Since Nolan Ryan became the head honcho with the Texas Rangers, the emphasis clearly shifted to pitching. The offense was always in place for the team to pour on the runs but the pitchers they had readily just gave the runs right back. Slugfests have been the norm in Arlington but things started to turn around over the last few years as a healthy crop of young pitching was grown to take some of the pressure off of the already potent offense. With that in mind, don't sleep on the offense since it is chock full o' young stars that will give you more than a few reasons to watch a game. The brightest rising star belong to SS Elvis Andrus who was acquired from the Braves for Mark Teixeira. Andrus did almost everything right last year and he is a legit top-of-the-order guy that will steal bases, score a ton of runs, hit with power, and flag down many balls on the IF. Neftali Feliz throws harder than hard and is a lot of fun to watch out of the 'pen.
Inbound - Vlad. Sure he's getting up there in age but he is a dangerous bat in the middle of the lineup and a good veteran presence in the clubhouse. He sports a lifetime .321 avg (yes you read correctly) and 407 homers at the start of the season. Production should also increase, if healthy, playing 81 games in Tejas. Rich Harden was acquired and should fill the void by the vacated Kevin Millwood. Darren Oliver is doing another stint w/the Rangers and brings quality innings in front of closer Frank Francisco. The last big name brought in is Chris Ray. The hard-throwing former O's closer will take on a lesser role in the relief corps (read core, not corpse).
Outbound - Kevin Millwood, a legit #1 type starter that eats innings is now an Oriole. That's a lot of innings, quality starts, wins, and pitching knowledge to jettison for a maybe RP. Vets like Hank Blalock (no production and no position to play), Ivan Rodriguez (no position, too much $, only calls for fastballs with men on base that can run), Andruw Jones (no production and just a name at this point), Omar Vizquel (no position and no room in a utlity role for the best SS of the last 40 years), and Marlon Byrd (useless w/Julio Borbon ready to shine and Hamilton and Cruz locking up the corner spots).
Bottom Line - This team is ready to compete and they are in just the division to do so. The pitching depth is there, the lineup is there with the caveat that the young hitters (Andrus, Borbon, Cruz, Hamilton) continue to develop. If they continue getting nothing out of the Catcher position from an offensive standpoint, it's not the end of the world as long as the trio of Saltalamacchia, Teagarden, and Ramirez do the job they must to with the young pitching staff. There are some ifs in the starting rotation which may prove to do them in. 80 wins on the low end, 85 is a real big year for them.
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