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More than two weeks ago I wrote about three keys to a successful Rangers season. One of those keys was Michael Young and I stressed the importance of getting him signed to a long-term contract (his current contract expires this year with a club option on 2008). I guess Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels reads my blog because this week the Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and MLB.COM are all reporting that negotiations are in full swing between Young's agent Dan Lozano and the team to give him a long-term deal through at least 2013. Rangers owner Tom Hicks says they want Young to be "the face of the franchise." It's going to cost them. Between the deals signed by Chase Utley of the Phillies and Vernon Wells of the Blue Jays, the going rate for an infielder like Young looks to be about $15-$17million per season. That would be an $11million dollar a year raise for Young. Derek Jeter makes $18.9million a year for the Yankees. Reports say that only the back end of the deal and deferred payment arrangements are waiting to be finalized. So is Michael Young worth it? Absolutely. Beyond his All-Star stats, this guy does everything right on the field and in the clubhouse. Like I said February 13th, signing Young this Spring Training will be a huge piece of the winning puzzle for the Rangers. Now if only the Yankees will take my advice and get rid of A-Rod. Here's another good baseball column about the Rangers worth reading. It ran in today's Dallas Morning News (02/26/07) and was written by Jean-Jacques Taylor, who only recently became a Morning News columnist and is writing some great stuff! Go to this link now: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/jtaylor/stories/022607dnspotaylor.1579145.html

Can The Rangers Do Something This Season?

As a baseball fan (albeit a Yankees fan first) living in the DFW area, it would be nice for a change to be able to cheer for the Texas Rangers in September every once in awhile. You see, more often than not, the Rangers are out of contention for the division by September and the games mean little. Many years you can say this by August. Will this year be different? The keys to a successful Rangers season are threefold in my opinion, which probably doesn't mean much, but I'm writing it anyway. So, here they are: 1) Ron Washington - Though this guy has never been a major league manager, he arrives with a lot of fanfare and a positive and aggressive attitude about winning. The fanfare may be more due to the fact that he is replacing the player smoothering Buck Showalter, who instilled fear and/or disinterest in his players after some time, which he had a reputation for doing. With young players now having been under the disciplined regime before him, Ron Washington may be in a good place to create excitement and loyalty from the players while still maintaining disciplined habits. If the Rangers make the playoffs this year, a very, very small portion of the credit will be owed to Buck Showalter, if only for his managerial role setting up a disciplined team for where they are now. Will Washington be a good major league manager? Let's hope so. He's got a young team, with very talented position players who will hopefully respond. We'll know soon enough. 2) Pitching - Much has been made of the need for good pitching and for good reason. But I have to credit The Dallas Morning News writer Evan Grant for this point: The Rangers need good pitching in the nos. 3-5 spots. How true. Almost every team has a good number one and a decent number two pitcher. The Rangers are no exception with Kevin Millwood and Vincente Padilla(assuming he's mentally in the game). But the 3-5 rotation spots have been disasters for Texas the last few years and there's been no consistency. Now, they've place big trust in new acquisition Brandon McCarthy and they've got a stable of invitees for spring training. It is imperative that these "3-5 guys" pitch well and that someone establishes himself as a rotation guy in the Spring. It would be nice if Juan Dominguez lived up to expectations this year. 3) Michael Young - He is the heart and soul of the team. A three time All-Star, he's ranked 3rd among AL batters with a .322 average since 2005. He's batted over .300 for four consecutive years, and the average climbs higher with runners in scoring position, up to .412 last season. He also was second among AL shortstops last year with a .981 fielding percentage and he had only 14 errors. He unselfishly moved from shortstop to second base when A-Rod came through town. He then offered to move back when Alfonso Soriano made his Rangers tour. As he goes, so will the Rangers and team morale. If the Rangers are smart, they'll get him signed to a long-term deal quickly so contract negotiations aren't hanging out there either. He's only 30 years old, and he's got a lot of good prime years left. Forget Teixeira, Scott Boras has slowly poisoned him and he's not getting better. He'll be asking for ridiculous money when his contract is up. Sammy Sosa? Even if he has a good year, I predict one season and done for the Rangers. He'll want more money. Matthews is gone. Blaylock is good, not great. Michael Young is your horse.

