Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

By the time this entry is posted, the first pitch of the 2006 Rangers debut will be less than 12 hours away. (And, by the time the notoriously slow RSS feed of this site starts sending this entry to the RSS readers of the world, the game will almost certainly be over.)

The "ill wind", however, is already hovering over Arlington's Temple, all because of the trade of David Dellucci.

Mack Brown hasn't even begun to loosen up for the first pitch (assuming, of course, that he will do so before throwing in front of over 50,000 people) yet I am all ready to declare a catastrophic moment before the season even begins. And, man - I hope I am wrong.

Listen... I love David Dellucci. Nice player, great teammate, and by all reports a totally upstanding man of character. But baseball is a business, as much as we would all like it not to be. So, with the injury to the Rangers number two starter (Adam Eaton), GM Jon Daniels felt he had to do something to give the team more starting pitching depth.

He began by trading the enigmatic, yet super talented, Juan Dominguez in a three team deal that netted Texas a stop-gap starting pitcher (John Koronka) and a young lefty with upside (John Rheinecker) for depth. Let's face it - this was another Esteban Loaiza situation. Loaiza had/has all the talent in the world, but he never fulfilled it in Pittsburgh. The Pirates gave up on him and traded him to the Rangers (for Warren Morris and that Van Poppel kid). Again, Loaiza showed flashes of brilliance mixed in with brain fart pitches launched into the Texas sky.

Former Rangers GM Doug Melvin managed to trade Loaiza to the Toronto Blue Jays, cajoling from them a green shortstop named Michael Young. Loaiza spent two unspectacular years in Canada before signing with the Chicago White Sox as a free agent in 2003. He finished second in the Cy Young voting that year. With some, it just takes longer, and a change of scenery (or two or more) is often needed.

But I'm getting off track here. Crap. Let's get back to the Dellucci trade.

His teammates loved him. He was a leader, a ladies' man, and always good for a quote with the local writers. Then Jon Daniels traded him to the Phillies for right-handed pitcher Robinson Tejada and minor league outfielder Jake (brother of Hank) Blalock. The outcry, which has me very concerned, started immediately. Why am I concerned? I'll tell you.

I'm worried that the Rangers have created an atmosphere in which the players are spoiled. Last season was surely disappointing, based on the strong showing in 2004, but the whining as the July 31 trade deadline approached was sad. "Give us help!" That was the plea. Key players like Young and Mark Teixera were very vocal regarding the lack of moves by Jon Hart's front office.

See, the problem is that the players on the major league team don't care about the future of the team as much as the front office does. And that is OK. I want them to want to win now. But if Hart had traded John Danks for, say, Zack Greinke of the Kansas City royals, the long-term results might have been devastating.

And now, with pitching problems popping up like a game of Whack-A-Mole, Daniels had to do something. And not only did he do something, he fleeced his favorite whipping boy (Philles GM Pat Gillick) again. Dellucci for Tejada? I'd make that deal in a heartbeat. To me, the genius part is that Daniels managed to get the younger (yet taller) Blalock thrown in, maybe in an effort to soften the chemistry blow in the clubhouse.

But the two Rangers with the biggest locker room voices expressed dismay. There is no bigger fan of Teixera and Young than me (especially concerning the shortstop), but I just want to yell at them. "You cannot have it both ways! You cannot complain about a lack of pitching and then whine when your GM, your boss, makes a 'sell high' trade to give the team - YOUR team - the best pitching depth it has had in decades!"

If they need testimonials, Pat Gillick will gladly oblige. Daniels traded Ricardo Rodriguez to the Phillies for number three (now number two) starter Vicente Padilla. Padilla has "All-Star" on his resume. Rodriguez was cut from Philly at the end of camp. After the release, Gillick said something along the lines of "it was a bad trade".

The "bad trade" description is true. But only for one team - so far, at least. In my book, Daniels is winning on the player moves front. I only hope that the Ranger players realize that it is Jon's job to put the pieces together as he sees fit and it is their job to perform on the field.

After all, there is no crying in baseball.

---

The quote of the day comes from an article on the Rangers MLB.com website:
"We're leading the league in Blalocks and I don't think anybody is going to catch us."

- Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels

Eleven hours 'til first (Rangers) pitch now. Life is good.