The Texas Rangers are getting ready to finish another season in which they failed to make the playoffs, but the end of the season for the players will mark the beginning of the 2009 season for Nolan Ryan. Nolan took over the job as King of the Rangers before the season started, but for the most part this year, he kind of stayed in the shadows observing what he had to work with.

That all should change once the season ends, as apparently Nolan didn't like what he saw all that much, and he plans on making some changes this offseason.

For those of us who think it also should be firing time in Texas, all Ryan would say Thursday was, "I'm currently formulating a plan for next season, and once the final decision has been made, we will move forward from that."

"I can guarantee one thing. We are going to change the way things have been done around here."

That can't sound too comforting for both general manager Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington. If Nolan wants to start building the Rangers in his own image, he's probably going to want to bring in his own general manager and manager, and Daniels and Washington aren't those guys.

If I were the self-centered man that I am, which I am, I'd begin to think that the real-life counterparts of Dugout characters read our interpretations of them and follow suit. This idea is bolstered yet again by the revelation that Rangers president Nolan Ryan is displeased with the sluggish offseason practices of his pitchers. Conditioning? Protein shakes? Health? Wellness? Phooey to all that, says Dugout Nolan Ryan. Just find the largest rock you can and lift it over and over until you stop bein' such a popinjay.

This evening's Dugout is after the jump.

For years, the Texas Rangers have been known as a team that could hit the daylights out of anything, but could get their daylights hit just as hard if not harder. It's always been assumed that the Rangers just need to get good pitchers. Rangers president Nolan Ryan, who obviously knows a thing or two about pitching, has a different idea: take the pitchers they have and get them in better shape.

He has given conditioning coach Jose Vazquez the backing to push the pitchers in the off-season and during spring training. Vazquez is prepared to give each pitcher the right plan. (...)

"We feel like the first step in trying to get our starters into the mind-set that they can throw more pitches and pitch more innings is that they have to get the foundation of conditioning with them," Ryan said. "I don't think you come in and ask them to extend themselves of what they're accustomed to doing without starting there."

If you're one of those people who hate the way the game has gone in terms of starters not going much past six innings anymore, think of how happy you'll be if Nolan's new training regimen works out. But ...

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Before Daisuke Matsuzaka's start Tuesday night in Baltimore, someone asked Terry Francona what he thought of the absurd extra innings rule implemented at this year's Olympics, which allows teams to start each inning from the 11th on with runners on first and second base.

After, the Red Sox manager joked that he had gotten a pretty good idea what the rule was like just by watching Matsuzaka.

The Japanese pitcher ran his record to 15-2 Tuesday, but, just as it's been all season long, the win wasn't very pretty. He lasted just five innings, facing runners on first and second in each of the first three frames and escaping a bases loaded jam in the fourth. He made hitters miss plenty -- striking out six -- but he continued handing out free passes at an alarming rate -- walking six.

"It's kind of a tightrope act sometimes," says Francona. "He has the ability to make pitches. He has power on his fastball."

The problem with a tightrope act like Matsuzaka's season-long one is that when his luck runs out, it could be spectacularly ugly for the Red Sox. Here are the worrisome details:

There's no more simple way to put it than by saying that Nolan Ryan articulates very well what I think everyone believes is killing/did kill Roger Clemens' reputation. (Via SbB):

Nolan Ryan appeared today on Dan Patrick's syndicated radio show and made it clear that he in no way supports the PED-denials of fellow Texan Roger Clemens (audio): "It's just a shame that Roger has gotten caught up in this situation and he took the stance that he did and that so many things have come out ... that have cast a bad light on his career.

If you look at what happened with some of the other players (who used PEDs), they stepped up and said 'hey, I did it, I knew it was wrong,' and they asked for forgiveness and have gone on about their business. I think it's just unfortunate Roger took the position that he did and that so much has come out about it."

Exactly.

Andy Pettitte made one simple, semi-humble admission to using steroids, took his single lash of the belt, cried a little and then shut his mouth and played baseball. No one cares about his mistakes anymore.

The era of the medication endorsing athlete, while still early, has been pretty good to us. No one will every forget when Rafael Palmeiro came out with the Viagra ads or those fascinating Nolan Ryan Advil collaborations.

