Spring thoughts and A.L. predictions

Following a World Series appearance, the Rangers are now under greater pressure to perform. Baseball, for the first time in DFW, has dominated the sports talk world, even in the offseason. Interest in the Rangers is at an all-time high, this years spring training has been covered more in depth by more people than I can ever recall. Some things never change though, and with that said, pitching is, as always, the number one thing on people's mind heading into this season. Unfortunately, spring training has provided more questions than answers on the pitching forefront. The bullpen looks like a piece of Swiss cheese, mostly holes, with a couple of thin, solid pieces. Lowe, Rhodes, and O'day all have ERA's north of 10, and Feliz could be moving into the rotation. Darren Oliver has the best ERA of the pen crew, but can we really rely on a 40 something to anchor the bullpen? I tend to think. that by mid-May we could be looking at a bullpen of young unproven kids from the minors to carry the bulk of the load, and at this point that seems like a better option.

Now, for my AL predictions. Let's start in the East, I think Baltimore may be the most improved team this year in the AL, but it won't be enough to break through in this division. Boston, if Youk and crew can stay healthy, is my pick to take the East. Tampa Bay is heading back to the basement after pulling a Florida Marlins type unloading in the offseason, and Toronto will probably have another decent year that will land them 4th in the race. The Yankees dominating days I believe are over, this team is getting older, and pitching could be a problem. So, here is what I think:

1. Boston
2. Baltimore
3. NYY
4. Toronto
5. TB

AL Central: Minnesota appears to once again be the class of the central, and KC will probably continue to be the anchor that will remain planted at the bottom. Detroit, will be slightly better than .500, and Ozzie's days in Chicago will come to an end this season. Cleveland has nowhere to go but up, but I don't see them going up very far.

1. Minnesota
2. Detroit
3. Cleveland
4. CWS
5. KC

AL WEST: The Rangers have the support of the metroplex for the first time, but i'm expecting the worst here. They have the best offensive line-up in the West, but as we saw in October, good pitching beats good offense most of the time. Oakland is the SF Giants of the AL West, if this team can find a way to score 4 - 5 runs they will tough to beat. Angels coming off a quiet offseason, will be in the mix and their pitching is much deeper than the Rangers as well. Mariners have two great pieces, Ichiro and King Felix, outside of that I think they will once again struggle to be competitive.

1. Oakland
2. LAA
3. Texas ( unless pitching is added )
4. Mariners

expecting the worst, hoping for the best

Good news from AZ

1. Neftali Feliz says he would like to stay in the bullpen, that is great news.

2. Ogando throws 3 scoreless innings last night with 4 k's.

3. Webb is scheduled to face live hitters on Wednesday in bp.

4. Chris Davis, not sure if this is good news, but he is hitting .435 so far this spring.

Davis is getting plenty of AB's this spring with Beltre being out, and so far is making the most of his plate attempts. Chris has proven he can handle AAA and AA pitching, but has not been able to bring that success to the big club. First base is Morelands to lose, and with the addition of Napali and Young, being positionless, don't see a spot for the Chris Davis experiment to continue.

Ogando's success last night is nice to see, and going into the spring I expected him to have the best shot of a reliever moving in to a rotation spot. Three weeks away from opening day and the Rangers still don't have any real answers for the rotation. C.J., Colby, and then what? Hunter has one big problem, he throws too many pitches. Holland also has similar issues to Hunter, along with the fact that he is very inconsistant. Webb continues to get stronger and if all goes well tomorrow I suspect he will get his first spring training opportunity early next week.

Spring training is right up there with pre-season football, you see lots of young guys getting a shot to play, but have very little realistic chances to make the big club. What we do seem to know is Ian Kinsler will most likely hit lead-off and C.j. Wilson will most likely be the opening day starter. I admit I fell off the Kinsler band wagon a couple of seasons ago when he decided to become a "power" hitter, maybe hitting lead-off will make him more selective at the plate and get him back to hitting the ball to all fields. Wilson, on the other hand, was the biggest surprise last season, and I hope he doesn't pull a Feldman and fall off the map by the all-star break.