So, where are we?

Cuts were made, and the Rangers have 30 left in Big League Camp. There will be 5 more, but not necessarily all pitchers.

Tepesch was eliminated from consideration today...

SP Candidates:

Darvish: Given
Perez: Given
Ogando: Unimpressive so far.

Harrison - Been pitching in the minor league camp, AFAIK. So, he isn't one of the 30?!

Ross: 3Gs \ 8.2 IP \ 2 ER <- I'd put him in the long-reliever role will hopes he'll demonstrate he is durable.
Scheppers: 3Gs \ 8.2 IP \ 3 ER <- I think making the case. I would love to see him transition.
Kirkman: 3Gs \ 8.0 IP \ 3 ER
Saunders: 1Gs \ 3.0 IP \ 3 ER <- Not sure why only 1 Gs, but likely ineffective?!
Hanson: 3Gs \ 8.1 IP \ 3 ER <- My money on SP.

Lewis: 3Gs \ 4.0 IP \ 8H \ 6 BB \ 8 ER <- I think he'll likely end up in Frisco or Az for extended ST.

My thoughts-
Darvish
Perez
Scheppers
Hanson
Harrison: DL

Ross: Long Reliever

Kirkman: BP
Ogando: BP

Saunders: Given the option to leave or stay.

Heard JD talk during tonight's game.

Harrison won't be ready until mid-to-late April.

Saunders had about 1 IP... then the wheels came off.

Got to see some of the young guys. Ronald Guzman (19-1B), EBeltre.

Didn't know where to post this, but if wanted to put it somewhere. Love you, Elvis.

Rangers 2014 Rotation =

With that rotation, I have visions of 4th in the AL West dancing in my head!!

Can we trade for Yordano Ventura?

Visions of rogers, helling and 3 days of shelling dance in my head......

darvish, perez and 3 days of ?

TAG seemed to indicate Saunders had solidified himself with a spot in the rotation, right after JD left the booth.

My thoughts-
Darvish
Perez
Scheppers
Hanson
Saunders gets you to Harrison's return
Harrison: DL

Ross: Long Reliever

Kirkman: BP
Ogando: BP

I still like Ogando, but I still have some concerns. If Holland or Harrison were in there, I'd have more confidence with Ogando as our #4/5. I believe he has #1/2 stuff, but not confident enough in his reliability.

How about "Darvish, Perez, Scheppers and two games of Peppers."

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Visions of rogers, helling and 3 days of shelling dance in my head......

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Having this vision as well. I do think Scheppers will be okay at #3 though. But between Scheppers transition and shakiness at 4-5, I expect the bullpen to be consistently TAXED by the time the rotation rolls back to Darvish.

[This message has been edited by DannyDuberstein (edited 3/18/2014 9:03a).]

Remember in 2010 the rotation looked like this to start

Feldman, Harden, Wilson, Lewis, and Harrison (Hunter unavailable for April/May)

Holland was a BP arm

We have one pitcher (a leading CY Young candidate at that) and 4 massive question marks that any positive outcome is based only on hope. Very scary....

Lineup is better but not all world either....feeling more and more this is going to be a long year. We shall see though.

Expectations - We'll be good to get 150 IP from Scheppers as a SP.

We'll have Harrison possibly back in late April. I think they get conservative if we see some success ala Grimm\Tepesch in 2013. If we can get 5-6 IP from Saunders and Hanson, keeping us in the game... there is no need to rush Harrison. They are trying to not rush him, as it is.

Also, we could get Holland back around the ASB.

IMO, this is much like 2013. Do we have enough SP to get us through a month or two. Then, can we get pieces back to replace those before they get too exposed. In the case of 2013, we were unable to do that and both Grimm and Tepesch got exposed.

I think we are in the mix.

Oakland just lost 2 of their SPs. Parker to have TJ surgery (again). Kazmir - Left tricep stiffness. They hope it is a minor issue. Also, some question about AJ Griffin's health - flexor tendinitis.

Their roation:
Parker - Out for season
Gray - 6.30 in 10 IP in ST
Kazmir - Effective but hurting
Straily - 5.07 in 5.1IP in ST
Griffin - 10.38 in 8.2 IP in ST (19 Hits)

Milone - 3.86 in 14 IP in ST
Lindblom - 4.09 in 11.0 IP in ST (Former Ranger)

Will Houston emerge? Unlikely.

Seems like every day there is an announcement of a projected SP needing TJ surgery. This could be a huge season for HRs and scoring.

Rogers, Helling, and three days of shelling

Whoa Dave, sorry I missed your post. Beat me to it

Griffin for the A's has some arm issues as well, may not be ready until May.

Rotation looks rough this year.. At least until we get Holland back

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Rotation looks rough this year.

