Here’s some proof that the world of baseball blogging tends to fold in on itself. I was reading Athletics Nation today, and they have a piece up talking about whether they want Barry Zito to end up in the NL, or with the Rangers so they could see him all the time. They reference back Adam Morris’ article over at lonestarball from this past Sunday where he references Zito as “a younger Kenny Rogers”; the perfect pitcher for TBIA.
My personal thoughts is that the Rangers won’t get outbid on dollars per year, but it could come down to years. All things being equal, my gut says New York. I’ve seen several biographies on Zito over the years, and I always got the impression he wasn’t the kind of personality that would stand up well in New York. I don’t think it would be as disastrous as Rogers was up there, but my gut feeling is that Zito is more suited to a market that wouldn’t do news stories on every single fart he has, claiming it’s some sort of sign. Heck, I saw a TWIB story on him saying he travels on the road with a Teddy Bear. Is that the kind of guy who seems well fit to deal with a media market like New York? For the record I love teddy bears. :)
As a Rangers fan, sure I want to see him here. But I think the only way he comes here is if he gets the most $ from Hicks. Yeah, there’s those stories about him being 11-1 here in his career. If he had Arlington as his home park, I’m sure those numbers wouldn’t be as gaudy.