Rangers Borrowed Millions From MLB

See, Purke should have fallen to Boston at pick #28 since Texas can't afford to pay him anyway..

Really though, if Texas ownership got hit this hard in this recession and ownership is in hard times, would MLB try and force Hicks to sell?

His co-owner with Liverpool actually had to sell the canadians to cover his half of the repayment.

If the Rangers *did* borrow from MLB, would MLB have a say in how they spent the money? If they did, that's probably a violation of some sort of law somewhere. If they don't, then the Rangers can pay Scheppers whatever they want to.

Hey midtown take it easy. Its not the fans that made the choice. They might have agreed with it, but who knows what actually was talked about we dont know the details of the discussion. And you should be one to talk about overvaluing players (ie Lars Anderson)

My apologies: "Lars Anderson is a", not "Lars Anderson to".

Personally, I am GLAD Boston didn't trade for the catchers and am upset now that Mathew Purke, who is going to be way, way over slot is going to be not signed, since MLB isn't going to let Hicks sign them with then in MLB's kitty and Boston dearly wanted Purke.. A wasted pick is what it boils down to, same with Scheppers for a broke franchise.

Buccholz isn't wasting away in Pawtucket, he's down there so the Sox don't waste service time unnecessarily. That's what smart teams with depth do.

Anyway, I don't know how anyone can argue that Teagarden and Saltalamacchia have the same value they did at this point last year. Both have been incredibly disappointing at the plate and both have now used another 1/2 season of service time. On that subject, at what point are people going to realize that Salty is probably never going to be the hitter he was once projected to be? I realize he's still young, but seriously, the guy hasn't had an extended stretch where he was good offensively since he was in A ball back in 2005.

Teagarden has 65 AB's....That is not a big enough of a sample size to gauge how good offensively he is/will be. Salty's bat will come around. You forget hitting .280 with 15-20 HR's is considered an offensive plus for a catcher. The strides Salty has made have been on the defensive point of his game. He has a cannon for an arm and is beginning to come into his own as a catcher. Foot works getting better and it looks like he has been more comfortable with the pitching staff.

Nobody expected Salty and Teagarden to come into the league and replicate Mauer and McCanns numbers overnight...if at all.

People have been saying Salty's bat will come around since his down year in 2006. Still hasn't happened in any sample size larger than 100 ABs. He has made strides behind the plate, but this is his 3rd year in the bigs and he's only moved backwards at the plate.

I hope Andy MacPhail calls Daniels and offers him some bailout money for some of those arms they've got down at Low A. That would be hysterical (and, of course, would never happen...can't a boy dream?!)

Midtown,

I dont think I have ever heard a more unnecessary comment...wow!!! I just hope the Rangers are some how able to sign Purke and Scheppers, surely Hicks isn't in any worse shape than he was three weeks ago when he gave JD the go for drafting both of them!!!

nixa37- Salty didn't make his major leauge debut till 2007 how can he have a bad year in 2006 when he never had a official at bat. He's on pace to surpass his rookie totals this year. Remember Salty is still only 24 and who knows he might have a big second half.

This is too bad, the Indians and Rangers matched up nicely for a Cliff Lee trade. The Indians could receive a Perez or Holland topped package for 1 and a half years of a very cheap ace.

Midtown, you are officially a joke...I would be embarrassed if you were a fan of my team. And we are not idiots, we know pitching wins, which is exactly why our farm is absolutely loaded with it and why we asked for Buchholz, Bowden or Bard was not going to help us win.

Also, who are you to talk about Holland, Harrison, and Feliz...Feliz has the highest ceiling of pretty much any pitcher in the minors and is only 21 in AAA holding his own, Holland is 22 and Harrison is 23 who could be dominating in AAA like your prized pitchers...and no one is talking about Buchholz after his first full year in the majors and his god awful stats because of what he will be able to do once he figures it out in the bigs, just like Holland and Harrison!!!

Rangerfan,

You do realize their is something called the minor leagues right? Yeah, surprisingly enough Salty played there in 2006 (AA specifically) and he was terrible. Seriously man, you're on the internet, you couldn't take the 10 seconds necessary to check Salty's 2006 minor league stats to see what I was talking about?

Oh, and while we're at it, Rangers fans need to stop lumping Harrison in with Feliz and Holland. Those guys are legitimately great prospects. Harrison on the other hand is a back of the rotation starter at best who just happens to have matured very early.

Texas, Boston and Florida I know for a few teams are all loaded with tons of young pitching. There is no reason for this bickering regarding who is loaded.

Texas was ranked by BA as the top organization anyway this year anyway this year weren't they? Think Boston was also way up there.

Boston has young pitching also, but most of the power arms are at the AA and lower levels, Casey Kelly, Junichi Tazawa, Nick Hagedone, Stolmey Pimental, Felix Doubrant, Kyle Weilland and Bryan Price.

Both Tazawa and Price will be appearing in the MLB Futures game on 7/12, Tazawa for the World team and Kelley for the USA. Does any of the Rangers fans here know off hand if any Rangers farm hands will be in it? I don't recall and too lazy to go look.

midtown- you seriously know nothing about baseball, do you?

