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I've received a few emails asking about Ben Sheets and whether the Rangers should be interested. I think they should be. Of course, the question is whether they can even afford to even kick the tires. And we may not know that until the ownership question is resolved. I know it's a longshot with the club's financial situation, but the idea intrigues me.

Sheets, 31, opted for surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon and hasn't pitched in 14 months.

Just like last offseason, I'm still interested. Why? Because I believe it's a chance to get a guy that, when healthy, can be a No. 1 starter. How often do you get that chances? And because of the injury concerns, it could be decent price and a contract partially based on performance incentives. He's 31 and must prove he's healthy. I'm sure he'll throw for some teams soon to drive up his market value.

The fact that he lives in the Dallas area and was rehabbing in Arlington can't hurt the Rangers' chances. He also has a great relationship with pitching coach Mike Maddux and he did have a deal in place with Texas before last season until he failed a physical.

He could be way out of their price range, but they've got to at least take a look at Sheets and see if they can't get creative.

Do you agree or disagree? Is he worth bidding for coming back from surgery?

This is the time of year that teams inquire about the possibility of available players. And there's some buzz that several teams are calling the Rangers about Nelson Cruz.

Of course, with the Rangers' financial situation, I can't think they'll move a player that made less than $500,000 in 2009 and isn't arbitration-eligible. Factor in that this club had some offensive woes this year and it doesn't make sense to trade a major home run threat like the 29-year-old Cruz.

Would you consider it if Cruz was part of a package to get a No. 2 or No. 3 starting pitcher?

We know the Rangers are looking for a right-handed bat. One name out on the market is Mike Cameron.

Cameron, who will be 37 in January, batted .250 with 24 homers and 70 RBIs for the Brewers last season. The centerfielder played in 149 games and had a .342 on-base percentage.

The advantage to Cameron is you know what you're going to get. The .250 average is his career average. He's averaged 22 homers in his last 11 seasons and has between 70 and 83 RBIs in his last seven full seasons. His career OBP: .340.

Do those numbers make this lineup better? Hard to say. Cameron could add some pop to the middle of the order. But whether he serves as quality protection for Josh Hamilton and some of the other hitters on the team is up for debate.

His price might be right. Cameron certainly wouldn't replace Marlon Byrd. Cameron's average was 30 points lower than Byrd's in 2009. He also had nearly 30 fewer RBIs. But his OBP was higher and he hit a few home runs. And Cameron might be available at the right price.

Do you have any interest?

ESPNChicago.com reported Friday that the White Sox are close to signing Omar Vizquel to be a backup middle infielder for the 2010 season. The White Sox should have Mark Teahen playing third with Alexei Ramirez at shortstop and Gordon Beckham at second. Vizquel could fill in for any of those three.

The Rangers will certainly miss Vizquel, a future Hall of Famer. He was a reliable veteran who still has a great glove and could play in various positions. But more important than that, he was a sounding board for Elvis Andrus. Vizquel helped guide the rookie shortstop through his first season, giving him advice when needed and answering any questions. Vizquel said Andrus impressed him during the season and expects him to only get better.

Texas will have to find another utility player. But it's doubtful they can get someone like Vizquel.

Marlon Byrd has consistently said he wants to stay in Texas and continue his career as a Ranger. That hasn't changed now that free agency is upon us. I still think the odds aren't great that Byrd returns because he's likely to get a good multi-year offer on the open market that I'm not sure the Rangers can match. But we'll see. I talked to Byrd on Friday afternoon. Here are some of his thoughts:

Q: What's the latest in terms of negotations wih the Rangers? Do you still want to be here?

A: I know they've been in talks with the Rangers. But I'm hoping still, even though the open market has hit, that I can go back to the Rangers. I love it here. I've had a great time with the organization. I've seen them get better over the three years and seeing that team get to the playoffs would be wonderful. They gave me that second chance to make my name in baseball."

Q: What kind of contract do you want?

A: The main thing is I don't want a one-year deal. Two years at the right numbr is something I'd consider, and the same with three. The length of the deal doesn't really matter to me. It's security and being locked in for a couple of years that would be nice. When you hit free agency, that's what you get to look forward to.

Q: Is it weird to not know where you might be playing next year?

A: It's very weird. The past couple of years, I knew in February that I was going to Surprise and that I'd be in Arlington. Now it's unknown. You want to land in the right spot. I know the grass isn't always greener on the other side when you leave an organization. When you like it somewhere, like we do in Texas, it's nerve wracking to think about going to another team.

Q: Are you working out now in preparation for 2010?

A: I kept lifting right after the season. I normally take two or three weeks off, but I felt good after last season. I had surgery [after 2008] and rehabbed right after the season. I thought I'd keep with that schedule this offseason. I'll start hitting Dec. 1 and probably start tossing the ball Dec. 15.

ARLINGTON _ Rangers third basemen Michael Young said Friday he's somewhat concerned about the organization looking for new ownership. But he also said is confident that whoever buys the Rangers -- current owner Tom Hicks, or another group -- the team's direction won't change.

