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SURPRISE, Ariz. – In 1983, the Briarcliff Barons (my alma mater) played for the Georgia High School state championship in baseball. My buddies and I hung out at Cosmos video arcade, played Galaga and USA vs. USSR bubble hockey.

A much thinner and well-coiffed future sportswriter took the lovely Adele Medina to prom where we danced the night away to Steve Perry and Journey. You haven’t really lived until you’ve slow danced to “Lights.”

And 14 players currently in the Rangers’ spring training camp, were not even born yet.

This means two things:

1. I’m getting older and paunchier.

2. The Rangers are getting younger.

If there is a focus at spring training this year, it should be on that group of 14 (for the record, it's Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Brandon McCarthy, Luis Mendoza, Chris Davis, Taylor Teagarden, John Mayberry Jr., German Duran, Eric Hurley, Julio Borbon, Brandon Boggs, Joaquin Arias, Max Ramirez, Matt Harrison and Elvis Andrus) and what they show management over the next six weeks.

In order to contend this year, the Rangers need an awful lot of players to perform above their previous career track records. They might also need some things to go wrong for Los Angeles and Seattle. Bottom line, this team probably isn’t a contender.

But as the club tries to actually adhere to a plan and build from the ground up, the group of 14 is especially important. At least two (I’d suggest Saltalamacchia and McCarthy) must step forward this year and establish themselves as reliable major leaguers. Saltalamacchia must show he can handle a pitching staff and adjust to major league pitching. McCarthy must show durability and efficiency. And If the club finds a third (maybe Luis Mendoza or German Duran) by the end of the season, that’s a huge step forward in development. Even if it doesn’t show up in the standings.

Then the next year two more must step forward (perhaps Hurley and Teagarden). And the year after that another two (how about Harrison and Andrus?).

Those are the steps that long-term contenders make. The long-term contenders take baby steps before they make big jumps.

This spring, the Rangers hope their babies take those first steps.

Q: Jon Daniels recently said that building the farm was just a start and that the real work is getting players over the hump to being productive major leaguers. A lot has been said about how the scouting department has been beefed up. What changes have been made in regards to the development process?

GRANT: There isn’t much that can be done to beef up player development. You can hire more scouts to cover more ground, but there are only so many instructors that can work with so many kids at once.

The biggest aspects in “beefing up” player development are talent and stability. The Rangers seem to have attracted more talent through the improved scouting efforts. The fact that Scott Servais is entering his third season as Director of Player Development is a sign of stability.

If you don’t have either of those two aspects, the farm system is not going to get measurably better. You need talent and people pulling in the same direction. And even then, it’s not an overnight fix. Mostly the Rangers’ jump from 28th to 4th in Baseball America’s talent rankings is due to the young players in the system. It’s still going to be two, three or four years before many of those players contribute.

In the meantime, the guys the Rangers would like to see get over the “hump” and be in position to contribute by the end of this season are guys like German Duran and Eric Hurley. And next season maybe Chris Davis and Taylor Teagarden. If a club breaks in one or two significant players a year, it’s going to be in very good shape.

Q: Has an MLB president ever been substantively associated with another franchise as Nolan Ryan is with the Rangers and Astros?

I'm a big fan of Nolanus Magnus, but when he becomes aware of a promising prospect, does he violate his fiduciary responsibility to the Astros' Round Rock affiliate by directing that player toward the Rangers organization, or does he do the opposite, violating that responsibility to the Rangers.

I don't see how he can be true to both organizations, and am surprised that questions haven't been raised. Could the president of the board for General Motors, for example, be a principle stockholder for Daimler-Chrysler, or a sole supplier to Daimler-Chrysler?

Steve Griffing, Plano

GRANT: Ryan’s only connection to the Astros is that the group in which he is a partner owns two clubs associated with the Astros. It is strictly a business arrangement and he has no responsibility to report on players to anybody in the Houston organization. And, he will most likely be an absentee owner of the Round Rock and Corpus Christi franchises while with the Rangers. His sons, Reid and Reese, already run the day-to-day operations of both clubs. Their responsibilities on the business side are likely to increase.

