-games from the Venezuelan Winter League.

Dec. 30, 2011 – Rangers lose relief pitcher Darren Oliver after he agrees to a one-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Jan. 3, 2012 – Yu Darvish visits the state of Texas for the first time. Darvish tours the Ballpark, dines with Nolan Ryan, Mike and Greg Maddux,and Ron Washington, and also undergoes a physical exam during his brief visit.

Jan. 18, 2012 – On the last day of their 30-day negotiation window, the Rangers and Yu Darvish finally agree to terms on a $60-million/six-year deal. 

Jan. 20, 2012 – Yu Darvish is officially presented as a Texas Ranger in Arlington.

Jan. 23, 2012 - Free-agent pitcher Gerardo Concepcion works out for several members of the Rangers front office including Jon Daniels and Nolan Ryan in the Dominican Republic. Concepcion would later sign with the Chicago Cubs.

Jan. 30, 2012 – Rangers lockup skipper Ron Washington, signing him to a two-year contract extension through the 2014 season. Rangers also meet with free-agent pitch Roy Oswalt.

Feb. 2, 2012 – Gerry Fraley breaks a report indicating that Josh Hamilton was seen in a Dallas bar on January 31th, a setback to Hamilton’s ongoing quest for sobriety. The story creates several rumors.

Feb. 3, 2012 – Josh Hamilton addresses the media at a press conference at the Ballpark. Hamilton apologizes for drinking (more here).

Feb. 8, 2012 – Elvis Andrus and the Rangers agree to a three-year contract worth $14.5 million, the contract buys out all three years of arbitration. Andrus will now be eligible to be a free agent after the 2014 season.

Feb. 10, 2012 – The Rangers sign Nelson Cruz to a two-year deal taking him through his remaining arbitration years.

Feb. 12, 2012 – The Rangers sign Mike Napoli to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.

Feb. 21, 2012 – Yu Darvish throws his first bullpen session with catcher Luis Martinez.

Feb. 22, 2012 – Pitchers and catchers report in Surprise, Arizona.

After David Freese hit that walk-off homerun in Game 6 of the World Series, I thought this offseason would go by even slower than usual. I also thought I’d be rather depressed throughout the offseason. Yet, through the signings, goodbyes, Yorvit punching umpires, and all of the free agent rumors, this offseason seemed to go by faster than usual.

Rangers fans and the Rangers themselves will learn several things this spring training, about themselves, about the other teams, and about Yu Darvish, but the most important thing they’ll have to figure out this spring and thru the regular season is how to get that last out.

Last year, one out separated the Rangers from winning their first World Series, twice. The Rangers can’t and shouldn’t focus on why they didn’t get that last out in 2011, but rather, how they’re going to get the last out in 2012.

Now, here we are roughly 44-days away from Opening Day. Pitchers and catchers report today. They’ll have their first official workout tomorrow, and the 59 Rangers will officially workout as a full squad on Sunday.

Happy Spring Training, everyone.

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

Brek Shea:
From his first touch on the ball last night, it is very clear that Shea benefitted from some time training in England with Arsenal over the offseason. He created several scoring opportunities and plays on the left side, however, what was most noticeable about Shea last night was his touch. It looks like we’ll be seeing a faster and more agile Shea in 2012 with quicker touch on the ball.

Blas Perez:
Acquiring the Panamanian striker was a smart move by the FC Dallas front office. At age 30, Perez has the potential to reach his prime this year with the Hoops. Scoring last night off of a header, Perez looks to be an ideal striker, and more importantly one that will not flop in the long term like the Colombian forward, Milton Rodriguez. Perez has the potential to do what Kenny Cooper or Jeff Cunningham did for FCD.

Bryan Leyva:
At 20, Leyva needs to get more minutes on the field in 2012. The young and promising midfielder created several attacking plays for FCD in the second half, even netting a goal of this own. At 5’6″, Leyva’s height gives him the ability to get around defenders with his foot skill, make a run, and cross the ball into the box, where a tall striker like Perez could be there to finish.

The breakdown:
David Ferreira has been the green light, after an ankle injury kept him out for the majority of 2011. Ferreira will need some time to get back into shape and regain his touch on the ball. Once he is back in form, head coach, Schellas Hyndman will have several new opportunities when it comes to creating a lineup formation and starting 11.

