International Free Agents

by rchawk12 on May 17, 2010 7:53 PM CDT

With the July 2 international signing date rapidly approaching the Rangers have been unusually quiet. In the past by this time we would have start to seen/hear some names of guys JD, AJ and the boys have interest in or been linked to. Since they have been busy with the club and imminent sale I decided to pick up the slack. Some of the top names that we are accustomed to being linked to are now associated with teams like the A's, Mariners, Blue Jays, and of course that thrifty team in NY, the Yankees.

One of the top guys, RHP Ardonis Cardona, has apparently already agreed to a deal with Toronto for around 2.8 million, however this looks to be a fairly deep class with a lot of positional talent as usual in the OF and at SS. There are a few 3B and C who would be good fits in the organization and as always several high upside pitching. Here is a link of some of the top guys to get those of you like me who haven't heard much at all about some of the top talent on the impending market, http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/05/17/two-dozen-international-free-agents-worth-knowing/.

Who do you want the Rangers to go after? Will the problems with the impending sale force JD and Co. to sit this one out? While its tough to narrow it down, Veloz, Castillo, Abad, Fransua, and Truinfel (Carlos' little brother) all would look great in our minor league system from the Dominican contingent. Mejias, Mata, and the catchers Gonzalez and Raga would also add premium talent at premium positions.

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Having no money is a bitch.

by LiamP on May 17, 2010 8:05 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

This brings up a very interesting question I've had for some time...

If Hicks isn’t paying the creditors… where the hell is the revenue going?

I mean, it’s not like money isn’t coming in. The story we’ve been handed is that the Rangers are cash-strapped because of the massive debt ratio. That same story says that HSG/Hicks stopped making payments to creditors almost a year ago.

So if the revenue isn’t being spent on debts owed to Monarch, etc… where is it going?

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by NoNameOnCard on May 17, 2010 9:23 PM CDT up reply actions

expenses

by Mike E on May 18, 2010 3:06 AM CDT up reply actions

That's a real good question

given the lowered payroll and stiffing the creditors on interest payments, you would think the franchise would be cash positive.

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by DJCahill on May 18, 2010 7:59 AM CDT up reply actions

And yet

we heard they’ll need to borrow from MLB again to make payroll soon.

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by t ball on May 18, 2010 9:18 AM CDT up reply actions

That's what makes it

such a good question. FoxSports checks are still coming in, one would assume, as are KRLD checks, the team still has 2 million plus attendence, plus revenue from the national TV contract, not to mention concessions and parking and merchandise.

I’d really like to see those books.

"No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world shits on everybody. Pretending it ain't shit makes you an idiot, not an optimist."-https://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

by DJCahill on May 18, 2010 10:21 AM CDT up reply actions

It makes one wonder

if some revenue is being siphoned off for some quasi-legitimate expense. I’d think, though, that MLB would be all over something like that.

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by t ball on May 18, 2010 11:05 AM CDT up reply actions

You'd think

that the Rangers books would be combed through in the due diligence of the deal.

"No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world shits on everybody. Pretending it ain't shit makes you an idiot, not an optimist."-https://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

by DJCahill on May 18, 2010 12:43 PM CDT up reply actions

I may be way off base here

But I assumed we werew still making our principal payments just nothing toward the interest, which skyrocketed once Hicks used the Rangers as leverage to buy his soccer team. So our revenue now is going to payroll and daily expenses and then the principal on the loans but the interest, which is what the creditors are after, isn’t getting paid and is accruing.

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by bigsteve on May 18, 2010 9:49 AM CDT up reply actions

This may be true.

I’m not sure that I’ve seen it stated explicitly anywhere, though.

Also, even if this is the case, the principal payments (without interest) can not be enough to strap the team like this. If those payments are that large, then leveraging the team was losing proposition no matter what was going to happen to the market. (That’s also a theory I’ve played with in my head for a while.)

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by NoNameOnCard on May 18, 2010 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions

Wonder if its something like a 2nd mortgage situation

Now hes making 2 principal payments on the Rangers (which would be a pretty decent chunk of change I imagine), daily expenses for the club, payroll, money set aside for draft signees and intl FAs (which most likely MLB would have to approve of this amount if they are in such finaicial distress), etc.

If the financial issues just cropped up last year that would explain why there was seemingly so much wiggle room budget wise with signings and stuff. I wonder if this year its not a lot more of a hard number with little to no wiggle room.

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by bigsteve on May 18, 2010 12:13 PM CDT up reply actions

Well, presumably, nothing's changed since this time last year, except that...

Hicks/HSG has stopped making interest payments (and possibly other payments). If anything, that should free up some operating cash.

As for the 2nd-mortgage/two-principal thing… If a second principal payment is strapping the team for cash, then such a payment would have strapped the team for cash no matter what happened with interest rates. If that’s the case, then it was a losing proposition the whole way, and it makes you wonder how Hicks/HSG was planning to pay it off AND keep the team…

I feel like his plan all along was to sell the Rangers to buy Liverpool. He needed to jump on the Liverpool deal and didn’t have a buyer lined up for the Rangers, so he convinced Monarch to throw some money his way based on the value of the Rangers franchise. Then the Rangers got kind of good at baseball again…

At this point, I assume Hicks/HSG changed gears a bit, looking to hold onto the Rangers a bit longer since they were in first place. Instead of trying to sell the Rangers, he started fighting with the creditors. The rest is history.

Sounds plausible, right? I wonder how close I am to the truth here.

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by NoNameOnCard on May 19, 2010 1:00 PM CDT up reply actions

Do we have any reason to believe that Hicks had anything to do with Monarch purchasing some of his debt?

Monarch didn’t really “throw some money his way,” but bought some of his distressed debt. They bought the claim of someone else against him, they did not create a new one.

At least I don’t think they ever gave new value.

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by Aqua on May 19, 2010 1:54 PM CDT up reply actions

Well, okay I mis-spoke.

Someone threw money at him, though, and the Rangers were what was leveraged.

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by NoNameOnCard on May 19, 2010 3:52 PM CDT up reply actions

We have some money.

We didn’t have money last summer and still got Profar + Sardinas, and still had enough to add Alfaro over the winter.

It’s all a matter of how much we budgeted in.

Knowing JD’s belief in building from within with a constant steam of amateur talent rolling in, I’m betting we have enough set aside to do some decent rapes.

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by thedirkatron on May 18, 2010 10:54 AM CDT up reply actions