I'm happy for the Rangers but otherwise this sucks. This means Corpus and Round Rock will convert to Rangers farm system. I also always held out hope that Ryan would somehow come back to the Astro's someday. link Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan won an auction for the Texas Rangers early this morning, outbidding Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Houston businessman Jim Crane. Cuban and Crane dropped out of the bidding officially just before 1 a.m. after Greenberg's group bid $593 million, which includes $208 million in assumed liabilites. Cuban and Crane's top bid was $581.2 million. "It's a bit of a relief when you go this far," said Ryan, the team's president. "It's a relief it's over with. You don't know what to expect. I felt like today they were in it. It was time for someone to say uncle."
oops meant RANGERS in the title :grin: I need to get edit rights, what do I do, I've contributed in the past
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Corpus has always been Astros' territory, well before there was a farm team here. I doubt they'll switch to the Rangers system. I could see Austin going for the Rangers, though. Fairly equidistant.
If CC and/or RR were to become Ranger affiliates, what is the Astros' contingency plan for AA and AAA? I remember reading about this in the past but don't recall any details.
Round Rock is definitely gone, Corpus is almost a lock to stay. Rangers AA is in Frisco, they won't change that. AAA is OKC....
If Mark Cuban wants a baseball team, he should start hassling McLane. As much as I can't stand the guy, I'd think it would be good to see Cuban as the Astros owner.
Nolan Ryan is not an active member of Ryan-Sanders Baseball, his son Reid runs the show, so there's no real conflict-of-interest there. I don't see why they would sell CC, there's no reason they can't own a AAA team for one franchise and a AA for another. If the Astros hadn't let their farm system go to crap over the past few years, I doubt RR would be changing affiliations. Quality of the product has been the main complaint from the Ryan-Sanders people.
That would be the simplest thing, but you'd have to check & see when the affiliation contracts end for other teams, could be a substantial shakeup involving several franchises. I dunno.
I think the right team won...crazy how the whole process went...Cuban driving up the price to ensure the new group didn't get a sweetheart deal? typical cuban...
Ryan is certainly running the team the right way. The Rangers have to be in a conversation about the World Series this year. If they had gotten this crap tied up a month ago they may have had a shot at both Lee and Oswalt. Cuban might have deeper pockets, though. So this is really an experiment in money vs knowledge, long term.
Living 5 minutes from the Dell Diamond, this sucks for me. I'd still likely take my kids to Express games, but the meaning, baseball wise, for me would be gone if they become a Rangers affiliate. It's a mortal lock that this happens for 2 reasons. 1) Obviously, because Nolan already owns them. 2) Drayton would love the opportunity to grab the OKC market and turn them into Astros fans...especially since that's part of the FSSW region. And, yeah, I was hoping it would fall through so that Nolan could possibly make a play for the Astros.
He's probably smart. Bidders dilema says that if you keep getting outbid and then continue to outbid the other person someone is going to overpay and feel ripped off. Cuban knows the value of a team, but he has all the money in the world and his dream of owning a baseball franchise should not have a price.
^ Your last sentence confused me, sir. If you don't mind, please elaborate. By what I read, I think you're saying he shouldn't bid for the Rangers, but for a better team? Essentially, he can own anything he wants, no?
My super hardcore Rangers fan buddy said that Cuban stepping in with a bid was all part of the plan to make sure Nolan got the team. I can only imagine the conspiracy theories flying around up there right now.