One lineup that could work for FCD would be a 4-5-1 formation. As indicated in the diagram, having Ferreira in the middle, Shea on the left, Fabian Castillo on the right, and Perez as the lone striker would create an endless amount of offensive plays for the Hoops. Hyndman would even have the opportunity to put Leyva in at right wing as a sub or even as a starter, whenever Hyndman feels he is ready. With Ferreira feeding balls to Shea on the left and Castillo or Leyva on the right, and Perez to finish at striker, this 4-5-1 could be a successful formation for the Hoops in 2012.

FC Dallas will host the University of Tulsa in an exhibition game on the Adidas field this Saturday at 10 a.m.

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

Tatu runs out of jerseys after scoring 4 goals against the Kansas City Comets. After scoring his third goal, equipment manager Chris Agnes told him, “If you score another goal, keep your shirt on.” This event marked one of the few times he didn’t throw his jersey into the stands after a goal.

Gabe is the senior sports analysis and administrator for Dallas Sports Hub
Follow Gabe on Twitter: @gabebernal

Hamilton confirmed the following facts:
- He had a weak moment Monday night due some personal reasons with a family member.
- He walked to a nearby restaurant to have dinner and ended up having “probably three or four drinks.”
- He later called teammate Ian Kinsler to hang out with him.
- He did not drink in front of Kinsler.
- The restaurant was closing so he and Kinsler went to another place nearby.
- After talking for a while longer, Kinsler gave Hamilton a ride to where he needed to be, and Kinsler asked Hamilton, “You’re not going to go back out or anything, are you?”
- Hamilton lied and did just the opposite. He returned to the place they had just left for some more drinks.
- Hamilton did not have any drugs and has had two drug tests since Monday night.
- He will also travel to New York soon to meet with Major League doctors and more tests.

This is issue should be first and foremost about Josh Hamilton the human, the father, and the husband, not about Josh Hamilton, outfielder for the Texas Rangers.

Like any athlete, Josh Hamilton is an inspiration to children everywhere, but unlike any athlete, Hamilton is also an inspiration to many adults, even to people who are not a fan of the game. His story has and will continue to inspire people facing addictions to drugs and alcohol. He apologized to those people today:

So for everybody who I have hurt, for everybody – fans, kids, people who have addictions and look up to me – I apologize to you. When you’re doing this, you don’t mean to hurt anybody. You only think you’re hurting yourself, but as I know, you’re hurting a lot of people.

Josh Hamilton did an excellent job addressing the media. He came out by himself with no notes and told us what happened. He didn’t read off a prepared speech. His statement did not seem fake or rehearsed. Nothing like other “apologies” we have seen from other athletes in the past, who come up to the podium with a printed speech, and read their statement. He spoke from the heart. Hamilton made no excuses from himself, he simply said the following:

“It was just wrong. That’s all it comes down to. I needed to be in a different place. I needed to be responsible at that moment, that day, period, and I was not responsible and so those actions are mine that hurt a lot of people very close to me.”

There is a lot of respect you must give man who takes responsibilities for his actions, doesn’t point any fingers, doesn’t make any excuses, and just says, I was wrong.

There are a lot of fans out there who, before yesterday, believed that Hamilton’s addictions were a thing of the past and that he had conquered them. Those people are wrong. Hamilton’s ongoing quest for sobriety is a daily struggle:

I cannot take a break from my recovery. My recovery is Christ. My recovery is an every-day process, because when I take that one day off, it leaves me open for that moment of weakness and it’s always been that way.

For now, Josh just needs love, support, and prayer. He thanked the Rangers for their continuing support and asked those watching to pray for him and his family during this difficult time because, “it never gets easy.”

Obviously, this can and may be a factor in working out a contract extension for Hamilton, but for now both he and the front office acknowledge that contracts talks will be put off for a while.

Fox Sports Southwest’s reporter, Anthony Andro tweeted:

@aandro JD on Hamilton contract extension… It’s something we have to address in context. This is not a baseball story.

@aandro [Daniels] said the contract has been put off to side. Right now more important things to deal with.

I love the way Jon Daniels put it, this is not a baseball story. It’s the story about a human being and his daily struggles.