"Because I've been here a long time and I'm going to be here for a while longer, I obviously have a certain amount of concern when it comes to that," Young said as he watched Cowboys practice at Cowboys Stadium. "I try to keep myself as far away from that as possible and make sure that my main concern is getting prepared for 2010."

Hicks is putting together a group of mainly local investors, that would include team president Nolan Ryan and former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach to attempt to keep majority ownership of the team.

But at least five groups, including Hicks' are scheduled to submit proposals by Friday's deadline. Whoever takes control of the Rangers will have to pay down or eliminate debt accrued by Hicks Sports Group.

If the team changes ownership, it has to be approved by Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the 40 lenders of HSG. The NHL is involved because HSG owns the Stars and the sale affects HSG's debt.

The owners might have to increase payroll to keep up with the likes of the Angels, the Rangers' biggest competitor in the AL West.

"Sure, without a doubt," Young said. "You want to be in a situation where you're getting better by any means possible and there's three basic ways: development, trades and free agency. You want to have a team that's committed to getting better by any means possible. So, I mean I would love to be in a situation where we can find a way, if we need a player we can go get a player, whatever it takes."

Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com reports that the Chicago White Sox are in negotiations to sign future Hall of Fame shortstop Omar Vizquel for the 2010 season, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. The source said a deal is close to being done.

Texas Rangers pitcher Brandon McCarthy chatted with me by phone Thursday night about his 2009 season, his offseason plans and goals for 2010. Take a look:

Q: Are you staying in Arlington this offseason?

A: I am. I usually go to Arizona, but I'm staying here this time. It's a good situation to be in here with the ballpark and working out there. There's a good little group that's out there. We go in and get our stuff done and we'll keep adding thing in. Jose has us all under a program. (Note: That group includes Chris Davis, Craig Gentry, Scott Feldman, Tommy Hunter, Kevin Millwood, Michael Young and Ian Kinsler. McCarthy said Josh Hamilton has been out there a lot this last week.)

Q: Talk about your 2009 season and what you liked and didn't like.

Tim Heitman/US Presswire

Brandon McCarthy had a 7-4 record with a 4.62 ERA last season, but a stress fracture in his shoulder blade kept him on the disabled list for the bulk of the season.

A: Looking back on it, it's a weird season to wrap my head around. It started out pretty well. I felt early on I was inconsistent and had some work to do, but from May on I got some good stuff accomplished. I was going deeper in games and showing I could get into the seventh and eighth. I thought I was coming along. The injury threw everything off and I felt like it was hurting me again. But I made some mechanical changes and refocused myself and came back better. I felt like when I came back, for the most part, I pitched really well. I don't know that the results show it, but that was more my end as not finishing, but I feel like I really started to make some big strides toward the end of the season. It just wasn't quite complete. If I had another month or hadn't missed that three-month chunk, it could have been a big season.

Q: Were the mechanical changes to avoid the shoulder injury?

A: The end goal is to start avoiding that stress fracture injury, but it was to make a delivery that's must more mechanically sound and efficient and less stressful on me. It should lessen the odds of being hurt. I was researching everyone that had done some work on mechanics and getting their input and talking to Mike [Maddux] about it.

Q: Who did you talk to about mechanics?

A: It was a lot of people. If you have anything written about mechanics on the internet, I tried to find you and see what your thoughts were and philosophy on proper mechanics. It was trainers, coaches and players. In the end, the changes are more major than they looked. But I found my consistency and came back a better pitcher. There's still work to be done.

Q: What would fans notice about your changes?

A: The easiest thing to see is my glove arm is much more compact. It goes back with my pitching hands when it breaks and stays close to my body. Before, it was further out there and it would pull my body in different directions and created timing issues. I wanted to correct things in my arm so it wasn't so inefficient. I wanted it to be like a style of Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and others -- guys that were durable and threw high innings or still do. All of those guys hit the same point in their delivery and arm action. That was harder than I thought it would be, so that's still in progress.

Q: What pitches do you have in your repertoire now?

A: We went slider over the curveball in the spring and we went back to the curve in addition to the slider after the season started. I threw both of them evenly from that point on. When I throw the slider, it feels different, but if anyone was watching on TV, the pitches look the same except for the speed. That was part of the development. I got big outs and quality outs on mixing those pitches. Toward the end of the year, I worked on throwing a cutter. I saw the success Scott and Tommy had with that and tried it. My last couple of starts was mixing those in. The early returns on that were really good. I was able to change a do a lot of things much easier than I was in the past. I got some easier outs that I was accustomed to.

Q: You go into spring training having to win a spot in the rotation. What are your goals?

A: That's the reality of it. I have to win a job. There's a lot of talent that's competing for not very many positions. I have to do everything in my power to come to spring fully healthy and prepare to lock down one of those spots as my own. I want to win that spot and leave no doubt. Health is No.1 and No. 2 is to keep improving. I want to hopefully start to really come together as an accomplished major league pitcher.

