Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Can Texas Run With the Big Boys

I saw an interesting little tidbit in Jayson Starks Rumblings and Grumblings column today. Much has been made of Texas's new TV deal that will pay them roughly $1.6 billion over a 20 year period. Many believe that the deal will give the Rangers the financial clout to stick with the Yankees in a bidding war for the services of Mr. Lee.

Now no one really expects the Rangers to match a deal that New York throws at Lee dollar-for-dollar, but the logic for the Rangers is that they just need to keep it close and Texas's locale and tax laws will make up the difference.

But as Stark explains in the article, is that the Rangers really wont be able to use that money in negotiations with Lee. The TV deal money won't be available to the Rangers until the deal kicks in around 2015, which would be year five of any deal Lee signs this off season. Stark also explains that the deal likely sent a good portion of money to the auction block to pay for the purchase of the team. It will also result in the Rangers losing their revenue sharing money.

Stack that on top of the fact that the Lee would only get tax breaks on games played in Texas and suddenly it seems that if the Rangers pony up the money to sign Lee they would find themselves in a similar position as what Tom Hicks ended up in after giving A-Rod his record setting $252 million deal.

The Yankees signing Lee isn't a lock, but it does seem that the Rangers are in as strong a positions as they seemed to be a month ago.

Monday, November 8, 2010

There is a God

Our long national nightmare is over. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are out of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Finally. Now we only need to force out Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Somehow I feel that will be the true challenge.