Scattershooting
Just emptying out my head of a few thoughts:
Worst Fans in Baseball:
More on Money and the Farm:
Your friends make fun of you for following minor league baseball? They give you the Dan McDowell line about how it doesn't matter and, like their leader, believe that the only way to build a winning ballclub is to spend wildly in free agency?
Read on.
For a long time now, I've been arguing that the Rangers woes have absolutely nothing to do with the owner's decision to cut back on payroll from a top-5 ranking to a bottom half to bottom third ranking. I wrote extensively on this subject last summer:
HERE: http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/08/money_cant_buy_.html
And HERE: http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/10/you_reap_what_t.html
In baseball, in spite of an asinine disparity in payroll, it still all comes down to scouting, drafting and developing more talent than the other guy.
This year? More of the same.
Lowest payroll in the AL East: Tampa -- 1st place
Lowest payroll in the NL East: Florida -- 1st place
Lowest payroll in the NL West: Arizona -- 1st place
The three highest payrolls in MLB? Yankees (last place), Detroit (last place) and Mets (next to last and in disarray).
2010:
I'm enjoying this run as much as the next guy, but I pray Jon Daniels doesn't take his eye off the ball. Please don't be a buyer JD. Sell off the parts that you won't need in two years for the best pitching you can get and shoot to build a strong young starting rotation around this lineup:
2b = Ian Kinsler
3b = Michael Young
RF = Josh Hamilton
DH = Max Ramirez
C = Jarrod Saltalamacchia
1b = Chris Davis
LF = David Murphy
SS = Elvis Andrus
CF = Julio Borbon
4th OF = Brandon Boggs
UTIL: German Duran
Well said. All of it.
I sure hope JD is able to keep his eye on the prize. The team is playing well, but I don't see the pitching stacking up at this point. Just need a little more time.
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That offense would not score a lot of runs. The only guys drawing walks are Ramirez and probably Saltalamacchia.
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Excellence.
-Jason
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Good Stuff Mike!
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Needs more righthanded pop off the bench (beyond Duran, whose RH pop I do respect). Sets up perfectly for one of this group to succeed: Shelton, Botts, Cruz, Mayberry.
Though I love Byrd and Catalanotto, I will never understand why they are blocking the franchise's window of opportunity to evaluate and /or develop Shelton, Botts, and Cruz. Even if the evaluation results turn out to be: insufficient, insufficient, and insufficient ... the prudent franchise action will have been to fully evaluate the assets. This window of opportunity to evaluate Shelton, Botts, and Cruz will soon pass: Max Ramirez, Chris Davis, and Mayberry will soon need major league ABs.
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Love that lineup.
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I couldn't agree more on the 2010 lineup, but had one question. I love Borbon but do think JMJ has a higher ceiling. Since you seem to have come over to the dark side on JMJ wouldn't you see him in the OF picture also in 2010?
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