If you read this blog often (and most of you don’t), you will know that I primarily focus on the Cubs.  While this is my life’s passion, I am also blessed to live in such close proximity to Rangers’ Ballpark in Arlington, where the mighty Texas Rangers play, so every now and again, I have a HSO on the Rangers and how their team is managed.

First, I can’t understand why the Rangers would not even make a play at signing Kerry Wood.  With all of their closer troubles last year, *cough CJ Wilson cough* signing Kid K just made too much sense.  He grew up here!  He would be 10 minutes from his home!  The Rangers are DESPERATE for not only a closer, but any kind of good PR move!  In the end, though, this is the real kicker:  Kerry Wood worships Nolan Ryan.  He wears number 34 for crissakes!  Mr. Daniels, you can’t tell me that one 5 minute phone call from Nolan Ryan wouldn’t have convinced Kerry to sign here?  Did you even try?  As goofy as it sounds, Mr. Wood would have helped put butts in the empty seats at your stadium, but it appeared that there was no effort whatsoever to get him here.  I think that it is shameful of Ranger management to not attempt to pursue Kerry.  If they made an effort, and he rebuffed them, I can understand that, but there were no reports in the media that the Rangers were pursuing him.

I continue to hear over and over again that the reason the Rangers cannot get pitching to sign here is because the Ballpark is a launching pad.  I hope to present some contrary anecdotal eveidence to this hypothesis.  All we hear from Joe Ranger fan is that no pitcher will ever sign here because it will ruin their stats, but if that were the case, the line for free agent hitters would be out the door for players to sign here.  If a pitcher makes a concious decision not to pitch in a ballpark because of its reputation, then hitters would be making the concious decision to play here because of…well, its reputation.  If I were a pitcher, set to pitch every 5 days, and the Ballpark scares me, then of course, I wouldn’t sign here unless the contract was ridiculous.  On the other hand, if I were a hitter, the Rangers would be first on my list because of the reputation of the park.  If I could come here and add .200 points to my OPS, I would, because that would make me that much more valuable on the free agent market.  The harsh reality of this theory is that the Rangers do not see free agent hitters beating down Nolan Ryan’s door to get here.

I wish I had a good theory as to why the Rangers have trouble bringing in Free Agents.  Maybe the thought of all those empty seats are a turn off.  Maybe it is the stifling July heat.  Or, maybe it is incompetent management.  I don’t know, but there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix to getting the Rangers to their first EVER playoff win.  Maybe Nolan and Jon have it figured out, but we sure haven’t seen any results yet.

Tags: Kerry Wood, nolan ryan, texas rangers