There seems to be a sentiment that John Daniels is addressing the rebuilding of this team in the wrong way.  Some of the common statements here and elsewhere by Rangers fans are:

1.  "Why would you trade a stud young pitcher for an injury prone centerfielder?"
2.  "Why would he go out and sign an injury prone headcase to play the corner outfield spots?"
3.  "This team is most likely the worst that the Rangers have aseembled since 2000."

To evaluate what Daniels has been doing this offseason, we need to look at where the Rangers ended last year.  Despite a strong second half, the team still was rather miserable both offensively and defensively.

Only two teams in the AL had a worse OBP as a team, and they were right in the middle of the pack in SLG.  Only four teams in the AL had a worse batting average.  The Rangers had a below average OPS in comparison to both the AL and all of MLB.  Only one team had more strikeouts, and only three teams took fewer walks.

Yeah, the Rangers hit 56 more home runs than the Angels, and surprisingly were able to score a good number of runs (7th overall).  but the fact of the matter is that the offense was still rather terrible.  So in what areas was the offense worst?

1.  OBP - Only two teams were worse.
   
2.  BA - Only four teams were worse.

In terms of pitching, the Rangers were pretty bad as well.  There were only three teams with a worse ERA than the Rangers.  The Rangers pitchers were right in the middle of the pack in hits allowed, but what killed them was the fact that they were last in the league in strikeouts and second in walks allowed.  Since ERA is a result of a number of factors, what areas would Daniels need to address to help improve pitching?

1.  Pitchers with better K/BB ratios
   
2.  Team defense (particularly up the middle)

So how has Daniels addressed these four highly critical areas in terms of preparing this team for 2008, but ultimately for 2009 and beyond?  Let's look at each one individually.

Team OBP
The worst positions in terms of OBP last year were left field, right field, catcher and third base.  After Teixeira was traded, the first base position struggled in terms of OBP as well.

How has Daniels addressed this problem?

1.  He signed Bradley to play one of the corners.  He has a career .358 OBP and had a .402 OBP last season.  That's a far upgrade over the .323 and .332 OBPs that the corners put up for the Rangers last year.
2.  Obviously, Daniels didn't need to address third base since Blalock is healthy, and when he played last year he had a .358 OBP.  This spot of the lineup is simply fixed by Blalock being healthy.  There's not much Daniels can do about this position.
3.  At catcher, Daniels has committed to having Salty as the regular.  Laird had a .278 OBP last year, and Salty had a .310 OBP.  So that's a slight upgrade, but as we all know Salty has potential to improve on that immensely.  After all, he had a career minor league .370 OBP.
4.  At centerfield, the Rangers put up a decent .343 OBP, but the .368 that Hamilton put up last season is an upgrade.  It's also a huge upgrade in terms of SLG (.554 to .423).
5.  At first base, which was rather bad after Teixeira left, the Rangers are going from Wilkerson (.319 OBP), Botts (.326) and Cat (.328 as a 1b) to Chris Shelton (.348 career / .340 in 2006) and a slight upgrade in Broussard (.330 last year).
6.  The trade for Shelton and signing of Broussard also free up Cat to hit DH.  He had a .363 OBP in the second half of last season compared to the .311 OBP that the Rangers got from Sosa for much of the year.  That is another significant upgrade in my opinion.

Overall I'd give Daniels an A+ in this regard

Team BA
Team batting average should be improved from the reasons mentioned above, but here are some other things to note.

1.  Among hitters with at least 300 ABs, the Rangers worst batting averages belonged to Laird, who is now a backup, and to Vazquez (.230), who shouldn't play much next season at all, and then to Wilkerson (.234), Cruz (.235) and Sosa (.252), who are all no longer with the team.  The next worst hitter was Cat who hit .260 overall.  Cat did hit .288 in the second half though, which bodes well.
2.  The Rangers have brought in Broussard (.275 last year), Shelton (.273 in 2006), Bradley (.306 last year) and Hamilton (.292 last year).

Overall I'd give Daniels an A- in terms of addressing this need.  It's not an A or A+ simply because I don't understand the Broussard signing.

K/BB ratio
Daniels has done the least in addressing this need.  The Rangers still have Millwood who had the best K/BB ratio both last year and in 2006.  That's despite leading the team in BB/9 last season.  Overall, the Rangers have much of the same rotation and bullpen coming back, and their losses are primarily Volquez, Wright and Otsuka.  

Otsuka of course had serious arm problems, but had a 1/1 K/BB ratio before the injury.  In 2006, his K/BB ratio was stellar, but there were too many medical issues for the Rangers to give him a contract.

Wright gave up a ton of BBs.  He had "electric stuff" according to scouts, but was highly inconsistent last season (as he has been through his whole career).

And then there is Volquez, and this is the one that hurts.  Volquez can definitely strike guys out when he's on.  But he can also walk a lot of batters.  He walked just under 4 batters per 9 IP last year in the minors, despite having an outstanding season.  I love Volquez, and think he will end up being a good major leaguer eventually, but also know that losing him does not drastically effect the 2008 Rangers K/BB ratio.

The Rangers brought in Kaz Fukumori, who is a huge question mark, but projects to a mediocre to below average major league reliever and should have little impact on the bullpen.

Like I said before, Daniels has done the least in this area, but ultimately there aren't that many other options.  A Colon/Jennings/Silva type is only slightly better than allowing Mendoza, Murray, Gallaraga, etc. time in the majors...especially when considering their cost.  

Overall I'd give Daniels a C- in this regard.  He didn't improve the team any, but didn't hurt them much either.  Still, the loss of Volquez hurts.

Team Defense
People tend to undervalue the impact that team defense has on pitching.  The pitchers on this team suffered a great deal from poor defense last season, and particularly in the outfield.

If Bradley is healthy and plays a corner spot, then he is a well above average defender.  Hamilton is an above average defensive centerfielder.  Those two spots alone should help upgrade the team defense drastically.

Overall I'd give Daniels an A in this regard.

So despite all of the complaining about how Daniels isn't addressing the team's needs this offseason and how he's making stupid decisions, the fact of the matter is that he is addressing needs and he is making this team better.  Offensively he has made some very good improvements in key stats (i.e. OBP and OPS), and defensively he has upgraded the corner outfield and centerfield rather drastically, which is a key defensive position.

I'd give him an A so far for the offseason, let me know what you'd give him and tell me why in the comments.

Poll

How would you rate Daniels offseason?

34%

A

29 votes

56%

B

47 votes

7%

C

6 votes

0%

D

0 votes

1%

F

1 votes

83 votes | Poll has closed