The January 15th Upset Update: MLK, The Cranberries, and …baseball?

January 15th, 2018: We are precisely one month from pitchers and catchers reporting in Surprise, Arizona. It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Dolores O’Riordan (the lead singer of The Cranberries) passed away this morning in London at the age of 46. That’s a lot to dig into, and a lot of emotion starts seeping out every which way if you try to chase all three at once. But since this is supposed to be a baseball space, I’ll do my best to keep it somewhat between the lines, if you’ll forgive me two links that have been relevant to me this morning.

The first is a nine-page .pdf of Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, which somehow feels just as—if not more—poignant and relevant today than it ever did. It’s worth a read. Go ahead. Nothing really happened in baseball anyway, the rest of this article is going to be a quick catch-up list of a lot of baseball nothing. Go for it.

The second is today’s music rec: there was a time when Dolores O’Riordan was the absolute queen of rock and roll, and I will not be taking any comments to the contrary. You no doubt know the Cranberries best for Zombie, Linger, or any number of other huge hits they had in the early-to-mid 90s, but here’s a lesser-known record that I think was super underrated: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, from 2001.

Take a deep breath, be thankful for the air you get to breathe, and hit play on that little gem while we talk baseball. It’s the January 15th Upset Update.

1. Tanner Scheppers is (also) going to Japan. After the announcement last week that Nick Martinez was going to play for the Nippon Ham Fighters, we learned last night that the Chiba Lotte Marines had decided to #TakeTanner. Needless to say, we expect both Martinez and Scheppers to be signed by the Rangers around this time in 2021.

I can’t read this but it’s official. We are on to our next adventure! ???????? https://t.co/CpX1mZuRvw

— Jessica Scheppers (@JSchepp77) January 15, 2018

2. It’s Winter Meet-the-Rangers time. If you want to brave the snow(??), get out and meet some Rangers, you have a few chances to do that this week:

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18
Free Autograph Signing: Kroger, 945 West Lamar Blvd., Arlington (76012)…6:30-7:30 p.m.
Scheduled: Doug Fister, Matt Moore.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
2018 Dr Pepper Texas Rangers Awards Dinner at Gilley’s Dallas, 1135 South Lamar St., Dallas (75215). (Tickets here)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20
2018 Texas Rangers Fan Fest Presented by Dasani at Globe Life Park in Arlington…9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Tickets here, or you can get them on the day of event at First Base Ticket Office.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21
Free Autograph Signing: Kroger, 4241 Capitol Avenue, Dallas (75204), 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Scheduled: Jake Diekman, Mike Minor
Free Autograph Signing: Kroger, 12600 North Beach St., Fort Worth (76177), 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Scheduled: Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Cole Hamels

3. An MLB-Themed Golf Course? Okay, then. The Rangers and the city of Arlington are teaming up to re-brand the Chester W. Ditto golf course, and it is expected to open this summer. The course will still be owned and operated by the city, but will just be baseball-themed now. Sorry, Chester, they’re renaming it the Texas Rangers golf course. The best news: no more crop circles in the Globe Life outfield just because someone wanted to combine golf and baseball. Look, there’s a whole golf course dedicated to that now. Go play over there. You wrecked it for everyone.

4. A Troupe of Minor-League signings. These went official a few days ago, so this isn’t news, but we’re running out of relevant updates for the… Update. I told you it was a slow news day.

Catcher Mike Ohlman gets an invitation to major league spring training camp. Infielder Ryan Brett, right-handed pitcher Brandon Cumpton, and left-handed pitcher Brandon Mann will be over on the minor-league side.

Ohlman is organizational depth: he made his big league debut last season with Toronto and played seven games in two call-ups. He hit .216 at AAA last season. Brett comes over from the Tampa Bay system, splitting time last year between AAA Durham and A+ Charlotte. He, too, has played a handful of games at the big-league level (three games in 2015). Mann is 33, and has bounced around a bit, spending time in the Oakland and Tampa systems, plus Japan and some independent league ball. It’s not the sort of signing that usually elicits much response, but after the Austin Bibens-Dirkx success story of 2017, it’s at least noteworthy.

Cumpton is perhaps the most interesting signing of the bunch. He missed 2015-16 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and went 5-4 with a 3.86 ERA across three of Pittsburgh’s minor league levels last year. He has a little over 100 big-league innings under his belt, all in Pittsbirgh, and all from before the surgery. He sports a 4.02 big-league ERA with 68 strikeouts and 22 walks.

See? I told you it was a slow news day. We should have some more substantial reports later this week, thanks to a few opportunities to pester the players, coaches, and front-office guys during the awards ceremony and Fanfest. If not, I promise another round of wild speculation and maybe another mailbag. We’ll get through this last month of darkness one way or the other.