Is Ben Rogers a credible source? He's saying its a done deal.

it's done. check espn dallas homepage

JDaniels: "Hamilton? YES, We want him back. He knows we want him..."
DiPolo: "Stealthy, baby, stealthy" and to think we only had to go 5 years, HA!"

we have definitely entered some type of "doc brown" alternate universe. seriously...wtf is going on

Wow, just wow. Its almost nutty how the Angels never make any let anything leak then strike.

FUCK

Fuck JD. Just read that the Angels will go get Dickey for Bourjos now too. Fuckity fuck fuck FUCK! You suck JD!

Well, what do we do now? Not good so far. What is the projected lineup for 2013 as of now?

I'm sure we'll hear the Rangers offered 3/45 and then act like it was a legit offer. What happened to the Rangers being able to spend money? Look at the ridiculous free agent list left.

It's five years, $125 million.

Apparently Hamilton's agent didn't call JD with a chance to match. So, blame the agent, not JD. Although it is partly JD's fault.

AND we didn't get a chance to match?! I would like to say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not. Josh is a bastard. Here's to hoping that infamous sex tape gets released from that black hole it was sent to. I honestly wish nothing but the worst for him. Hopefully the final 2 months are an indication how his career will go.

I wouldn't have touched 5y/$125M for Hamilton, which I think is overpaying for the risk you take with him. On the other hand, at some point, will sitting back and saying "we lost Player X because we didn't want to overpay him" no longer cut it?

Sorry, I've looked at this from every angle and I don't see how this is a good thing. I just don't think Hamilton ever wanted to come back here. Wow, Everyone discounted the Angels because the thought was that they were over-taxed. Guess not.

Somewhere in the continental US, Michael Young is laughing his ass off. Texas misses out on Hamilton, Greinke, Upton, Napoli and likely, Dickey. I guess Evan Grant's assertion that trading Young is akin to an impending salary dump is accurate after all. I hope the Texas Rangers Organization is prepared for a significant decrease in fan attendance next season, in addition to some serious blowback from the fanbase.

I still don't buy the salary dump argument. Not willing to go too many years and too much money for a player is considered a salary dump? Admittedly, at some point, you may have to overpay, but simply choosing not to overpay someone that others think you should overpay doesn't mean you're dumping salary.

@Jeff in SD
The thing is, being a season ticket holder, the Rangers have already collected on most of their season ticket sales...so they won't care until next year. Attendance will definitely be lower, but money wise, they've made their money.

JV, that makes it sound as though the Rangers are returning to the Tom Hicks era in their approach to the game. Are Nolan and company satisfied with profit margin as an organizational approach? I thought their intent was to field a team capable of competing for a World Series each season. Is their team as comprised capable of doing that?

the problem with JD's style is that agents don't like his "go get your best offer from somebody else and let me know what it is" style of negotiating. they tried that with Cliff Lee 2 years ago and he basically told them to go piss up a rope. i don't have a degree in business by any means, but this is just common sense. if JD values a player, then he and the rest of the brain trust need to sit down and figure out their "best offer" and start making some phone calls. it doesn't matter how much $$ the Rangers got from whatever TV deal or record attendance or blah,blah,blah if they're not willing to spend it. i'm telling you, NO big name free agent will sign here until JD changes his negotiating style.

I'm not mad we didn't re-sign Hamilton but I'm FURIOUS he signed with the Angels and frankly, I'm more then a little pissed JD didn't see this coming. If he comes out and says they never wanted him in the 1st place, which he will never do, but you get the point, than that's 1 thing but now, going into 2013, are there any moves that JD could swing to make us serious contenders? And don't give me Dickey, or Anibal Sanchez, or Bourne... and what's the point now in trading for Upton if we won't be serious contenders again until 2016 rolls around?

