Nothing has changed about my writing other than where it is posted. Come read my work and the work of my cohorts.

What this means is that I will, for the most part, be leaving The Bleacher Seats behind.

When I was first contacted, I was under the impression that I would only be contributing a couple of articles a week. After talking things out, I’ve been given the green light to write about whatever I want as often as it occurs to me (as long as it’s baseball related, naturally).

My original plan was to write two longer, Fansided-exclusive posts a week, but it makes a lot more sense to move all of my efforts over there, longer pieces and short musings alike.

So, it’s time to move on from my first home. I’ve loved having my own website dedicated to my thoughts and opinions about something that I love.

Fortunately, having that website has led me to this next step.

If you’re one of my (few) followers, you can expect the same style of writing at the new place. No one asked me to write a certain way or to provide a certain type of content. I’m free to be myself, to write what I want to write.

As for The Bleacher Seats, keep it in your RSS feed. No one can say what will happen in the future. I may come back to it from time to time, using it as a place to dump content that wouldn’t quite fit at Fansided.

For now, though, the lights are out. The party’s over.

Press on, Rangers fans.

(A special thanks to Alex Humphrey for pushing me to write about baseball in the first place. Maybe he saw something in me. Maybe he was just tired of talking to me about baseball all the time and wanted to give me a different medium to discuss it in. Either way, I’m glad he did it.)

First of all, let me reiterate that the Fielder deal was not good for anyone but Fielder. It may bolster the Tigers’ line-up for a couple of seasons, but there’s a lot of potential for it to be an albatross for years to come. If I were a Tigers fan, I would be worried.

Now that the Rangers won’t be finding room in their budget for Prince, what are they to do with that extra money in the pipeline?

We’ve been told all winter that, aside from Joe Nathan (who was signed very early on) and Yu Darvish (who was a luxury more than he was the plan), the Rangers’ number 1 priority has been locking up the core.

Guys like Napoli, Hamilton, Cruz, Kinsler, Holland, Feliz, et cetera.

That’s where I think we’re headed. It was reported that extensions were being discussed with Napoli, Kinsler, Hamilton, and Holland, but those were all put on hold while they figured out what they were doing with Darvish.

Sometime in the next few days (or weeks) I expect talks with some of those guys to ramp up again. Especially with Hamilton.

It’s been indicated that Hamilton and the Rangers both want him to play here long-term. With the relatively light slugging class of 2013, there’s a lot more incentive to hold onto Hamilton.

I’m not saying I like it, but it’s the reality of the situation.

…

As far as seeing both Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder make moves to the AL in the last couple of months, I will let the great Malcolm Reynolds sum up my thoughts –

Getting awful crowded in my sky...

Yesterday afternoon information started to leak out about a deal with a mystery team, which turned out to be the Detroit Tigers. Once it was reported as official, we learned of the monster numbers involved ($214MM for 9 years without an opt-out clause). So, regardless of what happens, Prince will end his career in Detroit and be a very, very, very, very rich man when he does.

If I were a Tigers fan, I’m not sure how I would feel about all of this. There was a lot of panic when Victor Martinez (the Tigers’ primary DH and sometimes catcher) went down with an injury that will probably sideline him for all of 2012. Fielder will more than make up for the loss of Martinez’ production.

This is a really stupid contract, though.

Nine years is a long time. Fielder is almost 28 and already out of shape. What will he look like when he’s 37? How long before he’s a $23MM/y designated hitter?

On top of that, $214MM is a lot of money. How are the Tigers going to put the best team on the field if they keep giving ridiculous contracts to aging players? What about their current stars, like Justin Verlander? Will they be able to pay him what he deserves when the time comes?*

*I hope not. I want Verlander in Arlington playing for his boyhood idol, Nolan Ryan.

Based on what I’ve read, it sounds like the Tigers did what the Rangers were doing for all those years under Tom Hicks. That is to say, their owner circumvented their GM (and common sense) and signed Fielder for too much money that didn’t need to be spent.

