Texas Rangers

While most of the media attention is going towards Ubaldo Jimenez’s quest for 25 wins and Josh Johnson’s goal of a sub-2 ERA, everyone is overlooking the historic year Cliff Lee is having.

Lee’s season is easy to overlook, especially in the “Year of the Pitcher.” The lefty only has 10 wins, which is well behind the league leaders.

With two months left in the season lets take a look at who has been the most valuable at their respective positions.

The most valuable player at each position is not necessarily the player with the most home runs or highest batting average, but the player who has meant the most to his team this season.

Hitting, fielding, and team success were all key in determining who has been the most valuable to their teams this season.

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Most fantasy owners were expecting Elvis Andrus to erupt in 2010, entrenching himself as one of the elite shortstops in the game. For a longtime it looked like that would be the case, hitting .300 up until June 12. Things have taken a turn since then.

All day yesterday, the attention of Texas Rangers fans was set on a courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, where the auction of their team was about to take place.

On one hand, you had a group headed by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg going up against a group headed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Houston businessman Jim Crane.

There were fireworks inside and outside of the courtroom—even a very heated confrontation between attorneys for both sides.

It has been reported in various overnight news services that Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan has won the high-stakes bidding war for the team.

This is the day a lot of people have been waiting for since the decision came down that the Texas Rangers would go up for auction. At this moment it's a two team race, so to speak, as to who will be the new owners of the Texas Rangers. The two teams are groups headed by Attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan up against Houston businessman Jim Crane and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban .

There were quite a few trades made at this year's non-waiver deadline, but not as many moves as I thought there would. With so many equally talented, but non-impact players available after the big guns—Cliff Lee, Dan Haren, Roy Oswalt—were gone, it became a buyer's market.

Some teams, like the Toronto Blue Jays, would not trade any of their valuable commodities (Scott Downs, Jose Bautista, Jason Frasor) unless they received top dollar and/or equal return back.

It’s amazing to me that a team that is supposedly in financial ruins continues to add players at the trade deadline.

If there is an early winner from the July 31 trade deadline it has to be the Texas Rangers. First they added Cliff Lee, then they added Jorge Cantu, and now they have added Cristian Guzman. Obviously, the latter two aren’t in the same category as Lee, but they are solid pieces that can be used to help solve the Rangers’ World Series puzzle.

One thing that goes overlooked, as far as closers are concerned, is their effectiveness in staying focused when blowing a save. Often times when a reliever comes in and blows the lead for their team, they are either taken out or will proceed to lose the game. There is a BIG difference when it comes to blowing a save and blowing a game.

According to Ken Rosenthal via Twitter, the Texas Rangers have acquired Jorge Cantu from the Florida Marlins in exchange for minor league pitchers Evan Reed and Omar Poveda (Cantu is still in the game for the Marlins, so this is not yet “official”).

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