re: Texas Rangers fire Mgr Chris Woodward and now Team Pres. Jon Daniels

Happy days for sure. Rangers need to invest in pitcher development. They have not had a top level pitcher developed in house in forever

Nolan needs to be involved again.

They should fire Kip Fagg too. Yes that’s his name.

He’s been there 20 years and he’s head of scouting

If I had to guess, that played a part in the decision.

Profar, Odor didn’t pan out and I think we targeted established guys like Seager and Semien because of their pop for the MIF spots which is typically hard to find. We’ve always either had little offensive production with gold glove defense or vice versa over the last decade.

Even our MIF’s at the top of our prospect rankings (Foscue, Solak, Josh Smith, etc..) are primarily contact with average pop at best.

Banking heavy on Jung panning out. We are bringing him up this year just because if he’s healthy despite his lack of play time the last few years. Dude has hardly played and has been hurt a shite ton.

I honestly didn't like either deal as well.

Smith is a utility guy so his value is unchanged. If Duran can consistently tap into his raw power, he profiles just fine at either corner INF/OF spot. Personally I don't think he's more than just an average player but I'm probably in the minority. Now a guy like Foscue moving to the OF dampens his value. Minor league depth can be used in many different ways. Someone like the Marlins would make excellent trade partners(P/INF).

Guys like Evan Carter and little Acuna can be core players along with Jung and Foscue. There are very promising young arms as well. I don't think it's as grim as you may think.

I'll say this... barring injuries, if the Rangers sign Rodon and a tier 3 pitcher, I believe that are a playoff team next year. Judging from what we did last season(remember they tried to sign Kershaw too), the Rangers will not hesitate to spend money. They want to be competitve and soon.

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The Rangers

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I don’t think it’s as grim as maybe I’m implying. The Rangers system is deep, and they’ve stockpiled pitching which is obviously the way to do it with the high rate of attrition. Some of those guys are going to work just by sheer probability, whether it’s in the rotation or high end bullpen pieces. I just wasn’t a fan of what they did last offseason (aside from Gray who I actually liked as a mid market rotation target). And I know they’re going to spend, but it’s a ton of money to commit that will impact what they can do in 4-5 years when guys start hitting arbitration or are due for extensions, and it seemed like they forced it a little bit last winter just to make a splash.

They will definitely be one of the more interesting teams to follow this winter

Rangers need a Mark Cuban type owner to shake things up.

Many have felt for a long time that we should be spending like a top 5 market does.

They have a new indoor stadium and have built up the farm system. I think Chris Young is very bright and should clean house.

I also think its an attractive head coach job.

It’s been obvious that Chris Young has been behind most of their moves since he was hired. I expected Daniels to remain the de facto GM for a couple of years as CY transitioned into the role, but the Rangers began to operate differently very soon after CY was hired.

JD had worked for the organization for 20 years, and had been either GM and/or President for 17. Only Billy Beane and Brian Cashman currently have longer tenures.

He’s been hampered at times by either ownership changes or directives, but otherwise every aspect of the organization is his design.

It’s hard to remain in charge when you hire a GM to replace you, and that new GM has a very different approach and vision. I don’t know who made the final call on firing the manager, but ownership obviously didn’t want Jon Daniels involved with the hiring of the new Manager.

Coincidentally, Elvis Andrus was released by the A’s today.