I'm finding it harder and harder to write in the mornings and mid-afternoons, so I may end up writing most of my daily posts at night. This will give me the chance to comment on news that was published during the day that I normally might overlook.
Mike Hindman takes an interesting look at Marlon Byrd and David Murphy's numbers in an attempt to find the more productive outfielder. While it's clear Byrd is superior, Murphy's advantage lies in the fact that he is under team control for several more years.
Richard Durrett responds to the predictions Baseball Prospectus made for the Rangers, by setting the over/under at 79. BP set the Rangers to win 73, he guesses 78. Better, but still underwhelming.
The Angels steal Bobby Abreu for 1 year, $5 million (read Jamey Newberg's take here). What a deal. Abreu has what Bill James called the traditional "old player skills": patience at the plate, and power. He won't replace Teixeira, but he should complement (and provide an interesting contrast) to free-swinging Vlad Guererro. But hey, we just plucked an outfielder out of the bargain bin who has hit around the Mendoza line two years for just $350,000 . . . that's the same, right?
In other news, former Rangers Ben Broussard and Jamey Wright signed with the White Sox and Royals, respectively. Also, Ben Broussard is a musician and has his own website. Interesting.
Former Rangers President Tom Schieffer is thinking about running for Governor of Texas, as a democrat (don't tell you know who). Did you know that the governor's seat in Texas has been Republican for 14 straight years?
Spring Training in just 15 days!
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Important note about Murphy, it was his rookie year last year. He was in it until he got injured. Don't discount the idea that he can improve, especially with more regular playing time, if we could ever decide we wanted to clear up the outfield log jam.
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather have the Angels take Abreu for a year than Manny for 3. That is our worst nightmare. He is arguably the best hitter of our time. Absolutely unstoppable, and he would kill the Rangers every time. Look what he did in Boston, I'm not convinced 1) they win anything without him and 2) they're going to be the same without Papi and Manny going 3&4. We're going to have to see how Papi handles the extra pressure and comes back from injury.
I agree with you on Manny, but don't you think that if the Angels were going to shell out the cash to get Manny, that they would have spent it on Teixeira instead?
ReplyDeleteIn the end it doesn't matter. Let's just be glad they didn't get either of them.
They tried to get Tex, but the Yanks out bid them. I think they also thought there would be more competition for Manny. Manny also hates spring training. I'm not at all sleeping on the idea of the Angels pulling in Manny as well. The off season isn't over yet, and if that's the case, we may as well look forward to 2010.
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