Today is the first day of the rest of your life without Josh Hamilton.
The local media's jimmies are rustled.
Evan Grant has a blog post up in which he says the Rangers have "lost the offseason," that the offseason has been a "failure of evaluation" by the Ranger front office, and wonders why "nobody wants to seem to play for the Rangers," although my answer to the final item is that the Rangers haven't offered anyone the most money this offseason, and generally speaking, players sign with the team that is offering them the most money.
Grant also has a column in which he calls this "the worst offseason in the history of offseasons."
Rick Gosselin (I thought he was a Cowboys writer, but he has a column about the Rangers) says Texas now must rely on their pitching to compensate for the loss of their "big bats" like Hamilton and Michael Young.
Tim Cowlishaw says this has been a "brutal" offseason for the Rangers, and says that the Angels' signing of Hamilton is a lower-risk deal than their signing of C.J. Wilson and of Albert Pujols.
Richard Durrett only goes so far as to call the offseason for the Rangers "rough."
Anthony Andro has a story about Jon Daniels being "disappointed" in Hamilton not saying anything to the Rangers before agreeing to the deal with the Angels. However, I doubt the Rangers would have matched anyway, which makes it moot...
T.R. Sullivan also writes that the Rangers are disappointed in the way Hamilton handled the decision to go to Anaheim.
Gil Lebreton writes that Hamilton is a reminder that, no matter how much a team does for a player, this is ultimately a business, and the player is going to take the best deal.
Jeff Wilson has a story on Hamilton to the Angels.
Durrett has a Q&A with an ESPN LA writer about Hamilton and the A.L. West.
Richard Justice says the Rangers will miss Hamilton.
In non-Hamilton news, Derek Holland says he wants to emulate what Matt Harrison has done in taking a step forward as a pitcher.
Drew Davison has some notes on Robbie Ross possibly getting a look as a starter and Josh Lindblom coming to Texas.