Yes he has made a significant downturn at this point, but look at his at the time the contract was signed. He had OPSed over .800 7 of the prior 8 years, signed a deal that was pretty much market value and was brought in because the team and everyone else thought Derosa’s demands where well out of place. He could play some INF and help a very weak OF.

The problem is that in 2 years he went from being a productive cog with a fairly high LD% and BABIP to a guy that is normalized that doesn’t have that extra push on his BA to push OBP to push his OPS.

I have no problem with Cat, and recognize that he will be gone either during or after this season.

And do not thin that Cat was the reason the team did not pursue Porcello. I agree with JBImaknee, he was not a legit option unless he fell to the supplemental to early 2nd or 3rd for Texas.

I liked the move at the time based on the team’s needs and what the team was expecting to do. Obviously that didn’t work out for reasons including this team’s record and Cat’s sharp drop off, but I hate seeing people keep bitching about losing one draft pick in a draft where we loaded up. Yeah, things could have been even better, but you can say that about everything. There’s enough horse beating going on. Do we really need to keep bitching about a time when things went great for the Rangers?

As for the Porcello pick, the Rangers had already spent about $5.5 million on that 1st round of players. If they drafted and signed Porcello, they would have committed nearly 13 million dollars to that 1st round. That’s a shit-load of money to dedicate to 1 round in 1 draft. Add in a second 40 man roster spot to a player you don’t expect to contribute until 2+ offseasons later and I don’t see how the Rangers could make that decision at the time. Yeah, Cat’s contract ended up being mostly wasted money, but I don’t think there is a direct correlation between Cat’s multi-year contract and the Rangers budget at the draft. I just can’t picture JD telling Hicks that since they just didn’t sign a Major League player to a 3 year contract, that they can now afford to give a high school draft pick whatever he wants.

Plus, like you said, I don’t think the Rangers were that dead set on drafting Porcello. I’m sure they liked his talent, but my guess is that they didn’t want to be giving a Major League contract to a HS pitcher and it was also no guarantee he would even sign at the time. There was the very good possibility at the time that Porcello would have just gone to college so he could end up going in the top 3 of the draft when he could command whatever he wanted.

And a better arm.

Harper is a more hyped and anticipated prospect than guys like ARod and Upton. Watching that video, he looks like he was just engineered to play baseball. Also, can’t believe he’s just 16.

I’ve seen that video but I didn’t realize the hype on him was quite that big.