Brewers' Lee Dealt to Rangers

Texas could sign him, I suppose, but remember Lee has hinted he WANTS to play for the Cubs.

I'll also say that acquiring Nix MIGHT make Corey Hart available to the Cubs. I'd love to get Hart.

For the Brewers, Mench is more than an adequate replacement for Lee.  However, if they want Cordero to replace Turnbow, they should have tried harder for a closer.  Cordero hasn't been good at all this year.  Cruz is a good prospect.  Nix appears to be a throw-in.  He's had his shot and failed numerous tmes.  Maybe the Brewers hope to turn him around.  Wonder who the PTBNL will be.  

For the Rangers, is Lee that much better than Mench?  If Texas wants to go for it this year, why not another starter?  Losing Nix and Cordero mean nothing.  However, if they are not going to sign Lee then I really don't understand the deal.  Does this really make them that much better this year?  Maybe they really like Cruz.  I wonder if the PTBNL can be based on whether Lee signs.        

btw Al, you like how I used the word "pilaged" as opposed to a certain term I used yesterday?

1. The Rangers have a great offense - This is false. This year, the Rangers have been heaviliy mediocre on offense. Surprisingly, they've struggled on O at home rather than on the road. Lee is a career Rangers killer in TBIA, and he makes up for the fact that Teixeira, Blalock and Young all decided to have off years at the exact same time. The Rangers needed O as much as they needed pitching (given that Padilla is doing well, Millwood is still solid, Eaton is coming back and outside of a few blowup 9 ER, in 3 IP games, Koronka has been pretty decent). The cost for a decent arm would be much higher than the cost for a good bat. So I'm happy that Daniels saw the market inefficiencies and exploited it.
2. The Rangers got a 2 month rental. Most of the media here, and the GM himself, have made it quite clear that they will make a competitive offer for Lee, but won't be too heartbroken if he doesn't take it. The Rangers have a projected payroll of 45 million next year as is and have to sign several interesting FAs (Eaton, Padilla, GMJ and Lee). The owner has said that he wants the payroll to be in the 90 million range if it fields a competitive team. That's a lot of money to play with.
3. Laynce Nix, Kevin Mench and Coco Cordero are worth anything to the Rangers. This is unequivocably false. Mench was great....for a week in May. Afterwards, he went into such a tailspin that the OF corners (with a struggling Wilkerson and Mench) essentially became offensive blackholes. Mench, unlike Wilkerson, doesn't walk a lot so when he goes cold, he becomes a complete drag on the entire offense. The fact that he got taken out of the 6th spot for a rookie (Ian Kinsler) just shows you how frustrated the Rangers were with him.

Cordero feasted on games that were well out of reach. Monday's blowup against the Yankees just showed how much he choked in close games. He's also been god-awful against our division rivals. He's already blown 10 saves this year, 5 of them to Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle. That's not someone that you want on your team.

Oh, and Koronka's a pretty good guy, got to speak with him once at a game. He's liable to get knocked around once in awhile, but he's been solidly consistant. He's a guy that when he's pitching, I know he'll either blow up quickly or give us 6-7 innings of good ball. What more can you ask out of a 5th starter?