My biggest complaint about this whole situation is that no one forced Michael to sign the extension he signed with the Rangers. He chose to take the money they were offering, but he needs to understand that with signing a guaranteed contract comes his responsibility to be a professional and do what his employer requires of him. This has everything to do with his pride and unwillingness to submit himself to the authority that he placed himself under when he signed his lucrative contract. This isn't really a situation that we see very often in baseball, though in football its is more prevalent. And you know, I can understand football in a sense because the contracts are not guaranteed. But he is going to make his money, and he is going to get 600 or so PA, and he is going to get to be in the field. I am saddened by the FACE (as some have posted) is not being the professional that we all believed him to be, and I pray that he'd realize his arrogance and put it aside to be an honorable man. Any thoughts?

While I certainly understand your sentiments I don't believe he is acting any less the professional than those who are supposed to be managing him. As a manager I can't expect my employees to act in a professional manner if I don't treat them as professionals. It certainly would be nice if Young would have taken the higher ground but again higher ground is supposed to be the domain of management. Sure Young signed a lucrative contract that pays him more money than many of us could ever dream of having but the front office did agree to pay him that money and with that agreement comes the responsability to protect the investment. Buy selling Young out of a position the FO has effectively devalued their own investment by publicly intimating that Young isn't worth the contract both sides agreed to. This makes getting a reasonable return on their investment virtually impossible. So while I agree that it's disappointing that Young has reacted so severely I am more disappointed with how the FO have managed their investments.

Arp,
You can't possibly be serious right? The FO did nothing to devalue Michael Young. If anything they did everything in their power to extract the maximum value they could out of the guy.

How about this idea? They leave him at 3rd so he won't complain, and the Beltre deal never happens. Michael goes on to hit .290 with 16 homers and drives in 70. However, at third base he continues his defensive decline and costs us marginal wins with his subpar defense.

Or, he subs for nearly every infielder, of which all are clearly better defensively, or at the least equal (in the case of Moreland), and the rest of the time he is a designated hitter. If he puts up the same offensive numbers as the previous scenario, he has more value in this role because he chews up less playing time doing something he's just not as good as everyone else at.

The truth of this whole ordeal is that Michael truly could give a shit less about the Texas Rangers. He claimed that the organization misled and manipulated him, and that's a load of crap. How about saying you would do what it takes to make the team better, and then changing your story a month later. That sounds a little bit misleading and manipulating to me.