What Jon Daniels should do
GM Jon Daniels: Seeking divine intervention I'm going to go ahead and play the role of Texas Rangers general manager.
Or maybe, just maybe, Jon Daniels himself is so flippin' bored and he's already perused Pitchfork and TMZ and he's moved on to this blog. Extremely, extremely doubtful.
Nonetheless, decisions need to be made. I'm the kind of dude that can do it (assuming it's with no consequences).
Here's the deal: The Rangers have 66 games left in their season when they suit up tomorrow night against the Minnesota Twins. They are a lofty 7.5 games back of the division-leading California Angels. However, they were a mere 6 games behind the wildcard-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
There are a number of good things happening. One, although 7.5 and 6 seem like pretty similar numbers, they're not. The first number is the games back of a good team. The Angels are really good, they're not going to crumble. The latter number is easily to digest. In order to catch Tampa Bay, the Rangers must pass the Yankees (.5 back), A's (1.5 games back), Twins (3.5 back). Not impossible.
For one, are there more susceptible teams to a complete breakdown than the Yanks, A's and Rays. The Rays are a young team with poor offense, the A's just traded their ace and could trade their No. 2 starter and the Yanks are about to sign Barry Bonds. The Twins are another animal. Good, but not great, they just win games from both sides of the game.
Plus, the Rangers have 35 of their final 66 at home where they're 25-21 (hell, they're a very acceptable 25-25 on the road).
The question is whether Daniels should become a buyer (reliever, starting pitching) or seller (pick one that you like, name a price). Here's 10 things I'd do for the Texas Rangers.
Sell
I do not think the Rangers should have a firesale or anything like that (All Vets Must Go!). They should not sell because they can or because they won't make the playoffs, but they should sell because they have something to sell. Collectors collect items. Over time, some pieces become unvaluable or unimportant to the collector. In order to make room or merely to pare down one's collection, they get rid of those unimportant pieces. To make the whole better, you take out the weak links.
Frank Catalanotto, Milton Bradley, Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood, Gerald Laird, Eddie Guardado and every other vet on this team are not weak links, but they're links just the same. The Rangers, thanks to an influx of the farm system, have many links but just nine positions and nine innings to get them all in.
As much as we like him, Laird's clogging up the catcher's position. Cat's taking up valuable DH, 1B and outfield innings and is good to no one on the bench. Will Eddie Guardado be here next or or will J.B. Diaz or Warner Madrigal?
Keep Milton Bradley
Unless, some team bowls you over with a prospect package that includes Double A or MLB-ready starting pitching. Otherwise, keep him. He's good for the team, he leads by example and he's invaluable in terms of morale, fire and teaching these kids to take a pitch or two. Offer him a reasonable 3-year deal for about $6 or $7 million per and see if he bites. If not, we'll take the compensation picks. Considering Daniels' skill in the draft, it'll pay off quickly.
Play Hank Blalock ... at Third
I love this "Where will Hank Blalock go?" talk. What's wrong with third base? Nothing against Ramon Vasquez, but he doesn't have any trade value and he's a utility guy anyway. I love him, but give me Blalock and Chris Davis over Blalock and Vasquez. Platoon them if you have to, but you can't send Davis down to the minors.
Keep Millwood, Trade Padilla
I think it wise to keep one of the two and Padilla has tons more value on the market and, frankly, if you have to try to be a better teammate, who needs you? Keeping Millwood gives you a semi-reliable starter who you think will get around 200 innings when all is said and done and you're not having to push your youngsters too much. There will be time for that in the next three years. My second-half rotation, for the most part, should be: Millwood, Eric Hurley, Scooter Feldman, Luis Mendoza and Matt Harrison. If one of those falters, A.J. Murray, Doug Mathis should get the call.
Never Put Winning Above Development
Stay the course.
Keep Tommy Hunter Down
Calling up the first of his 2007 draftees would be a major coup for Daniels. However, unless a major tragedy strikes, Hunter should continue to pitch in Oklahoma City. He's in the top 5 in all of professional baseball in innings pitched. All others are major leaguers. Don't rush him. He's not winning us a pennant this year.
Extend Josh Hamilton
Duh.
Promote
Elizardo Ramirez, J.B. Diaz, Julio Borbon. Also, do not be scared of Nelson Cruz. If you can swap him for something, great. If not and Bradley ends up on the DL, take a long, last look at him.
Roster
Between left field, DH, 1B and catcher, the Rangers line-up should include any three of these guys: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Max Ramirez, Davis and Boggs.
Consider German Duran
I do not have a good feeling about Saltalamacchia. I have a good feeling about Duran. I think he can hit in the majors. But he needs at bats.
Or maybe, just maybe, Jon Daniels himself is so flippin' bored and he's already perused Pitchfork and TMZ and he's moved on to this blog. Extremely, extremely doubtful.
Nonetheless, decisions need to be made. I'm the kind of dude that can do it (assuming it's with no consequences).
Here's the deal: The Rangers have 66 games left in their season when they suit up tomorrow night against the Minnesota Twins. They are a lofty 7.5 games back of the division-leading California Angels. However, they were a mere 6 games behind the wildcard-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
There are a number of good things happening. One, although 7.5 and 6 seem like pretty similar numbers, they're not. The first number is the games back of a good team. The Angels are really good, they're not going to crumble. The latter number is easily to digest. In order to catch Tampa Bay, the Rangers must pass the Yankees (.5 back), A's (1.5 games back), Twins (3.5 back). Not impossible.
