Confidence Rating - Daniels & Baseball Ops Staff (poll)

by AZranger on Jan 2, 2008 11:34 AM CST Comment 31 comments

Thought it would be interesting to take LSB's pulse on the job Jon Daniels and his staff are doing. We discuss the merits of each move, pour over prospect lists, and even graded the off-season as a whole. But how do we feel looking forward? How confident are you that this team is finally headed the right direction?

For the purpose of this poll, try to isolate the GM and his decision-making baseball staff. This isn't about the owner or anything like that.

Poll

How confident do you feel with the current Ranger front office management (specifically Jon Daniels and his baseball operations staff)?

Very confident - things are looking up, we're headed in the right direction.

58 votes

Moderately condifent - they've learned from their mistakes, have taken some positive steps, but need to see more

71 votes

Neutral - not really sure what to think of this group

6 votes

Moderately discouraged - seems like the same ol', same ol'

3 votes

Extremely discouraged - too many bad moves and lack of direction, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel

3 votes

141 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 31 comments

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Comments

Having some doubt

early on, as I felt Hicks' promotion of him may not have been very imaginative or bold, maybe just the easy move at the time, I'm 180 degrees on that today.

I'm firmly in Daniels' camp. He continues to display a skill for running parallel agendas that enables him to adjust strategy to fit existing circumstances. Not every move works, same can be said for every other GM out there.

Patience. This is year 3 of what would typically be viewed as a 5 year plan. I'm expecting real progress with certain players this year, those that Grant/Cowlishaw? identifies as the new core (players under 28, and under team control for a bit longer).

I believe Daniels is a top 5 GM in the making. Hopefully Mr. Hicks doesn't lose his nerve and sacrifice long term gain over short term pain.

by ncrangerman on Jan 2, 2008 11:39 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

year 3 of 5 year plan?

I like Daniels overall, but I question the notion of year 3 of a 5 year plan. I would say that the original plan was to try and compete with the Angels in 06 and 07 and 08. That plan was a complete failure, and JD didn't really voluntarily go into a rebuilding phase - he was pretty much forced into it. I don't give him a lot of credit for coming up with the idea of trading Teix, Gagne, and Lofton - a monkey could have figured that out. However, I do give him credit for the execution of that plan as I think the haul from Atlanta was particularly impressive considering the lack of other serious bidders.

I think he has the ship steered in the right direction, and I don't mean to begrudge him credit where it is due, but I think to say that he is in year 3 of a plan is kinda generous. Plan A was a failure, and Plan B has been in action for about 7 months now.

Since getting burned on the Eaton trade, I think the only 2 moves that really haven't made much sense to me are the Wash hiring and the Cat signing. Hopefully this coming season will make those moves look better, but I'm not really optimistic on either.

I think the Hamilton trade could be the type that turns out to be a signature move, but again I hate to give too much credit because knowing what we know - it appears that JD would rather have signed Torii. Thankfully the Angels saved us from that fate.

Juevos Daniels: biggest stones in the business.

by tricer on Jan 2, 2008 1:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Didn't say

that Daniels came in with, and is currently executing, his own 5 year plan. I said that this is year 3 of what would typically be a 5 year plan. That is, it's still a little early to judge overall results.

He's trying to build current rosters that compete, or at worst, that won't crater, because circumstances out of his direct control dictate his inability to build with high level talent.

At the same time he has breathed life into a pretty dormant minor league system that now appears primed to funnel some pretty quality players to the majors in the foreseeable future.

It's quite a balancing act, and it's fair to say that he is doing a much better job with the latter over the former, which weighs the scale to his favor, in my opinion.

by ncrangerman on Jan 2, 2008 1:32 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Totally Incompetent

This guy has been GM for 2 years now. He's made a ton of trades, most of which where we traded away good players for so-called prospects.

He's totally out of his league.

He is nothing more than a cheap hire GM that answers to his daddy owner.