The Rangers announced that third baseman Michael Young was named the club's player of the year by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Young led the team in batting average at .322, the fifth-highest average in the American League. It was the sixth time he hit at least .300, the most ever by a Ranger. Young played in 135 games, missing time due to injury, but still led the team in on-base percentage (.374), total bases (280), hits (174) and multi-hit games (51).

Young was named to the All-Star team his first season playing third base. He made the move during the offseason to make room for rookie Elvis Andrus at shortstop. Young didn't have much trouble with the transition, helping to make the club's infield defense much improved over 2008.

Young has won player of the year honors in 2004, 2005 and 2007. It puts Young one behind Juan Gonzalez, who won it five times. Ruben Sierra also won the player of the year award four times.

The Rangers also announced that they purchased the contracts of left-handed pitchers Michael Kirkman and Zach Phillips, putting both on the 40-man roster. The Rangers now have 37 players on that roster.

The Rangers announced their 2010 spring training schedule, which includes 31 games.

Texas will play 29 games in Arizona, with 16 at Surprise Stadium, and they'll play the Kansas City Royals at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington just before the season begins.

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Feb. 18 and work out for the first time the next day. The remainder of the team has its first workout on Feb. 24.

The Rangers host Seattle (twice), Arizona, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Colorado, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco. The Rangers begin play against Surprise partner Kansas City on March 4.

The Cactus League will have 15 teams in 2010 as Cincinnati joins the Indians in Goodyear, Ariz. The Rangers face the Reds in Goodyear in their final spring training game in Arizona on April 1.

The Rangers open the regular season at home against Toronto on April 5.

The price for individual spring training game tickets remains the same from last year. Prices range from a spot on the outfield lawn for $7 to a lower dugout seat at $23. Parking is free to all games in Surprise.

To see the full spring training schedule, go here.

After hearing that Tom Hicks was going to put together his own proposal and was working toward getting local investors, the natural question is why go through all the work of having others put together proposals?

But Hicks is committed to a process that was started months ago.

"I've committed to baseball and to other people to give them a chance to put their best foot forward," Hicks said. "People have put a lot of work into this and I want to see what the best proposals are."

Hicks said one big lesson he's learned in business is the danger of accumulating too much debt. His group would be committed to have little debt associated with the bid. But I also think Hicks understands that this is about what's best for Hicks Sports Group. If someone comes in with a proposal that can pay off HSG's debt and better position the company for the future, Hicks has to consider that. HSG has 40 lenders who have a say in this too.

So Hicks has to sell them on the fact that he has the right group to do that. That's why he said he'll put a proposal together like anyone else. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks said Wednesday that he is trying to put together his own group of local businessmen, including team president Nolan Ryan and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, to maintain his involvement in the team.

In that arrangement, Hicks would have majority ownership. Hicks also said he expects to receive at least four additional proposals from various ownership groups by Friday, which is the deadline.

He expects to have the ownership question resolved by the end of the year.

Count me among those surprised that Rangers manager Ron Washington didn't finish higher than fifth in the American League Manager of the Year voting. Angels manager Mike Scioscia won the award, and I think that's deserving.

Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire was second, followed by the Yankees' Joe Girardi. Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, a former Rangers bench coach and a candidate for the Rangers' managerial job that went to Washington, finished fourth. He was tied in total votes with Washington, but had two first-place votes to Washington's one. Washington had more third-place votes than anyone nominated with 11.

The entire group is deserving, but I thought Washington would finish in the top three. He took a team that was very young, dealt with some injuries and had them in contention late into the season.

Colorado's Jim Tracy won the award in the NL.

Were you surprised by where Washington finished?

Rangers manager Ron Washington certainly deserves some votes as AL Manager of the Year, which will be announced today.

There are several worthy candidates, including the Angels' Mike Scioscia, who guided his team through the Nick Adenhart tragedy and still managed to win the AL West and go to the playoffs, eventually losing to the Yankees.

But Washington also needs to be acknowledged. The Rangers stayed in contention almost until the end of the season and he led a very young team that grew up in a hurry. Sure, Washington made some in-game decisions that could be questioned. Every manager does. But the way he allowed the veterans to run the clubhouse helped make this team a very resilient one.

Others that should be considered: Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire, Seattle's Don Wakamatsu, Boston's Terry Francona. Does New York's Joe Girardi need to be considered too?

Where do you think Washington will end up?

This three-way deal involving Kevin Millwood and Milton Bradley has been talked about in Chicago the last few days. ESPNChicago.com says there's no truth to the rumor.

But it did get me thinking. Would you be willing to trade Millwood for Bradley? I can understand the Rangers' interest in Bradley since the lineup was certainly more formidable when he was protecting Josh Hamilton. And, obviously, the Cubs would have to play much of Bradley's contract. But is adding him worth it? And is it worth trading Millwood?

Millwood has one year left on his deal, so he's pitching in a contract year. He did go more than 200 innings last year and is an important veteran on this staff. But he's been injured and inconsistent.

What would you do? Is trading Millwood worth it to get Bradley?