http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=neyer_rob&univLogin02=stateChanged

So Neyer has another post up about AAAA players: Other possible '4-A' players  I'll cut and paste some of the article at the end. 

Needless to  say before the article the following thought has popped into my head and many other Ranger fans over the years.

So is it just luck or just perception that the Rangers seem to be abandoning more than their share of high level minors players that end up being productive or better MLBers or is it reality?

Ludwick, Cruz, A. Gonzalez, C. Young, Laird, Botts, D. Davis, etc.  I'm sure y'all could add many names to this list.

Now I don't mean to start an argument over who should be on the list.  And yes, a lot of these players are very different from each other, but they all are guys who performed well in the upper minors even early majors for the Rangers who the Rangers seem to have misevaluated.

The most damning thing to me about this is that the Rangers have not had the kind of talent in the majors while this has gone on to make it difficult for these guys to get the proper look.  It'd be one thing if we were the Red Sox and just had no room for these guys, but obviously we haven't really had any serious road blocks in place.

So is it perception or reality that the Rangers have fared worse than most ML teams in this regard.  If they have fared worse, have they fared worse more than what random luck would predict?

From Neyer:

In response to Monday's post about Ryan Ludwick and his realness, a reader asks, "Any current '4-A' players you think fans should watch out for in the future?"

... And by the way, "4-A" belongs in quotes because I'm not entirely convinced that 4-A players actually exist. ... What I'm saying is that if you find a player who puts together a run of good Triple-A seasons, the only reasons he's not in the majors is usually bad management or bad luck.

Ryan Ludwick was one of those guys. ...

I'm convinced that Nelson Cruz is one of those guys, too. ...this season, he hit ... .342/.429/.695. ...he's been raking Double- and Triple-A pitchers since 2004. But in 442 plate appearances in the majors (before Monday night), Cruz hasn't hit for average. So, everybody sort of gave up on him.

Are there more guys like this [from the Rangers than any other team, my insert obviously]?

It's long been a truism among nerds like me that, at any one moment, there's plenty of free talent available.