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

As I watched the game, I realized one thing. What made us think that our beloved Dallas Cowboys could ever compete against a team like the Giants or the Packers or the 49ers or any of the other elite teams in the NFC? To be honest, it’s not because of Romo and our offense (as shaky as that can be at times), but instead it was because the two defenses that played in that game were solid, tough and extremely physical. Sure our offense can go on a spree and score 30-40 points in a game, but against those defenses is another thing. Then I think about our defense and remembered that it could not make a stop when it mattered. Just one stop in any of those losses and our season might look completely different.

With the signing of Callahan to help with our offense, it gets me thinking about our coaching staff on the defensive side. Rob Ryan is not the only one to blame, across the board, each unit needs major overhaul and that might have to start at the top.

I’m not trying to say that there aren’t a few shining stars on that defense. Obviously Demarcus Ware and Sean Lee were outstanding last year, Ratliff and Hatcher also played well. But there are too many players that are playing out of position or bluntly aren’t NFL starter material.

Scandrich and both safety are great examples. Scandrich can be a solid nickel back and both Elan and Sesnabagh can be effective in spell, but as starter, these three are below average.

Spencer was a solid 4-3 DE (Ware as well) but has had trouble adjusting to 3-4 linebacker, he is a little too big and not quite athletic enough to cover some of the player he is being asked to cover. Ratliff and Hatcher are actually playing out of position as well, both excelled at 4-3 defensie tackle, but playing the line on 3-4 is different. Both player have stepped up in their role and

The bottom line is, the Cowboys defense is not up to par with the elite of the league and quite frankly it may be because of the 3-4. I believe that we have to personell to make a successful switch back to a 4-3 defense and it will improve greatly from this (as long as we improve our secondary). But that might just be my opinion.

Gabe is the senior sports analysis and administrator for Dallas Sports Hub
Follow Gabe on Twitter: @gabebernal

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who had made a fortune selling broadcast.com to Yahoo! for a reported $5.9 billion, on January 4, put in a bid to purchase a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. On this day, Ross Perot Jr handed over control of operations to Cuban. The rest as you all know is history.

Starting with Cuban’s first full year as owner, the Mavericks have won 50 or more games and have yet to miss the playoffs. That’s 11 full seasons already played. Before Cuban’s acquisition, the Mavs had only been to the playoffs 6 times and win 50 games twice.

Say what you will about the “out-of control” owner of the Mavs, they’ve done nothing but win since he’s arrived.

Gabe is the senior sports analysis and administrator for Dallas Sports Hub
Follow Gabe on Twitter: @gabebernal

The 27-year-old, right? No question.

Here’s the thing though, the 30-year-old outfielder isn’t just any guy. He means so much more to the organization than just an MVP on the field. He’s an MVP at life. A man who has overcome an addiction to drugs and alcohol and is now cemented in his faith.

He is an inspiration to so many people: baseball fans, non-baseball fans, Rangers fans, and Angels fans.

From a PR standpoint, trading or letting go of Josh Hamilton and signing Prince Fielder would be tough.

But good PR doesn’t win hardware.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Josh Hamilton, not just as a player, but for everything he stands for as a person.

However, the Rangers have to make a business decision, a baseball decision, not a “whatever-is-going-to-keep-the-fans-happy” decision.

After the Rangers didn’t make an offer to C.J. Wilson, there was a lot of speculation that the Rangers were broke, and a lot of people still seem to be under this false assumption. They’re wrong.

The Rangers front office proved this to be false when they put down $51.7 million to talk to Darvish.

Now that the Rangers have signed Darvish, there is more speculation that the Rangers don’t have money. In other words, there is a lot of speculation indicating that the Rangers will not sign Prince Fielder. That’s false.

The Rangers have money.

They had a payroll of just $65 million two years ago. $92 million last season, and it is at $96.6 million this year after signing Darvish (not including his posting fee). By the time arbitration cases are settled it will exceed $120 million.

Where is the money coming from? TV.

In 2010, the Rangers reached a 20-year deal with Fox Sports reportedly worth somewhere around or between $2.4 billion to $3 billion. Here’s the catch, the deal does not go in effect until 2014.

Can the Rangers afford Darvish and Fielder? Yes, Hamilton too.

Will the Rangers sign Fielder even now that they have signed Darvish? We’ll have to wait and find out.

Will we see a Rangers roster that includes the names, Darvish, Fielder, and Hamilton? It’s possible.

