Christina Kahrl of BP weighs in on the Jon Daniels hiring:
It's easy to flog the Mariners in this division, but if you're an A's or Angels fan, I suspect that the naming of another sharp knife to a GM's job in the division is only going to make things that much more difficult. I think we can rest with the record of Daniels' interview here at BP, which helps underscore that the Rangers have hired a guy who reflects the actual trend in front-office hires today: someone who understands the value of applied research, but who also operates within the game with the credibility that has to be earned, and who understands the old school every bit as much as he explores the new. The West may well be the most competitive division in baseball for years to come, but at the very least, I think it just became that much more difficult for the A's and Angels to simultaneously rebuild and contend. Right now, I wouldn't automatically nominate Texas from among those three to be the one that winds up getting to be the Blue Jays, the well-run wallflower that watches the other two divisional monsters race for October.
Kahrl, incidentally, is an Oakland fan...