Opening Day

Smells like baseball. Opening day is a magnificent things. Its the day where everyone gets to start anew, clean slate, and hope springs eternal no matter if you're the Royals, Rangers, or Yankees. I can't explain my never ending defense of JD or my unrequited love of the Rangers, who never seem to return the favor with any significant wins... make no mistake, I am the ultimate Rangers apologist. Maybe its because I want to be a part of this thing as a fan when I'm ultimately rewarded with playoff success. I think with the Rangers I always feel like it could be just around the corner and with the talent on its way up the system I feel like that more than ever.

I don't expect a contender this year and thats ok. 80 wins I'l lbe happy with. I just want to see progress. I want to see 20/20 from Kinsler, another .300 year from MY, a resurgent Blalock, 35-40 HRs from Hamilton (and a comfortable feeling that we have found our CF and another building block), Millwood and Padilla circa 2006, Murphy being the scrappy type player every good team needs, Luis Mendoza become a reliable piece of our rotation, Brandon McCarthy get healthy and fulfill his potential, CJ Wilson be a lights out stopper (he might be my favorite Ranger), Eric Hurley up here late in the year pitching like Volquez did last year, Davis and Teagarden raking in Frisco and eventually Oklahoma City, Andrus continuing to progress with his hitting, Matt Harrison become a legit pitching prospect, Engel Beltre dominate A ball, and so on and so forth. If I see this from a team that only wins 75-80 games and finishes 3rd again... I will be pleased. However, if the Rangers get solid years from Millwood and Padilla, a strong season from Jennings, and one other starter steps up they can make a run at the playoffs. The hitting is going to be there folks. If this things continues on the natural progression through the baseball franchise life cycle I won't even be able to contain myself come Opening Day 2009 and 2010.

On that note about franchise life cycles, heres a good piece from Evan Grant on what exactly the Rangers are building here. They've got a defined direction that the whole organization is buying into (except for maybe Michael Young who is extremely insistent on winning now) for the first time since they were a playoff team. Just stick with this thing. I've got a really good feeling about it.

On that note, I give you the lineup for opening day:

2B Ian Kinsler
SS Michael Young
CF Josh Hamilton
3B Hank Blalock
DH Milton Bradley
LF David Murphy
RF Marlon Byrd
C Gerald Laird
1B Ben Broussard

P Kevin Millwood