The BBTiA Top 25 Prospect Rankings: Fall '08 Edition

High Leverage: The Three Most Valuable Rangers Hits Of 2009
In the spirit of keeping things fresh and original and not solely focused on what has thus far been a decidedly ho-hum hot stove season, I wanted to break away from the mold this morning and reflect a little bit more upon the 2009 Texas Rangers season that was ... and this time, we'll briefly look at it from a WPA-focused perspective. WPA, or "win probability added," essentially measures a given player's win contribution in the context of a game situation, be it through a single play or game or an entire season. In this way, players are statistically rewarded and/or penalized at a level commensurate with how much or how little they improved their team's chances of winning; for ex

The Rangers Payroll Dichotomy
Texas Rangers team president Nolan Ryan reassuring a rightly skeptical audience during the ballclub's season-ending press conference on Tuesday, October 6th: "I feel our budget will be close to, if not the same as, what it was last year [$68 million]." It's absolutely the storyline that just about everyone is sick of hearing, reading and thinking about (myself included), but it's the storyline that has sadly metamorphosed into the overarching problem of the off-season for a ballclub that established its proximity to legitimate post-season contendership in 2009 -- a ballclub that appears so close, and yet seems so inexplicably far away. And it's beginning to get underneath my skin

Wednesday Morning Rangers Notes: 5:00 A.M. Musings Edition
Your putting-things-in-perspective moment of the morning: during Thanksgiving Week 2007, the Rangers were aggressively wining and dining then-free agent center fielder Torii Hunter and, before his acceptance of a mammoth five-year deal from the Angels, fielded a $70 million offer from Hicks Sports Group and friends. Contrast that against the current "we might be lucky to shell out $5 million" level of fan despondence: ● Outfielder Nelson Cruz has drawn heavy league-wide interest, but one major league source says the Rangers "are not motivated" to trade him due to his modest salary and

The BBTiA Top 25 Prospect Rankings: Fall 2009 Edition
The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. The Sopranos, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Wire. Cobb, Ruth, Williams, and Mantle. Feliz, Perez, Scheppers, and Smoak. How you rank each list is based more on personal taste than upon clear differences in worth. We expect that you will likely have an opinion that differs from our consensus for the Rangers' Big Four. And five years from now, we might still be arguing about who is the best major league player. But rest assured, if injuries do not derail their careers, Neftali Feliz, Martin Perez, Tanner Scheppers, and Justin Smoak will be major league ball players.

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Five Questions
1. Would you rather stick with current ownership knowing that the current management team would remain safe, or gamble with a lesser-known ownership group and run the risk of Nolan Ryan, Jon Daniels and/or other key figures being unseated? 2. You've been alloted $50 million -- I know, I know, tough to believe -- for ballpark renovations and/or upgrades, parking expansion, the attempted revival of Glorypark, whatever. How do you use that money? 3. Reader-submitted question (courtesy of A. Stephens): "Is it conspiratorial to think that while Ron Washington has earned some security, Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels are likely to have less patience with another April stumble given