Zito or Veto?

Jon Daniels has to strike gold in the oil rich Texas soil. Tom Hicks needs one of his “calculated risks” to actually produce some return. Forget about A-Rod. Forget about “The Ho”. A shortstop with an average glove can not win a World Series. The Ho was never the front line starter that was advertised. Eric Gagne is a great pick-up. Paying $6 million for a pitcher that recorded the most consecutive saves of all time is nothing to turn up your nose at. I’m sure Akinori Otsuka is smiling from his metroplex home.
Kenny Lofton, although twice as old as me, is still two times as fast and hit .301 last year with the Dodgers. Jon Daniels is being smart; he hasn’t let go of any of his potential all-star infielders and hasn’t fallen into the trap of paying an overweight designated hitter $100 million for two more years of solid production. Aggressive, but smart. That has been the Rangers motto ever since The Ho and A-Rod’s true colors were shown.
The $60 million dollar investment in Kevin Millwood last year wasn’t a foolish offer. He was the ERA leader for the American League in 2005. So why not offer a little more dough to a pitcher who has shown he can pitch with success at Ameriquest? Barry Zito has averaged 213 innings a year with the Oakland A’s and has persevered through losing two of his running mates in Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. If Jon Daniels lands Zito, that would make a starting rotation of Zito, Millwood, and recently re-signed Vicente Padilla. That’s three 15 game winners at the front of your rotation. What other teams in the MLB have been able to score that? Oh ya, the dynasty of the Atlanta Braves during their run of 13 consecutive divisional titles just to throw one at ya.
The time to stop talking and actually make a run at the division is now. Morale was high after the first half of the season. The Rangers were a couple of games in first place even with Mark Teixeira only belting nine home runs. What happened in the second half? The Rangers inexperienced back-end of the rotation wore out and so the slide began. With Ron Washington at the helm, Barry Zito has become very intrigued with the idea of living in Arlington. Hopefully we don't scare him away.

Ya Baby.