Why Throwing Money At Something Doesn't Always Fix The Problem

My beloved New York Yankees are in a tough spot. It's not one they haven't been in before, but nevertheless it's unacceptable to the average Yankee fan and certainly Yankees' owner, George Steinbrenner.

This is the first offseason in the last several years where the Yankees haven't made much of a splash in the free-agent or trade market.

In the 2001-02 offseason, they signed pitchers Steve Karsay and David Wells. They traded for Robin Ventura.

In the 2002-03 offseason, they re-signed Roger Clemens, signed Hideki Matsui, and Jose Contreras.

In the 2003-04 Monster offseason, they made a huge splash by trading for and signing pitchers Kevin Brown, Jeff Weaver, Paul Quantrill, Javier Vazquez, and Tom Gordon. And then for position players, they signed Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton and in the biggest move of all, they traded for Alex Rodriguez, owner of the richest contract in baseball history at $225million. In the 2004-05 offseason, the Yanks signed coveted pitchers Jared Wright and Carl Pavano, along with trading for Cy Young winner Randy Johnson.

In 2005-06, they lured beloved outfielder Johnny Damon away from the Red Sox, and signed pitcher Kyle Farnsworth. In the middle of the season, they traded for Phillies slugger Bobby Abreu, which looks like a smart decision with Sheffield's departure.

And this offseason? Not really much at all. Sure, they brought back former Yankee star Andy Pettite, who has been injured more than anything in the last couple of years with the Astros and his pitching has declined so much it didn't matter really whether he was healthy or not. They signed Kei Igawa, the Japanese league star, and gave him a 5 year deal though he has proven nothing in Major League Baseball.

Of much greater note are the non-signings and trades. The Red Sox got the real Japanese pitching star, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and they paid top dollar. Top free agent pitcher Barry Zito never really even looked hard at the Yankees. Other pitchers Jason Schmidt, Mark Mulder, Jeff Weaver, Eric Gagne, Adam Eaton, Vincent Padilla...No mentions of Yankee pinstripes there. Star position players Alfonso Soriano(a former Yankee who made it known he would love to come back to New York), Gary Matthews, Jr., Carlos Lee, Barry Bonds, and their own Gary Sheffield were not ever in the running for a Yankees deal.

Could it be that George Steinbrenner is getting tired of throwing big bucks at overpriced and underperforming free-agents? Could it be that Mr. Steinbrenner regrets such disappointments as Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield? And those have just been some of the disappointments. How about the disasters such as Kevin Brown, Alex Rodriguez, and Carl Pavano?

Rodriguez a disaster you say? But he's put up good numbers. Not when it counts, the playoffs, and that is the only time it counts for a Yankee. On top of that, he's polarized the locker room and has even been called out by more than one player.

And then there's Pavano. He has done jack squat since signing his four year deal worth $10million a year. In 2 years, Pavano has only 4 wins as a Yankee. That sucks. On top of that, he witheld information from the Yankees about broken ribs in a car accident until right before he was scheduled to come off the disabled list in August of last year. God bless Mike Mussina, the only good Yankees pitcher the last couple of seasons, who said this as quoted in the New York Post about Pavano:

"He's got to earn some trust from some players again and from a coaching staff and a manager and an organization," Mussina said. "But if he can do it, we know he can pitch and we know he can get people out. So if he gets over those other hurdles, he'll be an asset."

I can't blame George Steinbrenner if he's sick of throwing away money. But it may be another frustrating couple of seasons for Yankees' fans in the interim.

Here's the hoping the dream of trading A-Rod becomes a reality this year and that Derek Jeter wins the MVP and leads the Yankees to the World Series. I can dream.