starving

Part of it is that a four bedroom, 3,500 square foot house with a pool within 15 minutes of the city center is attainable by most professionals in the DFW area. The ~house in SoCal is probably $5M. The biggest trade-off is the weather. ...and I love LA, but slightly less than San Diego. But we're talking about a guy who makes $20M a year, so yeah, I agree.

cocaine is to strippers as spinach is to Pop-Eye.

Did you guys see the entire press conference? I'm not sure if it's online, but they played the whole thing during our rain delay. There were several times where I was shocked by his belligerence with the reporters. Several dead-eyed "next question" and "I already answered that". One reporter asked him if he knows why the Angels FO thought he wasn't being accountable and he said he doesn't know why they would say that. At one point they asked if his acknowledgement of the "baseball town" comment was an apology to the fans, and it was like physically impossible for him to directly apologize. He also looks very pale and his burn-out eyes (which he's always had) seemed to be in full glory. He had that whole thing on a tee to say the right things, sincerely or not, and he couldn't do it. It's really something to behold. All that said, I just have a feeling he's going to be thrive in this situation. It's just how his tiny brain works. He has to be treated like an 18 year old - where his emotional maturity was stunted. The Angels, in exchange for the huge contract, expected him to behave like an adult.

Uh, yeah I guess you didn't understand my post. Did you notice the part about Dennis Rodman coaching 3rd base? Our team is already horrible. It might as well be a circus.

It's weird that I'm excited about this. Let's face it, there's nothing interesting about the 2015 Rangers. One way or another, this will make it interesting at least. I'm just hoping you guys have to take Elvis or Choo as part of this deal. ...and we can get Dennis Rodman to coach third base.

This is the winning answer. The other edge of this sword is blaming "demons" for bad decisions. ...and I'm not dismissing the power of addiction. It is real and it's tough, but I can't imagine beating it unless you're very pragmatic about it. I just don't think he has the mental firepower to understand that.

I've done that for A coke.

I'm gonna pass on that one. Choo didn't have a good year but I'm confident he'll be better. He was hurt all year and he's a very smart hitter. Choo's contract is huge and expensive, but even toward the end I think he'll at least be moderately productive. One way or the other, Hamilton won't even be on the field for the last 1+ years of his current deal.

Agreed. ...but that's the kind of stuff that Josh believes. You're either the type of dude who watches tape, works mechanics, and studies pitchers or you're the type of dude with a Jobu shrine, a juice diet, and a magnetic bracelet. Josh is that second type.

Yeah, I think Hamilton is a cancer too. Several people mentioned that he's at least an average player, so you're getting something out of him. ...but that's projecting his averageness over a full season (and the chances of him playing more than 100 games are pretty slim). So he's a part time, average player who sucks all the air out of the room. If he got a kick out of the DFW and Anaheim fans he'll wet his pants laughing about the fans in Queens. *but, there's a chance that he'll get one of those new NutraSystem blenders, call Miss Cleo, and get some of those magnetic thread bracelet things and show up in February in the best shape of his career.

I don't think you guys should really be worried about Trout though. He's a kid. At his age, I'd be excited if he was putting up his current numbers on our AA team.

I think he does care what the fans think of him, and he cares a lot. ...but his emotional maturity is that of a 15 year old boy. He thinks smirking, dismissing criticism, and acting unaffected makes him look cool. And that makes it so much worse. I never thought he was a great human being, regardless of his very public demonstrations of piety, but he was an incredible player. ...but his raw ability allowed him to be a superstar without really learning his craft. He's a guy that exists on muscle memory and reflex. Those aren't attributes that age well, especially in the absence of the ability to make adjustments. Many of us thought that the turning point for him was the 4 HR game against Baltimore in 2012. It was as if opposing pitchers realized that they just couldn't throw him strikes AT ALL or he'd punish them. ...so that's what they did. They tried to give him unintentional intentional walks and he couldn't stop flailing. That changed the book on him and he has never recovered. Even his body language changed from predator to a guy who looked like his at-bat was forfeit once he got down in the count. I'm curious if you guys see that same thing. I haven't watched enough of his games as a Angel to see it, but in the few I have seen it's been the same.

Hey, that's cool. The Rangers had a historically awful season, but I'm not the type that gets all wound up about it. I was pulling for the worst record in baseball so we'd get better draft picks, but they even failed me on that. ...and you guys will probably never feel a baseball pain as bad as our Game 6. I've got the thousand-yard stare. If it makes you feel better, pull up the video of Freese's double over Cruz. I can't watch it, but it'll probably give you a good laugh.

Is it that offensive? I'm not talking trash to you guys or about the Angels. It's just interesting to see this story unfold. Imagine if Vernon Wells had talked trash about the people of Anaheim after he left, then continued an epic career nose-dive that caused his new team's fans to hate him. Don't tell me you wouldn't enjoy that. I see us as brothers-in-arms on this.

I understand pulling for his recovery story, but let's not give him too much credit for the things he's trying to overcome in his personal life. These are all things he did to himself. He was an incredibly gifted human being who (almost) completely squandered his gift with a total lack of self-control. This isn't a kid who was stricken by cancer or something.