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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Rangers GM learns from early setbacks

Almost immediately after Daniels moved into a bigger office at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, he was presented with an intriguing offer. Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria approached Hicks at the owners meetings and told him starter Josh Beckett wanted to go back to Texas.

“He gave me the players they wanted,” Hicks said. “He was leaving the country and wanted the deal done before then. There wasn’t a lot of time.”

The Marlins wanted third baseman Hank Blalock and either Thomas Diamond or John Danks for Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell. Florida ended up asking for Danks over Diamond in the package….

Daniels admits that he was slow to pull the trigger. He also didn’t understand Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest’s style, which is to put his best offer on the table right away. The Marlins ended up dealing with the Red Sox and got Hanley Ramirez as part of the trade.

“I think Jon learned from that,” Hicks said. “We all learn from our mistakes, and we all would like some mulligans.”

Consider for a moment, the Rangers could have had AGon and Beckett in addition to their already talented team.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: March 10, 2010 at 07:00 PM | 8 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
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1. Hang down your head, Tom Foley Posted: March 10, 2010 at 09:28 PM (#3476906)

But they wouldn't have Brandon McCarthy.

2. ...even Chuck Norris was afraid of Jim Rice Posted: March 10, 2010 at 10:30 PM (#3477001)

Meh, who knows how that would have worked out. Beckett got absolutely lit up in his first season in AL and might never have signed the club-friendly extension, likely would never have had the '07 playoff run, and likely would have hit to free agency that off-season perceived as a totally different player.

3. Greg Franklin Posted: March 11, 2010 at 12:32 AM (#3477076)

Thanks for the link, AG#1F! Pretty well-rounded column on the Daniels regime, even excluding the what-if trade discussion.

4. andrewberg Posted: March 11, 2010 at 01:03 AM (#3477089)

That's a good column. Daniels is a good example of a success borne out of patience by the owners. There were many times along the way when it looked like he was about to be fired- and rightfully so. It must be tough to walk the line between patience and negligence as an executive without meddling.

5. Accent Shallow Posted: March 11, 2010 at 01:28 AM (#3477102)

Daniels' ability to do thorough research and present it in an understandable way helped him move up the ladder. After a year in the Colorado system, Daniels caught the eye of Hart, who hired him for his staff in Texas in 2002. Daniels quickly earned Hart's trust, adding the title of director of baseball operations in October 2003 and assistant general manager less than a year later.

The above quote is from the article. Daniels worked in baseball for ~2 years, the second of which is for the Rangers, and at the end of that year, he's named director of baseball operations? What am I missing here? This is a guy straight out of business school.

6. Nasty Nate Posted: March 11, 2010 at 01:28 AM (#3477103)

a think a bigger what-if from that trade situation is the for the teams that turned down a deal with Boston for H Ramirez, if any. I'd love to know what offers were out there.

7. Walt Davis Posted: March 11, 2010 at 09:13 AM (#3477231)

Yeah, I'm not sure that trade would have been that great for Texas (and certainly not as good for Florida). The money difference between Beckett/Lowell vs. Blalock/Danks was quite substantial. Maybe Texas holds onto Beckett, maybe they extend Lowell -- which then forces them to keep Young at SS (or trade Kinsler). If they let them both leave, they end up with pretty much nothing. Meanwhile Danks has been as good or better than Beckett the last two seasons anyway. OK, Danks looks to have been pretty lucky last year, but the difference between these two isn't worth anything close to $10 M (and neither Blalock nor Lowell is worth anything in 2009-10 so that's basically a wash).

Anyway, the big problem wasn't a failure to make this trade, it was Danks for McCarthy (as noted above).

You also wonder if, after the Marlins-Sox trade went down, did Daniels call them and offer Danks for Hanley?

8. Francoeur Sans Gages (AlouGoodbye) Posted: March 11, 2010 at 12:11 PM (#3477242)

“We all learn from our mistakes, and we all would like some mulligans.”

David Moores would no doubt agree with you, Tom.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Rangers GM learns from early setbacks

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