No Matsuzaka, and thus the Rangers' attention turns elsewhere...
Kat O'Brien has a piece from the g.m. meetings, although there doesn't seem to be a lot on the Rangers front. Jon Daniels says that the only formal offers out there are to the Rangers' own free agents.
Evan Grant has this quote from Jon Daniels:
"There are a lot of moving parts," Daniels said of the Rangers' free-agency plans if they don't land Matsuzaka. "Everything is interrelated. We're working on a variety of ways to improve the club."
Bill Madden of the New York Daily News has a piece on the Matsuzaka bidding, saying that the BoSox bid is over $50 million, while the Mets bid $38 million. Madden also touches on the market for Barry Zito, and includes this line:
Boras already is trying sell Zito as a No.1 - i.e. $14 million per year - and while neither the Mets nor the Yankees see him that way, somebody else - did someone say Texas' Tom Hicks? - most surely will.
This is getting old. The ARod contract was 6 years ago. The Chan Ho Park deal was signed 5 years ago. Do the Rangers really still need to be held up as the poster children for overpaying free agents?
Phil Rogers says the Rangers are sniffing around on Brian Anderson, and the ChiSox would be interested in Nick Masset in return. Anderson was awful at the plate last year, but is a very good defensive centerfielder, and his minor league numbers suggest that last season may well have been an aberration. That deal seems like an attractive one, to me...
The Cubs, Mets, BoSox and Yankees all supposedly have interest in Vicente Padilla, according to various reports out there this morning.
And Evan Grant reports that the Rangers are raising ticket prices for next season...