Okay, so those are a little clownish (or suspicious in Raffy's case) and certainly, Mike Schmidt's willingness to tackle BPH and the issues that surround an enlarged prostate are much more worthwhile. Granted, the subject is ready available humor for those without any sense of decorum and a heavily juvenilized mind, but there's nothing funny about dudes getting older and having to pee a lot.

"These bathroom breaks got in the way of life's normal moments," explains Schmidt. "When my doctor diagnosed me with BPH, I was relieved to learn that it was a common condition. I was also relieved to know BPH is not cancer. Together, we developed a game plan to manage my symptoms with Uroxatral(R) (alfuzosin HCl 10 mg extended-release tablets)."

A few days ago I wrote about some talk amongst baseball scouts that Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington's rear end was starting to get awfully warm from that seat he's sitting on, and after the Rangers got absolutely rocked by the Tigers for the second straight night on Wednesday to the tune of 19-6 (they only gave up 10 runs on Tuesday) I wouldn't imagine that Ron's seat is getting any cooler.

Still, despite the fact that everything seems to be going wrong for the Rangers right now, and that they have the worst record in the American League at 7-15, team president Nolan Ryan isn't about to start making drastic changes just for the sake of doing something.

"You don't want to see your team get so far down in the standings that you don't think it's realistic you can get back in the race," Ryan said by phone while tending to personal business around the state while the team is on the road. "I think giving the organization an opportunity to play better is something that I'm trying to be patient with."

"You watch each and every game and try to evaluate what's going on at that point in time and what you're seeing, and then you make a decision on what you see," he said.

The Rangers made a big move on Wednesday, signing one of the best pitchers of all-time. Will this finally turn around their woebegone rotation? Umm ... no. They signed Nolan Ryan to join their front office. We first heard that this was a possibility last month and it's expected to be officially announced later this afternoon.

Ryan had been "working" with the Houston Astros as a special assistant, a figurehead of a title that most likely means he showed up at various functions and made season ticket holders feel special. Does that make him qualified to run a team?

It may not actually matter, because no matter how prestigious "team president" sounds, it's not necessarily higher on the totem pole than GM Jon Daniels. As Evan Grant explains in the Dallas Morning News, owner Tom Hicks has both the president and general manager report directly to him. That's not to say that Ryan will continue being little more than a figurehead, but he'll certainly have a bit of cushion to learn the ropes as he goes along.

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks may be pissing off a lot of people in England, but back here in his own country, Texas, Hicks is working on a deal that would be sure to please Rangers fans.

If you're ever visiting Cooperstown to see the Hall-of-Fame and come across Nolan Ryan's plaque, you'll see that he's donning a Texas Rangers cap. For the last few years though, Nolan has been working with the Houston Astros. Hicks would like to see that change, and recently met with Ryan to see if he'd be interested in the Rangers' vacant club president position.

Rangers owner Tom Hicks met with Nolan Ryan over lunch in Georgetown on Friday and might be trying to lure him away from the Houston Astros and back to the Rangers.

The bait might be the club presidency.

Said Ryan of the meeting,

"I would think, if the Rangers offered me a position that's a promotion, I would certainly visit with them," Ryan said.

"[The club presidency] didn't come up in exact terms," said Ryan, who just began the last year of a contract as a special assistant to the general manager with the Astros. "It was discussed that they were doing a search [for a new club president]."

A potential roadblock to any deal between Ryan and the Rangers though would be the fact that the two minor-league teams Nolan owns, Round Rock and Corpus Christi, are both Astros affiliates.

During the season, MLB.com is the official site of Major League Baseball, filled to the brim and overflowing with baseball news, rumors, and reports. But in the middle of the dead winter offseason, THAT is when MLB.com gets AWESOME.

There's only so much to write about after the trades have been made and before the pitchers report. If Dontrelle Willis goes to Japan and plays tamborine with some Japanese school children, you cover it. If Dmitri Young improperly combs his son's hair, you write an editorial explaining how it's indicative of a greater aspect of Young's person. And sometimes... only sometimes... you get to compare one thing to another. That's where MLB.com is a Viking.

After the jump, The Dugout deals with the clear, obvious reality that Chuck Finley was at one point way better than Nolan Ryan. When you're done reading, get out a sheet of paper and write 500 words about how Travis Fryman deserves a unanimous vote for the Hall of Fame because he played in the era of steroids and integration, and how that's got to be way harder.