Another Freaking GM Who Doesn't Need To Shave

Honestly, at some point, we're gonna end up seeing baseball owners sitting at the bedroom window of high school Strat-o-Matic games, wearing sun visors, peering through binoculars and feverishly scribbling in a notebook. After Rangers general manager John Hart resigned yesterday, the team hired 28-year-old Cornell graduate Jon Daniels as the new GM. Daniels is 10 months younger than Red Sox wunderkind Theo Epstein was when he was hired in 2002. (To make you feel real old, Daniels was 25 then — just hired by the Rangers himself — barely old enough to rent a car.)

Daniels — who by all accounts is very sharp fellow — has a close relationship with Rangers blogger (and lawyer) The Newberg Report, where there will almost certainly be an interview later today. Meanwhile, you can check out an old Baseball Prospectus interview or just chew on this quote from yesterday's press conference: "I'm ecstatic about this. This is what I've aspired to be for a long time." The Dallas Morning News seems likely to have some fun with Daniels.

Daniels does not have the thinnest resume of a front-office operative in baseball history. Stanley Burrell had an equally meteoric rise with the Oakland Athletics, going from teenaged clubhouse attendant to "executive vice president" for eccentric owner Charles O. Finley in 1980.

Burrell quickly got out of baseball to pursue a career in music. He had a brief run of fame a few years later as MC Hammer. The list of less-experienced baseball higher-ups stops with Hammer.

Some Thoughts On The Regime Change [Lone Star Ball] Jon Daniels Q&A [Baseball Prospectus] Rangers Go Young At GM [Dallas Morning News]