At first I couldn't imagine a team that would take him, but it seems like every year the Angels sign or assume a horribad contract on an aging player, so maybe A-Rod is going West.

The big pink elephant - They're already locked into some huge long term deals. Pujols, Weaver, Wilson, Eybar, Kendrick. That's nearly half a billion all by itself. All of whom are probably at or past their prime btw.... but that's an another topic.

For a small market club, it's a good gamble. It's doubtful Jones keeps this pace up, but averaging $14 million to age 32 (and barring injury) this can't ever be a Vernon Wellsesque fiasco.

Former great MLB player who's the coach of a team in first place in the NL West vs.... guys with calculators

It's pretty clear starting last year that teams grew less and less afraid of him, with his walk rate dropping significantly, and his intentional walks have all but stopped.

Hank Blalock, All Star at the age of 22 and 23... left baseball at 29

With a few exceptions, Lou Gehrig and Will Mays being the most prominent, age regression for position players hits at around age 32 and it's rarely a slow gradual decline. Even if Pujols were to regress well, it doesn't justify the 1/4 billion price tag the Angels paid in order to witness it first hand. 10 years is a LONG time.

I think you're reading to much into this. When you factor in the way the the brain assimilates and stores information, the number of games Hunter played vs. the Yankess, and Mariano, it's easy to imagine that this "event" that Hunter remembers is his brain subconciously combining several moments and even thoughts into a moment that seems "real" to Hunter but actually isn't. It's something we all do but obviously aren't aware of it, but we don't usually have fact-checkers looking to prove or disprove our false memory.

Do those #s factor in the humongous difference between throwing half your games in Arlington vs. Oakland? For lack of alternatives, Holland was rushed to the show, and it showed (no pun intended) early on. He's just now at the age where the average starter becomes a major leaguer, so he's way ahead of the age curve. Barring injury, last year, which was pretty good, is probably his floor, but his cieling is torpish. Gonzalez moving out of Oakland, plus playing fewer West coast parks (which are all pitcher's parks), his #s are likely to go up, not down.

He's healthy afain. See below

I'd rank Engel Beltre over Leonys Martin, but they are very very close and also very similiar as players. I like Beltre's bat a tad more and I like Martin's defense a bit more, especially the arm, which has above average power and plus accuracy. I'd also put Scheppers and Mendez over Ramirez, but not as a knock on Ramirez. Scheppers has closer stuff. Mendez could be bullpen ready in a short time, but the upside of him is a starter is worth taking the development time to work on secondary pitches since the Rangers look to be fairly deep in the pen as it is. I'm more bullish on Robbie Ross. Greg Maddux-ish in that he doesn't impress at first glance, but his control is fantastic for his age. To have that kind of control makes me think the floor is a #4, and the refinement of his pitches and perhaps the development of a 4th could make him a #2 or #3.

Pitchers hitting 9th adds a whole other strategic level to the game and makes the coach and bench players way more important, something the Players association would also like. It would also reduce the number of long and boring mid-inning pitcher replacments, as most will be replaced via pinch hitter.

It's possible Bonnafacio is just getting better. He's at the age where it's common for players to figure it out. Moreland played a lot of 2011 with a broken bone in his wrist, so an improvement is extremely likely.

The bits of inforation leaking out make it seems like the Rangers knew something no other team knew. Can you confirm this is true or not? Knowing whether that is true is really crucial to the story. What are the penalties for filing a false birth certificate in his situation, i.e. attending some baseball prospect event? IF the MLB noted to the scouts that they hadn't confirmed the birth dates, that implies it wasn't that big a deal to the MLB at that time. I suspect that prior to this J2 deadline, the MLB has no designated penalties regarding false dobs until a player actually signs. The J2 deaadline changed that obviously, but you can't grandfather the rules of a new agreement prior to the deadline. Tht is what deadlines are for.

I can lie about my age to my fiance, but I can't lie on the marriage certificate. The KEY MOMENT is what the situation was WHEN he signed the contract with the Rangers. If he was 16 when he signed, the contract is void. If he was 17, it'll be hard to legally backup negating the contract. In previous instances where he had to present a birth certificate, there was probably no penalty to lying about it, both because of the wording of the document might have designated no penalty for lying, and the fact that he was a minor and thus not liable. Sounds to me like the kid wanted to be a Ranger, or wwhile other teams were napping, the Rangers did their due diligence, and found out the kid was either mistaken or lying about his dob, and made a last minute offer.

Too obscure a movie to reference IMO... I knew you were BSing, for reasons I wasn't sure, but I'm sure some people were searching their other propsect lists checking for these guys saying "what the hell?"

I suspect this type of team would not be a magnet for the best coaches, and by coaches, I mean all the coaches throughout the system who help players get to and excel at the Major League level. The numbers of baseball are as much the consequences of years of coach/player interactions as they are the in-game decision of the manager. Stepping too far into the coaches terrain is likely to rub coaches the wrong way, and they'll go to teams where there is more autonomy.

Re. Harrison Watched every game. Far less nibbling last year and trusted his stuff a lot more, espeically when he got into jams. When it's not taling back over the plate, his high and inside fastball was eating up righties and the low stuff was inducing a lot of groundballs. It'd might have been a string of amazing luck, but he got out of a lot of jams with the DP last year.