The Rangers concluded this week with winter workouts in Arlington for its pitchers.  All of the Rangers major league pitchers and pitching prospects for next season were on hand except for Vaciente Padilla, who is working out on his own.  Kevin Millwood has already lost 12 pounds since the season ended after announcing that he was in top shape coming into the 2008 season.  You would normally see a player lose weight during a season and not be able to lose 12 pounds after the season ended.  The assumption is that Texas pitchers were not conditioning properly which led to so many pitchers landing on the DL this year.  Players were saying they were working out but what they were saying and what they were doing were two different things.  This has to be a sore subject for Nolan Ryan, who put in 27 seasons in the majors and was known as a conditioning freak.  As a fan, I get tired of hearing from the casual fan about how “the Rangers need pitching” or “when are the Rangers going to get some pitching” year after year as if they have the magical formula that Ranger management has not figured out yet.  But hearing that the pitchers were not in as good of shape as they should have been and that all the DL trips could have been prevented really disturbs me.  What could the 2008 season have been with the offense and a great bullpen that didn’t pitch well down the stretch because it was completely worn out by July?  Thats frustrating.  I dont expect Maddox to come in here and be the savior for this staff, but I do like that he is on board with Ryan’s philosophy that conditioning has to be a priority.  Incidentally, Texas is now only one of six teams to have a full time conditioning coach at each of its organizational levels.  I am excited to see what this new plan produces for 2009.