Walk Men: Rangers Allow 10 Free Bases, Lose 15-2

• Boxscore: Tigers 15, Rangers 2

• Liveblog highlights

DETROIT - Welcome to Texas, Mike Maddux.

You know the old saying: Everything is bigger here, especially the walk totals.

On a windy Friday afternoon, the new Rangers pitching coach watched as all that could go wrong with his pitching staff did in a 15-2 thrashing at the hands of the Detroit Tigers. When starter Kris Benson made good pitches, his fielders couldn’t make plays behind him. When Benson made a bad one, Miguel Cabrera drove it to Ontario. And when the relievers marched in, they started walking Tigers like they were helping little old ladies across the street.

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Post-Game Show: Tigers 15, Rangers 2

Running down stairs to talk to some folks about the walks and the first loss of the season.

In the meantime, you guys can busy yourself with:

• Just how crazy do walks make you?

• How many poor outings do you give RHP Josh Rupe and RHP Warner Madrigal before you try something else?

• How does a loss like this drag down the optimism many of you were expressing yesterday?

Public Service Announcement: Rangers TV Broadcasts

If you are living in an outlying market (i.e., East Texas, Shreveport, etc.) and you think you are about to watch the Rangers game on Fox Sports Southwest, well, your Good Friday preparations may be going in vain. Here’s some background from the Rangers and FSSW on what’s happening. And again, I repeat, this is only for outlying markets; those of you actually in Big D won’t have any issues. Unless, of course, you forget to turn on the TV. UPDATE: I’ve been told the affected games for this weekend are actually for Saturday and Sunday. Too bad today’s game wasn’t blacked out, instead.

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The Depot: Your One-Stop Spot For Texas Rangers Notes, Live Game Blog And Beyond (4/10 at Detroit)

A quick reminder on The Depot (or if you can come up with a better name, I’ll happily take it and salute you!): We’ll put our live game blog observations, answers to an occasional question and notes up here. You’ll only have one place to stop rather than multiple posts to search through. Just remember, you’ve got to go the jump and refresh for fresh nuggets.

1o:41 (CDT): I’m told Kid Rock will be part of the Opening Pitch ceremonies. Guess Eminem wasn’t available. I’m also told the first pitch will be thrown by some auto workers. And, you know what, that’s a nice touch. Very weird to land in Detroit and get into my rental car last night … and it was a Kia. Nothing wrong with Kia, but in Detroit?

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It’s Cool In Detroit, But It’s Never Too Cold To Jump In The Home Run Pool

No winners yesterday.  Can’t believe nobody had any faith in Marlon Byrd. And quite frankly, he’s disappointed, too. (OK, I made that last part up). But if you want to play again today, hey, here’s your chance. As always, I’ll dig around the prize vault for PTBD (Prize To Be Determined). We’re not carrying over from yesterday.

The rules: You pick the first Ranger to homer. You pick the inning and the number of men on base. The count is the tie breaker. Not sure if they will be announcing distances here at Comerica Park, so we’re not going to make that a necessity. If you go with no homers, you’ve got to pick the number of runs scored by the Rangers as your tiebreaker. Easy enough?

Here’s your Rangers lineup: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young, CF Josh Hamilton, DH Hank Blalock, RF Nelson Cruz, LF Marlon Byrd, 1B Chris Davis (Hint: He’s the only Ranger with a homer off Detroit starter Armando Galarraga), C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers. … RHP Kris Benson.

You’re up.

Juega Bonito

The man is an absolute genius. But you already knew that. When we vote Most Valuable Player for the Dallas Stars this season I will readily admit that A) it is likely silly to debate who the MVP is on a team that is going to miss the playoffs and B) beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But, how far down the MVP list must one go before he sees the magic of #63? The man is a genius on skates. No doubt, when he tries his moves of great skill, the second it doesn’t work he is ridiculed by his coaches as being a hot-dog. I understand their views, because we see it all the time, someone is trying to make Sportscenter harder than they are trying to help the team.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want kids trying these Mike Ribeiro moves in their youth leagues on breakaways. I also don’t want them trying to “show up” the competition. (more…)

Talkin’ Heads: Visiting With Frisco RoughRiders Pitcher And Rangers Prospect Kasey Kiker

Just in time for tonight’s Frisco debut, LHP Kasey Kiker sat down with MJH and I for a little talk. Love Kasey’s stroking of the chin when he decides to be especially introspective.

Special thanks to producer, director and music arranger Ted Price of Rangers Podcast in Arlington

NFL Draft Junkie: Episode 3 – Sanchez over Stafford

I have another few confessions to make ( Dave Grohl – Eat your heart out).

I confess that Rudy Jaramillo may, in fact, be pretty good at his job.

I confess that Terrell Owens was surely not the ONLY reason that the Cowboys tanked this year.

And, I confess that on this day, April 10, 2009, I am willing to declare that Mark Sanchez will be a better pro than Matthew Stafford.

Before you try to storm the castle with your torches, calm down.

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Road to Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (4/10)

The other opening day arrived, but for the most heralded farm system in baseball, it was a disappointment in almost every way.

Three losses, one washout. Lots of errors and not a lot of hitting. Pitching was pretty spotty.

But there were a couple of bright spots and perhaps chief among them was the performance of the guy you are looking at right now. To make the pain from a messy minor league opening day go away, I’m thinking you could probably use some Marcus Lemon.

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