Randy Galloway weighs in, saying that he's never met Jon Daniels, and voicing again the puppeteer fear:
The quick reaction is to say Showalter and Hicks will make the final decision on trades, or any other important business. That Daniels has the title, and will do the grunt work of the job, but at 28, he damn sure won't be calling the shots.
Maybe not. At least in the beginning.
But Daniels, a Cornell grad, will be put in a position where eventually he can remove that cloud.
For the sake of the Rangers, I hope he does.
Gerry Fraley seems to hate the move, comparing Daniels to M.C. Hammer (who worked for the Oakland A's while a teenager) and Theo Epstein. Fraley, of course, despises Epstein and the new breed of "Moneyball" execs, and implies in his article today that the Rangers are going to wrong way by hiring a guy who has just "crunched numbers and negotiated contracts" to be the general manager.
Personally, if Fraley hates the move, I think that's a good sign.
Meanwhile, the DMN has a survey going, asking folks to grade the Hart era. Almost half of the respondents, as of right now, gave Hart an "F", with another 34% (including myself) giving it a "D". "A" and "B" grades, combined, total less than 3%.
Yeah, I think the fans were ready to see John Hart leave.