I was sitting here thinking about the offseason and Jon Daniels going forward when an interesting thought popped into my head. I wonder if the financial restraints coming off the team will cause JD to lose some of his edge when upgrading the club.

I was thinking that because of the financial situation of the Rangers the past couple of seasons, Jon Daniels has had to every minute detail of every deal to squeeze the most bang out of the smallest buck. He's been on top of his game and has made the Rangers into a World Series team. But I can't help but remember the trade stinkers he made when the club wasn't as bad off as before the bankruptcy. The Danks/McCarthy trade and the Young/Eaton disasters were Jon Daniels' doing and he did them when he wasn't under the thumb of MLB to keep payroll at a certain level. When the pressure has been on, though, he's been the best.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm the first to hope that Greenberg gives JD a blank check and a 10 yr extension. I want him around for the long haul. I was simply thinking about the dynamic of the financial atmosphere and wondering if anyone else thinks it's possible that JD has another Danks trade in him sooner or later.

has had to know* every minute detail

I'm not the least bid worried about him getting sloppy just because they have a little more money. He'll still have to be very creative to handle a large number of arb eligible core players each year, and adding role players to a payroll bloated by a huge contract if Lee signs. If Lee comes back the TX payroll will be near its practical limits and the front office will need to be as careful as ever.

I agree that JD needs to be paid whatever he wants to stay around forever, and he is the reason we are in this position. Sure the Danks deal and Gonzalez/young deal were bad, but you can look at any GM around the league and come up with atleast a few deals that backfired....also, those were so long ago, and seeing that he really hasnt had any other major slip-ups since, I would say its safe to say that he has learned significantly from those. I think that he can be as creative as anyone when he needs to be, and he has had to show that during the last few seasons, but with all the extra money we have this year, he really has a chance to be more creative and might need to be after signing Lee.

I'm the first to hope that Greenberg gives JD a blank check

That won't be up to Greenberg. He owns less than 5% of the team and won't be financing any operating losses.

The Rangers' payroll under the new ownership won't be much different (inflation-adjusted) than what it was for most of the Hicks tenure on average. $70-$90M range. Ray Davis is a very sharp, but very disciplined investor. He is not the typical ego buyer that owns sports teams (thus his complete avoidance of the press or any Rangers spotlight). He found an undervalued asset in bankruptcy (though thanks to HSG creditors forcing an auction it ended up not being as good a deal as it would have been) and will turn it into a positive IRR, exiting in a few years. That isn't done by taking operating losses.

JD strikes me as thrifty. He's not afraid to spend money on the right guy, but he'd prefer shopping for bargains and hoping they come through for him. In JD we trust.

@Rangers100: BULLS-EYE!