And The Beat Goes On: Nov. 16th

I'm no good at seamless transitions right into these posts, so here's this morning's song (h/t Fullertron), and some links below that, and Vlade will be happy with that:

● Jeff Wilson writes that the Rangers are beginning to get a little clarity on Josh Hamilton's timeline, and talks about Ian Kinsler's openness to changing positions if the Rangers should need him to do so, as well as the Rangers playing two spring training exhibition games at the Alamodome next spring. Gerry Fraley has a post on Kinsler that mostly rips on him for not making himself more accessible to the media, so you can check out that scene if that does something for you.

● Randy Galloway says that the Rangers were expected to meet with Torii Hunter before he committed to the Tigers in exchange for a two-year, $26 million contract earlier this week, and speculates -- probably correctly -- that the Rangers didn't want to be involved at that price point. He also remarks that Jon Daniels "seems sincere" in wanting to keep the door open for a possible Josh Hamilton return (no matter how unlikely that might be), and remarks that his opinion seems divergent from other opinions within the organization as far as possibly having him back. 

On a related note, Relativity Media has secured the rights to Josh Hamilton's biopic. #movietalk

● The Cy Young/MVP awards all dropped over the last 48 hours, and David Price, R.A. Dickey, Buster Posey, and Miguel Cabrera all netted top honors. I made a reference to this incident on Twitter the other day, and I think it merits mentioning again solely for the awe that it inspires: six and a half years ago, on April 6th, 2006, Dickey was shelled for a team-record six homers in 3.1 innings by the Tigers at the Ballpark, in what ended up being his final appearance as a Ranger. He spent the remainder of his 2006 season slogging away at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he struggled to maintain an ERA under 5.00 or a strikeout-to-walk ratio above 1.3. He was in his age-31 season and was on a career trajectory that figured to have him out of pro baseball within a year or two, at most ... and today, he's the reigning Cy Young Award winner. I can't wrap my head around it.