Two links I wanted to share, from a pair of national writers who are pretty well respected, and who have columns on the front office drama going on with the Rangers...
First, there's this piece from Richard Justice, that leads off with a point that I think a lot of folks think, but few have stated so plainly:
Meanwhile, Jon Daniels built a great baseball organization. He’d done a lot of the heavy lifting before Ryan arrived, and that’s the point a lot of people miss. The Rangers were well on their way to the postseason, and Nolan Ryan had almost nothing to do with the building of the baseball team. Again, that’s a point a lot of people miss.
Ryan is such a larger-than-life figure, especially in Texas, that plenty of reporters decided to tell the story the way they thought it should be told. If the facts were otherwise, well, that’s life. I don’t know if Daniels ever felt slighted, but he had every right to be.
Read the whole thing, because I think Justice has a good take on how the perception clashes with the reality...
Secondly, there's this column from Ken Rosenthal this morning. Rosenthal scolds the Rangers for even running the risk of losing Ryan, but also goes out of his way to say that he doesn't think this is a power play from Daniels.
In any case, both columns are worth reading. Check them out.