the rangers have been developing garcia and sardinas for some time. my question is isn't time to start thinking of doing everything possible to groom them both to potentially be ready to man the shortstop positon in two years? let's face it, the rangers aren't going to be acquiring david price or giancarlo stanton without giving up jurickson profar.

i'm not in favor of pillaging the farm system, as you can only build a long-term winner from promoting from within, but we have to be realistic and accept that the magical "window" won't be open forever. if the rangers don't do whatever they can to take advantage of that time frame they risk becoming the orioles and indians of the 90's, long-term competitive teams that could never get over the hump.

with a young pitcher like martin perez you just never know. anyone one of you remember juan dominguez? how did he workout for the rangers? jovany cedeno? let us not forget the DVD trio! you get the gist. you just never know with young arms. why put all your eggs in one basket with the guy?

mike olt? the guy is VERY blocked at third and the rangers' front office has no intentions of giving the guy a shot at first. i understand that his value isn't as great there as compared to being at third base but if the guy can give you some pop then you do it! or move him and acquire the necessary pieces to improve your ballclub.

that leaves us with profar. i understand the guy is the top-rated minor leaguer, is controllable for the next six years and will be cheap for the next three, but if he can net you stanton or price then you move him! isn't stanton is under team control for the next three or four years? price would be under control for two years. with price, once you get him you make signing him long-term your main priority!

this is where garcia and sardinas come in. buy trading profar you run the risk of ending up without your top prospect AND potentially losing elvis andrus to free agency in two years. that "potentially" is very likely to become a reality being that andrus is represented by scott boras. by aggressively challenging garcia and sardinas to become better players you increase their likelihood of being ready for the majors in 2015. even if they only pan out to be average major leaguers you still have david price atop your rotation OR giancarlo stanton manning your outfield. not an ideal situation of course but you'll never have the perfect team. which is why even the best teams make trades at the summer deadline.

sorry for the long post. you all have a happy new year.

Sorry if this comes off as disrespectful, but what are you drinking? :-)

Seriously dude, this makes no sense. If you think they can speed some up, to reach the majors in 2014, and slow others down, to get there in 2016 or 2018, that's not how it works.

The Rangers are already grooming Sardinas ...and Garcia ....and Odor ...and every other minor leaguer to be the very best player they can be and to be major league ready as soon as they can. There is no "super secret formula" they save for just a few, to use in special situations. And there is no guarantee that any of these kids will ever be major league caliber players, no matter what they do, it's just a matter of trying to draft or sign the ones with potential, then putting in lots and lots of work and see what happens.

I wouldn't worry too much about player development. The Rangers' farm system is perhaps the VERY best in all of baseball at churning out MIF. Garcia is quietly under-the-radar, but a bunch of teams would covet him for his utility work; he may break some club's MLB team as an UIF. He's a prime candidate for the Ranger's UIF needs next year, and a possible trade piece for a team that is in need of a UIF at the deadline.

If you follow amateur MLB scouts (Parks, Cole, etc), they RAVE about the depth of the Rangers' farm systems, perhaps the deepest in baseball. Fangraphs has a great piece on Sardinas possibly being the next "big prospect" to make a vaulted leap in the farm. Now, just because he's expected to accomplish great things doesn't mean we need to rush him. Our depth has allowed us to let prospect bud into top-tier prospects (ahem Profar). Just because they're next in the pecking order doesn't mean we need to hurry them up.

Don't fret about the farm. We're in good shape (aside from TORP pitching). Behind our current ripening crop, we have players like Sardinas and Odor, behind them we have, Gallo, Beras, and Alfaro.

If we decide to trade Profar + Olt + X for Giancarlo, then we'll be fine. If we don't then you may see us trading for Giancarlo in two years with the same conversation going on, except it would be Sardinas or Odor for Giancarlo.

Same #richfarmproblems, different years.

david, i don't see you post as being disrespectful but please understand that i'm well aware that when it comes to player development there isn't a way of selectively grooming players to reach the majors, i'm not stupid. my question is should the rangers show more faith in garcia and sardinas buy giving the marlins and the rays the player they so covet, profar? should the rangers allow one player stand in the way of acquiring a true ace like price? or a corner-stone player like stanton? my answer is no.

When it comes to the Rangers minor league system and moving a prospect up to the Big Show, it is quite obvious, at least ONE YEAR SUCCESS AT AA. To that effect, Martin, Olt and Profar all accomplished that last year. But so did Leury Garcia, so expect to see little leury in 2013. He could easily also be on the Opening Day roster, especially if Andrus is traded for Upton, or more unlikely Stanton. Projected big time arrival will be 2016, when Odor and Sardinas should be ready, PLUS, so should: Alfaro, Beras, Brinson, Gallo, Guzman and Mazara. By then Akins, Cone, Deglan, Skole and Telis will have their shots at playing in the starting line up.

And some century, Engel Beltre

^

Better chance that at least half of those name wash out. Akins is already on his way out, despite remarkable tools. Same thing with Skole and Engel Beltre.

I saw Skole play a few times last season before his suspension and hte guy looked more lost than Hamilton at the plate. Skole has the tools just not sure if he has the brain to put it all together. I guess I should qualify that with he was at High A Myrtle Beach when I saw him play about 10-15 games last season. Granted it was a small sample size but then again he was suspended for PED'sat about the halfway mark too. No one on this years High A team relaly impressed me. Bu tlas tseason you had Zaneski, Garcia, Hoying, Ross, Font, Olt, Loux, and more that were traded on the team and they all looked very good. Garcia is a wiz with the leather, he played mostly 2B/SS in 11 at Myrtle Beach. But from what I understand now they are looking at playing him in CF to ge thim some experiece out there. Also his bat seems to be coming alive little by little now.

Agreed the only torps I can think of in the farm are David and martin Perez

Eric, I would change that stat to: if a team can hit on 1 out 0f 3 top rated prospects they are way ahead of the game, though players in the field are easier to weigh then pitching prospects. One partial setback for Akins does not mean much if the tools are there. Hamilton had three such set backs, only to bounce back at the same age, though it was with low numbers of ab.The flip side is, who is to say Akins, Brinson, Gallo, especially Guzman, Beras and/or Mazara do not turn out to be a Hamilton or Stanton, much to early to know one way or the other, and 2016 seems to be the season where clarity on all those players would emerge.

IMO, we have a bunch of pitchers with #3 ceilings and #5 floors (which isn't bad considering). I don't think we really have any TORPs unless someone takes a meteoric step forward in development (a la Cliff Lee).