Ben and Skin were joined by Derek Holland and Ron Washington to discuss an interesting offseason, Moneyball and quickly approaching spring training report dates (listen to the full hour-long interview here) this week, and Wash didn't disappoint. In his candid style he addressed the two biggest questions facing his team: Yu Darvish and Josh Hamilton's struggle with addiction.
On what he expects from Darvish:
Well how we are going to treat him is fair. We have criteria as far as how we want to prepare. He will have to fall into that criteria and if there is any adjustments we have to make we make adjustments. But there's a pattern and we are going to follow that pattern and he's going to have to get involved in that pattern and like I said we have to adjust to get him comfortable. We will adjust. I am certainly looking forward to him. I've only seen what everyone else has seen on video, but it certainly looked good enough to win at the major league level for me.
I'm not expecting him to come win 20 games. If he can duplicate 16 [wins] like C.J. [Wilson] I am fine. The expectation is not too much. Come on out and keep us in the ball game. Just keep us in the ball game. That's it. We'll determine if you win or lose that ball game by the amount of runs we put up, but if you keep us in the ball game there is someone in that lineup we'll find a way to get it done and that is it right there.
On how he and the team "handle" Hamilton:
Well the players handle it real well. They go out to the movies with Josh on the road when there is off days. When we play early games they'll usually have movies in the room and they'll have popcorn brought up. They'll find a place where they can go and maybe shoot some pool. They interact with Josh and what happened to Josh is part of recovery. That's what relapse is. It's a part of recovery and as Jon [Daniels] said ‘It's not about baseball right now. It's about Josh and his family.' We as the Texas Rangers? We are going to support Josh. We are going to support Josh until...that's it.