I challenge anyone to name me one player that he has traded for that has made an impact on this team.

by LBrooks on Jan 2, 2008 12:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

John Hart, is that you?

by tklawless on Jan 2, 2008 1:36 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

This whole

JD as a "boy" and Hicks as "daddy" thing is just strange to me. Who cares as long as you win? I'm pretty sure the age gap between the 3 top owners of the Red Sox and Epstein is greater than that between JD and Hicks, but is LBrooks or anyone else going to call Epstein "boy wonder" or any of these other goofy names? Judge him on the moves and the direction of the system rather than this label-painting hatchet-job you've got going here.

by brettgardner on Jan 2, 2008 1:45 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Boy Wonder

This whole
JD as a "boy" and Hicks as "daddy" thing is just strange to me. Who cares as long as you win? I'm pretty sure the age gap between the 3 top owners of the Red Sox and Epstein is greater than that between JD and Hicks, but is LBrooks or anyone else going to call Epstein "boy wonder" or any of these other goofy names? Judge him on the moves and the direction of the system rather than this label-painting hatchet-job you've got going here.

by brettgardner on Wed Jan 02, 2008 at 01:45:50 PM CDT

Quite frankly, I would call Theo Epstein "Boy Wonder". He's got 2 WS Campionships under his belt.

JD ain't got jack, and, based on what he's shown so far, ain't likely to ever have.
[ Parent | Reply to This ]

by LBrooks on Jan 3, 2008 1:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

what kind of impact?

but padilla wasn't bad for they year he was traded for and neither was carlos lee.

otsuka had a pretty big impact as well

by ab03 on Jan 2, 2008 3:02 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Go,

and Fart Dust!

You're hijacking the thread and being repetitive. Move forward.

by Rodney on Jan 2, 2008 9:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

At Least There's a Plan

The book on Daniels is still in the early chapters. I think his early trades were risks that didn't pan out, especially Young/Eaton and Soriano/Wilkerson. I think there is a plan in place, though, looking to the future and it is being followed. A couple things about Daniels that I like.

1.) He does not seem too afraid of his job security. Depending on the fluid mindset of our owner Daniels might never be around to see these moves come to fruition. For all we know Tom Hicks could wake up any day now and decide to change course and try to win now and Daniels will be out of here. Daniels seems to understand that but he is not fearful of it. He seems to believe that this is the right way to go and he is not making moves to save his skin. I think that is positive.

2.) He is willing to take risks. It seemed with Hart that he was just not willing to take any risk whatsoever. As a GM, it seems to me that you have to be willing to pull the trigger on some of these deals and JD is willing to do it. They might not always work out but he is not stopping. He is constantly working to make the team better.

I truly hope that Hicks gives him a long time to see this plan out. I think if he does we could be looking at some very interesting teams down the road. And I think Daniels will be a GM when we do have a winner that will do what it takes trade-wise to try and put us over the top.

Good discussion question, though.

by kentbenfer on Jan 2, 2008 12:44 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

It all depends

on how the prospects turn out. We have some highly touted prospects, but, we have seen a lot of touted prospects be busts before.

I do think you probably have to give him a couple more years, but so far, It's tough to give him more than an INC.

"As of now they're (The Astros) world series favorites. Period." - Sharky

by DJCahill on Jan 2, 2008 12:55 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

isn't that the nature of the game?

he can trade for the best prospects in the world but they have every chance not to pan out.

i guess you can hold him responsible for the scouting department and hold him responsible for not realizing that chris young was going to be better than he was. but the tex trade, i feel like its a win, no matter how neftali feliz turns out

by ab03 on Jan 2, 2008 3:08 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Prospects

I still see cause to grade him for being consistent, acquiring and firmly hanging onto young players.

Go Strangers.

by hightowersmith on Jan 2, 2008 6:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

INC?

Incompetentnincompoop?

by LBrooks on Jan 2, 2008 1:09 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

You honestly believe

The Rangers are worse off today than when JD got the job? They're a top-five farm system today, and they were completely barren before.

