Derek Holland

Today, The Rangers inked young lefty Derek Holland to a 5 year $28.5 million deal with 2 club options for 2017 and 2018.  This is tremendous news, buying out atleast one year of the hurlers free agency and potentially two more.  The two option years are worth $11 million and $11.5 million respectively, and could potentially climb higher with incentives.

This is a good move for both sides I believe, giving Holland a chance to call the DFW area his home and a significant pay increase, while the Rangers get a potential superstar and already explosive young pitcher. 

“Maybe I should go buy another razor now . . . or a new golf cart,” Holland told the “Ben & Skin Show” on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM. “How it’s going to work is I’m going to go out there and do what I need to do to take care of business so those team options don’t even matter.”

These are pretty studious words coming from a guy with an asinine moustache and a very Mitch Williams-esque mullet.  Evan Longoria and the Rays were able to hammer out a significant deal back in 2008, not that I am comparing Holland’s deal to Longoria’s.  Evan had some pretty astute words for Kevin Millar during an interview on an episode of Intentional Talk:

“I can honestly say that I’ve never regretted doing it. I can look at myself in the mirror and say that I made the right decision. You never know, who knows, one or two years in I might’ve hurt myself and not been the player that I am today.

“Regardless of all that stuff from the outside looking in, I look at it now as, to this point I’ve lived up to my contract and now, you know, my goal is to outplay it so that when it comes time for me to be a free agent, I’ll be 29, 30 years old. And so that’s the time when you start thinking about breaking the bank.

“Matt Moore, a stud left-handed pitcher for us, he signed a very similar deal. I saw him about three weeks ago and I told him the same thing, it’s like, you can’t turn down your first fortune because you never know when you’re gonna get it again.

“We’re gonna be underpaid in a certain sense, you know. You want to have somebody telling you that you’re getting underpaid, because that means you’re doing your job, that means you’re doing a good job at it, too.”

These are the type of things that you want to hear from young players.  Hearing the unselfish remarks coming from young superstars like these two really helps me realize why I love baseball so much. 

Let’s Go Rangers.

Josh Hamilton

I don’t understand why he feels like he has to answer every question about his contract situation every single time a member of the media asks him about it. I do understand how important it is not only to him and his family, but to the entire Rangers community as well, but please, stop backtracking and let the cards fall.

I may be obsessing a little but that is ok, I know I’m not the only one that thinks this way about this topic. Hopefully he realizes that he doesn’t have much leverage at this point and moves on to have a huge year in Arlington.

Oh yea, almost forgot, Wash should play him in centerfield all year.

Go Rangers.

Matt Harrison and Derek Holland

So far, Matt Harrison and Derek Holland have shined this spring.  Given their major step forward last year, this is somewhat of a natural growth, which shouldn’t take away from how awesome it is. 

With the year Derek Holland had last year, the performance in the World Series, and his continued growth, this year certainly has the potential to be a very exciting one for the young southpaw.  Speaking of his World Series performance: he allowed 2 hits with seven strikeouts in 8 and 1/3 innings.  In my opinion, other than the perfect game thrown by Don Larsen, this is the best pitching performance in the history of the World Series.  I also believe that I’m not the only person that thinks that.  Hopefully, that energy will transfer into the 2012 regular season like it has so far this spring, his last start he threw 4 shutout innings by the way.

Matt Harrison wasn’t as flashy and didn’t sport an asinine moustache throughout the year, but was just as important to the success the Rangers had last year.  This spring he is looking equally as good.  In the past, he has focused alot on the mental aspect of pitching during the offseason and it has definitely given him some success.  This spring, he just finished throwing a 4 inning shutout of 1 hit ball and looks to continue being a monster in the rotation. 

Alot of the Rangers media attention has been focused on Yu Darvish or Josh Hamilton’s latest look-at-me debacle, but it should be trained on these guys.  These two are the heroes that the Rangers need, and also the ones they deserve.  Stay thirsty my friends, Go Rangers.