The Rangers entered spring training in 2010 with many question marks about chemistry and makeup of the club that will take the field this season. And with the preseason more than half way complete, most of those remain. As it is every season, pitching is again a big concern. Can those that toe the rubber provide enough to take advantage of the explosive high octane offense? Can the defense, which probably at best remained static due to key arrivals and departures, help prevent too many crooked number innings? And remaining virtually unchanged defensively is no reason to rejoice as Texas finished close to the bottom in over all team defense last year. But this season player’s health may trump all others. These are the burning questions the Rangers face going into the 2010 season.
Let’s take a look at the anxiety that seems to be at the top of everyone’s list this time of year and that is pitching. The Rangers will begin the season with the front end of their 2009 opening day rotation replaced. Staff ace Kevin Millwood was not retained after the 2009 season and headed to Baltimore with his comforting four year Ranger average of 31 game starts and 189 innings. Also jettisoned was the unwanted Vincent Padilla. A bizarre string of events caused the front office to completely sever ties late last season, only to see Padilla resurrect with the Los Angeles Dodgers and start for them in the post season. Say what you will, but his experience and durability will surely be missed this season.
Possibly countering those losses are the crop of young guns that thrilled the Ranger faithful last season, both in youth and promise of more to come. Scott Feldman blossomed into the anchor of the rotation and is quickly proving to be one of the best young pitch-to-contact starters in the AL. All he does is get people out. And both Tommy Hunter and Derek Holland indicated they deserved another shot at starting the season in the rotation, but they both appeared to suffer from arm fatigue down the stretch as their ERAs ballooned in September.
One of the major acquisitions this offseason was the surprise signing of the enigmatic Rich Harden. At long last after putting up a full season’s worth of numbers with the National League Cubs last season, the Rangers are taking a chance on him and he is expected to lead the rotation or start behind Feldman. That’s a tough sell in many ways. Obviously he will be expected to fill part of the void of the previously mentioned departed Millwood and Padilla. That’s problematic because only twice in Harden’s career has he started more than 25 games in a season and only once thrown more than 175 innings. While last season he did get 26 starts, his 141 innings averages out to getting the hook sometime in the 6th. This puts a burden on the bullpen, and will only exacerbate the situation in North Texas since only fellow starter Scott Feldman has a realistic chance of approaching 200 innings.
The health of Josh Hamilton is beginning to cause unease. Hamilton has seen not only the troubling decline in his power numbers since the 2008 Home Run derby; only 21 homers and 89 RBIs over that two season span, but already this spring he’s nursing a sprained shoulder and most recently he was listed day-to-day after getting hit by a pitch on his left forearm.
If that’s not enough, you also have to be a bit worrisome about the health of the very talented home grown Ian Kinsler. With only 4 seasons to his very impressive resume, Kinsler has started his career with a few trips to the DL to make one question his over-all durability. He’s averaging just under 130 starts per season. This season he has been all but sidelined with a high ankle sprain.
Finally, we come to former Ranger Killer Vlad Guerrero by way of division rival Los Angles Angels of Anaheim. Until last season, you could just pencil Guerrero into the line up every day, expecting big numbers out of the middle of the order and a possible outfield assist anytime the ball came his way with runners on. But a torn pectoral muscle and strained left knee limited him to 100 games. This may not be any concern at all based upon his overall good health throughout his career, it still carries some risk due to his age (35).
Defensively, the Rangers look great only at third (Michael Young), Second (Kinsler), Right (Guerrero), OF (Hamilton) and surprisingly at first (Chris Davis). The other positions were pedestrian or worse. Rookie phenom Elvis Andrus committed 22 errors at short, but my gosh, with all of his potential, just playing a second season in the bigs will have dramatic improvement, if not this season certainly next. Nelson Cruz proved he has a solid defensive presence as well, so look for improvement in his game. But the flip side, consider the defensive value of these role players no longer with the club: Omar Vizquel (fpct of 1.000), Andrew Jones (1.000), Byrd (.991).
Julio Borbon is here to stay. In the bottom half of innings, he will be explosive whenever he gets on the base paths, bringing top notch speed to the top of the order in a capacity that could challenge Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury for the SB crown. But can he make strides in handling lefties? Last year he only had 14 chances against south paws and managed a very weak .125 avg. His arm is also weak and could be a defensive liability late in games.
Then we have the Ron Washington situation. All things considered, his fate is probably tied to any fallout on whether or not the recent headlines having a destabilizing affect on the team and clubhouse. Right now there is team solidarity and front office seems intent on retaining his services.
While other questions do exist, these are the top concerns facing the Rangers this season. We know for certain the Rangers will be capable of scoring runs and lots of them. We also know that pitching and defense will determine how many of those runs translate into wins. What we will not know until the cooler days of October arrive is what condition the team will be in health wise.
