The Rangers have hired Tim Purpura as the team's new farm director, replacing the departed Scott Servais, with an announcement supposedly coming this afternoon.
Purpura was in charge of the Houston Astros' farm system from 1997 through 2004, when they actually had a pretty good farm system, then was promoted to general manager before the 2005 season. Purpura had a pretty shaky run as g.m. before being fired in 2007.
Purpura has strong ties with Nolan Ryan, and as I've mentioned before, this seems to be a bit of a shift in terms of the front office dynamics...Jon Daniels, after the 2009 season, made some changes that resulted in the main guys in the baseball operations of the front office being "his" guys. Purpura seems to be a Ryan hire moreso than a Daniels hire, and Purpura was mentioned back in 2008 as a potential replacement for Daniels when it was thought that Ryan was going to clean house.
So it will be interesting to see how this plays out...