What could the Rangers do? They could sign Fielder with a backloaded contract that would allow the TV money to kick in once the new deal with Fox Sports goes into effect. This would mean Fielder, Darvish, and Hamilton would be on the same roster in 2012, and after Hamilton’s contract expires, let him go or negotiate with him.

But I don’t work for the Rangers.

During Wednesday’s press conference Jon Daniels put down the possibility of signing Fielder saying, “I don’t expect we’ll do anything really big the rest of the winter. But we’ll get the next few days under our belt, welcome Yu to Texas and then take a step back and look at things.”

However, Thursday evening, Jon Daniels said on MLB Network that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of signing Fielder.

It’s obvious that Fielder wants to play for the Rangers. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited this long. He could have easily signed with another team weeks ago, but he wants to play for the Rangers. The question is do the Rangers want him or Josh?

If the Rangers decide they want to sign Prince Fielder, one thing is for sure:  it would be the greatest counterpunch to the Angels Wilson/Pujols signings. The perfect one-two punch.

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

After 30-days of intense negotiations, yesterday January 18th at approximately 3:56PM, John Blake, Texas Rangers Executive Vice President of Communications, tweeted: “Yu Darvish agrees to terms on 6 year contract.”

Yu Darvish is in fact a Texas Ranger. 

Yesterday, many people, including myself, celebrated the signing of the 25-year-old Japanese pitcher, but Darvish and the Rangers have yet to win anything.

Spring training is still about a month away, and Darvish hasn’t pitched an inning in Rangers uniform.

I’m not saying don’t celebrate. You can celebrate, a little. However, we also have to brace ourselves for a transition period.

Darvish isn’t moving from Chicago to Dallas. He’s moving from country to country.

Darvish will need a period to adapt. Not just to baseball in the United States but to life in the United States, and this could affect him in his first few weeks or months in the U.S.

This will only be a small hurdle for Darvish, and after he has been given some time to adapt, I believe he will become one of the best pitchers not just in the Texas Rangers rotation but in the Majors.

There are many out there that say he will flop just like the other Japanese pitchers who have attempted to make the switch. They talk about the size of the ball, the different schedules, the Texas heat, and other factors that Darvish will have to overcome.

However, Darvish isn’t just any player. He’s arguably one of the best, if not the best pitcher to ever come out of Japan. Also, the sample size of pitchers to come from Japan to the U.S. is too small to rule that all Japanese pitchers will flop in the Major Leagues.

Today's cover of DMN Sports Day

The Rangers have spent the past three-years developing a relationship with Darvish, scouting Darvish, watching video of Darvish, all a part of scouting Darvish that made it so that when the time came, Darvish actually hoped the Rangers would be the ones to win the bid to negotiate with him.

The Rangers scouts and front office would not have put down $51,703,411.00 just to talk to Darvish, if they were not absolutely certain without the slightest fraction of doubt that Darvish would be different than any other Japanese pitcher to make the move to the Majors and succeed far beyond any of them.

But it’s not time to celebrate just yet.

If there is anything to celebrate it is the fact that Rangers have one of the best front offices in baseball. Six-years/$60-million is a hell of a contract. Jon Daniels did an excellent job with it. But also, the Rangers have done a phenomenal job not just scouting him but building a relationship with him. You could even push it and say that acquiring Koji Uehara and Yoshinori Tateyama were done intentionally knowing that the Rangers were planning to make a “step-out deal” for Darvish this winter.

December 8th, 2011, the Los Angeles Angels signed C.J. Wilson. Many people were confused why the Rangers didn’t make a greater effort to keep C.J. in Texas.

The next day, in a post for Dallas Sports Hub, I said the following:

“We don’t know why the Rangers’ front office made no offer to C.J. What we do know is that JD and Rangers’ front office have something up their sleeves. They made no offer to C.J., and they did so for a reason. We don’t know that reason. Perhaps sometime towards the end of September and on through October, Mike Maddux saw something in C.J. that he didn’t like, and it compelled him to go up to Jon Daniels and shake his head.

We may never know why the Rangers didn’t make C.J. an offer. However, if Majestic is soon forced to start making Rangers jerseys in a size XXXXXXL for Prince Fielder, we’ll have an idea why. If Neftali Feliz throws a no-no in 2012, we’ll have an idea why. Or if on a beautiful afternoon at Rangers Ballpark on April 6^th, 2012, a young man takes the mound with a jersey that reads “DARVISH 11” – we’ll have a slight idea why.“

Well friends, now we know why.

