re: Rangers offense

quote:

---

Probably not true. I figure, at worst, he is a Type B free agent..you could probably get a 2nd round compensatory pick.

---

quote:

---

Will the pitching wilt? I don’t know. Really, while the pitching overall has been good, no one other than Millwood has really been an above average starter. Seriously, here’s the ERA+ of their starters (100 is league average): 129, 114, 95, 90, 72, 74. And Tommy Hunter has posted a 189 in 4 starts, but let’s throw that out. It’s not like the starting pitching is lighting the world on fire now. In fact, only two starters are pitching above league average. This is a very sustainable pitching performance.

---

quote:

---

Millwood's deal ends in 2010

---

quote:

---

The Rangers are about to get killed by arbitration and free agency

---

quote:

---

club may elect to keep Millwood even if he fails to hit IP totals

deferred money allows Texas to compute annual average salary at $10.8M

---

quote:

---

They still have a lot of guys under control. I bet they will try to tie up Wilson, O'Day, Hamilton, and Feldman in the offseason.

---

quote:

---

Rangers borrow money from MLB
By Gordon Edes, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 2, 5:17 pm EDT

Major League Baseball within the last week loaned millions to Tom Hicks, the evidently cash-strapped owner of the Texas Rangers, and will continue to offer financial assistance to Hicks until he is able to sell the team, a major league source with direct knowledge of the situation told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.

“He won’t be running the team much longer,” the source said. “Major League Baseball is helping him through this until someone else can be put in place to run the club.”

Rangers spokesman John Blake said the club would have no comment on the team’s financial situation. Rich Levin, a spokesman for the commissioner’s office, said MLB does not comment on its teams’ finances.

Reports of Hicks’ most recent difficulties surfaced during a radio show on XM/Sirius radio, when a caller said he’d heard the Rangers had not made payroll, and that Hicks had borrowed $15 million from MLB to do so.


A major league source told Yahoo! Sports the loan to the Hicks Sports Group was not made specifically to help Hicks with payroll obligations, and believed that the amount was for less than $15 million. A club source confirmed that the team met payroll and that the club is maintaining normal business operations, although earlier this season the team reduced its front office staff by 10 percent.

Hicks first announced he was willing to sell a minority stake in the club in March. But after the Hicks Sports Group defaulted on an interest-only payment on a $525 million loan to his U.S.-based sports operations, Hicks said he would be willing to sell a controlling interest in the team.

Hicks, who made his fortune in private equity, has an estimated personal worth of $1 billion, according to the 2009 annual survey by Forbes magazine. Hicks’ first major foray into sports came in 1995, when he purchased the NHL’s Dallas Stars, a team that twice went to the Stanley Cup finals since he took control. In 1998, he bought the Rangers for $250 million, but his baseball team has not come close to matching the early success he had with the Stars; the Rangers have never been to the World Series.

Hicks gained notoriety after the 2000 season when he signed Alex Rodriguez(notes) to a 10-year, $252 million contract, the largest in baseball history and reportedly at least $100 million more than any other team was willing to pay Rodriguez. The deal blew up on Hicks. The Rangers finished in last place in each of Rodriguez’s three years with the team, and Hicks traded him to the Yankees by agreeing to pay $67 million of the $179 million still owed Rodriguez in the deal, plus an additional $4 million in signing bonus.

Even after Rodriguez voided his deal with the Yankees, then re-signed a new 10-year, $275 million contract after the 2007 season, the Rangers were stuck with a $9 million bill in deferred compensation.

During his time with the Rangers, Rodriguez also tested positive for steroids. Hicks said he felt “personally betrayed and deceived” when news of the failed test broke earlier this year.

The Rangers’ opening day payroll this season was around $68.1 million, which ranked 22nd among MLB’s 30 teams and was less than $1 million more than its 2008 level. The Rangers until recently were in first place in the American League West, but Hicks’ financial woes would seem to make it unlikely that Texas GM Jon Daniels will be in a position to add payroll at the July 31 trading deadline.

A sale of the club does not appear imminent, and while names of prospective buyers have surfaced – Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, the team’s president, is said to be interested in becoming part of a new ownership group – there would appear to be little chance of the team being sold before the end of the season

---

quote:

---

I think you overstate how much they are about to get killed. Checking out that site, which is awesome and how did I not know it existed, Blalock and Benoit coming off the books for 10 mm in savings. And a lot of those one year deals are to minor league promotions who have no chance to walk (Andrus, Murphy, Salty, half of the pitching staff). And arbitration is going to keep most guys on the team at a reasonable cost. Except maybe Hamilton.

---

quote:

---

If Hicks owns the Rangers by the end of next season, I’ll be shocked.

---

quote:

---

this could be a terrible situation like the Cubs have been in for the last two years with a bankrupt ownership group and a sale process that is creeping along at a snail's pace.

---

quote:

---

Hicks is saying he hopes to get bids in the 550mm neighborhood but the team is valued by Forbes at $405mm

---

quote:

---

52 ABs is not a lot admittedly, but it's enough to show that we shouldn't see him make the jump to the majors until at least September if not next April.

---