For one, are there more susceptible teams to a complete breakdown than the Yanks, A's and Rays. The Rays are a young team with poor offense, the A's just traded their ace and could trade their No. 2 starter and the Yanks are about to sign Barry Bonds. The Twins are another animal. Good, but not great, they just win games from both sides of the game.
Plus, the Rangers have 35 of their final 66 at home where they're 25-21 (hell, they're a very acceptable 25-25 on the road).
The question is whether Daniels should become a buyer (reliever, starting pitching) or seller (pick one that you like, name a price). Here's 10 things I'd do for the Texas Rangers.
Sell
I do not think the Rangers should have a firesale or anything like that (All Vets Must Go!). They should not sell because they can or because they won't make the playoffs, but they should sell because they have something to sell. Collectors collect items. Over time, some pieces become unvaluable or unimportant to the collector. In order to make room or merely to pare down one's collection, they get rid of those unimportant pieces. To make the whole better, you take out the weak links.
Frank Catalanotto, Milton Bradley, Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood, Gerald Laird, Eddie Guardado and every other vet on this team are not weak links, but they're links just the same. The Rangers, thanks to an influx of the farm system, have many links but just nine positions and nine innings to get them all in.
As much as we like him, Laird's clogging up the catcher's position. Cat's taking up valuable DH, 1B and outfield innings and is good to no one on the bench. Will Eddie Guardado be here next or or will J.B. Diaz or Warner Madrigal?
Keep Milton Bradley
Unless, some team bowls you over with a prospect package that includes Double A or MLB-ready starting pitching. Otherwise, keep him. He's good for the team, he leads by example and he's invaluable in terms of morale, fire and teaching these kids to take a pitch or two. Offer him a reasonable 3-year deal for about $6 or $7 million per and see if he bites. If not, we'll take the compensation picks. Considering Daniels' skill in the draft, it'll pay off quickly.
Play Hank Blalock ... at Third
I love this "Where will Hank Blalock go?" talk. What's wrong with third base? Nothing against Ramon Vasquez, but he doesn't have any trade value and he's a utility guy anyway. I love him, but give me Blalock and Chris Davis over Blalock and Vasquez. Platoon them if you have to, but you can't send Davis down to the minors.
Keep Millwood, Trade Padilla
I think it wise to keep one of the two and Padilla has tons more value on the market and, frankly, if you have to try to be a better teammate, who needs you? Keeping Millwood gives you a semi-reliable starter who you think will get around 200 innings when all is said and done and you're not having to push your youngsters too much. There will be time for that in the next three years. My second-half rotation, for the most part, should be: Millwood, Eric Hurley, Scooter Feldman, Luis Mendoza and Matt Harrison. If one of those falters, A.J. Murray, Doug Mathis should get the call.
Never Put Winning Above Development
Stay the course.
Keep Tommy Hunter Down
Calling up the first of his 2007 draftees would be a major coup for Daniels. However, unless a major tragedy strikes, Hunter should continue to pitch in Oklahoma City. He's in the top 5 in all of professional baseball in innings pitched. All others are major leaguers. Don't rush him. He's not winning us a pennant this year.
Extend Josh Hamilton
Duh.
Promote
Elizardo Ramirez, J.B. Diaz, Julio Borbon. Also, do not be scared of Nelson Cruz. If you can swap him for something, great. If not and Bradley ends up on the DL, take a long, last look at him.
Roster
Between left field, DH, 1B and catcher, the Rangers line-up should include any three of these guys: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Max Ramirez, Davis and Boggs.
Consider German Duran
I do not have a good feeling about Saltalamacchia. I have a good feeling about Duran. I think he can hit in the majors. But he needs at bats.
Labels: Jon Daniels, Rangers
posted by Chip's Moody Blues at 11:03 AM
4 Comments:
Why extend Hamilton now? He's under team control until 2012 already, and not even arb-eligible next year.
Why dick around and not extend him? Not only will you probably be getting him at his cheapest value (assuming he maintains his current pace) and why not extend a contract as an act of goodwill to a guy that's already done so much for the team and who, at some point, could deal with a little commitment for a guy who's been cut lose (for good reason) twice.
Extending Hamilton is the greatest PR move the team could make to a fanbase it has long neglected.
We already have Michael Young's boat anchor "good for PR" contract, do we really need another one? Not that I think a Hamilton extension is necessarily a boat anchor, but "good for PR" should not be any kind of decision point. Acts of goodwill do not a contender make. Hamilton is awesome, but he's still a bigtime injury risk and there's no upside for the club in extending him now.
Michael Young has never been even close as popular as Josh Hamilton is. It's like comparing apples to prostitutes. I guarantee if you sign Hamilton to, say, a five year deal, when they're playing well, five games over .500 and going in some direction, it will be a GIGANTIC boost in local popularity for that team.
Should PR be a reason you sign someone? No. Is it? Yes. We can not discuss sports in the modern age without taking into account money. PR is money.
A few months back, I blogged about how Rangers attendance is down and I cited several reasons why this is and one was that the Rangers simply don't have good fans between the Northeast transplants and the general bandwagon religion many folks around here subscribe to. Well, there's an uptick in interest in the Rangers. If you want to get the fans back even more, commit to Hamilton.
There is tremendous upside to extending him now. You avoid arbitration, even if it is two years from now, which is typically ugly (see: Ryan Howard in Philly)and what if Hamilton continues on his current pace? I'll tell you one thing, he won't be a Ranger. Hicks isn't going to give the big money any more and Hamilton will be a Yankee or Red Sox.
I think you're overestimating how much the Rangers will have to give him. I bet they can get him at a premium. Like you said, the injuries and drugs keep his price, right now, steady. Frankly, they extended Kinsler and he's never proven he can play a full season nor can he field his position.
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