Friday Morning Knuckleballs

Unfortunately, the only real news today is bad news.  As most of you are probably aware, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning news broke the story last night that Josh Hamilton had relapsed with alcohol at a local area bar.  Here are some links for useful data on what we know at this point:

• Original story that broke last night by Dallas Morning News reporter Gerry Fraley.
• A Long-Term Deal for Hamilton just took a Hit by Kevin Sherrington (Dallas News).  This is one if for Dallas News subscribers only, so many probably won’t be able to read the full story, but you get the idea…
• ESPN coverage including video and article by Richard Durrett.
• Rangers Aware of Hamilton Drinking Reports by T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com.  This article is posted on TexasRangers.com.
• CBS Sportsline article & CNNSI article - both of these at just more of the same, but could be worth looking at for the comments from fans if you’re interested.

Jasen and I are going to discuss our thoughts on a special podcast later today that we’ll have up on the site tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest in addition to another article with a different approach to how all this went down from a Rangers Fan’s perspective.

On to non-Josh news, which is very little:

• T.R. Sullivan feels there is a good chance the Rangers and Mike Napoli will not be able to avoid arbitration, saying “Actually there is a real chance Napoli will be the first Rangers player to go to an arbitration hearing for the first time since 2000. There is a significant gap between the Rangers’ offering of $8.3 million and Napoli’s asking price of $11.5 million. The two sides had discussions on a long-term contract but did not get anywhere. Look for Napoli to be a free agent after the upcoming season.”
  This sucks, as we know arbitration can create hard feelings and a very tense environment for both the team and player involved.  We have long been proponents of getting Mike Napoli locked up (see Extend the Ankle of Steel).  While the gap in money is pretty wide, as Sullivan says, I’m still hopeful that something can be worked out.
• Sullivan highlights some more good topics in his inbox here.
• Roy Oswalt still undecided – feels old and stagnant already.  C’mon Roy, make up your mind already!