Rangers general manager Jon Daniels recently joined the Ben and Skin show on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM] to talk all things baseball. Here are some highlights from their interview:

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Question: What are you most looking forward to this particular season for your team?

Jon Daniels: We didn't have a good year last year and I think from a team standpoint that door is closed and put behind us. But I think from a fan standpoint, to actually see that come into play and see the young players come out with energy and let the adjustments these guys have made over the winter, whether it's physical or mental or their approach.

Obviously new players are fun, but I'm looking forward to seeing the guys that were here last year that did some good things but clearly have some room for improvement. These are good players. I'm looking forward to seeing that and for our fans to see that too. Sometimes I think when you have expectations as a team [and] individuals and it doesn't go the way that you hope. There's a little, maybe, question mark in your head. 'Where was this guy? Is this guy going to be a star?'

We still feel very strongly about a lot of these guys. Having been here and seeing the work that's going in and the way the players are talking and the confidence level of the, that's really fun for us. I'm looking forward for our fans to experience that.

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Question: I know for fans it's, 'Well what about the young arms?' You guys may way disagree with this: It feels like from a pitching standpoint you seem very far away. Maybe some things really work out. If Matt Moore found it again, things like that. Where are you in terms of your evaluation of your young arms? Guys that aren't probably going to make the team, but they're close or they could really be something.

Jon Daniels: I don't think that is an unfair characterization, especially from our prospects standpoint. Our best prospects, with a couple of exceptions [like] Yohander Mendez and [Ariel] Jurado and some these guys at the upper levels, for the most part our best prospects, especially on the pitching side, are young. Eighteen, 19, 20, A-ball level guys [and] a couple college guys. We took [Noah] Bremmer, [Alex] Eubanks and [Jake] Latz last year. Kyle Cody the year before. We have a lot of young pitching and it's gonna take some time.

Jayce [Tingler] was talking the other day: You look at the bullpens and the early live BPs on the minor league side. This year it was a lot more exciting than it was a year ago from both a development standpoint and an acquisition standpoint. But I mentioned some of those other guys. We're excited about Hans Crause and A.J. Alexy and on down the line. Cole Ragans ... there's a lot of, like, talent. Damian Mendoza, the guy we just signed, we like quite a bit.

There's a lot of talent. It's going to take some time and we're gonna have to be patient. That's why on the big league side this year we knew that. We had some young players on the position player side that way whether it's Day 1 or during the season can really contribute and help us. We didn't have a lot of that realistically on the pitching side. Our Triple-A team was not going to be able to support on its own. We weren't gonna be able to fill the holes. ... So we took the attack that basically rather than go all in on one guy we needed multiples.

And quite frankly we also needed some upside. We needed our guys to be better than most. Our analysts, our scouts, our big league coaches. We tried to identify guys in [Matt] Moore, [Mike] Minor, [Doug] Fister, [Tim] Lincecum and Chris Martin that have some level of demonstrated upside and have some real reasons for us to think we can tap into that and these guys can perform at a high level than maybe their recent history and acquisition cost suggest.

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Question: Do you feel like Rougned Odor is showing you that he's going to make some of the changes that you need him to make or is it just too early to tell?

Jon Daniels: There's definite positive signs. Just the conversation. I'm laughing because a story Michael [Young] was telling me ... about Odor and [Joey] Gallo and Michael ... in the cage [about] where Roogie's head is and some of the things he's talking about. It's gonna be a process. I don't think he's gonna go to walking 100 times, but he's getting better. He's embraced what he needs to do to get better.