Texas Rangers Winter Caravan

The American League West champion Texas Rangers made their annual Winter Caravan stop in the Austin-area and there were plenty of handshakes for American League Manager of the Year Jeff Banister.

Banister took over a team that finished 28 games under 500 the year before and turned it into a division winner.

Fans out at Dell Diamond to see the team likely remember that Derek Holland and company dealth with a rash of major injuries so they had plenty to overcome.

Banister says, "I think anytime you have to overcome hurdles and adversity and challenges it makes the prize at the end of a race a little more sweeter. We didn't ask for anybody to remove our mountains. Keep em right where they're at and let us plow through them."

Delino DeShields, Jr. echoed Banister's sentiments.

"When people kind of counted us out in the beginning, we put that upon ourselves and we played with a chip on our shoulders and went out there everyday trying to prove people wrong and we did it," Deshields says.

While it's nice to reflect on the past season, the team is ready for this year.

Derek Holland says, "Just having everybody there is just going to be huge for us. to get back out there, get back on the field, obviously we saw how things ended in Toronto, now we just got to use that and go forward."

Holland of course is referencing the tough best of five playoff with the Blue Jays where the Rangers won the first two but dropped the final three.

You can watch the full interviews with the Texas Rangers team on our YouTube channel here.