never really figured out the transition… Was a poor defensive SS and a poor defensive 3B. Where do you put him at this point when you have a ground-ball slanted staff.

Truth be told he should have never been sent to 3B and should have been either traded or put in as DH last year.

it is always better to move a player a year to early than a year too late.

try not to mention him in the same sentence with some lawn gnome in texas.

What blog aren’t u on?

going from slightly below average to the best defensive 3B in baseball right now is a pretty huge jump.

I am not surprised to see Texas stay away from Vlad after his falling off a cliff the second half of the season. Combine that with his complete inability to play in the field he is a much greater crapshoot now than even two or three years ago.

The question won’t be will the contract be worth its value in the years 1, 2 and even 3 but the back end of the deal. It is interesting to note that Young’s deal is up around the time that Beltre might to begin to show chinks defensively.

Lets also not forget that the average $$ per WAR is still rising along with the average player salary, median salary and number of 100 M payrolls league wide. Those characteristics tend to help lessen the blow of bad contracts on the back end.

I think he would have provided good value over the duration.

But yeah, pessimism is bad. And rife. I’m always hopeful though, just as I believe a healthy Izturis at 3B (please!) would actually be quite good for us.

Outside of their interleague schedule in 2009 they weren’t all that awesome. It’s just that we were crap. I also don’t think the Rangers have actually improved. Perhaps a little. That SP staff is just risky and not all that good… Plus no Vlad who killed it for them last year (obviously replaced by Beltre, but you need to look at Beltre less as the 2010 version and more as the .260-.280 hitter judging by his career).

A vet is a definite possibility. A Thome, Manny, Vlad or Damon could possibly be okay, as long as he comes cheap, whoever it is.

Or, at least, I hope that is how the FO sees it. No point holding onto expensive and underperforming players.

considering he only played 2/5 of last season. thats pretty much the only silver lining to that injury.

Pujols, Fielder, Uggla, Weeks, Jose Reyes, Rollins, Willingham, Beltran, DeJesus, Jason Kubel, Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson, Heath Bell, and Jonathans Broxton and Papelbon seems like a much longer list of quality FA than was available this year.

He needs to beard up, pronto