He's made one very bad trade, and the rest have all been good or excellent, or (in the case of the Soriano deal) made plenty of sense at the time.

Eh.

by SteveOla on Jan 2, 2008 4:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

In fairness

you have to consider the ML talent he has sent out of here. When you inherit talent like Teix, Soriano, C. Young, Danks, and A. Gonzalez - and send them all packing, then you'd better have some minor league talent to show for it.

The minor league system is much better for the moves JD has made, while the major league talent is currently much worse. If you ignore either side of the coin, you aren't giving a fair analysis.

Juevos Daniels: biggest stones in the business.

by tricer on Jan 2, 2008 5:03 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

But...

Tell me you could make this statement before JD was GM: There is a potential all-star at every position either currently in the majors or within a couple years in the minors (I admit that's pushing it a little with the outfield but I still think I could make that argument if JMJ and Davis pan out) and we have so much depth of pitching that we were able to trade our top major league ready pitching prospect for a hitter.

by slimshadty12 on Jan 2, 2008 7:15 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think.....

.......you've OD'd on the kool-aid.

Every team in the major leagues has a potential all-star at every position in the minor leagues.

And, the pitching depth is endless for every organization.

by LBrooks on Jan 3, 2008 12:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Well break it down then...

But you won't because you made a statement that requires a little too much effort to actually verify.

by slimshadty12 on Jan 3, 2008 7:16 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Being a boy

Exactly how old do you have to be to stop being called a boy?

40?

50?

And what, exactly, have you accomplished in your life that makes you such an elder statesman?

Rex Hudler is in demand as a motivational speaker.

by Brian Thomas on Jan 4, 2008 10:44 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

He has the huevos to make risky decisions

and the club has a direction for once that looks plausable to compete at some point in the future. The depth of pitching prospects and talented guys in their mid 20's does provide hope. Those are the positives.

I still question his management of the 40 man roster. This issue could become a big factor in the very near future as we may need three spots for Fuki, Eddie and a potential veteran SP. I will be nuetral until further evidence tips me one way or the other.

Top line FA's seem to be avoiding the Rangers with the exception of Millwood who has been solid enough for my expectations. How this affects JD's perfromance so far is still too early to determine.

We have traded away Soriano, Cordero, C Young and AGonz and have Gallarraga and Cruz here (for now.) How much better would this team be with Sori in LF, CY in the rotation, Agonz at 1B and Cordero in the pen??? JD may never live down the impact of these trades.

The Tex and Volquez trades are too early to determine their impact. I still question JD's ability to put together a competitive team. I say give him two more years to see if he can cut it.

Overall he gets a grade in the D+ to C- range but has the opportunity to improve the grade IF his acquisitions play ball.

by Bigfan16 on Jan 2, 2008 1:21 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

A lot of what you denigrate him for

is/was out of his control. He inherited Buck, who did not think CYoung could handle a full year/major leaguer's, etc....Buck also never tried to move Sori to LF, plus no one was for re-signing him at $10M+....AGon was never gonna get a shot because of Tex (another who should have moved, to RF, for the good of the team, ala MY)....CoCo, while he had a couple of good years here, has developed a phobia for TBIA, and is now grossly overpaid....

I'm in no way saying the CYoung/Eaton trade was not a mistake, I hated it from jump (mostly because of AGon, though)....and Wilkerson was a bust....just saying a lot of the blame wasn't JD's but what he was forced to clean-up.

