Credit Where Due

Fueled by the recent front office dust up, there’s been a lot of talk the last few days about who deserves credit for building a winning ball club in Arlington. Many fans insist that the Rangers would still be wandering in the desert if not for Nolan Ryan, but is that really the case?

First and foremost, Nolan did not “save” baseball in DFW. He brought a certain amount of credibility in ’89 and again in ’08, but it would be ridiculous to suggest that his gravitas alone led to the 2nd Renaissance.

Tom Hicks bought the team in 1998 and spent the next decade-plus running it into the ground. In 2010 he sold it to the current ownership group, which included Ray Davis, Bob Simpson, Nolan, and Chuck Greenberg.

What many forget (or ignore) is that it was Greenberg that put the group together. He was the one that brought Nolan into the fold, which he wasn’t obligated to do.

As for the money that was put up to buy the team, look to Davis and Simpson as the actual financial backers. Nolan is rich, but he’s not oil-money rich. Greenberg and the billionaires deserve a much greater share of the credit for saving us from the incompetent bumbling of Hicks.

As for the team itself, who really built it?

There are fans that operate under the assumption that the product on the field is Nolan’s doing. He does deserve some credit, but only going back to February 2008. Anything that was in the system before that is because of Jon Daniels (or people working under him).

That includes Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, David Murphy, Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland, C.J. Wilson, Alexi Ogando, and Michael Young. Those guys all contributed significantly to 2 pennants and all were under team control when Nolan arrived.

(Pieces that were added later include Cliff Lee, Colby Lewis, Adrian Beltre, Mike Adams, and Mike Napoli.)

There’s also Thad Levine and the scouts and the people in charge of development and the trainers and the clubhouse staff and the coaching staff and the players themselves. Don’t overlook what they’ve done for this team either.

So what does Nolan Ryan bring to the organization?

Nolan brings credibility, which was in rather short supply 5 years ago. He also hired Mike Maddux and instilled a pitching-first mentality. He did away with pitch counts and encouraged the staff to go deeper into games. Those things are valuable, but only to a point. If Nolan’s negatives start to outweigh his positives, then something has to change.

It took the Rangers over 30 years to find a GM as smart and capable as Jon Daniels. He’s not a Texas legend, but that has nothing to do with running a ball club. The decisions are ultimately his to make and he’s made a lot of good ones so far.

The team needs JD moving forward. You’d be hard pressed to find somebody better.

Press on, Rangers fans.

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