What if… 694 comments


This morning, somewhere in Denver, Troy Tulowitzki and his agent are sitting down to breakfast with Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort and GM Jeff Bridich to ask to be traded.

Imagine the monumental upgrade it would be for the Rangers to have Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop over Elvis Andrus. Not just in the field, but in the number two hole.

Imagine a lineup of:

Shin Soo Choo, RF
Troy Tulowitzki, SS
Prince Fielder, DH
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Josh Hamilton, LF
Kyle Blanks/Mitch Moreland, 1B
Tommy Field, 2B
Either of our Backup Catchers, C
Delino DeShields, CF

Now, imagine this rotation to go with that lineup: Martin Perez, Derek Holland, Nick Martinez, Yovani Gallardo, Colby Lewis or Wandy Rodriguez.

One of those starters goes into the pen, along with Detwiler. Maybe we find a closer amongst the ranks.

Suddenly, this team is as good as any team in the American League. Not to mention, it’s suddenly a very strong team in a very weak American League West.

Chances of this happening are about the chances of the bottom four slots in the above lineup actually producing. But, it could happen. The Rangers, however, don’t like to give up prospects for potential future Hall of Famers. (If he were a mediocre half season rental pitcher, they’d be all over it.)

There are five teams in contention, or thinking they are in contention, that will go strong after Tulowitzki: The Yankees, the Mets, Seattle, the Angels and San Diego.

Who knows who will be able to offer the Rockies the right package to get Tulowitzki. The Rangers have what it takes, but overvalue everyone in their organization to a fault. It’s doubtful that other GMs will think Leonys Martin is the next Mike Trout as ours does. Perhaps we could find another like-minded GM who sees Mitch Moreland as the second-coming of Miguel Cabrera. And, hey, we could be persuaded to offer Tanner Scheppers. He is an opening day starter, remember, (genius move, Daniels, now that seeming foolishness makes sense).

It won’t happen, but at least it’s fun to think about.

Mainly because it means Rangers fans would no long have to think about Elvis Andrus.