Free to Spend, Dont Spend Freely

Lance Berkman does not wear his championship ring from the 2011 World Series. It is too gaudy, he said, and he would rather not draw attention to himself.The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important.

But that should not imply he is shy about the achievement. Berkman earned the ring with the St. Louis Cardinals by hitting .423 against his new team, the Texas Rangers. In the 10th inning of Game 6, when the Rangers were one strike from their first title, Berkman denied them with a game-tying single off Scott Feldman.

The Cardinals won that night, and the next, and now Berkman is here, at 37, with a chance to make amends. He gladly reminds teammates that he has what they wanted. Its fun to dig these guys on occasion about it, Berkman said. Those are bragging rights that will last for a long time.

Berkman considered retirement after last season, when he played only 32 games and had two operations on his right knee. He was not a priority for the Rangers, who had hoped for much bigger moves after losing the American League West to Oakland on the final day of the regular season and dropping the wild-card game to Baltimore.

The Rangers tried to retain the star outfielder Josh Hamilton. They negotiated with the free-agent starter Zack Greinke. They explored trades for starter James Shields and outfielder Justin Upton. The off-season seemed full of possibility.

We all know that you dont win by making announcements in the winter but theyre fun, General Manager Jon Daniels said. We all like doing them. We all want to put the big gift under the tree.

Berkman was not exactly coal in the stocking. Two years ago, he hit .301 with 31 homers and 94 runs batted in. Mickey Mantle is the only switch-hitter in major league history with a better career on-base percentage than Berkmans .409 (minimum 3,000 plate appearances).

But with last seasons injury, and his own ambivalence, Berkman was not in high demand. When all their targets wound up elsewhere, the Rangers had to overwhelm him with a one-year, $11 million offer.

I was O.We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs.K. with not playing, Berkman said, and they made it tough to turn it down.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case.

The Rangers made other short-term commitments, signing catcher A. J. Pierzynski to replace Mike Napoli and the setup man Joakim Soria to replace Mike Adams. They also traded Michael Young, the teams career leader in hits, to Philadelphia for reliever Josh Lindblom and a prospect.

It was an off-season without sizzle. But it was consistent with the Rangers sensible approach under Daniels, who was promoted this month to president for baseball operations but still reports to the chief executive, Nolan Ryan.

The Rangers have made high-impact moves, signing third baseman Adrian Beltre after their appearance in the 2010 World Series and starter Yu Darvish before last season. But they have avoided the kinds of debilitating long-term deals that have handcuffed so many of their peers.

Boston,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. Philadelphia, Detroit, the Chicago Cubs, the New York teams, the Los Angeles teams, even Seattle and Cincinnati have absorbed significant risk in keeping their stars or chasing free agents. The Rangers, hardened by the lessons from Alex Rodriguezs first free agency in 2000, never act out of desperation.

Its almost like were a big-market club with big-market resources, but you try to have a little bit more of that smaller-market mind-set and discipline, Daniels said.

Because, really, thats why we were good in the first place, he said. We had a $65-70 million payroll in 2010. It was making good baseball decisions. We just dont want to do anything thats going to short-circuit our ability to win long-term.

The Rangers seem to have a sharper understanding of value than most of their rivals. Consider that they paid Hamilton a little more than $28 million for the last five seasons, during which he made five All-Star teams and won a Most Valuable Player award. The Angels will pay him $125 million for the next five years. Which five-year period is likely to be more productive?

The Dodgers will pay Greinke $147 million for the next six years, even though he has only once ranked among his leagues top five in innings or earned run average. Greinke has been slowed by elbow trouble this spring, raising more questions about his durability.

Of course, the Rangers pursued both players, and flirted with the idea of blockbuster trades. But the contracts for Hamilton and Greinke, and the price in prospects for Shields and Upton, did not seem responsible to Daniels.

Had we wanted to sign Josh to the kind of deal he got, or more, we could have done it, he said. We knew what the prices were on Shields and Upton; we werent willing to do it. Greinke was probably the one we were closest to, but he gave us a price, at one point, that was more than he ultimately got with the Dodgers, and we chose not to do that. Id love to have those guys.

Instead, he has a team without anyone making more than $16 million, including three starters Darvish, Matt Harrison and Derek Holland signed through at least 2016. The bullpen might be thin, with Alexi Ogando joining the rotation and Soria still recovering from elbow surgery,How cheaply can I build a solarpanel? but the Rangers should contend.

The winning is the No. 1 thing, said Pierzynski, the longtime White Sox catcher, explaining why Texas appealed to him. I know from playing against them, it always seemed like it was fun. They always seemed like they were having a good time and they always had good players. They want to win, they expect to win, and thats a good, fun thing to walk into.

The Rangers have enough depth in young position players Leonys Martin, Mike Olt, Jurickson Profar to expect to stay competitive this season and beyond. Daniels has a track record of acquiring talent in midseason, and believes the players will trust him to do so, if needed.

Yet he knows, deep down, that the fans and the core of the team probably expected more this off-season. Smart shopping and careful long-term planning feel only so satisfying in a competitive industry.