WilltheThrill
Well-Known Member
- 4,962
- 703
- 113
- Joined
- May 17, 2012
- Hoopla Cash
- $ 1,000.00
- Fav. Team #1
- Fav. Team #2
- Fav. Team #3
And that one line right there describes the main frustration of so many loyal Rangers fans- there is literally no direction at all for this franchise right now. Zero.
I put the lion's share of the blame for that squarely at the feet of Ray Davis and Bob Simpson. They are truly horrible owners in every way possible. You can just tell by reading between the lines that they are the ones "steering" the ship and that JD operates within the confines of what they tell him. I am no JD fan, either, and think he definitely bears responsibility for a lot of the mess he created. But here seems to be the Davis/Simpson master plan (correct me if you think I'm wrong):
We are first and foremost not a rebuilding team and we are not going to be trading away any players who can be viewed as "valuable" or especially "marketable". For if you are truly a rebuilding team, you are tearing everything down and building for the future, and doing so means fewer fans in seats in the short-term. Our buddies Ray and Bob can't have that! We have the new stadium and profits to recoup and we can't afford to lose any more money!! So if an asset is deemed to still have any real value, we are going to hold on to it as if it's worth its weight in gold. Mike Minor still had the new car smell last year and was seen as an All-Star and staff ace. So my educated guess is that JD was told not to trade him unless the return was a package of elite prospects and current All-Stars. Fast forward to this year when Minor is no longer seen as the ace he was last year, and now Simpson and Davis don't mind trading in last year's model. But Lance Lynn is the new darling and the one who will supposedly pitch us to the promised land and bring in fans next season by the millions. So it is ordered that he (and Gallo) are kept around instead of shipped off for a better future.
And that's what I'm getting at with their "master plan"... there is ZERO value placed on the future. It's all about the here and now with Simpson and Davis. Zero emphasis is placed on drafting, or else we would have hired a REAL scouting department and given Kip Fagg and his band of idiots their walking papers a long time ago. Zero emphasis is placed on developing a top level farm system or else we would have traded Darvish, Hamels, Minor, Lynn, and Gallo when their values were at their peak (or close to it) instead of waiting until all of those assets had depreciated to the point of no longer being seen as crucial to the team's current performance.
Part 2 of the "master plan" is putting enough talent on the field right now to both win and attract tons of fans to the new stadium, all while dramatically slashing payroll. Wait, what?!?! Yes, that seems to be the plan. We're going to reduce payroll until we're in the bottom 5 all while magically bringing in big name players and/or clutch performers who will win us the division and bring in record crowds. This is the level of delusion that exists among ownership (and seemingly management as well). We are going to keep cycling through the Todd Fraziers of the league because they once upon a time hit 30 HR, they have semi-recognizable names, and they cost next to nothing. And to our brilliant ownership, they will make the fans happy.
TL/DR: We're not going to rebuild, we're not going to significantly improve our drafting or farm system, we're going to slash payroll even further, we're not going to sign any free agent which costs any real money, we're not going to trade any current valuable asset we lucked into having on our team, but we're going to attract tons of fans to the new stadium and make boatloads of cash by signing former stars and household names several years past their prime out of the bargain bin.
Zero direction, zero sense of purpose, zero intelligence... zero hope right now.
