And The Beat Goes On: Feb. 10th

Yeah, I've been dropping the ball a bit lately, so there was a mid-afternoon chat a bit ago, and here's some quick stuff, and here's a nice downbeat late-afternoon remix to end the week:

● SI.com's Tom Verducci has a piece on the Rangers' ongoing effort to successfully transition Yu Darvish from NPB to the majors.

● In the biggest surprise of the winter, ESPN.com's Jayson Stark writes that Roy Oswalt to the Rangers "isn't going to happen."

● Dan Szymborski has published some truly awful ZiPS projections for the Athletics, and he tweets that out of 1 million simulated seasons (and 30 million distinct team records), the Astros finished with the absolute worst record (29-133), while the Rangers finished with the absolute best record (124-38).

● Mike Napoli says that Nelson Cruz is getting into the best shape of his life after having his off-season derailed by a stomach bacterial infection shortly after the conclusion of the World Series. 

● Randy Galloway has a piece on Josh Hamilton. Gerry Fraley thinks Hamilton should grow up.