=== July 9, 2010 ===

The Texas Rangers give up three years of Justin Smoak, at club-controls salaries, and three years of Justin Smoak, at arbitration salaries, for fifteen starts' worth of Cliff Lee.

The Rangers also give up two interesting pitching prospects.

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=== July 10, 2010 (9:00 am) ===

No sabermetrician, to the best of Dr. D's knowledge, attempts to argue the Rangers' side of this deal as dollar-balanced.  This is because no conceivable $/WAR argument could be made.

In Seattle, we have studied the question of whether two years' worth (not two months' worth) of Erik Bedard - even if healthy - could balance six years' worth of a much lesser prospect, Adam Jones. 

SSI has argued that at a certain point, you are arguing from two different frames of reference. 

You don't measure cinnamon in watts; you don't measure electricity in inches.  And you don't measure the value of the Texas Rangers Brand exclusively in regular-season bases gained and lost.

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=== July 10, 2010 (12:00 pm) ===

Dr. D was choked with admiration for a Texas Rangers franchise that, facing bankruptcy, chose to re-brand itself as one of the teams sincerely fighting for the world championship.

Baseball teams aren't selling tires, aren't providing tax counsel, aren't serving you arby-Q sandwiches for your $30 ticket.  They're (claiming to) offer you a vicarious battle for baseball supremacy.

Starting on July 10, 2010, the Texas Rangers for the first time in their history, served their fans the product that they advertised.  A full-throated battle for absolute baseball supremacy.

Whether the Rangers won this battle was irrelevant, as it was irrelevant for the 1995 Mariners.  What was important was that they waged this battle.

With the Smoak trade, they did.   How do you use watts to measure cinnamon?  How do you use VORP to measure sincerity?

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=== July 10, 2010 (2:00 pm) ===

We doubt that Nolan Ryan waited this long after the trade to crow, but .... you can easily imagine how hard he pushed, before it.

.............

Yeah, I agree, amigos.  It's all too easy for Nolan Ryan to yak about how other pitchers -- with far lesser talent than he had -- need to prove their manhood by carrying the mail all the way to the door.

And I totally agree that it's easy for Nolan Ryan to bask in Cliff Lee's glory, now that Lee has superficially drawn us a picture of the mano-a-mano war that Ryan has been preaching.

..............

But you know what - there may be a light bulb that Nolan Ryan has on ---- > that we, sitting on our ergo chairs looking at LCD screens, do not have on yet.

In baseball games, the pitcher holds the ball.  In important baseball games, the pitcher holds a very important ball.

It is indeed possible for a pitcher to personally assume command of a baseball game.  This is the light bulb that Nolan Ryan may be speaking of.

And Nolie may, in his own way, be trying to encourage starting pitchers to take advantage of this phenomenon. 

.................

Some pitchers do learn to take over ballgames.  Felix has evidently done that.

Nolan Ryan did it, every time he pitched.  Sometimes he took games over and ran them into the gutter.  Sometimes he took them over and allowed 0, or 1, hits.  But Ryan liked to take responsibility for the outcome of his games.

Who's to say that some pitchers might not benefit from that attitude.  Felix certainly seemed to benefit from watching Cliff Lee's attitude, right?

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Part 2

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