Just making a morning discussion thread to keep non-Fitocracy posts out of the Fitocracy thread. Rather not have it gummed up with posts about PETA and the like. Talk about whatever you like, and fill it up with the thousand plus posts the OT threads usually get.

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 48 words long. If you just have a quote, link, video or photo you'd like to share with the community, trycreating a FanShot instead.

Well, the very successful Spring Training Fitocracy Free for All Challenge has come and gone. I'm sure all of the contestants who competed were in the best shape of their lives. I thought I'd put up a poll just to get a feeling for what kind of challenge folks would want to see next, so WhipSmart can use it for input.

Now that Fitocracy.com is out of beta, you don't need an invite to sign up.

I previously looked at the 31 top Ranger Draft picks, but, when looking at it, I also got interested in how productive the average drafts were, and how productive the Various Ranger GMs were.   So, I crunched the data and came up with the following lists.  All WARs are Baseball-reference.com WAR's.  

Please note that some GMs can still improve with time, and it's probably premature to include Daniels.  It does show that anyone who expects a fairly short term bump from upcoming drafts will likely be disappointed. 

At any rate, here are the lists.

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I thought I'd take a small break from the all of the good fun tarring and feathering MY to put up a post.  I know we talk a lot about WAR here, but sometimes, it is good to see where the Ranger players stack up against average players, rather than replacement players.  So here, for your amusement, Are all the Ranger positional player sorted by Runs Against Average as calculated from Fangraph data.  If you wanted to know how many wins they were worth, compared to an average player at their position, you can divide by 10, and be within spittin' distance of the right ballpark.

Just for on topic sake, as you can see, last year, MY was an above average 3B last year.

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Adam's recent tweets got me interested in the history of Rangers draft picks.   I was a little curious to see all the top picks over the history of the franchise.  Here are the 31 best Ranger Draft picks, sorted by Baseball-Reference WAR.   The cutoff I used was 10 Career WAR.

Edit: The table is now after the jump, to conserve front page space

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Fairly slim Pickins.    None of the pitchers do all that much for me.  I'm intrigued by Ordonez mostly because of his ability vs. lefties. I also wouldn't mind Lee.  It wouldn't surprise me if we just re-signed Guerrero though.  Any players I missed?  Anyone have any major desire for anyone on the list?

Pitchers

Rafael Soriano

Carl Pavano

Andy Pettitte (realistically is likely either a Yankee or retiring)

Kerry Wood

Kevin Gregg

Brian Fuentes

Grant Balfour

Pedro Feliciano

Brandon Webb  (Edit:  Added some pitchers per Darrel's post)

Jeff Francis

Jeremy Bonderman

Kevin Millwood

Brad Penny

Chris Young

Position Players

3B- Adrian Beltre

DH-Vlad Guerrero

DH/OF-Magglio Ordonez

1B-Adam LaRoche

DH-Manny Ramirez

2B-Orlando Hudson

DH/OF-Johnny Damon

SS - Orlando Cabrera

DH/1B - Derrek Lee

DH/1B - Russell Branyan

IF- Bill Hall

OF - Scott Podsednik

DH-Jim Thome

DH-Andruw Jones

3 years, up to 51 million with an unspecified option year.

The Yankees and Derek Jeter will finalize a three-year deal today after hammering out the final details on a contract that will pay the captain between $15 million and $17 million a year, according to a person briefed on the situation.

I really had hoped this would drag out, and be a distraction from the Lee deal.  I really was hoping that Rivera and Jeter would be a multi month circus.

The ticket announced that Babe Lauffenberg and channel 11 are reporting that Wade has been fired and Jason Garrett is interim head coach.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2010/11/08/dallas-cowboys-coach-wade-phillips-fired/

Dallas Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips has been fired.

Jason Garrett has been named the new interim head coach. Garrett had previously been the Cowboys assistant head coach and offensive coordinator.

More will be added as it develops.   I'm sure if you are in Dallas you will hear more about this story than you did about the Rangers World Series win.

BELIEVE....this isn't supposed to be easy. Nothing this year has been. Whether on the field or off, every time things looked about set, unexpected problems arose. But in the end, the conclusion we sought was EARNED, each and every time. This series is simply a microcosm of all that has preceded it. This season has been filled with magic, and more lies ahead. As for history? Forget it. History doesn't throw a pitch or swing a bat. History belongs to those who make it, and it takes place in the present tense. Our history will be made on Tuesday. Be proud....and BELIEVE.

Chuck

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-byu-independent

That's another blow to the Mountain West which really seems to be a stranger and stranger conference.  They are really spread out over hell and back and have lost some big programs.

