Oakland Athletics: Offseason AL West Power Rankings
By Jamie Faue
Rank #5: The Texas Rangers
Sep 14, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; The Texas Rangers celebrate the win over the Atlanta Braves at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Rangers defeated the Braves 10-3. The Rangers get their first sweep since April. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers are at number five because, not only did the end up in last place in the West last season, they showed the last few seasons that they have lost their momentum and confidence to win. The Rangers tried to fix that issue by signing Prince Fielder last offseason. However, Fielder had season-ending neck surgery on May 23rd, 2014. Even with Fielder, the Rangers started their first 47 games with a 23-24 record, and without him they went 44-71.
It was clear that adding Fielder was not going to fix all their problems. The Rangers biggest problem (much like the Astros) is their bullpen. It showed in both the 2010 and 2011 World Series that the Rangers bullpen lacked depth. In game two of the 2010 World Series Derek Holland walked in three runs in the bottom of the eight, to secure the San Francisco Giants a 9-0 victory. From there on, giving up walks became an invasive problem with the Ranger bullpen.
Aug 17, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher
Yu Darvish(far right) looks on during the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Texas won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers starting pitching, however, had not been so bad up until the 2014 season. This past season the Rangers starting rotation had a collective 4.65 ERA, with Yu Darvish having the lowest ERA at 3.06. Darvish was also the only Rangers starter to have winning record for the Rangers this season with ten wins and seven losses.
Not only has the Ranger pitching gone down, so has their batting. Since losing Josh Hamilton to the Angels in 2012, and trading Ian Kinsler for Fielder, the Ranger offense has never been the same. The Rangers also lost Cruz to the Baltimore Orioles in 2013 season after missing the final 50 games of the season due to a suspesion for the illegal use of PED’s. This left Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre to carry the Texas offense, but it would not be enough.
Texas tried to replace all these missing pieces with Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo, but Fielder got hurt and Choo posted a .242 average with 13 home runs and 48 RBI’s. Fielder will hopefully be back this season for the Rangers, and will try and turn the franchise back around. But with all the dis-functionality the Rangers went through last year, it is hard to gauge how they will rebound in 2015.
Overall, the Rangers have slowly imploded into a weak baseball team and are trying regain the confidence that they had in their 2010 and 2011 World Series runs.
It will be interesting to see how the AL West shakes out in 2015, with a new and improved Seattle team, a healthy Rangers team, and the new look A’s. Who will give the Angels best battle? And can the A’s at least clinch another wild card berth?