While I am, by no means, a Rangers fan, I think your bashing of Holland and Feliz in particular, is WAAAAAY premature. They're kids. I think if you asked almost anyone in the industry, they'd agree that both have very promising futures. I'm not convinced Harrison will be much more than a back of the rotation type.

I DO agree that Rangers fans can be a little overbearing with regard to their excellent farm system, but that's basically true of every team's fans. I know that, as an Orioles fan, I could talk your ear off about Tillman, Matusz, Arrieta and the rest of our rising young stars. It's the nature of the beast.

Oh, and Melonis- Main and Kiker? Honestly, neither guy has shown enough to warrant real excitement. Martin Perez on the other hand, could be a third stud in that rotation. I'm not sure who's going to fit where, but I think the Rangers will manage to put a pretty darned good rotation together from among Feliz, Holland, Hurley, Main, Harrison, Perez, Kiker, Tommy Hunter, Wilmer Font, Wilfredo Boscan, Carlos Pimentel, Yoon-Hee Nam, Richard Bleier, Jake Brigham, Joe Weiland, Neil Ramirez, Kennil Gomez, Blake Beavan, Tim Murphy, Omar Poveda, Guillermo Moscoso, Doug Mathis, Thomas Diamond, Robbie Ross, Matt Thompson, and perhaps both Matt Purke and Tanner Scheppers. Plenty of 'em will bust, but with all those high-ceiling arms, I'm thinking they'll find at least five quality starters from the bunch.

So midtown can squawk all he wants now...I think it'll be the Rangers fans who laugh last (although there's no freakin' way EITHER Salty or Teagarden are/were worth Buchholtz. If I were Daniels, I'd have dealt one of 'em, taken Bowden or Masterson, or Hagadone and counted myself as lucky).

midtown's right.

While Purke is a real solid talent, I think he, along with some of the other HS arms in this draft, became extremely overrated due to the overall weakness of this draft in terms of college players and hitters in general. There's really nothing in his scouting report that makes me think he's all that much better than the top 2-3 HS lefties in any given draft. It just so happened that in a weak draft this year that made him arguably a top 5 talent. When you consider the money he was asking for, I don't know if he's really worth it. Obviously he gives the Rangers a lot of value in terms of skill relative to where he was drafted, but in terms of skill relative to his monetary demands I'm not so sure.

Kinsler 5,

I could have called that comment coming from you seeing how you are an idiot as well from your past posts.

SuzysMan,

You said it perfect

coldskeet,

Thank you

nixa37,

The reason am "jealous" as a Sox fan on Purke getting drafted and just because the Rangers did draft this kid, think that they should sogn him, is that the book on him is that he has not even began to fill out and reach full velocity and also has a nice slurve at the HS level.

As a 19 year old, a lefty hitting 95MPH that is already being projected to add 2-3 more mph and has good poise and control, plus has a nice "slurve" type pitch would really be a nice addition it would seem. Both Texas and Boston it would seem scouted him pretty good.

I was also hoping he would fall down to 28 and figured Texas was the major "holdup" so to say, for signability reasons and just hope that they do not let him get away, when am sure that the Sox would have figured out a way to keep this talented young kid in the pros.

Boston did draft several RH guys like this, Madison Younginer, but down further in the 7th round, Brandon Kline in the 6th and David Renfroe in the 3rd . Kline looks like is going to UVA, Renfroe looks like will sign, as will hopefully Younginer.

Those power lefties, like Purke are just sooo rare nixa37.

I understand the "hit/sit" as you mentioned nixa37. Scouts are also looking at his projectable frame, being so far a skinny 6'3 and 175 and expecting him to fill out, that is where they are figuring on him picking up a couple more mph on his "hit" velocity I am going to "guess at" at maybe 97mph at the age of 21-22.

Like a possible Nick Hagedone Boston has that was the 1st round pick Boston has and underwent TJ surgery right after they drafted him in 2007 and just returned a month ago, he "sits" in the low 90's (92-95) and "hits" as high as 98mph.

Now, his frame is a tad larger than Purke's, being 6'5 and 230 and LH, but he put on weight after HS and gained velocity.

Most HS pitchers have projectable frames. That's largely irrelevant to the discussion of whether or not Purke was an especially rare talent. Matzek has similar velocity to Purke (touches 94 as opposed to 95) to go along with similar projectability. James is a little more filled out, but he sits at 90-92 and is taller than Purke. Skaggs is more in the 89-91 range right now, but is more physically projectable than Purke. If you want another reason why I think Purke is overrated, I don't really like his mechanics and already worry if he can avoid arm trouble. Added velocity is only going to increase that risk if his mechanics aren't addressed.

Its not like I don't think highly of Purke or think he's a very good talent. I just think the people who seem to think he's a once every couple of years type prospect are being fooled be a fairly weak draft class this year. He's good and he'd be in the discussion for the top HS LHP in any draft, but that doesn't mean he's worthy of a historically large contract for a prep arm.