First off, I don’t like it because Chris Young is a local guy — graduated from Highland Park the year after I did — and was by all reports (mine included) a good guy. It’s always nice to see local guys succeed for local teams.

But from a baseball standpoint, it makes even less sense. Adam Eaton, numbers-wise, is about where Chris Young is, but with more experience. Young does have the arm fatigue problems from last year to worry about, but Eaton isn’t without health concerns — his strained middle finger (insert joke here) caused problems last year on a pitcher that already has control problems. But here’s the kicker — Eaton will be a free agent after next year, and who knows whether or not he’ll want to come back to keep pitching in the Launching Pad in Arlington. Young, on the other hand, is a local guy who wants to play here, has had success playing here, signed an extended contract here, and even gave up a pro basketball career to play here. And you reward that by trading him.

This is the part that blows my mind. According to the Dallas Morning news article:

“The Rangers had been working on a deal to land Eaton for nearly six weeks, but had been reluctant to give up catcher Gerald Laird. To add depth to the bullpen, the Rangers agreed to include Young, who tied the club record for victories by a rookie starter last year.”

So they didn’t even have to include Young to get the Eaton deal done, but they gave him up to get setup man Akinori Otsuka? They decided to keep Laird instead, who is in such good graces with the Rangers he couldn’t even get a spot on the major league roster? How in the world does that make sense? The Rangers have so much starting pitching to throw around that they chose to give up a starter instead of a backup catcher? It’s not like we’re talking Pudge Rodriguez here. It’s Gerald Laird. They gave up a starting pitcher to keep Gerald Laird? The more I think about this, the more my brain hurts.

Why in the world, why in the WORLD do you give up a starting pitcher, a starting pitcher that has shown success pitching in arguably the toughest pitcher park in the majors, that wants to be on a team that never attracts free agent starting pitchers? Why? Especially since it’s possible you could have made the trade without even giving him up? Am I confused? Are the Ranger minor league pitching prospects so close to the majors that they’re all going to step in, take over the rotation, and leave the Rangers one setup man away from winning it all?

Unbelievable.

On top of it all, you have the whole John Hart thing, which is worthy of a post on its own. But in a nutshell, there’s rumors that Hart resigned as GM to be a consultant in favor of new GM Jon Daniels, the 28-year-old, just so the media would stop bugging him. The Rangers openly admit that Hart hated the Dallas media, and vice versa, and the two couldn’t work together. Did John Hart just want a cardboard front, while he keeps calling the shots? That would make sense, given that he’s a horrible GM (in my opinion, of course, but I’m not alone in having it) and the latest move is idiotic. What well-respected front office GM candidate would agree to be a cardboard front for someone else? If anyone would, it’d be a 28-year-old eager to take his career to the next level. “General Manager of the Texas Rangers” is something nice to put on a resume.

Again, that last paragraph is a mixture of rumor and conjecture, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing should surprise me with the Rangers anymore.

Palmeiro tested positive for steroids. His defense is he didn’t know the stuff he was taking had steroids in them, and that next time he’ll get his pills from a “licensed physician.”

So let me get this straight — our options are to believe that Palmeiro is either an idiot or a liar. Great.

Let’s assume we believe Palmeiro’s word at face value. That means that a man who relies on his body for his career is putting weird stuff into it — stuff he can’t identify. That’s not very bright for anyone, but a professional athlete who knows steroids are banned, who knows how important it is to have a body in perfect condition? Uncanny. It blows my mind.

Or, we can assume that Raffy is lying, and that he knows perfectly well what he’s putting into his body. Even better. It was suggested on the radio that Raffy was having a subpar season statistically, and then suddenly, halfway through it, gets caught with steroids. Someone wanting his edge back?

It sucks to have to be suspicious like that — that suddenly Jose Canseco might be the one with the credibility. Canseco had named Palmeiro in his book as a player who he personally injected with steroids. Most people shrugged that off; Palmeiro didn’t have the giant bodybuilder look that Canseco, McGuire, Bonds, Giambi had. And Palmeiro was always a good guy, from what I heard — upstanding in the community, good with the fans, etc. But now I find myself accusing him of wanting an extra boost (insert your favorite Viagra joke here).

