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I was planning on leaving this for the morning links (which Ben will be doing tomorrow, you'll be happy to know)...
But after reading Jeff Wilson's piece on the departure of A.J. Preller, there were some comments that caught my eye that I felt were worth highlighting.
Specifically, the piece starts out:
The sky fell Wednesday on some Texas Rangers followers, the ones who believe they have insight on the club’s inner workings, when the San Diego Padres lured away assistant general manager A.J. Preller with the keys to their small-market, short-on-talent franchise.
The loss, one such fan said, could have more of a lasting negative impact than any of the losses the Rangers have suffered this season, forgetting the career-threatening back surgery Matt Harrison had in June, and the May cervical fusion surgery Prince Fielder had on his neck.
There was also the no-guarantees-attached Tommy John surgery left-hander Martin Perez underwent in May, and the unexplained disappearance of Alexi Ogando after what in June was supposed to be three weeks of rest for his tender elbow.
Nevertheless, another forgetful fan said that the loss of Preller to the Padres’ vacant GM post was just "bad," without fully knowing exactly what it was that Preller did or exactly how he did it.
The second and third paragraphs are a pretty clear reference to the email Jamey Newberg sent out when the news broke, in which Jamey said:
In a season that's seen the Rangers lose personnel seemingly every few days, this one could have the most long-lasting impact.
I'm not sure what the final paragraph is in reference to...I went through my posts and didn't see where I described it as just "bad," though I did call it a significant blow to the front office, so I may not be on Jeff's radar. If someone knows who it is out there in the blogosphere who made the comment Jeff is referring to, please let me know, so I can link.
In any case, Wilson goes on to say that no one in the front office was really sure what Preller did, that he was responsible for misses as well as hits, and in essence, that the Rangers will be just fine without Preller, in large part because Preller wasn't a one man band.
And I agree with that point. Preller is a loss -- a "significant blow," as I described it before -- but a good organization should be able to survive such a loss, particularly given the hiring restrictions that Wilson describes that were put in place as a condition of Preller going to San Diego.
But it is interesting to me that Wilson essentially says that those of us outside of the traditional media who are lamenting his departure don't know enough about Preller, or what he does, to weigh in on the impact of the departure.
