Four Rangers filed for free agency yesterday -- Rod Barajas, Mark DeRosa, Eric Young, and Adam Eaton.
I don't think this really means anything, about those four or the Rangers who haven't filed yet. This is just a procedural thing, so I wouldn't read anything into the fact that these are the guys who filed first.
Jim Reeves, meanwhile, writes a ridiculous column that indicates he didn't follow the World Series this year:
Pay attention, Tom Hicks. Take notes, Jon Daniels. An important lesson just finished its prime-time run right in front of your eyes each night -- when it wasn't raining -- on national television.
You want to win the World
Series? Here's how:
Pitching.
Repeat after me: Pitching. Pitching. Pitching.
Draft it. Buy it. Develop it. Keep it. Grow it. Teach it. Nourish it. Pray for it.
Whatever it takes, get it.
You want to be where the Cardinals and Tigers were for the last 10 days?
Pitching.
It's what wins divisions, pennants, world championships. The team that came out of this World Series with the big, shiny diamond rings? It's the one that pitched better.
I've talked about this before, but the 2006 Rangers had better pitching than the 2006 Cardinals.
But that doesn't stop Reeves...
And Jeff Suppan, the Cards' second-best starter? Signed him for $1 million before the 2004 season. Makes you sick, doesn't it?
And that Dirk Nowitzki-look-alike who made the Tigers look sick in the Cardinals' final Game 5 victory Friday night? The Angels basically paid the Cardinals' to take Jeff Weaver off their hands. Yet, somehow the Rangers, who would lament that there was no starting pitching to be had at the trade deadline, let him slip away.
Ah, but you added a big bat, Tom, in Carlos Lee. How did that work out?
So the Rangers' problem is that they didn't pick up the terrible Jeff Weaver?
If the Rangers had picked up Weaver, he would have sucked here just like he sucked for the Cards in the regular season, and Reeves would have been writing about how Daniels and Hicks are too clueless to figure out that the Rangers need good pitchers, not castoffs like the terrible Jeff Weaver.
This sort of column frustrates me no end. If there is a lesson you can take away from the Cardinals' World Series victory, it is that you can win without dominant pitching.
Reeves will presumably be happy to know that the Bonderman for Teixeira rumor is still out there...trading Teixeira for Bonderman most likely means the Rangers will be a bad offensive team in 2007, but since the only thing that matters is pitching, I guess we shouldn't care if the offense is lousy.
The Boston Globe says Rod Barajas is "likely to receive huge interest" because of a lack of quality catchers on the market. I don't know that that is really the case...there aren't a lot of teams out there looking for a starting catcher in the free agent market, and you've got guys like Benji Molina and Mike Lieberthal in the market, as well.