I'm not sure going independant for BYU will work out as well as it has worked for Notre Dame.  I'm not sure BYU-TV will be quite the winner they think it will be, unless their program improves dramatically.

Per the Ticket's Bob Sturm

He Referenced TR Sullivan

The Rangers have placed outfielder Nelson Cruz on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring. They have recalled outfielder Graig Gentry from Triple A Oklahoma City where he was hitting .295 with two home runs and 12 RBI in 58 at-bats. He has five steals.

That's the last thing this team needs.   It's best offensive contributor this year.  Somehow, I don't think Murphy is gonna fill the void.

Laura Miller runs off the Cowboys.

Dallas has never been particularly friendly to sports franchises.  I think Ron Kirk helped the Mavs, but before and after him, the city weren't interested in playing ball with the owners. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the Ron Kirk era didn't start til a couple years after they committed to Arlington.

So, hopefully we see the end of the "Why the Rangers should be in Dallas" posts that pop up from time to time.  Quite simply, Arlington has always been willing to play ball, and view getting sports and entertainment facilities as part of their economic development, Dallas isn't interested.

With Richard Justice crowning Bud Selig the best commissioner ever, I figured it would be a good time to poll the LSB faithful to see if they agree.  Feel free to throw in any comments on any of the commissioners.

Is it Landis,  who kept African Americans out of baseball, or Eckert, who had not been to a live game in the 10 years before being commissioner, or Ueberroth who spearheaded collusion?  Lots of great choices!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4392571

I really want to know why they have already decided its a 2 day assignment.  That seems fairly ridiculous to me in light of Hamilton's early return from the DL, and the slump Kinsler was in prior to his DL trip.  In my opinion, the Frisco appearances should last as long as they need to last.  If Kinsler is hitting the ball and seems like he is unaffected by the Hamstring, I see no reason not to bring him up in 2 games.

However, if he is still having issues, I see nothing wrong with using the whole 30 days if necessary.  I'd just hate to see a repeat of the Hamilton fiasco.

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Huge win for the Rangers.  The Rangers give Nellie and Ian and Salty the night off, and still crush the Angels with the help of a white Hot Andruw Jones (Ranger OPS leader and person who would be released if a lot of LSB had their way).

via www.fangraphs.com

11 games over 500!  Your First Place Texas Rangers!  Time for Seattle!

Your FanPost must be at least 75 words long. Right now it's only 60 words long.

Milton apparently threw his helmet after he flied out in his AB in the 6th, and broke a water cooler.  Pinella benched him, and there were words.  They interviewed Pinella and he still seemed a little wound up.

So the question is, if the Cubs put Bradley up on the market for bargain prices and were willing to pick up some of his contract, would you be interested?

My suspicion is because of the Tom Hicks financial situation, it would be tough to make a deal work.

After watching Chris Davis put together some great three true outcomes games (games in which the hitter keeps the ball out of play all night long), lately, I was wondering how far advanced he was on the path to being a TTO monster.  For his career, he has a TTO/PA of .445, which would put him #5 on the all time list. 

However, this year he is just smoking along at a .542 clip, which is just awesome. It means over half his PAs, the defense can just pick dandelions. Hopefully he can pick up his walk rate, and even have less balls in play.

It's awesome that you really don't have to worry about his BABIP because he so rarely puts the ball in play.  We might be able to see the greatest TTO player in the history of baseball.

From the Recondite Baseball Blog

http://www.freep.com/article/20081216/FREEPRESS/81216032

Detroit Media Partnership CEO Dave Hunke, publisher of the Free Press, said that starting in spring 2009, both the Free Press and the Detroit News — also operated by the partnership — would deliver to homes only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, the heaviest days for advertising and the most popular papers for readers. But the newspapers will remain available seven days a week at stores, newsstands and coin boxes across Michigan.

I thought this story was an interesting followup to the previous fanpost about the DMN and FWST pooling beat guys. I wonder how long the concept of a delivered paper will hold up across the country. It seems like such an antiquated concept in these days of digital delivery everywhere 24/7.

Suspending a guy indefinitely for referring to his ex-girlfriend as sloppy seconds?  Really?  That must be the most wussified, PC things I have ever heard of.  He didn't unleash obscenities, he didn't get caught with a weapon, he wasn't using drugs.  He said the league was tearing up his sloppy seconds.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120300468.html

Just for the record, I'd hit his sloppy Seconds. 

via galleries.lycos.co.uk

Since the Election night thread is at about 700 posts.

Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama, and congratulations to the House and Senate.  I suspect Obama is smart enough to know that if he goes with a radical enough agenda,  all the Dem gains can turn around and wash out about as fast as they washed in.

If he doesn't know that, I suspect he can ask Bill Clinton on how that works.