It’s also worth noting that the Rangers’ contracts with Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma expire in 2010, which is the same time the Astros’ deals with Corpus Christi and Round Rock expire. I don’t see the Rangers’ leaving Frisco, but moving from Oklahoma to Round Rock would not surprise me.

Q: Are the Rangers running risk of blocking some of their supposed depth in the farm system from busting through if they lock up guys like Ian Kinsler before they truly prove to be studs? Would I be the only one watching that thinks Kinsler might be like some other past products of Rangers system: big fish from a small pond?

Buddy Rich

GRANT: The only guy Kinsler would likely “block” over the course of his five-year deal would be German Duran. The Rangers are already working with Duran on becoming a utility player, and Duran has accepted that challenge. But to say Kinsler is “blocking” anybody would be a stretch. Blocking somebody would insinuate being some degree of dead weight. Kinsler tied for fourth among second basemen last year in home runs and was one of only two second baseman (Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips was the other) to have at least 20 homers and 20 steals last year.

Q: Fast-forward a season or two. With Chris Davis looking like he will be embedded at 1B for the next few years, what do you do with the "loser" of the Jarrod Saltalamacchia/Taylor Teagarden contest at catcher. Trade? DH? Who do you think has the higher upside of the two?

Kristen, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

GRANT: Both a trade or a move to DH are possibilities if everybody stays healthy. And there are also options: Suppose Davis falters or gets hurt and both Saltalamaccia and Teagarden continue to improve. You could play one of them at first and the other at catcher. Think a lot will be determined by how well both play and whether Teagarden can stay healthy.

Saltalamacchia has the higher upside. Teagarden is considered better as a game-caller and receiver. If both end up healthy and playing well, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Teagarden behind the plate with Saltalamacchia at first or DH.

Q: When you look at it, all the depth is in the lower minors and won't be ready to contribute until at least 2010 and won't really make much of an impact until 2011. Guys like Michael Main, Blake Beavan, Kasey Kiker and Engel Beltre are at least three years away from making an impact. Don't you think 2010-12 would be the reasonable expected time for the Rangers to be playoff bound?

Karm, Toronto

GRANT: I think so. I could see the Rangers making a small improvement this year and a bigger leap next year and being in position to truly contend by 2010 with the addition perhaps of one key free agent. From 2011 on, the window of opportunity should really be open. No telling how long it would stay open.

Q: What do you make of Kazuo Fukumori's role on this team? He was signed at a reasonable price, but given his age, stats, below-average stuff, the international transition and the plethora of young arms on hand, it seems like Fukumori could block a Josh Rupe from getting his shot.

GRANT: Rupe’s got a legit shot to make this team, regardless of Fukumori’s role. Rupe is in a crowded battle for one of three wide-open spots. If Fukumori or Frank Francisco struggles this spring, the battle could be widened to include as many as five open spots.

Fukumori starts camp as a seventh-inning reliever. How he deals with all the issues you mentioned in your question will determine what his role is when the season starts. But let’s be clear: There is no guarantee he will be on the opening day roster. The Rangers are planning for him to be there, but he could lose a spot with a terrible spring.

Q: There's a lot of buzz right now about A.J. Murray. He's missed a couple of seasons with injuries, and didn't pitch a bunch of innings last year, but it sounds like Mark Connor and the front office are really high on him. What is it they see in him that makes him a viable rotation candidate right now?

Adam Morris

GRANT: A lot of the “buzz,” if there is any, Adam, is that Murray had always been viewed as a smart pitcher with a diverse repertoire. The only thing keeping him from being a real contender for the rotation in the past was his proneness to injuries.

Talked to Murray about the biggest thing he got out of last year and it was that he felt healthy and strong at the end of the season. He made two starts in the final week of the season and averaged 13.8 pitches per inning. In other words, he worked quickly and threw strikes. That creates a lot of buzz from happy teammates and happy coaches.

