The Pitch.
I'm giving myself the day off, too. I'm sports tired. For now, check out a few things: Scott Lucas has put together a strong organizational depth chart for the Rangers, top to bottom: http://rangers.scottlucas.com/site/org.htm. Great resource. On the Frisco staff you'll find righthander Ryan Tatusko, from whom I'll have a new Back Fields Diary entry later this morning. Also from Scott you'll see that we've replaced the eight-prospect photo rotation on the front page of the website with action shots of eight new players who stand out in the system right now. Scott took most of the shots a few weeks ago in Surprise. Also worth checking out on the website is a message that Chuck Morgan posted on the Newberg Report forum: http://forum.newbergreport.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10730&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a. It involves Rangers Ballpark, Bound Edition cover artist Drew Sheppard, and the Wave. And it might make you happy. Speaking of the Bound Edition, I've now gotten 224 responses to last night's invitation to guess which pitch yesterday made me think suddenly that we were going to win that game. Two got it right. Books will go out in today's mail to Shawn Redd and Lonnie Wilson. It was the 0-1 pitch to Nelson Cruz in the seventh that he laid off. The same 80-mph Shawn Marcum change that we'd swung through probably a dozen times. From where I sat the pitch looked maybe two inches low, right over the plate, and Cruz patiently watched it go by for ball one. Served a little notice that maybe we weren't going to keep biting on that pitch. It felt like a turning point (even if he hadn't homered three fastballs later). In my head, strange as it might be, I thought at that moment we were going to get the W. Have a great two days. It won't be easy for me, either, but try to patiently wait for Rich Harden-Brian Tallet tomorrow night. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport