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Rangers’ Washington won’t concede anything in AL
By RUSTIN DODDThe Kansas City Star
The wounds are still fresh. The Texas Rangers’ bitter World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals is still just a few months old, and the memory of another dream deferred is all too real. But Texas manager Ron Washington is a 59-year-old lifer who will tell you he’s never pocketed a dime outside the game of baseball. So he’s not the type to lather syrup on facts or eschew the truth.
And this may partially explain why, after losing on baseball’s biggest stage for the second straight year, Washington can still tap into a little macabre humor when the name Albert Pujols is brought up.
“The time we tried to pitch to Albert,” Washington says, “you’ve seen what happened. He hit three bombs. I learned after that.”
Washington, of course, was referencing Pujols’ three-homer barrage against the Rangers in game three of the World Series last October. But as Washington stood inside the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on Saturday afternoon, a few hours before he would accept the C. I. Taylor Award for AL Manager of the Year at the 12th Legacy Awards at the Gem Theater, he had a few other reasons to rap about Pujols’ World Series dominance.
The most obvious: Pujols is now a member of the Los Angeles Angels, the result of a gargantuan 10-year, $240 million free-agent deal this offseason. And that means Pujols will be butting heads with Washington’s Rangers in the American League West all year long.
“You don’t mess with him,” Washington says.
The Pujols megadeal was just the first domino in an offseason that witnessed the game’s power structure slant overwhelmingly to the American League.
The Angels also lured away Washington’s former ace in Texas, left-hander C.J. Wilson, with a five-year, $77.5 million deal. The Rangers countered by signing right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish — a hyped Japanese import — to a six-year, $60 million deal; they also burned $51.7 million just to secure the rights to negotiate with him.
But the latest offseason bombshell came early last week, when the Detroit Tigers stealthily entered the Prince Fielder sweepstakes and lavished the former Milwaukee slugger with a nine-year deal worth a reported $214 million.
“It’s a green light,” Tigers owner Mike Ilitch told reporters in Detroit earlier this week, signaling the owner’s desire to win now in a beefed-up American League.
For most teams, the beginning of spring training is still more than three weeks away. But one of the storylines of the 2012 season appears to be firmly entrenched. The AL is suddenly even more loaded, and the Rangers’ road to a third straight pennant just got more treacherous.
“Paper don’t win ballgames,” Washington says. “Names don’t win ballgames. Performances between lines win ballgames.”
Washington isn’t the only one who is feeling the strong ripple effects from the American League spending splurge.
Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin, who was in town to accept the Andrew “Rube” Foster Award as NL Executive of the Year, is just a few days removed from losing Fielder, a franchise linchpin who helped the Brewers win the NL Central in 2011 — and effectively, Melvin’s Legacy Award. Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp, winner of the Oscar Charleston Award for the NL MVP and Josh Gibson Award for winning the senior circuit’s home-run title, is suddenly one of the remaining alpha dogs in a depleted National League.
“Anaheim has definitely made themselves better,” Washington said. “Not only with Albert Pujols, but with the addition of C.J. Wilson. Detroit has certainly made themselves better, with the addition of Prince Fielder to go along with (Miguel) Cabrera, who is one of the most threatening hitters that I’ve ever seen in the game of baseball.”
Just a few moments after Washington took stock of the competition, he referenced his baseball roots. He was just 16 years old when he started in the Royals Baseball Academy in the early 1970s. And in those years, Washington says, he began to learn the game.
“I knew everything that a baseball player should be able to do when a ball was put in play,” Washington said. “You can go into a major-league clubhouse and ask players about that, and I guarantee you they couldn’t tell you.”
Washington’s point was subtle but clear. During his first few years in Texas, he says, the Rangers were a franchise loaded with power but few wins. Finally, in 2009 — his third year — the team began to understand what Washington was preaching. The Rangers finished 87-75 in 2009 and then parlayed that success into World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.
The formula won’t change in 2012, Washington says. The challenge may be greater — and the competition more fierce — but the Rangers are still the two-time defending AL champs for a reason.
“It won’t change the landscape of what we’re trying to do,” Washington said. “We’re trying to just show up every day and play baseball according to the way it present itself.
“We’ll show up. If we stay healthy, we’ll be back. Will we be back to the World Series? I can’t predict that. But we will be back enough to give ourselves an opportunity to … go back to the World Series.”