By the way, he was 1-1 with a 3.68 ERA and a .244 opponents batting average over the final six weeks of the season.

Murray and Luis Mendoza are the sixth and seventh guys in the rotation picture right now. Unless there is an injury or Kason Gabbard really struggles this spring, I think both of those guys open the season at Oklahoma. But they would be first in line as replacements.

Also worth noting: The Rangers are taking the same approach with tantalizing but oft-injured right-hander Josh Rupe as they did with Murray last year. Rupe will pitch exclusively from the bullpen in 2008, but could move back to the rotation once he proves he can stay healthy for a year.

Q: Why are the Rangers so fixated with Marlon Byrd? Last year was a career year for him and he is not likely to repeat it. Shouldn't Jon Daniels "sell high" while he has the chance? What does it say about the Ranger's clubhouse when a journeyman player comes in and becomes a team leader?

Rob M., McKinney

GRANT: True team leaders are rarely things other than journeymen. The guys who ran the 1996 Rangers, perhaps the grittiest team in club history (and the only one with a playoff game victory) were journeymen. Mark McLemore, Mickey Tettleton and Dave Valle all arrived as journeymen.

Deciding when to sell a player, especially a player who offers more to a team than strictly performance, is a delicate dance. It could be argued that getting somebody like Matt Murton might pay more dividends for the Rangers when they are in a better position to contend. But keeping Byrd around may help show guys like Ian Kinsler, C.J. Wilson, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Hamilton the right way to do things. If he has an impact on four or five “core” players, is his slightly lower on-field performance worth more than Murton?

Truth is, you and I don’t know. And neither does Jon Daniels. It is a gut call. And in the past, the Rangers have undervalued clubhouse influence. Daniels is trying to learn from a past mistake.

Q: I was reading your Feb. 16 article, and I noticed something curious. You said that Jarrod Saltalamacchia signed for $396,710, Kason Gabbard for $396,380, and Josh Hamilton for $396,830. Can you shed some light on what determines the exact amounts for each player? I know that salaries vary from one player to the next, but it seems strange that there would be a difference of less than $500 between Gabbard and Hamilton, and less than $200 between Salty and Hamilton.

Why don't the contracts tend toward "rounder" numbers? It seems, for bookkeeping (not to mention aesthetical) purposes, that you might as well just round up to the nearest $100 and, for instance, pay Salty $396,800.

GRANT: Assistant GM Thad Levine, who oversees negotiations for players between no major league service and three years, has a detailed formula to determine the Rangers “pre-arbitration” pay scale. He basically mixes a point system for service time with a point system for performance (for guys with more than 100 days of service). Every final percentage has a corresponding salary figure above the major league minimum ($390,000). Levine simply applies that number and rounds up to the nearest $10 increment. Last year, he was so detailed on it that a number of contracts actually came out with odd final digits in the total.

Q: It looks to me like the Rangers could get to April 13th before they need a fifth starter. So does Kason Gabbard have an option left? If so, they could start him at Oklahoma or Frisco until he's needed (or whoever wins the fifth spot if they have an option). Seems like they could use that extra time to make a decision on Jason Botts vs. Nelson Cruz (assuming they have a good spring). Plus, it should be easier to get them through waivers after the season starts, correct?

Cory Vaughn, Edmond, Okla.

GRANT: Cory, looks like April 12 is the first time they’d need somebody, which is actually the 11th game of the season and the first time they play five consecutive days. And they most likely will send either Gabbard or Brandon to the minors to make two starts in preparation for that game against Toronto.

Keeping both Botts and Cruz is a possibility, but I think the more likely scenario is that the team would keep an extra reliever since the starters will still be on more strict pitch counts. And besides, keeping Botts or Cruz for an extra 10 days is not going to help make any decisions on them. If the Rangers keep both, it would be in the hope of sneaking one of them through waivers at a point when fewer teams have flexibility on their major league rosters.