Sit back, have a little patience, and enjoy.

ゴーレンジャー!

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

If I ever meet a celebrity or a sports stars, I would much rather shake their hand, have a conversation with them, or take a picture with them. I could show you an autographed picture of John Lennon, but that doesn’t mean I ever met him. It could even be fake. And someday I could even lose it if I didn’t take care of it.

I have former Dallas Maverick’s forward, Eduardo Nájera’s autograph on a business card once, but I lost it.

My uncle handed down to me an autograph he got from soccer star Hugo Sánchez, the only player in Spain’s soccer history to win five Pichichi trophies (the award given to the player with most goals in the season, four of his five were in consecutive seasons), but I lost that too.

I have comedian and actor, George Lopez’ autograph. It’s around here somewhere.

A handshake or conversation is different. It gives you a story to tell, a memory. Though people may not believe you, you know it’s true. And a picture, that’s proof. That lasts forever.

I broke my own rule today and went to the Texas Rangers caravan stop at the Academy Sports and Outdoors on Forest and 75. It was the last day of my winter break, and I had nothing else to do.

Scheduled to appear at 6:30pm were: Nelson Cruz, Alexi Ogando, Martin Perez, and Spanish radio broadcaster Eleno Ornelas.

I drove by around 11am to scoop it out. I saw a line outside the store of about 20-people and only the first 250 would get autographs. So, I rushed home to pick up a jacket and some gear to get signed. I returned at noon, by which point there were about 50-people in line.

I quickly learned that outfielder Nelson Cruz had canceled and shortstop Elvis Andrus, prospect Martin Perez, and catcher Luis Martinez would be there to replace him.

In my six-hour wait, I met some interesting people.

The first guy in line told me he arrived at 6am and had even contemplated camping out over night until he learned that Cruz had canceled. He loves the Rangers and collects Rangers memorabilia for himself – really nice guy.

But I also met another reason why I don’t like autographs: autograph hounds.

The guy in front of me in line was there with his four kids, and his wife got off of work early and met him there later.

This guy knows how to play the game. Because the rules state that each person would receive one autograph per player, he brought all of his kids, even his one-year-old.

When they left, the family of six had six-autographs from Elvis Andrus, including the one-year-old

What interested me was that a lot of people in line already knew each other, like they were family. A family of autograph hounds.

Many of them were at the first stop of the Rangers caravan in Arlington, they also attended all three-days of Rangers Fan Fest, and they will be at Wednesday’s stop in McKinney. They’ve done this for years.

If they do it so that they can collect them and keep them for themselves, I’m okay with that.  That’s what I’m going to do with the autographed baseballs I got from Andrus, Perez, Ogando, and the card I got signed from Ornelas.

But when you take your family to get six-autographs from Andrus. You’re probably going to sell five of them.

That bothers me.

It bothers me that these people make a living off of the signatures of other celebrities and players. Those celebrities and players worked their asses off to achieve the success they now have in life, and then other people come in get a few autographs, and sell them on eBay.

It’s not fair to the individuals who worked hard to be where they are today, and that bother’s me.

It’s okay to collect autographs and memorabilia. It’s not okay to make money off of someone else’s achievements.

End rant.

Jesus Jimenez is a contributor for Dallas Sports Hub.
Follow him on Twitter: @jesusA_jimenez

Bill Callahan served as an offensive line coach for the Eagles and then as offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders under John Gruden before taking over the head coach position. Callahan was coach of the Raider in their last Super Bowl apperance (XXXVII). Since then he moved to college and coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers to a few mediocre seasons before returning to the NFL as assistant head coach for Rex Ryan on the New York Jets.

This is good, very good. Callahan is not only a great offensive coordinator, but he is a former head coach with decent success (at least at the professional level). This hiring is a great move in that it not only gives Garrett an offensive coordinator so he can focus on other things he need to improve on, but it also serves as a reminder and hopefully motivator to Garrett that if he continues to make poor decisions and stupid mistakes, we have another guy who can take over in a week’s notice.

Gabe is the senior sports analysis and administrator for Dallas Sports Hub
Follow Gabe on Twitter: @gabebernal