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yes, but you need to factor in 19 vs the Astros. If we have throw the back 3 every time vs them we could be ok

Who is pitching today? Looks like 1 run through 4... WOOPS too early... 4 more given up in the 5th.

Perez started

Perez's 5th inning looks worse than it was

The double was a pop-up to right field that engel Beltre completely lost in the sun. The next hit was a flukey bunt single

Perez was mowing em down before all that garbage.

Well Ogando gets the first two outs then an error leads to 5 runs in one inning.

Olt

It was also a familiar heavy pitch outing for Ogando. He was already at 58 pitches in the 3rd when he surrendered the first runs (2 run dinger).

Let's see how it plays out after 2 weeks of the regular season.

Every year we see this stuff in ST. I know Wash and DJ will have the rotation and bullpen ready.

It's really hard to find many bright spots based on what we've seen.

I'm actually pretty shocked at how god-awful they've been pitching.

Biggest rotation question marks since 2009 season.

Check out the A's though too

AJ Griffin & Jarrod Parker hurting

Now to Milone

A's don't scare me.

Angels do. Eventually that much talent will figure it out and not tank a month.

Aside from CJWilson, Weaver and Trout... what scares you about the Halos?!

Is it that Hamilton has 3 AB in ST and I'm guessing he likely won't be much of a contributor in April.

Is it Pujols' .258 with 0 HRs in ST? 2 of his 8 Hits were for extra bases (doubles).

Blanton has pitched 15.2 IP, 16H and 4BB and 4 HRs (6.75 ERA)
Richards has faired better - 11.2 IP \ 17 H, and 0 BBs and 0 Hs. 5.40 ERA.

Will they go with Santiago? 16.1 IP \ 11H \ 6 BB \ 19 SO?
Skaggs? 10.1 IP \ 12 H \ 4BB (4.36 ERA)

Lots of QMarks in LAAA.

Well the As should scare you. Their by far who I'm most worried about. Angels have a chance if everything comes together.

The As?

They've lost 3 of their 5 projected SPs - one for the season... one for a few weeks... and one TBD.

The other two have less than 40 combined GS and are like 24 and 25.

I like Reddick, Lowrie and Cespedes...lots of potential. I just don't see them being that great.

I'd say with all the concerns with the Rangers - SP, RP, Offense... I'd say the AL West is pretty wide open with question marks on all teams.

One team will have 3-4 players emerge to make the difference, but I'd say, no team is a lock for 85+ Wins.
- Houston: Young and unproven
- Seattle: Too many holes in too many places
- Oakland: SP is thin, Offense is meh.
- LAAA: LOTS of talent on the back side of their prime with ailing concerns up and down the line up.
- Texas: SP? RP? Closer? 2B? OF?

The A's are only a threat if Angels and Rangers under-perform.

As for the Angels? Weaver/Wilson/Richards is a better #1-3 than Texas currently sports.

Trout is Trout.

And while we all hope Hamilton and Pujols continue their mediocrity throughout the entirety of their Angels' careers, I'm not ready to writeoff two insanely good hitters as has-beens quite yet. If they both have enough left in their tanks to put up 800+ OPS's (which they are more than capable of), then that's the most complete team in the division.


Texas has loads of potential if guys play well and get healthy, but currently the rotation is Darvish and a bunch of question marks (injury recovery with Holland/Harrison/Lewis, potential with Perez).

Lineup's big hitter is a guy coming off of his worst year ever. The guy who carried the team offensively last year is already having leg issues... Remember it was Beltre who in the season's final month absolutely tanked at the plate.

Catcher is still a black hole. Shortstop is having arm issues. 2nd baseman has had arm issues.

DH will likely be a hopeful "rising star".


LOT of question marks, more than Texas has had in years.

Oh... I'm not saying to write them off... but:

Pujols: 34 - Has steadily declined each season for the past 4-5 seasons.
Hamilton: 32 - had a great year at 30 (2 seasons ago), but otherwise has declined the past 4 seasons... beit GP or otherwise.

Fielder: 28 - had his worst year, during a season where many rumored circulated about personal distractions.

My money is on Fielder out performing Pujols and Hamilton.

Yes... lots of questions for Texas. Lots of questions for the whole division.

While I think we all agree Pujols is going to decline with age, going from 607 AB's and a 4.6 WAR to 99 AB's a 1.5 WAR isn't a "steady" decline. It's likely an aberration.

It's doubtful he's ever going to be a 1000+ OPS guy again, but I wouldn't bank on he and Josh putting up 700ish OPS'.

You could make a case that Fielder's power has been on a steady delcine as well (38 homeruns... 30 homeruns... 25 homeruns...)

It's being a tad bit biased to assume continued failure for opponents, but likely bounce-backs for Texas.

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It's being a tad bit biased to assume continued failure for opponents, but likely bounce-backs for Texas.

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