I didn't really want to devote a separate Clubhouse post to this (and certainly not a front-page post), so this strikes me as the perfect place to dump my NESN Rangers-Red Sox series preview (which isn't really a preview so much as it is me answering questions):

NESN.com: Will the Rangers be able to re-sign Cliff Lee after the season, and if not, what will they do to replace him at the top of the rotation?

J.M.: Short answer: Probably not. Long answer: If you pressed a loaded gun against my temple right now and told me to render a prediction on the Rangers’ chances of bringing back Lee, I doubt I could go any higher than 15-20 percent in good conscience. There’s been a lot of columnist-bred talk in Dallas/Fort Worth about how Lee enjoys being a part of the Rangers and enjoys only being a sub-hour flight away from his Arkansas home and so on and so forth, but none of these ancillary factors will likely be enough to supersede an offer from the Yankees that’s, say, $5-10 million superior (or more) in terms of total present-day value. That, and it’s not immediately clear how well Lee -- if signed at $20-25 million per year by Texas -- would fit in with the new ownership group’s payroll projections.

If Lee departs, the Rangers are probably looking at a rotation of Colby Lewis, C.J. Wilson, Tommy Hunter, Derek Holland and Scott Feldman with some wild-card depth in the vein of Neftali Feliz and Tanner Scheppers (both of whom are inordinately talented, but are also perceived as long-term relievers in some baseball circles) and less overwhelming types like Matt Harrison and Michael Kirkman. That could be a playoff rotation, but I certainly can’t say that it is one with any real confidence. In this case, the Rangers probably make a run at any potentially available top-of-the-rotation starter they believe to be worth the trouble (Zach Greinke?), or roll the dice on another high-risk, high-reward arm (like Rich Harden, only hopefully with better results). But I don’t foresee Texas making a multi-year commitment to a mid-tier free agent like Jake Westbrook. I’m betting that they know better than to go that route.