2008 Texas Rangers

At the end of last year the Texas Rangers showed great signs of improvement. At the end of May the Rangers were tied with Kansas City for the worst record in baseball at 19 – 35, but finished the season strong going 4 games over .500 for the remainder of the season. One of the big reasons for the turnaround was when the team traded away P Eric Gagne, 1B Mark Teixeira, and P Ron Mahay for eight prospects. A few of these prospects are expected to start and play big roles in 2008. Manager Ron Washington has brought some excitement back in Texas where they have only had one winning season since 1999. The offense isn’t near as explosive as the years past, but still should put up ok numbers. Where the team has struggled year after year is on the mound, and unless one of the veterans can find some magic left in their arm this team will struggle in 2008.

Pitching:

The team is hoping that team ace Kevin Millwood will finally have a season worth the $60 million contract he signed. They will also need Vicente Padilla to step and return to the pitcher who won a career high 15 games in his first season with the Rangers in 2006. After the two veterans at the top the team will send three projects to the mound, one being former Rookie of the Year Jason Jennings and two young prospects in Brandon McCarthy and Kason Gabbard. While Jennings says he is back to pain free throwing that will be determined real shortly. Gabbard was 6-1 in 15 starts, but was shutdown after he reached his largest inning total. While the starters were pretty bad last year the bullpen was pretty good. The team will have young C.J. Wilson closing games after former closer Akinori Otsuka was not offered a new contract after having elbow problems. They also have a pretty solid setup man in Joaquin Benoit who was 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA in his last 13 appearances.

Offense:

The team lost its two leading homerun hitters in Sammy Sosa and Brad Wilkerson to free agency. The team is moving to a little more of a small ball type of offense. A trade with the Reds brought in once big time prospect OF Josh Hamilton who finally seemed to make things click last year. Hamilton hit .292 with 19HR in just 90 games. C Jarrod Saltalmacchia is one of the pieces that was brought in the trades during last season, and is a very promising switch-hitting catcher. The 2008 team will still have the solid bats of SS Michael Young, 3B Hank Blalock, and LF Marlon Bird from 2007. All three of these guys don’t have a lot of power but all hit for a very good average. One other new addition will come in RF Milton Bradley. Bradley has always been a solid hitter, but his temper and lack of control of it, are what might cause problems for him as a Ranger.

Defense:

This was the worst team in the AL last year in giving up extra outs with 124 errors. The team lacks a real outstanding defender at any starting position. While Saltalamacchia is the better hitting catcher on the team, he lacks the defense that backup Gerald Laird posses. This unit isn’t as bad as it was in 2007, but it also isn’t anywhere near the top defenses in the game.

Prediction:

With the A’s in a rebuilding year we like the Rangers to finish 3rd in the AL West. While it will be hard for them to compete with the Angels and Mariners, if they somehow can find some starting pitching they might be able to hang around with them for a while.

2008 Texas Rangers Odds to Win World Series 100 - 1

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