Meet The New Boss

The Rangers' signing of Kevin Millwood excites me greatly. Not just because it means that the Arlington lads have finally made good on their yearly promises to "get some pitching in here," but that it shows that Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels is no pansy.

Lemme 'splain.

In years past, Winter Meeting participants could count on the Rangers' total desperation to make a big move. This allowed other teams, as well as free agent representatives, to get the Rangers brass to give up the farm (both figuratively and literally).

Not this year.

When the 2005 Winter Meetings concluded, there were grumblings from unnamed GMs that Daniels was being totally unreasonable with his expectations. Players like Kevin Mench, John Danks, Alfonso Soriano and Gerald Laird were valued too highly, and the Rangers were simply asking for far too much to do a deal.

The consensus around the Hot Stove campfire was that Daniels was playing it too close to the vest. The Rangers came away with no marquee deals, and it looked like the team from the host city of the Winter Meetings were the big chumps.

Fast-forward four weeks, and Jon Daniels has installed a pitching rotation for the Rangers that should have skeptical fans salivating, or at least pricking up their ears. He's also addressed one of the big non-pitching concerns of the off-season -- center field -- with the Soriano-for-Wilkerson deal.

Daniels did this without gutting the farm system, or breaking the bank. The promise-laden troika of Thomas Diamond, Edison Volquez and John Danks is still in our system. Shrek is still a Ranger, as is Laird and Hank Blalock. Not bad for a GM that most pundits derided for being a John Hart puppet, or a "still-wet-behind-the-ears" executive.

League GMs should sit up and take notice. They're probably just shocked that the Rangers aren't patsies for the rest of the league, and with Daniels at the helm, they had better get used to it.