Be patient, and let's see how this season unfolds. The Rangers have played in Arlington for 42 years, since moving here from Washington DC in 1971. We have made the playoffs 6 times only. That is right, only 6 times in 42 years, or on average, once every 7 years. This is baseball folks, and it's hard to win consistently in this game. We remember the great teams (Steroid Squad) of the late '90's. But I think we can all agree that we became a national team as of late 2009 when Josh Hamilton really took off in the minds of the media. As of 2010, well, I think that is when we really started to become a household name and every kid from Burkburnett, TX to Metarie, LA wanted the blue baseball cap with the capital "T."
Josh Hamilton, Mikey Young, Ian Kinsler were all pretty well known. But we had pitching, defense and the antics of Ron Washington. People nationally really liked this team, but people in Texas, LOVED this team. For us true fans, we had seen our share of bad games, bad attendance, and miserable losing streaks. It was hard to enjoy a game, even as a kid, in the old, ridiculous, barely a high school type stadium of Arlington Stadium. But I always loved my Rangers, no matter what. I didn't care what the record was, or that I had to watch them lose in 100 degrees for 3 months of the season, I only cared about the red, white & blue. The capital T and they were my team, no matter what. But we all know things soon changed and this became a new team, a new city for the most part.
My 11 year old son does not understand what we went through with this team, for so many years. He's a huge baseball fan and with our success in 2010-1011, he just assumed that was common. But he, along with millions of others who jumped on the Rangers Wagon, need to fully understand something: this is a hard game to win, and be a constant winner at. It takes numerous things to happen to build a perennial winner, and I'm not even talking about a World Series title. I'm merely talking about A)staying atop your division through summer; B)being in contention to win aforementioned division in September; C)consistenly having depth and players coming up from Single A to Triple A and eventually the Majors.
We are seeing in 2014, though still a young season, what many have thought a problem with the Rangers: we have tons of young talent, but NOT enough MLB ready to compete at a high level for a whole season. I want to look at a few things the Rangers have done in the last couple years, and things they could have done differently, that I think would have changed this team.
1)We trade Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder: though it made sense to get rid of the pop ups, the .270-.290 hitting with constant strikeouts for a legitimate superstar, and move Profar over, taking on a $168M contract was a very bad move. You refused to pay Josh Hamilton more than $20M a year, and wouldn't ante up a bit more to keep Cliff Lee, why'd this make sense?
**Move Instead-traded Kinsler to the Yankees after Cano leaves for 2 pitching prospects, $10M and a hand shake. This would have allowed you to be more competitive in the pitching market and more flexible over the next 4-7 years.
2)Sign Shin Soo Choo: 7 yrs/$130/M; basically $20M a year for a solid defender, .300 hitter, possible 20+ HR guy? I don't think so. I would have taken Nelly Cruz at 3 yrs/$45M. Still gives us a power hitter, and again, flexibility in the next few years. Take the other $4-8M and find a solid, but not great RF defender.
3)Rotation: nothing to say here because they did NOTHING. Sure, blame it on the injury bug and all of that. Whatever. The issue is they did the exact opposite of what teams like the Braves, A's, and Indians have done and the Rangers brass listened to the media too much. "Best farm system in the game." Blah. "Solid pitching prospects, near MLB ready." Really?
My issue with this season is that we had all these expectations, but don't see how the "experts" didn't see the RED FLAGS all over the place. One injury can't ruin a season. Even two. But lack of game ready starters and MLB talent ready for the long grind of a 162 game season will hurt you bad. I'm not saying it's time to throw in the towel and focus on 2015. But we have really hamstrung ourselves with the Choo and Fielder contract. What happens with Profar, Darvish and soon Beltre? We keep trying to do the "Quick Fix" and it's only hurting us more. Right now, there is talk of trading some of our top 5 prospects for a MLB veteran. Who that is, we don't know. But after Clif Lee and Matt Garza both bolted, is this really the best move? Even with our offense at full strength, we are still not hitting right and pitching would still be killing us. In the end it seems everyone is trying to give the Rangers a pass because of the injuries to all these players, but why is it that the A's are there contending still without a BIG name starter or offensive stud?
We have to do better and quit trying to get that "1 player who will put us over the top." It doesn't work that way, never has, and probably never will. Baseball is a process and you have to have players with experience come up, build them your way, and have them ready to step in and help when called. Quit trading players away (Adrian Gonzalez, J.Smoak, M.Olt, before you have a true plan). I honestly think at this point, because J.Daniels helped get us to 2 World Series, his head got big and he thinks he's a genius and can do no wrong. That is false. I hate they pushed out Nolan Ryan and don't see how that helped at all. This team has won nothing yet, and it doesn't look like that will change this year or next.
Now with all that said, I love my Rangers, and hope the fans we gathered from 2010 and on will stay with us. This is a beautiful game and I believe there is tons of potential with this organization. I like JD, but do think he needs to take a full step back and go back to basics and make sound decisions for a 2, 4, 6, 10+ year run. Quit trying to "band-aid" the issues with a trade that doesn't help or a FA signing that hampers you long term.