His handling of the Tex deal (quite a haul) and Gagne (ditto) plus attention to the minors and draft, have been nothing short of amazing. There have been no "real" difference maker's in FA, but that day will come. So far.....an A- !

by tklawless on Jan 2, 2008 1:49 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I am known to be a tough grader but

looking at the GM's job performance so far I expect(ed) more. You make sollid points about Buck and his point of view but doesn't the GM outrank the manager??? Considering the price for players today is the Cubs/Sori contract all that bad? OK you are right JD had to do some clean up.
If we are talking about long term direction of the team I am not yet sold on JD's performance to date. As mentioned earlier there is time to improve the grade. I concur on the Tex haul and you did remind me of the Gagne deal that was a winner for the home team. My primary concern is looking at moves in conjunction. 18 months or so apart JD traded both AGonz and Tex. My 20/20 hindsight tells me that he should have secured Tex to a long term contract before trading away Agonz. Or he could have traded Tex and kept Agonz. Either way our 1B situation would be much better than it is today. The two trades together simply do not make sense. Ditto on Broussard and Shelton this off season.
On pure talent would anyone trade Cruz and Galarraga for any one of let alone all four (Sori, AGonz, CY, and Coco?)
The great trades early on from JD also have yet to pan out. Though there is time to improve. Delucci for Tejada was supposed to be a steal and few even consider Tejada a serious contender for the 08 rotation. Swapping Juan Dom for Rheineker and Koronka... well Koronka is gone as is Juan Dom (I believe) and Rheineker could secure a spot in the pen. Thats a plus. Ricrod for Padilla was a major plus for JD. I'll even go one step further and say that resiging Padilla was a solid move.
I will give him credit for swinging but to date I have not been overwhelmed with his success.

by Bigfan16 on Jan 2, 2008 2:24 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

+1

... this is a perfect summary. perfect.

i'm surprised more LSB bloggers don't feel this way.

daniels has had his ups and downs... as stated above... Plan A failed. he's done a fine job piecing together Plan B.

here's a thought... will he even be calling the shots when Plan B is fully realized?

by oc on Jan 2, 2008 2:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

This may come off a bit negative but

that is not my intent.

JD will be around long enough to determine if his moves are a success or failure for two reasons. Should either change then you could see Hicks hit the eject button.

Reason one JD is cheap compared to other GM's. I am not completely familiar with the GM pay and where he falls in that scale. I do recall several reports/blogs that he is on the lower end of the scale.

Reason Two is the team payroll is low enogh to make money. After the A-Rod, CHoP, and Juan part II experience the Rangers have consistently been reducing the annual payroll committment. The team has turned around the large losses of the early Hicks era and is well positioned to make a nice profit in 08.

Combine 1 and 2 and it would take quite a bit to overcome the business side of any argument to cut him loose.

Like I said a bit jaded but not intended to be negative.

by Bigfan16 on Jan 2, 2008 3:44 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

no offense taken...

... but, let's keep a few things in mind.

as of now, Daniels isn't signed on for 2010, which many fools are already christening our "Championship Year."

we learned first hand this offseason, that Texas isn't a very popular place to play. you can throw all the money you want at free agents, and they still won't sign with a team that has no recent or current track record of winning.

now, flip that. you have a very nice class of pitchers on the market next offseason... Sabathia and Santana come to mind. one would expect them to be resigned or traded, respectively, but, suppose they don't. what could Jon Daniels possibly do to convince an ace pitcher to pitch here when he couldn't even land a Japanese import? a guy that he reportedly outbid everybody else for.

people say 2008 is a rebuilding year. i see it more as a proving ground. i'm not expecting to see this team win the West. but, i would hope that they'd set a goal to play .500 baseball, and finish several games over. and i'm not talking two or three games. try seven or eight. that's the sign of a team turning the tide.

other things to consider... nobody knows for sure if Hurley, or Harrison, or any of these other highly touted juniors will blossom into the future stars we hope they will. all it takes is one injury, a surgery, and BAM! you're a bust... a la Joaquin Arias... a la Thomas Diamond.

all it takes are consecutive years of unimpressive progress, and you become a footnote... see: Nelson Cruz and John Mayberry Jr.

Jon Daniels has done the only thing he could do: he's surrounded himself with depth. but, if this team hasn't done a complete 180 by the time July '09 comes around, i don't think he'll get to see the fruits of his labor in 2010.

by oc on Jan 2, 2008 5:02 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I actually agree with the majority of this...

especially when you said you're looking for this team to be a couple games over .500. I don't understand the people who think we should sell the team off and hope to win 60 games. That would mean we'd suck horribly in the majors. When is that ever a step in the right direction? Everyone points to Detroit as the team who did it the right way. But, they were fortunate more then anything to turn it around. Most teams that are winning 60 games year in year out, not only suck then but now too. You think Pitts is optimistic about the future because they suck now? Tampa? Baltimore? Washington?

