Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Four Questions

Leonys Martin - Photo courtesy of Scott Lucas1. With Leonys Martin's promotion from Triple-A Round Rock reportedly imminent, it has to be asked: What are you expecting to see out of Martin over the next month? Decent but uninspiring performance over a small sample of at-bats (owing to Ron Washington being more comfortable using experienced players in a pennant race)? Perhaps more playing time than expected? Or will he find another groove and mount a legitimate campaign to win a post-season roster spot?

2. Knowing what you know about Lance Berkman and the potential for him to recoup compensatory draft picks if he should decline an arbitration offer from his current team during the off-season, how far would you go in terms of talent relinquished to bring Berkman in here? Keep in mind that few, if any, players currently on the 40-man roster likely cleared trade waivers, and that it's likelier than not that the Rangers would have give up prospects not currently on the 40-man roster to swing a deal.

3. Now that you've had about three full months to experience Dave Barnett and Tom Grieve on the television side and Eric Nadel and Steve Busby/Bryan Dolgin on the radio side, this question merits revisiting: do you want the Rangers' broadcasting teams to remain just as they are now going into 2012?

4. I don't want to run this topic into the ground anymore than it already has been (whoops, too late), but where do you stand on the Great Heat Debate at this point? Does it stand as a valid excuse for the flagging performance of the Rangers' starting rotation of late (and, for that matter, Ron Washington's somewhat controversial method of resting his starters), or is the entire issue completely overblown?