Tuesday Morning Rangers Update

Which may, in fact, be weirder.

My Uncle (Dad’s brother) was my Mom’s OB/GYN when I was born.

with Napoli, when you think about it, the scenarios are for him to be so awesome in 2012 that we can’t afford him or for him to be good enough for us to want to re-sign him but such that his value comes down a bit. I don’t think there is a zone where he prices himself out of being a Ranger while disappointing us with his performance… no lose situation with him.

I can only see the price/performance for him going down from here on out. However, I would love to see Napoli fucking rake out of his mind this year to prove me wrong.

that’s what is frustrating. I don’t know what is being offered behind closed doors, but you’d think that the players would want to play here partly given that we are back to back AL champs. this isn’t the same old Texas Rangers that are used to losing.

and whatever they are paying Daniels right now is almost certainly good bang for the buck.

Rangers fans should not forget the incredible amount of value/production the team has gotten from young, cheap players the last couple of years. This, to me, is FAR more important than signing any of these players to team -friendly contracts (something that happens rarely for any team).

Do you believe both Napoli and Holland were being so unreasonable that the club broke off talks?

With Napoli that could very easily be the case if his agent is trying to cash in on his amazing 2011.

But with Holland I dont see how negotiations can fall apart this quickly and with this much time until spring training starts unless they are so far apart there is no hope. And given the amount of similar aged/service time pitchers who signed deals recently I have to believe his agent didn’t go in there asking for some absurd amount.

But our FO does not have a great recent track record of pre-FA extensions. Other than Kinsler we haven’t gotten deals done with our young players in quite some time. Thats why I am leaning toward them being the one who was the reason for talks to stop right now

Its gotten to a “Forget it, he’s rolling” level almost.

Im not automatically blaming them. But their stated desire this winter was to get some of their core, pre FA players locked up and they have struck out in the first two cases.

The Napoli case I give them a pass on because its very possible he was asking for the moon based on his 1 amazing season last year.

But with Holland I believe it was the FO who probably did lowball him so much so his agent stepped out of talks. I just cant imagine based on the recent deals signed by guys like Lester, Cahill, etc that his agent would go in asking for some absurd amount.

Got it in one. Good job.

Josh Hamilton’s Luck

Catchers don’t particularly age well, either, so you’re having to come up with the nebulous projection of how much time he’ll actually spend at catcher over the next 3-4 years.

but playing in a slightly more offensive era. I would say all three should be in, but it is odd for one to be in, one to be completely out, and one to be in purgatory.

but especially Bagwell deserves it, since he should have been a 90+% first ballot guy. The only reason Bags doesn’t stand out is that he was at 1b at a very good era for 1b (including Palmeiro), and he played half his games in the era’s equivalent of Petco Field…

And yeah, I’m being a bit homerific on Raffy. But the guy was a total stud hitter for about a 12-13 year stretch there. Far better than match’s Mark Grace example. One can imagine a HOF without Palmeiro, but there are a lot of current guys in therewho’d have to get kicked out too.

I can’t see how you leave some out and put some in, unless you just say the burden is higher (need 600 homers instead of 500 – hello Sosa!) or “they were good before they go on the drugs” at which point you have to ask the same about Palmeiro (who was an old man chasing 3000)…

HOF voters don’t care anything about Houston. To them, Houston is the new Cleveland.

Not saying that he will … but just saying … I’d be fine seeing him pitch for the Indians or A’s of whoever if his shoulder falls apart and his career goes sideways from it’s current trajectory.

The rain was supposed to be today and instead it just poured for 3 hours suddenly, then stopped.

and I really think Ian has topped out cuz he never changed his pull swing

People too often assume a big home/road split is somehow “bad,” and leave it at that.