Thursday January 26th, 2012

Sam Evans: As hard as it is to rank GM’s in baseball, Texas General Manager Jon Daniels has to be considered one of the best in the game. Daniels hasn’t been perfect running the Rangers, but he’s been as close as you can get.  He has completely turned around the direction of the Rangers franchise and he’s due to receive much of the credit for the recent success of the franchise.

Jon Daniels got his start in baseball as an intern for the Rockies in 2001. In 2004, he was named the Rangers assistant GM. Then, in 2005, Jon Daniels became the youngest General Manager in baseball history. Right after Daniels took over, he made a gutsy trade: moving Alfonso Soriano, the Rangers best player to the Washington Nationals.

In 2005, it had been six years since the Rangers made the playoffs. Now, seven years later, the Rangers have made two straight World Series appearances. Not to mention they have had one of the best farm systems in baseball for the last four years. It seems like every time the Rangers graduate prospects to the majors, there are even more future stars waiting in the wings.

Jon Daniels doesn’t deserve all the credit. His scouting department is the best in the majors (in my opinion). I recently watched a show about Gray wolves. The Gray wolf has evolved over the years and it has learned that hunting with fellow wolves is easier than hunting alone. Jon Daniels and his scouts are very similar to these wolves. The Rangers employ one of the largest scouting department in the majors. So similar to the wolves, the Rangers believe in strength in numbers.

The Rangers have an extremely diverse 40-man roster. Not even in terms of nationalities, but in how the Rangers acquired each of the players. On the Rangers 40-man, 15 of their players were acquired via trade, 1 was acquired through the rule five draft, 7 were international free agents, only 4 were MLB free agents, and 1 was acquired from McDonald’s. Sorry, Mark Hamburger. I couldn’t help it. A large part of the Rangers success is because of the Jon Daniels and the ability of his scouts to recognize and acquire talent through all aspects of the game.

Most of Texas’s new talent is coming from overseas, Latin America in particular. Elvis Andrus, Jurickson Profar, and Ronald Guzman were all signed at a young age by the Rangers scouts. The Rangers haven’t been afraid to hand out large bonuses to get these talented youngsters to sign. Rangers outfielder Leonys Martin, for example, was signed to a record-setting 5-year, $15.5 million contract out of Cuba.

Texas recently signed Daniels through the 2015 season. So Rangers fans won’t have to worry about Daniels going anywhere. Thanks to Daniels and his staff, Texas will be a hard team to beat in 2012. They have depth at every position and more talented players close to the big leagues. At the rate the Rangers are producing talent, they’re not going anywhere. The Rangers are going to be a consistent playoff contender for a long time to come.

***Today’s feature was prepared by our Baseball Writer, Sam Evans.  We highly encourage you to leave your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page and share in the discussion with our readers.  You can also follow Sam on Twitter***

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