In yet another year of hope and heartbreak for us Rangers fans, the abused spouses of the baseball world, I thought we should take a look at what others were saying about us. While you may be wondering what people are saying about you at the New Years' parties you weren't invited to, in the blogosphere we have the benefit of being able to find out.
The disappearance of Rod Barajas and Phil Nevin didn't just buoy the spirits of Adam, it had all sorts of people seeing positive things for the Rangers. Jeff Sackman at Beyond the Boxscore noted 06's discrepancy between our Pythag and actual wins and saw us right in the mix for the AL West division title. And so we would have been, had there been an unfortunate airline disaster involving the other three AL West teams. "While Gagne could be spectacular, it's unlikely he'll be much better than Coco would've been--and the Rangers had a team option on Cordero for $5M. (No millions in incentives, and no Scott Boras, either.)," says Sackman, to which I say, "But we got a 13 year old 5 tool centerfielder from Boston, BOO-YA!"
The big trade to start off the year involved a pitcher that everyone knew was going to be someone special. Oh, and also, John Danks. The Sox site was of the opinion that the deal shouldn't have been made, while taking a "wait and see" attitude. Me? I'm waiting to see if Masset's 63rd pitch actually causes cancer.
When Tex was traded, I didn't really feel much of the sorrow I've felt when players I was more attached to (or had more personality, e.g., Kevin Mench) were traded. Apparently, he didn't engender a whole lot of passion over in Atlanta, either (except this post, entitled "Still Excited About Mark Teixeira." There was also a post about the top 10 prospects the Braves have traded, with the first 5 now belonging to the Rangers (number 5, MaxRam, actually came via Cleveland) due to the Tex deal, a YouTube music video, a pretty barren farm system and... well, not a whole lot else of substance about our favorite Jager-chugging frat boy look-alike.
As much excitement as the Hamilton trade generated hereabouts, I thought there'd be some equivalent hand-wringing or high-fiving over at the Reds blog. Well, there wasn't. RJ Anderson at Beyond the Boxscore has a short blurb about it, though.
Happy New Year, everybody. Here's hoping for a better 2008 for everyone.