Angels trade for Zach Greinke

The Rangers were interested in the Brewers top starting pitcher Greinke but were not willing to part with their top position or pitching prospect to make the deal work.  The Angels were...

The Angels sent shortstop Jean Segura, right handed pitchers Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena to finalize the deal for Greinke.

Segura was the Angels top position player prospect while Hellweg was regarded as their top pitching prospect. It needs to be noted that Segura was second on the position player list until Mike Trout joined the big leagues, the same with Hellweg as he sat behind Garrett Richards who is a regular with the big club.

Neither are considered "elite" status prospects like Jurickson Profar of the Rangers so I say good job to Jon Daniels not killing the farm system for a good, not great, rental player.

A lot of Ranger fans are down on the team right now, Josh Hamilton is taking awful at bats, Mike Young's struggling bat but is starting to hit the ball again. The pitching staff which was starting to recover from injury is now hurting with Colby Lewis out for the rest of the season, Yu Darvish struggling in back to back starts and wondering if Derek Holland will show us the elite pitcher we saw in the second half of 2011.

These are big questions for sure but you do not make a move just to simply say you made a move. That leads to overpaying for average play, Jerry Jones refuses to learn this lesson but the Rangers brass looks like they have and willing to stay up.

If the backup plan is move Alexi Ogando to the rotation, Feliz to the 7th inning power relief pitcher and be prepared to head into the playoff stretch with Darvish, Harrison, Holland, Oswalt and Ogando is a pretty solid rotation. Short on command consistency especially Holland and Ogando but the tools are there.  I was going to say playoff experience but Harrison has started multiple world series games, Holland delivered a gem performance in the 2011 series while Oswalt has done it in the big game too. Yu Darvish is a rookie but the first thing that impressed me about Darvish, his mental toughness and absolutely crucial for a pitcher in the postseason and he has that skill to turn it to a higher level.

Excited to see what the Rangers do as the trade deadline clock continues to down...