Friday afternoon Texas Rangers tidbits

Mr. Met

The New York Metropolitans are in tonight.

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Dirk Nowitzki is throwing out a good pitch. Finally, a decent closer on the mound. Ha.

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Josh Hamilton said his day-night splits are due to his blue eyes. And he has a optometrist backing him up:

"Because of the lack of pigment in lighter color eyes -- like blue or green eyes as opposed to brown -- you get a lot more unwanted light and that can create glare problems."

The solution: Sunglasses.

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Jon Daniels is not in town if you're trying to reach him to go out for drinks. I know I have. He's in the Far East. Scouting.

One specific player he's looking at is Japanese hurler Yu Darvish, the dude that's been teasing to come to the United States for two years. He's dominating, of course.

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Eric Hurley was taken off the disabled list from his concussion after getting knocked in the head earlier this season. He's at Triple A Round Rock. The 40-man roster is full.

The rise and fall of Chuck Greenberg

The law firm of "Shlachter, Nishimura & Baker" penned a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about Chuck Greenberg's departure from the Texas Rangers.

It's actually a very confusing story.

Instead, read the full version in D Magazine's CEO issue. It's good. Based on quotes from an unnamed source, the tiff between Greenberg and GM Jon Daniels and Greenberg's lone wolf trip to Arkansas to woo Cliff Lee were overblown.

The strain on Greenberg's relationship and team prez Nolan Ryan increased in early 2011, according to the source.

Then Greenberg skipped a board meeting in Arizona and a meeting with advertisers right after. At that point, said Deep Throat, Ryan gave the money men an ultimatum. Greenberg or Ryan?

We knew who was winning that contest.

Lil' Jonny D. finally gets his

J.D.: Looks like someone celebrated at Olive Garden tonight

The man who turned around one of the worst sports franchises of the last 50 years finally got a contract extension.

No. Not Nolan Ryan. Not Josh Hamilton. Not Tom Hicks, John Hart, Neftali Feliz, Scott Fletcher, Toby Harrah, Steve Buechele, Buddy Bell, Ruben Mateo, John Danks or Rob Bell.

Jon freakin' Daniels.

Four years ago, Daniels set into motion a risky and unprecedented plan to build a winning baseball franchise.

Building from the foundation. Drafting well. Amassing young talent in the minor leagues.

Hold on. That's neither risky or unprecedented. It's not risky because it's cheap and if you lose with young talent you can just blame the young talent.

Unprecedented. Any decent baseball club of the last 20 years has won it with guys from within the organization. From the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox to the California Angels and St. Louis Cardinals.

Daniels brought a lost-first, win-later attitude to an area of the country that has a win-now, ask-questions-later mindset.

It was Daniels that changed everything for the Rangers and I, for one, am extremely happy that the team worked out and got to the World Series. To me, it had Daniels' fingertips all over it.

Four months after winning the Executive of the Year award, Daniels got a four-year extension.

Thanks, Rangers, for bringing back your most valuable player.

Nolan v. Jon

Jonny needs a new deal

For the sixth month in a row, some media person has told me that the Texas Rangers plan to extend general manager Jon Daniels.

Any day now.

It's said things are still being worked out. What's getting "worked out"? Is Daniels demanding a private jet or giraffe rides to the Ballpark?

Doesn't Daniels, generally, want some more cash over the next four or so years? Maybe a bump in a dental plan and another week of vacation?

Point is, I doubt he's asking for anything unreasonable. And I don't understand why it's not done yet and if it's not done by the beginning of the season, that's just weird. It's only the reigning Executive of the Year.

Which brings me to a bigger issue:

Why is it when something goes wrong (see: Michael Young) it's blamed on Daniels. When something goes well (Cliff Lee) it's credited to Ryan?

Check it. Look at Tweets, blogs and newspaper articles. Listen to the radio.

When the Rangers grabbed Lee last summer, Ryan was at the head of it despite the fact that he didn't know Matt Lawson from the man on the moon. When the Chuck Greenberg group beat Mark Cuban in that Fort Worth courtroom last August, it was Ryan getting the headlines. As if he were an attorney.

When the Michael Young brouhaha happening last month, every bit of blame on the Rangers' side was placed at Daniels' feet.

You can't have it both ways. Either they share credit and share blame or you blame or credit Daniels for personnel moves and you blame/credit Ryan for expensive hot dogs and parking.

