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Absolutely Right-O there on the Rangers situation there Doc!  And here's another ping pong ball to throw in to the hopper ...
Ian Fitzsimmons from ESPN 103.3 in Dallas joined the Kevin Calabro show today and talked about the Yu Darvish deal at length before turning to the topic of Prince Fielder ...
Fitzsimmons said that Nolan Ryan joined him on his show in Dallas yesterday, so they got a chance to talk about Darvish and the subject of the Rangers meeting with Prince Fielder came up. Fitzsimmons said that Nolan Ryan told him the Boras camp never gave the Rangers a formal request of what they’re looking for in terms of a contract. Fitzsimmons said:“they bounced around Ryan Howard-type money -- 8 year deals, 6 years deals – and Nolan basically choked on his steak. And it’s like, basically he [Nolan Ryan] believes that it’s going to come down to maybe 2 or 3 teams – and he believes the Rangers will be one of those teams, but it all depends on the years and the money. But he also said, 'Look, we can get around some of that by structuring it' (and this is just me coming up with this, this isn’t Nolan Ryan saying this yesterday on the show) but let’s say you do a 3 year opt out, you know, player opt out after 3 years. Do a 7 year contract -- $25 [million] per [year] – and the player can opt out after 3 years if he’s still raking like we hoped him to. Plus, this Texas team’s going to drop about 75 pounds off him, so he’s going to be in better shape. So all of a sudden, why wouldn’t you do that if you’re the Rangers?”Source:710 ESPN Kevin Calabro Show 1/20/12
So bottom line -- don't believe Jon Daniels who called Prince Fielder to the Rangers "unlikely".
Putting that in to the universal GM translator, that actually translates to: "A deal is highly unlikely if Boras keeps asking for Ryan Howard/Albert Pujols money ... but would be much more likely if the price actually rejoins the solar system."
Nolan Ryan himself said that the Rangers are very much interested -- it's going to all come down to whether or not Boras wants to move asking off his asking price of the entire Crown Jewel collection. If he does, then I envision the Rangers and a whole lot of teams (including the Mariners) hopping in to the mosh pit. ;)
MA