Now let me say this about Florida because they are the exception. The reason they've been able to win championships is because of great scouting and player evaluating from other clubs. But, they wouldn't have been able to get their hands on a lot of those prospects unless they had the talent to trade for them. When they broke it down in '97, they had a lot to trade. When they broke in down in '03, they had a lot to trade.

Point being, trading what we have now would not do a lot because most of our guys are not established and we wouldn't get a lot in return. Our best bet is try to improve each and every year and try to add pieces to the puzzle each time. I think we're seeing that.

by slimshadty12 on Jan 2, 2008 7:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

4th paragraph

I don't necessarily disagree with your main point, but neither Soriano nor Cordero would still be on the team. We had a chance at both of them in free agency and didn't sign them, and I think that it's unrealistic to expect that they would have extended with us.

by a bebop a rebop on Jan 2, 2008 4:25 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I have a positive opinion

Of his increased ability to deal and weigh risk versus value. And I'm not impatient, he hasn't had the job (or for that matter the overall years of baseball service) to speculate on how he will be viewed as a general manager. Things do look more likely to work out than not, though.

One thing to keep in mind. He works for Tom Hicks, who can and does intercede. Whether he is asked to for courtesy or emphasis, or does so at his own initiative, I don't know.

'At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any.' Erk Russell / Georgia Southern

by Ed Coffin on Jan 2, 2008 5:11 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Solid B+

He was put in a no win situation from the get go and has done quite well in my opinion. When he got here he inherited a manager who had the owners ear and thus any "outranking" was impossible. He was tasked with winning immediately and started out with a rotation of CHP, Rogers (right after his cameraman incident), Young, Ricardo Rodriguez, and someone else. That was obviously his first priority and to his credit he went out and got the best available FA (Millwood), traded Rodriguez for Padilla, who in a contract year put up very good numbers albeit while being a headcase, and because of the manager tried to hit gold again by trading Young for another pitcher in a contract year in Eaton. If Eaton doesn't get hurt who knows how our perception of him is. He had a decent couple months after getting healthy but everyone was looking at Young doing outstanding in a pitchers park in a new league. Ive always wondered what people loved about the guy. Whether it was the fact that he was a Dallas kid or what but people seem to think we traded away Cy Young instead of Chris Young.

His first season was bad. Very bad. Couple those moves with being forced to trade Soriano with absolutely no leverage is lose/lose. Looking back it probably would have been better to just keep him and take the draft picks considering our good drafts the last couple years. Then his second season was with a new manager but the same owner who wouldn't allow a full blown rebuild which has been needed for awhile now. He again had to try and sign FAs to compete but that proved tougher said than done. We made a competitive bid on Dice-K but were blown out of the water just like everyone else was. Made a valid offer to Zito but again were blown away just like everyone else. For that he gets alot of grief but I think most of it is not warranted.

But the way he has completely turned around our future in a 3 month span almost puts him at an A for me. The amount of young talent he brought into the system is incredible. If the owner will open his eyes and allow this guy to continue this club could become not just a playoff team but a championship team for years to come.

by Steven on Jan 2, 2008 5:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

JD's Grade

JD gets a resounding F for Plan A and an Incomplete for Plan B.

I don't like the manager he hired, the trades for healthy, quality major leaguers he has made and I don't like the free agents he has signed (Millwood, Padilla, Lofton, Sosa, Gagne, Bradley) or the free agents (Zito, Hunter) he recommended that Hicks sign.

We'll see where this thing stands in 2010 to give JD the grade for Plan B.

by Josey Wales on Jan 3, 2008 4:19 PM CST reply actions 0 recs