This is the knee jerk of all knee jerks but unless JD performs some miracle trade soon, does he have to look at re-tooling the roster? In other words, what's the point in keeping Beltre, Elvis, Murphy, Cruz, Lewis, Nathan, Harrison and possibly even Kinsler, if we're not going to be legit for another 3 or 4 years? You'd be selling high on all of those guys and could completely re-stock the farm system and possibly net some great, young players to build a new core around for 2015/2016. I'm not suggesting a Marlin's type fire sale just to save money... but what's the point in keeping all of those guys if we can't realistically compete? I'd rather we lose 100 games in 2013 and 2014 while re-building a new superstar core than win 80-85 games for the next 5 years and be nothing but an average team, with average expectations, and an average looking future.
Again, I never wanted Hamilton back in the 1st place... but now that he's an Angel, it's a game changer. I would've been ok with him going to the Mariners because they suck , but going up against an Angels lineup with Trout, Pujols, Hamilton, Trumbo, etc... is just too much to overcome. They now have great players at most positions and more importantly, they have a ton of depth. Granted, they lost Greinke and Haren and Hunter but they added 2 really good arms to the bullpen, a superstar OFer and a 4th or 5th SP (even though Blanton will get killed in the AL West).
Just sayin' fellas... this has been one of the worst off-seasons in recent history. This team is signficantly worse than they were a year ago. They've lost alot of firepower, they have a very iffy #1 in Darvish and nothing that strikes fear behind him, an ultra-thin bullpen with an aging closer, no good catcher(s), and an infield with a guy playing a position he's never played (Kins and 1B) and another we HOPE can play 2B. Meanwhile, the only semi-significant move JD made is for a setup arm coming off TJ surgery that's not even expected to make a significant contribution until 2014... yet he's going to be paid $8M! What the hell is JD doing? Please, someone, talk me off the ledge. Please tell me JD's cooking up some mega deal that lands us David Price, Justin Upton, and God..

Ok. So nobody wanted the Rangers to give Hamilton a 5 year deal but now the sky is falling since we didnt sign him to a 5 year deal? It sucks he signed with the Angels and their line up is really good but they still dont have a rotation worth anything.

Last year when the Angels signed CJ and Pujols they were supposed to win the World Series and even adding Greinke couldnt get them into the playoffs! Nevermind a World Series.

This year there rotation is a joke compared to what it was last year. I will take pitching and defense anytime over the sporadic hitting of Hamilton and the Rangers rotation and defense is still better than the Angels. Bring it on.

Bottom line is small to medium sized TV areas are screwed. All the rights the players have and the money the mega areas have just means it is theirs and all they have to do in not screw it up. Until you have a salary cap, slots, or another method of making thing competitive the big ones will always eat the little ones. The way things are now it is like sitting in on a no limit poker game with Gates, Buffet, Soros, several Waltons, Bloomberg, the Koch brothers, Ellison and several others with only a 100 bucks in your pocket.

OK... so, the Angels look REALLY good for 2013 (unless Josh gets hurt) and 2014 (unless Josh gets hurt)... but, when does that deal become an albatross? I'd hate to be the Angels in 2015 thru 2017... I don't think Josh will last that long.

Of course, I didn't think Pudge would last 400+ years, either... but, he wasn't breaking down when we let HIM go.

And, they have a declining Albert Pujols... He and Josh can implode together... wow... that's gonna be a dark hole in the LA countryside... And, even after Josh is gone, Albert'll still be there... and, his skills won't translate very well to old age.

Josh just flipped the bird to the Rangers! JD struck out! Ranger management got outplayed and out smarted. Chokers....just like the coach and team! Over 3 million fans go out and support the team last year, and this is what we get? Trade Jonathan Daniels!!!

I agree Pablo. This is unreal. I can't imagine what JD is thinking. Hi snegotiating tactic needs to change. We have lost way too much opportunity wise this off season. Really, I was not expecting this. MLBN just ranked us tied for 3rd in the AL West with the Mariners due to our loss of firepower offensively. Darvish is a great pitcher but I assume he will want to win at some point in his ML career. The question is how do attract a NAME FA with the measley offense Texas provides now. We just lost 100 runs scored on an average season. How do make up for that? I hope we all love to watch small ball!

And soemones comment about Blanton getting lit up in the West agaisnt who??? We have no one that can hit the ball with any authority minus Beltre consistently. Kinsler is dangerous when he is on but that is less and less as time goes on. Cruz is getting to be joke defensively and less clutch as time goes on. Maybe we can find another Jason Bay like Seattle did.