With tidings of the Yule season, I read
Rangers written by Ric Johnson on 12-16-96  22:16
 RJ> I gotta admit, I was getting worried. It seemed to me that the
 RJ> Rangers every attempted move was blowing up in their face. Wanted
 RJ> Rojas, he went to the Cubs without ever talking to them.
The stRangers have a bad reputation with some of the Lationo players due
to the pig-headedness of Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez, although
Gonzalez has really started to make inroads at changing his image among
Latino players.  Rojas' reaction to the stRangers was no surprise.
 RJ> Wanted Mike
 RJ> Jackson from Seattle (a move I did not favor) to attempt to make him a
 RJ> closer, and that didn't work out.
Not a good move.  Jackson is a good long relief and spot starter, but he
is by no means a closer of any mentality.
 RJ> Wanted Eric Plunk from the Indians in
 RJ> another attempt to make him a closer (another move that I don't think
 RJ> would have worked).
This is a player that the stRangers should have made a big play for.
Plunk works very well in a similar manner to the Reds' Jeff Shaw.  He is
a very consistent short relief set-up man.  Wetteland could have
desperately used a player like this in front of him.
 RJ> Seemed that they wouldn't be able to address the
 RJ> one glaring weakness on this club, one that became even more of a
 RJ> problem once they lost Dennis Cook to the Marlins and Stanton to the
 RJ> Yanks.
There's still the glaring weakness of middle relief.  The team looks
strong in every other aspect, but the middle relief looks to be
non-existent.
 RJ> Biggest problem now is CF, where it looks as if Damon Buford will be
 RJ> the everyday player. I don't know if he can be a bona-fide every day
 RJ> player, and I hope another deal is in the works, because it looks like
 RJ> Hamilton will not be back.
Haimlton is no big loss.  The stRangers do not need to belly up to the
Free Agent table for a good Centerfielder either.  They have several
good players stewing in the minors, but are still in need of
development.  But....
 RJ> I wonder if the arbitration headed Dean Palmer would bring a
 RJ> serviceable third sacker and an everyday CF?
...this would be the best move.  Possible spots to trade with are:
Cincinnati (Willie Greene, whose glove is a bit suspect but a change of
scenery might do him good, and Keith Mitchell, Kevin's little brother
who show promise as a left fielder, moving Greer into the Center
position) or New York Mets, where a trade of Palmer could net them a
young third sacker with a strong glove and arm, a center fielder with
good range and skills, *AND* a young pitcher to toss into middle relief,
or Milwaukee in a swap for Gerald Williams (one *hot* propsect who needs
to live up to his potential) and a young third sacker.
 RJ> I guess we know now that
 RJ> Doug Melvin is just what this franchise needed to make these quantum
 RJ> leaps!
I'm more impressed with Doug Melvin than I am with Oates.  melvin pulls
all the right strings, and sometimes it seems that Oates does nothing
more than get in the way.  I was hoping that texas would have dumped
Oates and tried to woo Buddy Bell to their staff...but Detroit got
him...
... InterNet EMail:   elf22@juno.com   or  elf022@softdisk.com
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