In their annual Organizational Rankings, Fangraphs today named the Texas Rangers the third best in baseball, based on a combination of front office skill, financial resources, and present and future talent.
↵There are a few interesting things here. For one, they seem to be relatively down on a front office that has been able to build all of this, ranking them “only” fifth.
↵There was also this quote.
↵↵↵The Rangers certainly aren’t going to struggle for cash, but they don’t play in a market like NY or LA where there’s a seemingly endless pool of potential customers, and they’re likely going to settle in as a big spender that’s just a step down from the big city teams.
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New York, sure, but while LA has just under twice as many residents in their metro area, they also have exactly twice as many teams to share those residents. Dallas-Ft. Worth is the largest metro area in sports that has only one baseball team, and if they can continue to parlay their current run of success in to increased popularity, they could bring in the bucks right there with almost anyone.
↵I definitely felt the Rangers belonged at least second, thinking the changes and unrest in the Red Sox organization should probably have bumped them down. This is nitpicking, though, as they say the ranking down to a virtual tie for second. In any case, third is a nice and admirable spot for a team that is not an evil empire.
↵And for the record, this year’s #6org curse belongs to the St. Louis Cardinals.