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Personally, I think it makes more sense to go ahead and leave him in the minors, and then get whatever you can for him at the trade deadline, and move on.>

Amen to that.

if you want to re-sign Bradley after the year, the time is now to approach him with a fair offer. If he seems to want significantly more, or wants to wait til after the season, I think you deal him. I don’t see a lot of value in waiting til the offseason to negotiate.

I’m a little scared to assume continued health from both Bradley and Hamilton, but…assuming they resign Bradley we’d have an outfield mix of Hamilton, Bradley, Murphy, Boggs and Mayberry, maybe Byrd if he’s still around. I’ll take my chances with that group.

DH might get crowded, though, if Ramirez is there and Bradley likely to need days off from RF regularly and also trying to rest other guys occasionally. Still, that remains a powerful lineup with tons of power.

Does that mean that only one of Laird, Salty, and Tea is traded and the other two catch? Or that two are traded and you sign a serviceable backup and stick Ramirez at DH? I’m not at all sold on Ramirez at catcher, despite his imitation of a brick wall and awesome throw to third.

That strategy assumes you’ll get significant talent back.

That makes no sense.

Get all your scouts together, pool the opinion, and go with that. Nelson Cruz is not a valuable player.

That said, is he the OF version of Carlos Pena?

is going to scar you by shooting electricity out of his fingertips for leaving his name out of the OF discussion. He’s a starting MLB OF… on this team, both now and in the future, and on many others.

would force Hammy to right forcing Bradley to left or DH and Bradley is way too athletic and young to be a full time DH.

The way you put it here, whether the org keeps him kinda sounds like a referendum on Max.

Adam, you failed to mention that Cruz is out of options and will be a FA after the season if he is not on someones 40. He has had his chances. Time for him to move on for whatever JD can get.

I’d love to move Cruz for an interesting arm, and I have little faith that what he’s doing in AAA is for real. With that said, I am uncomfortable with the notion that the Rangers have a full OF picture. They have one (1) quality OF at this point and a host of others with big questions. Mayberry and Borbon are big question marks, and Boggs and Murphy have made it clear that they are major leaguers but have not made it clear that either of them is more than a platoon type. If the goal is to have Hamilton and four other platoon, borderline 3rd/4th outfielders to go with him, along the lines of what they have now, then yes, the outfield is full. If they are looking for above average players, they have one so far out of three positions.

So again, if you can get something for Cruz, do so. If you can’t, his upside is such that you should have him in Arlington (at least post-deadline) rather than Byrd or Mayberry. You might as well make sure that you don’t have anything at that point.

Admittedly, it’s hard to figure out exactly what Murphy is. In the minors, Murphy was a pretty low-ceiling guy. He had a career minor league line of .273 / .343 / .407 and never had a year with an OPS over .800 despite spending five years in the minors and generally being a little old for his league.

Yet when he reached the majors, Murphy excelled. Last year he hit .340/.382/.534 in 43 games (with a 1.071 OPS in 22 AB against lefties). This year, he started off strong (.807 OPS in April), but he has since tailed off. He’s picked things up lately, hitting .293/.356/.537 in only 41 July ABs.

It’s debatable, but I still see Murphy as nothing more than the low-ceiling outfielder he was projected to be. If that’s the case, his value is probably as high as it will ever be, and it shouldn’t be hard to replace Murphy’s production in LF next year.

I think Borbon gets traded eventually. Fast toolsy CFers are always enticing trade commodities, and JD knew it when he drafted him. If he starts taking pitches and ups that OBP, then I want to keep him around, but if he doesn’t, he’ll still be valuable in a deal.

I doubt Cruz gets dealt unless part of a bigger deal. He’s simply not worth very much, and I don’t think JD can afford to trade him for nothing, only to see him learn how to hit a curveball wherever he goes. More likely, I see him coming up in August (for the reasons AJM mentions), and having one last cameo in Texas, after which we’ll say good-bye.

I’m not sure about Bradley. There are three options, all of which Texas is in good shape: 1> he’s dealt now for a good (not great) pitching prospect, 2> he walks after the season, and we get two draft picks, 3> he signs a 2-3 year deal in Texas. Honestly, I think any of those can happen.

I’m not holding my breath for Mayberry.

Because I think that long term only Hamilton and one of Bradley, Borbon, and Mayberry will be around, I think the rangers keep Murphy and Boggs.

is it a rule that every week at least blog’s title has to start with “on”

why not just title it “nelson cruz”?

i’m just joshin’

on another not. “joshin’” will no longer mean joking. because of josh hamilton, it will soon mean “kicking ass”

Anyone have any idea on the teams asking for Cruz or Byrd. The Mets and Cardinals come to mind. Twins maybe? Some NL West team like the Dodgers?

he is worth any trade value which is assuming a lot. If no one is willing to trade anything significant for him then the only way to up his value is to call him up and hope he does well.

I don’t see how him mashing the majors even for a week wouldn’t increase his value. When did he ever really bash the majors?

Leaving Cruz in the minors so Byrd can start 4 or 5 times a week makes no sense to me.

After the deadline if they both are still here Cruz should be up playing in RF the rest of the way imo. If you can get anything decent for Byrd at the deadline you do it. If you can get a decent arm for Cruz I would probably do that as well. I wouldn’t mind seeing some flexibilty with the roster if those two and Cat were traded.