Daniels has his hands on every personnel move -- the good and bad. I'm not taking up for Daniels on the Young deal. That was poorly handled on both ends, including the team.

However, when you trade for Josh Hamilton, get Cliff Lee, sign Vlad Guerrero and move C.J. Wilson to starter and it all works out, he should get credit.

The first media member to criticize Nolan Ryan gets a cookie.

Jon Daniels, in profile

JD

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick wrote a wonderful piece about Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels today in light of the game tonight.

I think this puts it in perspective:

The Rangers, who'll meet the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night, are a monument to creativity, patience and front office teamwork.

For the record, I stated publicly only once that I thought Daniels should be fired. I'd like to think I was in the minority in this category.

Daniels drove most fans mad with those early trades. But in hindsight it didn't seem that long for him to turn it all around.

Crasnick details Daniels' early struggles and then the deal that changed everything (the day the young Daniels pantsed veteran GM John Schuerholz in the Mark Teixeira deal ... how good would Atlanta be today with Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz?).

The ultimate bottomline is that the Rangers are not in the playoffs (more or less the ALCS) without Jon Daniels.

He's probably the Executive of the Year. I would suggest for a three-year period, nobody in professional sports have had a better run. He's basically hit it out of the park in every facet of his job:

Hiring
Ron Washington, Scott Servais, Mike Maddux, Clint Hurdle and Thad Levine
No, he might not have hired all of these guys (hell, he could've fired a couple of them), but he kept them around. Crasnick notes the duality of Daniels' methodology not depending solely on scouts or stats, but combining the two to make good decisions. He also notes how Daniels invited all the scouts and development guys for an on-field recognition before Game 3. A class act.

Drafting
Tommy Hunter, Julio Borbon, Michael Kirkman, C.J. Wilson, Derek Holland, Mitch Moreland
A good way to replenish the farm system, every spring, take the best and brightest of America's high schools and colleges. And these are guys on the team today. Without Daniels' brilliant drafts, we don't have the talent to get Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, Josh Hamilton or Jorge Cantu.

Latin America
Martin Perez, Alexi Ogando, Omar Beltre, Jurickson Profar, Tim Stanford
Many of the steps Daniels and Co. have made in Latin America and even in the Pacific Rim and Australia are not realized yet. Omar Beltre and Alexi Ogando are the biggest steps, and even their impact is not fully realized, although they are noticed. A bunch of kids are in the minors right now. A couple (like Martin Perez) could be seen in Arlington as soon as next year.

Trades
Josh Hamilton, Cliff Lee, Neftali Feliz, David Murphy, Elvis Andrus, Nellie Cruz
The man's turned this team over with some very salty trades. Would much rather have those guys than the guys we sent.

Free Agents
Vladimir Guerrero, Kenny Lofton, Eric Gagne, Milton Bradley, Colby Lewis
These low-risk/high-reward deals define Daniels' tenure. From the beginning, he found these veterans considered past their prime and offered them one-year, $5 million deals. Enough to get them to bite. Early on, he would use their good starts by sending them to contenders for prospects. Around the time of Bradley, he used them to get good. With Lewis and Guerrero, he used them to win a division.

Scrap Heap Finds
Darren O'Day, Andres Blanco, Matt Treanor, Marlon Byrd, Ramon Vasquez
It's uncanny the dudes Daniels and his scouting crew have found over the years that are either been useful or downright fantastic. I point to Byrd and O'Day with the latter. The Mets would kill to have O'Day back, who was basically left on waivers and the Rangers took the bait. The Phils had hopes for Byrd, but injuries ate up his time there.

Patience
Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Ron Washington, Chris Davis, Michael Young
Make all the moves you want, but if you don't have patience, you'll always keep turning over the next rock for the quick fix. Remember, Cruz and Davis were yo-yoed from the minors to majors several times. Cruz was placed on outright waivers. Still, they stuck with them and nurtured them and then pushed. Sink or swim, bitches. Furthermore, Daniels could've fired Washington or done something with Hamilton after his whipped cream incident. When Mike Young bitched about another year of rebuilding and a move to third, Daniels could've overreacted badly. With all the ownership issues and the team unable to buy balls for practice, Daniels might have packed it in and waited for the New York Mets job.

He didn't. Daniels was a better man than any of us and that is the reason the Rangers play tonight at 7 p.m. And it's why we're not general managers in Major League Baseball.