Are these Rangers any more than a placeholder in someone’s memory? Probably not. Deserting the plan that tried to build a team around the game’s best young player, the team now is in an odd transition between John Hart and Grady Fuson. It has young and old, good and bad, durable and fragile. Acquisitions Brian Jordan and Brad Fullmer both come in limping. The injuries are partially responsible for their new lockers, allowing them to fit under a pre-flexible salary structure and possessing enough upside to hope for comeback seasons. Fullmer will be challenged to come back from a dreadful patellar tendon rupture, but he should get plenty of rest in the DH slot. Fullmer also never relied on speed, so losing a step isn’t a terrible loss. Jordan, on the other hand, is almost on his last legs. While his patellar tendon problem was not as serious as Fullmer’s, the loss of a step or three affects what athletic talents Jordan was once able to use. He has failed several required tests this spring, so the prognosis is decidedly cloudy. Hiding him at DH, even occasionally, is unlikely with Fullmer, Teixeira, and eventually Adrian Gonzalez in the mix.
Dave Nilsson is back in the bigs, this time with the Braves. Damaso Marte and Joe Nathan would get extra bucks from the White Sox and Twins depending on their managers’ whims. Geoff Jenkins’ three-year deal with the Brewers may become another Milwaukee millstone. These and other happenings in today’s Transaction Analysis.
Gene Orza thinks smoking is worse than juicing. Not everyone agrees. Peter Magowan thinks the Yankees are out of control. Jason Isringhausen wishes Scott Kazmir the best of luck in New York. Ozzie Guillen wants to win by doing the little things. And Jose Lima just is glad to be in a major league uniform. All this and many more quips in the latest edition of The Week In Quotes.
The Houston bullpen looks to take a pretty significant step back, according to PECOTA. The Brewers are already looking two years down the road … or least they should be. And the A’s have quite the bunch of misfits invited to Spring Training in Arizona. All this and much more news from Houston, Milwaukee, and Oakland in your Monday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.