Free Agency

The obligatory time has passed and major league clubs are now officially able to sign free agents.

I'm very conflicted on what I want the Rangers to do, the immediate gratification part of me wants them to go out and make a big splash but the part of me that uses a logical thinking process wants them to be fairly inactive.

Signing Barry Bonds would be fantastic...if this team was going to contend next year. But they're not so there's no need in committing big money to guys that will be well past their primes (if they aren't already) when this team may actually contend.

Centerfield is a huge area of need, as great a story as Marlon Byrd was last year he's just not a starting ML centerfielder.

Torii is a the kind of person you want to build your franchise around and while him and Mike Young sure are awesome guys signing Hunter would mean that your two big money players would be old, probably bad defensively, questionable offensively, and crazy overpaid in two-three years.

Rowand is coming off a legit All-Star season but I kind of see him as maybe 10% better than GMJ -- and that's not really a compliment. He's going to be paid like an All-Star but for his entire career up til last year he hasn't been.

Andruw Jones is a legit Hall-of-Fame candidate coming off of an aberrant terrible year. While his defense may have slipped from the Mays-esque levels of a few years ago it is still among the very best in the game. He's the only one of the big 3 whose bat could stand the shift to a corner outfield spot. JD and the Rangers' brass seem scared off by his year long slump but he should provide the best value to whichever team signs him of this CF class. Although that discount may be mitigated by the $200 a day McDonalds per diem.

Milton Bradley would have had the catbird seat on my Rangers Offseason Wishlist if not for the first base ump acting like a rec league softball ump and goading him into a fight. He's one of the very few on-base machines that can play a passable center. Texas needs a top notch defender out there and after his injury the Board Game should loose further range. There's no guarantee that you get anything out of him this year anyway.

Since this club is still a few years away, it makes much more sense to try and get a young CF via a trade. Covelli Crisp and Joey Gathright are 1-2 on my wish list. Both can cover crazy amounts of room in center, both are assets on the base paths, neither will completely embarrass themselves at the plate, both are young with upside and are under club control for multiple seasons at below market value prices. Most importantly both should still be valuable players a few years down the road. Maybe just as important neither would cost your first born to pry away from their current clubs.

Rangers do still need another outfielder since Nelly Cruz has proven that he is not the chosen one in right. For right field I think the Texas needs to look left...far left. Japanese import Kosuke Fukudome who sits at #10 on Keith Law's Top 50 Free Agent List which is an ESPN Insider piece but they are currently running a free preview. Law compares Fukudome to Bobby Abreu and I love that comparison, great on-base, really good defense, doubles power, good runner...basically a very good all around player who helps you in ever facet of the game. Best of all about Fukudome is that the team signing him will not have to forfeit any draft picks or post a fee up front (like with Dice-K last year.) How cool would it be to have a guy named Fuk-u-dome anyway? I've been on the Fukudome bandwagon for a while, naming him the starting right fielder on my All-Future Team.

Then the pitching...always the pitching. This market is going to suck for everyone and pitchers in particular are in short supply. Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse...really? That's the best you can offer. The only pitchers who stand a chance of a positive return on investment are guys with major risks associated with them. Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Jason Jennings at the beginning of the year you might think that they could be the crown jewels of a mediocre crop of free agent pitchers. Injury and ineffectiveness plagued each man to varying degrees but each has been a good pitcher in the past and stand at least a chance of regaining past glory. One certainly couldn't sign Colon and Andruw Jones since no one else on the team would get any of the post game meals. Jennings does a little something for me..but just a little. When 100% he's pretty much Kevin Millwood (that's not meant as an insult.) I'd say he has the best shot of pitching effectively on his new deal.

Relievers are somewhat the same story. I would really like to see Kerry Wood AND Eric Gagne in Arlington next year. Medium-to-low risk and high reward with both guys. Both have Texas ties which should give the Rangers a leg up in negotiations -- similar to Jennings, a Baylor alumnus.

If the Rangers don't go too crazy in free agency this year -- which I doubt they will, I mean to we have to beg Hicks to save money? Next year's free agent group should be loaded with ultra premium brands. Save money now so you can spend it then. Emphasis on spending it then.

The sacristy of quality pitchers in free agency and the quantity of good young pitchers on rebuilding teams means that there is an unusual number of guys up on the trading block. Texas has a revamped farm system that now gives them enough trade fodder to at least make inquiries on whomever they wish. Don't go blowing your wad on a guy like Santana who's just going to bolt for big dollars next year. Tim Linecum still really intrigues me. I doubt he gets moved, but if San Fran is willing to at least listen to a Salty, Chris Davis, Volquez, Arias package then you see where it goes. He could give you 5 more years of legit ace quality performance for crazy below market prices. If San Fran wants Salty, Kinsler and Hurley then it doesn't make sense but if it doesn't completely destroy your farmsystem to bring this guy in you do it.

Until my next post I'll be attending school in the UK, because of this.