Randy Galloway Still Really, Really Hates Jon Daniels

Everyone's favorite supposedly "retired" columnist, Randy Galloway, had yet another column up yesterday over at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram site that was, effectively, yet another scathing criticism of Jon Daniels.

In the piece, he basically does his normal rabbling comparing Jon Daniels to Jerry Jones and proceeding to use every hindsight reaction possible to discredit the Texas GM. So, with that in mind, I wanted to address a few of them.

According to Galloway, not signing Cruz was the biggest failure of all.

I'll admit that watching Nelson Cruz do what he's doing for Baltimore hurts, at least a little. Tied for the Major League lead in homers with 27, he's hitting well beyond any pace he ever did in Arlington. Yet, if you're Galloway, apparently Jon Daniels should have known this would happen.

Not only should he have known, but Galloway also goes on to claim, without any sourcing to back his claim up, that Daniels refused to sign Cruz for the same exact deal that Baltimore offered.

Yeah, sure... the organization that extended a qualifying offer of $14 million to the guy refused to pay him $8 million several months later. If you believe that, I've got some ocean-front property for you...

Even better, Galloway actually says that Cruz "can be ranked as the biggest mistake made by a major league GM for this season."

So, not only is Jon Daniels a sleazeball that works for some "baseball-stupid owners" -- Galloway's words about Bob Simpson and Ray Davis -- but every GM in the game is an idiot compared to this "retired" columnist. Yeah, sure.

Bonus: Contrary to everything else that's been reported, Cruz never told the Rangers he didn't want to be a DH, at least if you believe Randy Galloway. That, of course, comes with absolutely no sourcing for a guy who lost his sourcing when Nolan Ryan left the organization.

Injuries aren't a reason for the struggles

Apparently, the only injury that mattered to the lineup was Prince Fielder, and even then, he could never have been expected to contribute. Jurickson Profar is a scrub, Rougned Odor is suddenly "simply a better player". Yeah, Profar is a nobody. Randy Galloway knows better than all the Major League scouts and talent evaluators that had him pegged as the top prospect in baseball less than two years ago. Um, OK.

Those pitching injuries? Since Oakland had a couple -- yeah a couple -- of their own before the season, the fact that Texas is now rolling with Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis, and a bunch of replacements, it means Jon Daniels is a bum.

Galloway also goes on to dismiss the injury to Soto, doesn't address the almost season-long battle Choo has dealt with in an ankle injury, injuries to other players such as Kevin Kouzmanoff, Jim Adduci, Mitch Moreland, etc... No, some of those aren't guys that will put a team over the top, but they are guys that severely hamper depth and limit the amount of flexibility Ron Washington has to work with on a daily basis.

That doesn't even mention that if Prince Fielder had a season like he did in a "down" 2013, it would have been very welcome production from the 1st base position that the Rangers had been longing for.

The order of events doesn't matter, and we shouldn't care about those.

Actual quote from Randy in the piece:

When Harrison blew out and then Perez blew out, rotation wreckage happened. Daniels’ plan was to fill any rotation gaps from within (Scheppers, Ross, etc.). He once again figured wrong.

I'm no historian, but last I checked, Tanner Scheppers was the Opening Day starter and Robbie Ross was in the rotation to open the season. That was before Martin Perez required Tommy John surgery and Matt Harrison required spinal fusion surgery, effectively ending their seasons.

I get that the rotation is in shambles, and there weren't a whole lot of fallback options -- I'm willing to guarantee that no Major League team has or ever will contend with this magnitude of injuries -- but at least get the order of things right. They teach the order of operations in elementary math classes. This falls into a similar concept.

I don't know if Randy simply missed all of this due to sipping on one too many martinis at a lake house somewhere, but considering that the FWST still gives him a place to voice his ridiculous opinions with baseless claims, it seems like highly irresponsible reporting to me.

With all of that said, I get that Daniels has made his fair share of mistakes over the years. It's the nature of the job. Yet, despite that, I still see an organization that, with Daniels in the GM position, has been to the World Series twice and won 90 or more games four times from 2010-2013. This season, hopefully, will prove as an outlier in the grand scheme, and yet, Randy Galloway has done nothing over the last few years but take shot after shot at Jon Daniels. In one sense, I get it. His friend within the organization is gone, and he feels that Nolan Ryan never got any credit for building a roster that was already in the works well before he showed up in Arlington. In another, I can't help but feel disgust. Simple disgust that every single column we'll ever see from him for the rest of his life -- or the end of Daniels's tenure in Arlington, whichever comes first -- will be spent comparing Jon Daniels to Jerry Jones.

And "real journalists" like Galloway love to take shots at us "bloggers". Perhaps we aren't the ones missing the point. One thing, however, is quite clear. Randy Galloway still hates Jon Daniels. Like, hates him hates him. And it's childish.