because no one obsesses about them.

My worry is that if Feliz and Holland struggle too badly in their first impressions, it’ll lead to a premature housecleaning and possibly more dumb “let’s try and make a winner overnight” moves.

If the pitching falters, shouldn’t he take the blame?

The talent level in the org is unambiguous: there are a lot of no-debate studhorses arriving in 2009, certainly in 2010. That’s more JD’s role.

Their performance, certainly with Nolan’s hyperpublicized fitness program for pitching, is not something the GM deserves blame for.

And the offseason isn’t over, nor the FA and trade processes.

Its pretty clear that his future is entirely dependent on the arms of Feliz, Holland, and to a lesser extent Harrison. They are the biggest pitching acquisitions he has made and the nature of their acquisition (either trades and draft) they all happened to be investments rather than immediate returns.

2010 will tell us whether the depth we’ve been seeing over the past 5 years or so is a mirage or if it is real

My worst nightmare would be for the Rangers to do poorly this year and JD is fired and Hicks convinces Ryan to be the new GM. Then, starting in 2010, the farm system begins to do well at the major league level and Ryan is credited with being responsible for all of this.

http://sportsmediablog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/01/dave-barnett-is-the-rangers-ne.html

The new hire is the only sports journalist in North America who hasn’t weighed in (yet) on the Red Sox-Rangers pitcher-for-catcher trade speculation. The latest note in the saga comes from ESPN’s Buster Olney, whose quote from Boston GM Theo Epstein – “I think you’ll see us now turn to players who we can take chances on, players who represent potential impact players. We still have some things going on.” – is sure to stoke the rumor fires even further.

LOL, let it all begin….again.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/rockies/2009/01/09/redding-agrees-in-principle-with-mets-on-225-million-deal/

  I wrote this FanPost back in July (and I’m still hoping we find a decent deal to dump off Padilla), and I just don’t get why we want to rush our franchise into deeper failure.
  We’re rebuilding our franchise the way we had all hoped; why waste everything before the first pitch of the 2010 season? Keep the crew in place at least until beginning spring training at which point, maybe we can entertain talk of a replacement for Ron Washington.

that it’s not JD that makes up the budget. You cannot sign up anybody decent for what the Rangers have been spending the last few years on few agents. In order to win, you need all your cylinders running. A budget less then the A’s or the Royals have, is not enough to change the path and the apathy. This budget is unacceptable. So, hopefully, he changes the direction of his tirades and aims them directly at Hicks in the future, not that Hicks gives 2 cents about that. However, with a further decline in the fan base, who knows.

Adam’s last paragraph above. Pretty much covers it.

in a long time.