As for Daniels’ response, it may be a normal one, but a normal one is often, and in this case, a failed attempt at covering up the organization’s actual lack of interest in the player.

And the organizations may be quality, but clearly, in the case of both the Angels and the Rangers, someone dropped the ball.

Was it the players? The managers? Upper management? Ownership? We can debate this, but at least one team is trying to go forward, and the other, if they’re doing the same, must be counting on young talent to quickly do the trick.

And maybe they know more than I (which you’d expect, considering they’re professional and I’m some blog-responder), but until I see it, I think the Angels are now clearly better than the Rangers.

But the postseason is still young, and the Vegas oddsmakers may need to change their numbers a few times before April.

Not signing Hamilton or Napoli and trading Young for nothing is fine. However, you better come up with good replacements. And, cleaning out the prospects will merely indicate panic.

Daniels dropped the ball and has done a poor job. That is the bottom line.

How were you able to predict the next five years of MLB?

The Rangers viewed the Hamilton negotiations as an ascending open auction and constructed their ideal strategy accordingly. This seems to fit the narrative of Hamilton’s offseason (according to press leaks). If the Rangers believed they would have a chance to match each offer, why not sit back and let other teams set the market and bow out only when the price exceeds expected benefit? This would explain the inactivity on their end. However, the ‘auction’ ended with a sealed bid. Whether the Rangers would’ve matched that offer we will never know (nor will we likely ever know how many of my assumptions are true). But if their strategy was built upon assurances of how the process would play out, only for the other party to renege on this agreement, it seems justified to be upset at the end result.

I agree with Craig if they really wanted Hamilton they had years to work out a deal and engage in a conversation but Hamilton was clearly never their priority. Which is a crying shame considering the Rangers before Hamilton had ne’er been of a franchise. He took them to new heights and along the way everyone telling them how great they were apparently went to their heads. They came to believe that they the front office were the reason for the success when reality is its always the great players but they think they are so great and so smart that they have all the answers. Five years from now when Texas has only made the playoffs only once and never came close to another world series they will reflect on their treatment of Hamilton and Young two great players for the rangers with remiss.

Of course Daniels believes he is great (everyone tells him he’s great) and his super talent minor leaguers will bail him out but let’s reflect on just how rare it is to develop a truly great player. Sure on paper everyone can say they have great prospects lots of teams can say that about their prospect players but there is never a guarantee that the prospects will pan out as planned and take that potential and turn it into something really special. In fact in most cases it doesn’t pan out or the player just becomes decent, nothin special. Oh well I’m happy for Hamilton I would have felt slighted as well and he gets to go to a great team and a great atmosphere and get paid as he should and if the Angels win a world series or two along the way he can just look back at daniels and say it was me that made you great and you didnt appreciate it.

The Rangers were mocked for not landing Cliff Lee. The next year: World Series.

Then they missed out on CJ Wilson (getting Darvish instead). Result: Playoffs. And Darvish looks like the better long term bet.

This front office will find a way to plug. Maybe not this summer, but by the trade deadline. They could use a bat with “pop” after losing Hamilton and Young. But keep in mind that Hamilton’s HR’s came with a bunch of strikeouts and only a .288 batting average. If the Rangers can get back some hits in exchange for power, it will make up a larger chunk than people realize. Hamilton’s RBI numbers have alot to do with Josh, but they also have alot to do with Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler hitting ahead of him.

The sky is not falling in Arlington. This will be a team competing for a division title.

There is no humidity in Anaheim for balls to carry out in. Hamilton’s production has no where to go but down – though maybe he gets a little bump in 2013. At best Hamilton goes on good behavior for a year. Who knows if he relapses. But the man is simply not stable, and replacing a leader like Tori Hunter that took on responsibility and kept his teammates focused on winning with a guy that needs to be catered to by management and players alike is not good.

The Rangers are going to be better for this – they have a lot of money to use elsewhere, and by the trading deadline that will pick up a guy on a salary dump that will help them more then Hamilton.

The market for Hamilton up until yesterday was 3 for $75. The Angel owner offered 5 for $125 and said he wanted an yes or no – a maybe took the offer off the table. The player and his agent looked at $50M of found money, and would have been nuts to say anything but yes. The Rangers GM was at a speaking engagement and knew nothing until the players agent called him to say that his client was leaving. The fact that the Ranger GM said he was “disappointed” in not being able to have the last crack at a player that he had had his entire organization bend over backwards for and suspend the rules for was hardly a statement showing him as “arrogant” and a bunch of other ridiculous characterizations.

As the sickening cliche goes – the situation “was what it was”.

Move on.

I never really took Hamilton seriously throughout the summer when he said that would be his tactic, and we can debate how smart it was to factor that into the negotiations. But over time it really seemed like that was what was going to happen. For Hamilton to blow this off what he had told the team is what was disappointing.

In all likelihood, the Angels probably told Hamilton that if he went back to the Rangers with their offer, that they would rescind the offer. So I can’t blame Hamilton or the Angels for going at it that way. But insinuating that Daniels is arrogant or without class or posturing here is absurd.

Almost as badly as Dan Gilbert’s Cleveland Cavs FO pushed Lebron James around.