Damn it is 1995...Pudge back to the Rangers

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/08/18/rangers.rodriguez/index.html?eref=si_mostpopular

This is a home stretch leadership acquisition and a chance to retire with the team he started with. Nice job Rangers.

 

Sentimental reasons notwithstanding, it was a no-brainer move. Pudge is cheap at this stage in his career and when Saltalamacchia went on the DL, the Rangers needed a veteran backup.

You can't go into the playoffs with Kevin Richardson, a catcher that didn't even get an invite to major league spring training (and you only need to be a catcher in the system with a pulse to get that) and is only in the bigs because Max Ramirez is hurt and nobody else is ready.

Not getting a veteran of any type and pleading Hicks broke-assedness would've been a punch to the stomach in the clubhouse. Fucking Hicks can't sell the team fast enough.

 

Since when has anyone confused Pudge with a leader?

 

Defensively, he's no backup.

 

And compared to Teagarden's sizzling .198, neither is he with the stick. But at his age, it's hard for Pudge to be an everyday catcher.

 

Pudge as a leader? Oh hell, I don't know ... the only catcher to ever be behind the plate for a Rangers playoff game, World Series champion starter with the Marlins. Yeah, he's no gamer. Go pound sand.

 

Yeah the Rangers pitchers of the late '90s loved pitching to him. He worked really hard with the pitchers. And he had nothing to do with getting Alan Trammell fired.

 

Being in the lineup doesn't make you a leader.

 

OK, fine then. I was there, he was a leader.

 

And people who were there and in the front office thought little of him. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

Not what I was told, so yeah, we'll disagree.

 

Pudge was ready for the big bucks coming out of Texas. He decided at the last minute to go tell his agent to eff himself and get something done with Texas.

Just watch and listen the first time he goes to the plate as a Ranger and maybe you'll understand.