Padreshome.com | San Diego Padres News, padres Scores, Game Recaps & Commentary - <div>Jan. 16--It apparently will surprise some people, but Nolan Ryan does not report for work at Rangers Ballpark each day with his hangin' rope poised and his six-shooters ready to fire. </div>On the contrary, in his year as Texas Rangers' team president, Ryan has shown himself to be a patient administrator and a consummate businessman. The perception, therefore, that Ryan has general manager Jon Daniels' neck measured for an inevitable noose is both inaccurate and unfounded. "It's ludicrous," Daniels himself said Thursday. Rather than take Daniels to the woodshed, as some in the media want you to believe, Ryan joined the general manager in a telephone conference call Thursday night, after Michael Young's announcement that he had agreed to move to third base. "Nolan and I have been in lock-step on this," Daniels had said earlier. "Our communications have grown by leaps and bounds in the course of the past year. I have lot of respect for him." Reading Young's words Thursday, it's doubtful whether any degree of begging or sugar-coating was going to induce the team captain to readily embrace the position switch. Ryan figured that breaking the news to Michael before Christmas was the proper way to go. Young, meanwhile, apparently was thinking that a better time might be 2011 or 2012. "I didn't think it was my time," Young said. So he bristled. He told the media by phone Sunday night that he didn't like the blunt style in which the news was presented to him. "He was, in my opinion, surprised it came at this time," Ryan said. "This is just an assumption on my part, but he was probably thinking that this decision would come a year or two later." Thus, it was the timing of the move that irked Young, not the insensitive manner in which Daniels allegedly presented it. That is not an insignificant difference. But some in the media had already chalked it up as "another Daniels mistake." To some, it seems, Daniels will always be the Ivy League kid who was handed the Rangers' GM job. He's the guy who traded away Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez and John Danks and who bartered Alfonso Soriano for a bag of beans. Daniels doesn't try to run from those earlier deals. He'll be judged, though, as all managers and general managers are, on his won-loss record. And Daniels' final verdict as Rangers GM will be rendered over the next two or three seasons. It's been a slow winter, but so it has been for almost all major league teams not wearing Yankees pinstripes. But to every winter, there is a spring, and the months ahead for the Rangers appear uncommonly bright. In its new issue, Baseball America will honor the Rangers as having the No. 1 farm system in all of Baseball. Daniels' role in assembling the club's scouting and drafting departments shouldn't be ignored. "It's a very nice honor," Daniels said. "The credit goes to our scouting and development folks and all the work they do, and to our ownership for buying into what we do. "It's a nice story, but it bears success only when the minor league talent translates into wins in Arlington. Until that happens, this is just a nice first step." And Young is expected to be a vital part of any future steps. Curiously, some of the same people who are criticizing Daniels for not being respectful of Young were chiding him three years ago for not forcing Soriano to switch positions. The strained few days with Young this week are not a reflection, Ryan said, of a deteriorating relationship with Daniels. "I wouldn't view it that way at all," Ryan said of the media depiction. "In fact, our relationship has grown over the past year. I would have to say it's much stronger today than it was six months ago. "I feel good about it." Owner Tom Hicks, Ryan and Daniels are united as the Rangers peer toward a bright tomorrow. I know this because I asked all three of them. "Our relationship is extremely strong," Ryan said of his GM. "We visit on a daily basis. "I couldn't be happier with the way the relationship has grown." Don't let some media fairytale, therefore, make you think otherwise. Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7760 To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Jan. 16--It apparently will surprise some people, but Nolan Ryan does not report for work at Rangers Ballpark each day with his hangin' rope poised and his six-shooters ready to fire.

On the contrary, in his year as Texas Rangers' team president, Ryan has shown himself to be a patient administrator and a consummate businessman.

The perception, therefore, that Ryan has general manager Jon Daniels' neck measured for an inevitable noose is both inaccurate and unfounded.

"It's ludicrous," Daniels himself said Thursday.

Rather than take Daniels to the woodshed, as some in the media want you to believe, Ryan joined the general manager in a telephone conference call Thursday night, after Michael Young's announcement that he had agreed to move to third base.

"Nolan and I have been in lock-step on this," Daniels had said earlier.

"Our communications have grown by leaps and bounds in the course of the past year. I have lot of respect for him."

Reading Young's words Thursday, it's doubtful whether any degree of begging or sugar-coating was going to induce the team captain to readily embrace the position switch.

Ryan figured that breaking the news to Michael before Christmas was the proper way to go. Young, meanwhile, apparently was thinking that a better time might be 2011 or 2012.

"I didn't think it was my time," Young said.

So he bristled. He told the media by phone Sunday night that he didn't like the blunt style in which the news was presented to him.

"He was, in my opinion, surprised it came at this time," Ryan said. "This is just an assumption on my part, but he was probably thinking that this decision would come a year or two later."

Thus, it was the timing of the move that irked Young, not the insensitive manner in which Daniels allegedly presented it.

That is not an insignificant difference. But some in the media had already chalked it up as "another Daniels mistake."

To some, it seems, Daniels will always be the Ivy League kid who was handed the Rangers' GM job. He's the guy who traded away Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez and John Danks and who bartered Alfonso Soriano for a bag of beans.

Daniels doesn't try to run from those earlier deals.

He'll be judged, though, as all managers and general managers are, on his won-loss record. And Daniels' final verdict as Rangers GM will be rendered over the next two or three seasons.

It's been a slow winter, but so it has been for almost all major league teams not wearing Yankees pinstripes. But to every winter, there is a spring, and the months ahead for the Rangers appear uncommonly bright.

In its new issue, Baseball America will honor the Rangers as having the No. 1 farm system in all of Baseball.

Daniels' role in assembling the club's scouting and drafting departments shouldn't be ignored.

"It's a very nice honor," Daniels said. "The credit goes to our scouting and development folks and all the work they do, and to our ownership for buying into what we do.

"It's a nice story, but it bears success only when the minor league talent translates into wins in Arlington. Until that happens, this is just a nice first step."

And Young is expected to be a vital part of any future steps.

Curiously, some of the same people who are criticizing Daniels for not being respectful of Young were chiding him three years ago for not forcing Soriano to switch positions.

The strained few days with Young this week are not a reflection, Ryan said, of a deteriorating relationship with Daniels.

"I wouldn't view it that way at all," Ryan said of the media depiction. "In fact, our relationship has grown over the past year. I would have to say it's much stronger today than it was six months ago.

"I feel good about it."

Owner Tom Hicks, Ryan and Daniels are united as the Rangers peer toward a bright tomorrow. I know this because I asked all three of them.

"Our relationship is extremely strong," Ryan said of his GM. "We visit on a daily basis.

"I couldn't be happier with the way the relationship has grown."

Don't let some media fairytale, therefore, make you think otherwise.

Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7760

To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.