In fact, I think it probably went exactly like this –

• The GM: We don’t really need Prince Fielder. We’ve already got Miguel Cabrera at 1B.

• The Owner begins filling out a check for $214,000,000.

• The GM: Sir, I don’t think this–

• The Owner continues filling out the check.

• The GM: Sir, if you’ll listen, I really don’t–

• The Owner has the GM killed and replaced by a cyborg, because the Owner has just that much money.

• The Owner goes back to filling out the check. His hand cramps up from writing all of those 0′s. He finishes filling out the check in the morning.

We saw something similar with the Angels when they signed Albert Pujols. Some owners just can’t help but get involved. They still think that championships can be bought, refusing to learn from the mistakes of those that came before.

There’s no sense in it, but at least it isn’t my team that’s shelling out all of that money. The Rangers seem to have learned their lesson.

Too bad it had to be the hard way.

What if Baltimore traded Uehara to Texas with every intention of getting him back just a few months later and what if Texas had no knowledge of their evil machinations?

We all know that the Orioles have spent a lot of time recently collecting Rangers castoffs. Vlad Guerrero, Tommy Hunter, Chris Davis, Pedro Strop, and Taylor Teagarden have all been moved to Baltimore in the last year.

No doubt that well is starting to run dry. There are only so many players that Texas would be willing to part with, so what steps could be taken to ensure that the Rangers have another trade piece that Baltimore might be interested in?

Simple, the Orioles trade Koji Uehara to Texas, hoping that he under performs. When he does, the Orioles offer to take him back, pretending that they’re sorry that things didn’t work out. Having the Rangers play right into their hands, the Orioles front office staff all cackle maniacally for several hours.

As far as I can tell, I’m the only one breaking this story. Nobody else is reporting on it. Nobody else understands how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Some call me crazy, but I’m not crazy. I’m the only one who isn’t crazy!

There’s no denying that Uehara has not pitched well since being traded from the Orioles. Before the trade deadline, he was sporting a very clean 1.72 ERA. In Texas, it ballooned to 4.00 in just 18 innings pitched.

It isn’t for me to speculate on why he has done so poorly outside of Baltimore. It may be that he just isn’t comfortable here, but no one but Koji can say for sure.

His less-than-stellar performance is a shame. There were few things last season that brought me more happiness than watching him come off the mound after a successful outing. The utter joy and excitement we saw in him was unmatched anywhere else on the field.

Unfortunately it was something that we saw too little of in the regular season and none of in the postseason, as Uehara gave up 3 HRs in only 3 outings (1.1 innings pitched in the playoffs).

According to some rumblings last night, the Rangers and Uehara may be talking. Those talks may eventually lead to a trade, maybe to Toronto or even back to Baltimore.

Like I said, it’s a shame. I’d like to see him stay and be successful as a Ranger, but maybe he just needs a different situation. Maybe his going back to the Orioles is the best decision for everyone involved.

If he does go back, though, there is no question that I would ask for the original trade pieces or some equivalent. Even if it’s not Tommy Hunter and Chris Davis, at least work out a deal where you can recoup one serviceable pitcher and one serviceable position player.

For all intents and purposes, Uehara is the same pitcher. There’s no reason not to get similar compensation for him.

To clarify, Paterno actually only died once.

But, about 12 hours before he actually died, it was reported by a Penn State student paper that Paterno had succumbed to the lung cancer that he had been fighting for some time.

When the student paper sent the news out on Twitter, CBS Sports retweeted it. Not long after, it turned out to be untrue.

The editor of the student paper resigned. As far as I know, nothing happened to anyone at CBS.

The mind of the journalist is something of a mystery to me. In this day in age, with things like Twitter, why do a lot of media people still think that reporting a story first is important?

News comes at us faster than it ever has before. What advantages are there to sharing it a nanosecond sooner? Someone will retweet you? So what?

