Offseason Review: Texas Rangers

A New Hope

The Rangers are still going to be really good, but for the first time in 3 seasons, their hold on the division is in question. What's weird about that is that I think they are actually a better team than either of the past two years, but with the Angels sudden incorporation of acquired talent, Texas is going to have to step it up.

Offseason Review: Oakland Athletics

Hi! I'm on the Athletics!

OK, I realize it's popular to find something honorable or charming about the A's but I just don't. I've already written two separate articles discussing my confusion over two of Oakland's bigger moves and that confusion hasn't gone away. Yoenis Cespedes confused me and Manny Ramirez just pissed me off. I want to make this one brief because if I don't I'll go off on some tangent about the bastardized version of Moneyball that Billy Beane has enacted in Oakland. No one wants to hear that.

Offseason Review: Seattle Mariners

Last year's Mariners MVP Dustin Ackley

In terms of fast-acting impact moves the Mariners were quiet this offseason. They shed rapist shit bag Josh Lueke by trading for John Jaso and signed a bunch of depth players. There is very little to say about any of this. The strategy Seattle needs to enact is in development, and aside from hoping Hong-Chih Kuo pitches well and can stave off injury long enough to become tradeable, these moves don't necessitate much analysis. 

Contract Corner: Manny Ramirez

Over the course of my working life I've been employed at two different delis in two different parts of the state of Wisconsin. When I first entered the sliced cheese and meat market I had no idea what pastrami was. I always figured it was one of those old people meats that Nickelodeon cartoon characters would use as a token gross food product that lame grandpas would suggest instead of pizza. Boy was I wrong.

Contract Corner: Yoenis Cespedes

The newest/highest paid member of the Oakland Athletics

So I totally shit the bed on Sunday when I said the Yankees were gonna be the surprise team in on Cespedes. The Oakland A's (of all teams) came out of nowhere with $36MM in hand and signed him for four years. I'm not exactly sure what the hell to make of this, because the A's have made it pretty clear by stripping their rotation and trading off their closer that they do not intend to compete in the next year, or likely the year after that.

One argument could be made that if Cespedes succeeds to an ideal extent, an unlikely scenario by my estimate, that the $36MM four year deal could be a bargain. He has huge raw power and is going to be given an immediate shot in the bigs to become the A's every day right fielder. There is an immense hype surrounding the defector, who put up a .333/.424/.667 line with 33 home runs in 99 RBIs in 90 games over 2010-2011, but he's playing in unfamiliar territory. I'll get in to what this means for the A's specifically more when I do my offseason review (get ready for 15 paragraphs on the impact of Jonny Gomes), but for now I'll say this. If Cespedes pays off and performs to his ceiling, Billy Beane will have maybe earned his extension, if not, he's going to make Lew Wolff look like the biggest rube on the planet.