New Rangers, Rich Harden (L) and Chris Ray (R)What a busy couple of days for the Texas Rangers, and they may not be done yet.
Rumors had floated around Texas for a couple of days, but it seemed like for the most part, they were standing pat due to financial difficulties.
Then came Wednesday. There had been rumblings that the Mets and Orioles had interest in Kevin Millwood, but nothing seemed serious. Then word comes down on mid-Wednesday-morning, that the Orioles and Rangers had agreed on a swap of Kevin Millwood for Chris Ray and the Orioles first pick in the Rule 5 draft (The player ended out being Ben Snyder, a lefty pitcher from the Giants organization)
Huh?
It doesn't make any sense to to trade your staff number 1, a guy who was an inning horse for you all year, and not have anything else in place.
The main guy they're getting back, Chris Ray, was a good pitcher once upon a time. He's a guy who a short time ago (2006 season) saved 33 games, had an ERA under 3 and held opponents to a batting average of .193
He struggled the following season though and had to have Tommy John surgery near the end of the 07 season which caused him to miss all of 08 and pitch horribly in 09. It's always been a generally accepted rule that if a pitcher is coming back from Tommy John surgery, that his first year back will be a bumpy road and if he's ever to return to form, it will be the second season back from the surgery.
Show time, Chris Ray. The Rangers are obviously banking on the hope that Ray will return to dominant form for them and be a cheap, game changing addition.
Still, even if he is excellent this year, you just traded away you're number 1 and have no one to fill the role.
Enter Rich Harden. I've long been a fan of Harden's, and if you'll look at the last post before this one, I mentioned Harden by name as someone that the Rangers should target if they want to win in 2010. Thank you, Jon Daniels.
Harden's always an injury concern, but damn if he doesn't have some of the best stuff in baseball. Solid velocity (Can kick his fastball up to about 97, but hovers more around 93 or 94...think Derek Holland velocity) and has one of the nastiest changeup's in baseball. Maybe the best.
As Dan Plesac said on MLB Network after the signing was made "Rich Harden, when healthy, and that is the trick...keeping him healthy, is as good as any right handed pitcher in the AL or NL"
That's mighty high praise when you think that Plesac is saying Harden is just as good or better than guys like Roy Halladay, Zack Greinke, Tim Lincecum, etc.
So basically what the Rangers did was trade Kevin Millwood for Rich Harden, Chris Ray and Ben Snyder. I'll take that.
Then comes word late Wednesday that the Rangers were close to trading catching prospect Max Ramirez for Red Sox Third Baseman Mike Lowell. If the trade goes down, which it should, then Lowell would be the Rangers' DH and be there to give a night off in the field to Michael Young and Chris Davis.
Lowell is coming off a .290/17 HR season. The Rangers could have desperately used that production in the last month of the 09 season. It was the bats that just killed them down the stretch.
Lowell is closing in on the end of his career, but if he can give the Rangers .285 and 20 home runs while being able to keep guys like Michael Young fresh by giving them the occasional night off, then I'm all for it. Lowell makes 12 million dollars, but the Red Sox are going to eat 9 million of it.
That means Texas traded a fading prospect in Ramirez for a solid run producer in the middle of the lineup and they'll only be paying him 3 million.
All these moves are risky. Ray could blow up, Harden's shoulder could blow up and Lowell could just get REALLY old overnight.
You have to take risks if you want to be successful. And though all of these could end up being significant risks they didn't need to take, if it blows up, they really won't be on the hook for them past this year.
Something fun to look at is that it's completely possible that the Opening Day lineup and rotation will be...
----------Hamilton--------------------Borbon-------------------Cruz---
----------------------Andrus----------------------Kinsler------------------------
Young------------------------------------------------------------------Davis-----
-------------------------------------Teagarden---------------Lowell--------------
1] Rich Harden
2] Scott Feldman
3] Tommy Hunter
4] Derek Holland
5] Neftali Feliz
Were it to break like that, you're looking at a REALLY young team come April. The average age of those 14 Rangers players is 26 years old.
Exciting times for the Rangers. They're still looking for bullpen help (Darren Oliver seems to be the guy they want) and they also need a veteran backup catcher (With the departure of Pudge. /sadness)
After those two things get shored up, Texas will look very scary.
Mavs play tonight. Let's hope Tim Thomas doesn't throw any chairs because he got cold pancakes...or something like that.
They play the Heat at 6:30. Check it out.
