Hmmm...I thought I posted this earlier, but it doesn't appear to be showing up, so I'll try again...
Kathleen O'Brien is saying in the S-T that the Millwood meeting went well, and that now it is just a question of finances, with Hicks sounding like he might be willing to go five years.
A pretty telling quote from Hicks:
"Clearly we know we have a window over the next three years that we've got our core group of players [Michael Young, Mark Teixeira, Hank Blalock] certain to be here," Hicks said. "We think we have an excellent chance to make a run at it."
Hicks has, in the past couple of years, tended to push the "building slowly from within" line. This is the first time I've seen him acknowledge that waiting for DVD likely means waiting until the current core is gone (or at least no longer under guaranteed team control), and that the Rangers need to show some urgency to try to win now.
Another interesting quote, this time from Daniels:
"I think the key thing is, we've improved our rotation, we've improved our bullpen, we've improved our defense, and we've added another offensive dynamic to the club," Daniels said. "And we've done it without really trading any of our top-level prospects that we get asked about most. But we still have more work to do."
I'm not sure if he's just overlooking Gonzalez, or if Gonzalez really wasn't considered a "top-level prospect," but I thought this quote is telling...