That and the added ticket revenue from Japanese fans and sales of Darvish jersey's and the Rangers will get a lot of that money back.

The problem with Josh is his baggage, a lot of teams are going to pass on him just because of that and since there are only a handful of teams that would be in on bidding for him any teams that doesn't want to deal with his baggage will drop his price.

That wouldn't surprise me if it does work out that way. Not that homer will ever buy it.

I know. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw the difference was five runs. Like you, I too thought the way he goes on and on about it that the difference would be much much higher.

I liked buffalos response about the five run difference..... " yeah, we really showed them."

There's only one run differential stat that makes a difference - Final Game Score.

You score more than your opponent - you win
You score less than your opponent - you lose
Seems pretty simple to me.....

Up until the last couple of years Rangers players would love being here but there was always the thought in the back of players heads that they had to go elsewhere to play for a championship. That concept is now gone, hopefully for a long time. I'm not saying that he will, or should, take a home town discount but the Rangers no longer have pay extra to keep guys.

The best thing going for the Rangers to keep the players they have is that they appear to enjoy playing with other. I think it's harder to leave a team where you enjoy your teammates.

That may be true but....

Josh, most likely, will be the Premiere Free Agent next off season. The Players Union will be pressuring him to go out and get as much as he can so the market will be set as high as possible. Josh has already indicated he feels he has an obligation to his fellow players to do that.

In the end, this is still a business. Josh will be negotiating his career big money contract. If the Rangers seriously want Josh to be a part of their future, they need to do something NOW.

Just my opinion....

...minor issue but obviously you guy's know I meant to spell MONEY in my title.

...barring his most recent relapse, and overlooking how early we are in the season with consideration to his play to this point and lastly hind sight being what it is, would it had been more affordable to have signed him already. I hate to make this profane statement, but looking at all the FA's we have coming up (less Ian Kinsler thank goodness), could we find ourselves in a rebuilding phase within say as early as 3 to 4 seasons from now? I know we have an awesome farm team. And I noticed last season TB let what seemed like EVERYONE go, and they still had a great season. I just believe with Jon Daniels and Ryan in charge we (our team) has a lot of happy years ahead...

The Rangers FO does as well as any in baseball planning for the future. In the immediate future that may require making some unpopular decisions, (like letting Hamilton walk), but, I think with this leadership we'll enjoy competitive baseball around here for many years to come.

That's one reason I think he will sign before reaching free agency just like Weaver did last year with the Angels.

I certainly hope you're right, rep. But, I'm not holding my breath....

The thing is how many teams are going to have the payroll flexibility and will also want to take on Hamilton's baggage.

I think the only teams will be:

Rangers

Dodgers

The Yankees are trying to get below the Cap where they have to pay luxury tax since in a year or two the rate skyrockets and they have to find money to pay Cano and pitchers other than Sabathia if they want to stay under that amount and still compete.

Boston is just a mess right now, I can't see anyone wanting to go into that mess.

Met's owners have money problems which would keep them out of the running.

Angels have a lot of high dollar contracts now and have to watch their payroll to avoid luxury tax too and with Haren and Santana nearing free agency will need to find some pitchers to replace them or give them big long term deals

Cubs still have to get rid of a bunch of bad deals before they start adding high dollar contracts.

Tigers already spent a fortune on Fielder this year.

Only thing is Josh is different than just random player to pay.

He is one of those transcendent players that people will always reminisce about like Mantle, McCovey, those types.

Sorry but he is not just your regular all-star player.

Never said he was a "random" player and I'm not disagreeing with anyone on his ability or, contributions to this team or, the game.

My only point is that this is Josh's big money contract and I expect he, and his agent, will want to test the market. I hope as much as anybody that it doesn't get that far and the Rangers are able to work a deal before it does. If they do wait until he is a Free Agent, I don't think the Ranger's will be willing to spend as much as other teams will.

Again, it's just an opinion and, if it's proven wrong, I'll be as happy as any Ranger fan that he's on our team for years to come.

Try explaining that to AG.lol

The Dodgers just gave Matt Kemp an 8-year $160MM contract so I don't see them as a player for Josh. I don't see how any NL club would want to sign him to anything close to that. The Cubs maybe with Byrd becoming a free agent after this season and only 2 more years left with Soriano. But Josh is going to be 31 next month. Any contract of that length puts him in his late thirties, approaching forty.

Factor in the signings last year of outfielders Carl Crawford (7yrs, $142MM) and Jason Werth (7yrs, $126MM) and I don't see how Josh is going to raise the bar ( for the benefit of future players, of course) very much.

He may be a phenom and be able to play in the field in his late thirties but his history doesn't make that seem likely.

If he continues having a great season and stays healthy he could put up insane numbers and he might get some outrageous contract from somebody but probably not the Rangers. If they could work something out during the season that would be great.

Try explaining anything to AG.

I could see the Angels signing Josh Hamilton to one more team destroying contract.