I wish he hadn’t put himself in a position to be held to that kind of scrunity. I think everyone believed him when he said at the Congressional hearings that he never used steroids, “period.”

Today, that statement is, that he’s never “intentially used steroids.” Disappointing.

It seems like the Rangers only make news when it’s them being a national spectacle for all the wrong reasons. The whole A-Rod fiasco. The Frankie Fransisco “hmm, now seems like a good time to chuck a folding chair into the crowd” fiasco. And now the Kenny Rogers fiasco.

You don’t have to follow sports to know the Rogers story — he attacked a cameraman on the field before a game in Arlington, as every news outlet from ESPN to CNN was quick to report. No way to claim you didn’t do it — only a dozen reporters and cameramen caught the incident. Rogers tells a cameraman to “get that camera out of his face.” Of course, it wasn’t in his face — the cameraman was on the part of the field he is allowed to be on before the game. Rogers was a good 10 feet away, when he turned around and told the cameraman to turn off the camera again. The cameraman didn’t. So Rogers got up in his face, and tried to shove the camera off the man’s shoulder. That failing, he grabbed the camera, threw it to the ground, and kicked it for good measure.

The action was bad. But I am honestly not sure Rogers thinks he did anything wrong, which is the most disappointing part. Rogers needed to step up and do the right thing — and he didn’t.

He started by waiting a week to hold a press conference to give his official apology. I can deal with that, but even in his apology, I was left unsatisfied.

“I offer my sincere apologies to (cameramen) Larry (Rodriguez) and David (Mamelli). An incident should never occur. To all my fans, my teammates and my family, I am truly sorry for any disappointment that I’ve caused you.”

Rogers should have left it at that, elaborating only briefly. But he kept going, and that’s when he said what upsets me.

“I’ve got 17 years in the major leagues. With all my experience, regardless of the circumstances, I should have acted professionally.”

I think that Kenny Rogers still believes he was wronged. What were these “circumstances”? The cameramen being on the field, where they’re allowed to be? The Rangers leaking that they thought you might be dogging it by not pitching against the Angels? (Rogers broke a bone in his non-pitching hand after punching an innocent water cooler.) It shouldn’t matter. The circumstances should be a non-issue. He says they’re a non-issue, but by awknowledging that there were circumstances, he opens a hole for his defense.

Yes, he did ask the cameramen to not shoot him. And if the cameramen were following him at his home, at dinner, etc., then I would be on Kenny’s side. Celebrities do deserve some privacy when they’re away from their workplace.

But Kenny Rogers was on the baseball field, in uniform. The cameraman was standing where he was allowed to stand. Part of being a Major League baseball player is that you have cameras on you when you’re at work. The cameraman did nothing wrong.

Rogers felt he deserved to play in the All-Star game. I see his argument — he was voted in, and it is his right to go since the rules did not state he wasn’t allowed. But he should have declined.

In the All-Star game media feeding frenzy, Rogers metions the players’ support in the All-Star vote — that took place before he went after the cameraman. The support of the Rangers fans that cheered for him in his last start. (Rogers was booed during the All-Star game.) That should have all been moot — the All Star Game should be for the heroes of baseball, and as of right now, I don’t believe Kenny Rogers fits that bill.

Is there more to the story of why Kenny was so upset? Probably. It’s hard to know the exact circumstances he refers to.

The bottom line is once again, the Texas Rangers are in the national spotlight for the wrong reasons. And I’m tired of it. I was Mark Texiera to get more attention. A great young baseball player (with a home run in the All-Star game) that looks like he has fun playing the game. Gritty Michael Young. Hank Blalock, who moved out of his house so R.A. Dickey could live in it until R.A. found his own house, saying that with a small child, he needed to move into a house, not a hotel.

I’ve followed Kenny Rogers for a long time — and he’s a great story in and of himself. A man who picked strawberries and expected to grow up and grow strawberries. It’s too bad that’s not the story this week — a 40-year-old strawberry picker playing in the Major League All-Star game. Instead, it’s a 40-year-old with anger management problems pitching in a game many felt he should have sat out.