There was a time when news took days to get around to people, but it’s the 21st century. No longer is there a sea of reporters in suits and fedoras rushing to phone booths to call the office in New York. There aren’t even phone booths anymore!

At the end of the day, getting it first isn’t nearly as important as getting it right. If you report that someone is dead and they aren’t, you’re embarrassing yourself and the people that employ you.

Don’t pretend that retweeting something isn’t the same as reporting it, either. If you can’t be bothered to verify your story, then you’re bad at your job.

Check the facts. Find some sources. Get it right.

Okay, maybe using the word saga is a bit much, but the fact that Fielder isn’t signed (and that no one seems interested in signing him) is pretty remarkable.

Fielder has been a monster at the plate since becoming a full-time player in 2006. Not only does he put up great power numbers, but he can hit for average and walks* a lot too.

*In 2011 he walked exactly one more time than he struck out. Not sure if there’s any significance to this, but I thought it was neat.

By all accounts, he should have been signed weeks ago. But he hasn’t been, which is weird.

What do Fielder’s people honestly think of the market at this point? Fielder’s agent (Scott Boras) is the best there is at drawing teams into bidding wars, but no one is falling for it this time. Interest around baseball seems to range from casual to indifferent.

We’re little more than a month from Spring Training and one of the better power hitters in the game can’t find a place to play. This is a nightmare game of musical chairs where the person without a chair misses out on millions of dollars.

All of this leads me to one question, something that would have been unthinkable not long ago. Would Fielder take a 1 year deal to drum up interest for 2013?

For Boras, there is precedent for such a thing. In 2010, Adrian Beltre took a 1 year deal in Boston, put up impressive numbers, and then landed with the Rangers in 2011.

The difference between Beltre and Fielder is that Beltre was injured in 2009 and only played in 111 games. He had something to prove because the market wasn’t interested in him if he couldn’t stay healthy and be productive.

Fielder played in every game last season. He hit 38 HRs and had 120 RBIs. He was also intentionally walked 32* times.

*Five less than Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera combined.

But nobody wants him.

I don’t know what the future holds for Prince Fielder. Maybe he’ll take less money tomorrow. Maybe he and his agent will stick to their guns to the bitter end.

Maybe he’ll sign with the Nationals or the Orioles or the Mariners. Maybe the Rangers will surprise everybody and announce a deal sometime in the coming weeks. Or maybe the Angels will decide that 3 first basemen aren’t enough and they’ll sign him.

Whatever happens, the Fielder Saga has been stocked with intrigue. I will keep my eye on it from now until its resolution, because there isn’t much else for me to keep my eye on at this point anyway.

(I did some minor editing, mostly adding commas where appropriate. Other than that, it is exactly as Alex wrote it. Enjoy!)

If you’re a Rangers fan (or even just a baseball fan) you’ve heard of Josh Hamilton.

He was one of the most promising high school prospects in the history of baseball and he blew it all on drugs. He was repeatedly banned from baseball and almost died several times from his addiction to crack cocaine. After years abusing his loved ones and ruining his life he turned it all around with the help of God, a strong family, and lots of forgiveness. It’s an amazing story that holds no punches as it dives into the highs and lows of Hamilton’s journey.

But I’m not here to write about his drug addiction, his fall from grace, or his miraculous recovery. Hamilton’s story has been told many times. What really shocked me was the Rangers response to his sobriety.

Hamilton had his first post-sobriety Major League season with the Reds. It was a whirlwind of a season with reporters constantly asking for interviews. It got so bad that Hamilton had to hold a press conference in every city he played in. His teammates resented the attention he got and made it verbal a few times late in the season.

But, when he was traded to the Rangers in 2008, everything changed.

With the new team came new reporters and another press conference. They were asking the same questions, “What is your story? What drugs did you use? Why would you throw everything away?” and he was answering them all when he noticed teammates Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, and Hank Blalock sitting in the back. He didn’t think anything of it – assuming they were waiting for their own press conferences – until a reporter asked,

“How many of these press conferences would you say you’ve done?”

