What else can baseball fans do in January but dream of October? In You May Say I’m a Dreamer, the Outside Corner staff will imagine the route to a World Series in 2012 title for all 30 teams.
(SCENE: The Texas Rangers have just won the 2012 World Series, and team president Nolan Ryan joins general manager Jon Daniels for a victory cigar in the GM’s office. Atop the desk in the office sits the World Series trophy that Texas just won as they look down on the last few fans filing out of The Ballpark at Arlington, who had stayed late to celebrate with some of the players who had just come out of the clubhouse, soaking wet with champagne.)
RYAN: Man, I’ll tell you what, Jon, third time’s a charm.
DANIELS: It sure is, Nolan. It’s nice to finally have been handed the trophy instead of watching San Francisco or St. Louis hoist it.
RYAN: I have to admit, I didn’t think we’d be able to make some of the moves we did, but I guess when Artie made those huge deals for Pujols and Wilson, I was happy to see the ownership move some money our way. Darvish was everything we could have asked for and more.
RYAN: Darvish really did impress me. He assimiliated well to the team’s culture and went out and competed. With him already having all those 200+ inning seasons in Japan, I was very happy to see him play well in the second half. 19 wins, a sub-3 ERA, 180 K’s…that was definitely worth the posting fee.
DANIELS: His arm came alive in the playoffs, too. On top of that, I got another fantastic season from Kinsler. That’s one of the easiest team options ever for us to pick up next year, no doubt. Might even extend him if I could. On top of that, Hamilton had a great year, Beltre stayed healthy for 140 games, and Napoli continued to rake. Now I just hope I can bring him back next year.
RYAN: Well, considering the pitching we got coming up and all the pitching we have right now, I like him being the regular backstop. He’s done a great job with our staff the last couple seasons.
DANIELS: I mean, let’s think about where we were in August. The Angels were 75-45, they had all that firepower on the hill, they had brought up Trout full time…that offense was in full swing, you know?
RYAN: But then we took them down seven out of nine times down the stretch head-to-head. That five game swing ignited us and got us to 98 wins. Darvish had the big win when he had that pitcher’s duel win against Wilson.
DANIELS: And I’ll tell you what, Joe Nathan was nails down the stretch. I liked what he did for us in the second half. And then he really came through in the playoffs considering he had never really been in that big time situation before. Sure, he had been in the playoffs, but man, saving three of those World Series wins, I was very pleased with that. That one worked out for us, as well.
RYAN: I’m still surprised that Tanner Scheppers came through, too. He was fantastic as a guy who held down the 7th and 8th innings for us once Ogando got tired. He has a chance to be the guy to take over for Nathan when his contract is up.
DANIELS: And to think…Perez, Profar, Martin, all those guys are on the way to being a part of this team next year and in 2014.
RYAN: Profar…that guy’s gonna be a legend.
DANIELS: We’ll see. I think the best part about all this was that Wilson left for all that money and he couldn’t get it done against us. Those games he had against us here just weren’t the best. We knew exactly what he was going to do and it set the tone for our games against the Angels.
RYAN: Yeah, that was key considering 95 wins could have won this division. That five-win swing down the stretch was the difference.
DANIELS: So you think we can do it in 2013?
RYAN: I don’t know why not, Jon. Should we prank call C.J. and ask him his ring size?
DANIELS: Of course! Raise your glass, Nolan! We finally did it! C.J.’s our Tiki Barber!
(Suddenly, C.J. Wilson starts yelling in his sleep, clutching a bag of money in bed while tossing and turning. He sits up in a cold sweat, panting and heaving.)
WILSON: What a horrible dream…at least I still have my money…damn…only…four…more…
(Wilson falls asleep, waiting to dream again.)
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