“A lot,” Hamilton responded.

“Have you ever had your teammates show up to support you?”

He was confused by the question. It never occurred to him that Kinsler, Young, and Blalock were there to support him. He broke down in tears – no teammate had ever done that before.

A week later Kinsler invited him out to grab dinner – it was the first time a teammate ever asked him to hang out since going into the big leagues.

It wasn’t just Ian Kinsler. First baseman Jason Botts often invited him over to play Halo and Milton Bradley put together breakfasts for the guys. As a team, the Rangers aren’t just guys getting paid to play baseball, they are teammates. They are friends.

I’ve only followed the Rangers since 2010, but in that time I’ve seen this played out time and time again. Claw and antlers is an inside joke among friends. When the team loses, they’re out there joking around and having fun the next day; big losses don’t get to them because everyone knows their friends tried their best.

I’ve heard it said many times that the Rangers would do anything for Ron Washington, but it’s also true that the entire team would do anything for each other. They hang out, have fun, and encourage each other every day.

This is what makes them such a great team. Anyone can put together talented baseball players, but you can’t manufacture friendship. That’s a culture that has to be built by the team.

And while the book doesn’t talk much about it, it’s probably a big reason Hamilton has been able to stay sober all these years.

The 2011 World Series was heart breaking, but I love my team. I’m proud to call myself a fan of a team who loves each other enough to take the ex-cocaine addict under their wings. I’m proud to know the Rangers are as legitimate behind the scenes as everyone says they are. I’m proud of Michael Young’s leadership.

There are a lot of amazing things in Josh Hamilton’s story. Beyond Belief is a book I’d highly recommend to you.

But what’s stuck in my mind is the insight it has given me into the Rangers’ clubhouse. They’re the real deal.

Here’s to 2012. Here’s to the Rangers.

In a radio interview yesterday, Jon Daniels talked about Darvish’s contract negotiations. One thing that jumped out at me was the fact that, throughout the process, Yu didn’t ask for any special considerations.

Sometimes, when a big-time player is signed, he asks for certain perks. It could be having your own driver or getting a luxury hotel suite during road trips or any number of other things that set you apart from the rest of the team.

(One such example is that in Albert Pujols’ deal with the Angels he gets 10 free tickets to Disneyland every year. I guess the entirety of his $254MM has already been earmarked and poor Albert just can’t afford any Disneyland tickets on his own.)

Darvish seems to understand the importance of integrating oneself into the clubhouse environment, especially for a foreign player. By all accounts, he just wants to be one of the guys, part of the team.

This is more apparent considering that he asked the Rangers not to provide an interpreter outside of interviews. When dealing with his teammates, he wants to be the one doing the talking.

He even told Jon Daniels that, although he’s a well-established veteran in Japan, he’s still a rookie in MLB and wouldn’t have a problem with any of those rookie hazing rituals that big league players are so fond of (such as being asked to wear a Hooter’s outfit on a road trip).

The Rangers already have some of the best clubhouse chemistry in the major leagues, but chemistry is tricky. Bringing in the wrong ego can upset the balance. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Yu isn’t coming in as the rock-star ace phenom pitcher that he is in Japan.

He knows he’s got something to prove and he’s already starting to prove it. Now he’s just got to pitch.

…

A few little things before this post is wrapped up. This morning I changed my Twitter account from @Section52 to @BleacherSeatsTX.

I’ve never liked Section 52 as a title, which is why this site is called The Bleacher Seats in spite of its URL. Eventually I plan on changing that as well. For now, though, take note of the new Twitter handle.

In other big news, I was recently contacted by a representative at Fansided.com asking me if I would be interested in writing for their Ranger themed blog. The short of it is that, sometime in the near future, I will be contributing 2 articles per week to Nolan Writin’.

All of that content will be completely original and will not be posted to The Bleacher Seats. It’s very exciting and I will post here when my first piece goes live.