Batting Order/Position
1) Elvis Andrus SS
2) David Murphy LF
3) Adrian Beltre 3B
4) Nelson Cruz RF
5) Ian Kinsler 2B
6) A.J. Pierzynski C
7) Mitch Moreland 1B
8) Mike Olt DH
9) Leonys Martin CF

Bench:
C. Gentry
G. Soto
?
?
?

Starting Pitchers:
1) Matt Harrison (Opening Day Starter)
2) Yu Darvish
3) Derek Holland
4) Alexi Ogando
5) Perez or Grimm (omly until Colby Lewis is ready)

Relief Pitchers:
J. Nathan
R. Ross
Tateyama
M. Kirkman
Yan
Perez or Grimm (whichever isn't 5th starter)
Soria (will start the year on the DL I assume)

Forgot to mention Profar will not be on roster. They will save his eligibility years to 2014. He is still young and we may as well not waste him. If Rangers stink it up they can trade Andrus and call him up.

Two things -

1. Yu Darvish will be the Opening Day starter.
2. Profar's service clock has already started. He needs to be used at the ML level or traded. No sense in keeping him in AAA.

Who is Yan that the OP has out of the bullpen? Is this some minor leaguer we have that I have forgotten about?

I guaranteed you that Josh Lindblom will be a strong candidate out of the bullpen and is probably being expected to start the season there. Same with Tanner Scheppers.

Service clock? Profar will not accrue major league service time if he is in the minors. It will burn an option for him to stay in the minors, but the amount of options Profar has will not likely ever be a concern.

Yan is Johan Yan, former shortstop we signed as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic whom we converted to a reliever a couple/few seasons ago. Not sure if it was due to injury, but he only pitched in 35 games between AA and AAA in 2012.

It's a liberal projection to expect him on our Opening Day roster in 2013, but he does profile as a guy who could get a shot next year. He lives on deception, and throws pretty hard from a sidearm- 3/4 slot. He's been fairly dominant in the DWL this offseason, posting 24 strikeouts to just 6 BB's in 17.2 IP. I don't put a hell of a lot of stock in Winter Ball, but it's a decent sign nonetheless.

One more thing: There's something of a sabermetric loophole featuring pitchers with deceptive mechanics. Although the stuff isn't necessarily there to post high strikeout figures, they tend to induce a lot weaker batted ball contact. There just aren't a lot of them out there. Darren O'Day is the best example right now. So to that end, I'll be interested to see where he goes from here. He's been in the organization for quite awhile now, and you'd have to think he wouldn't have been retained this long unless the front office had plans of utilizing him in some capacity.

Pretty good assumption. Except maybe switch AJ and Kinsler so two leftys won't hit back to back. Gentry has the inside track to be the CF based on his performance this year. Scheppers will be in the BP.

Andrus, Murphy, Beltre, Cruz, AJ, Kinsler, Moreland, Olt, Gentry.

Darvish, Harrison, Ogando, Holland, Perez/Grimm/Ross.

If your projected hitters just hit to form and newbies come around, that could be a very nice lineup and have speed throughout. Nice. I agree with Eric(GULP!) Yan could be a spot one hitter specialist this year...you won't see him face a side-deceptive pitchers are good but he needs to be used judiciously, and fits in DO's spot.

I forgot about Lindblom. Yeah he should break camp w/ the Rangers. How many relievers can we carry? I am concerned Beltre won't have much protection as well!

Scheppers too damn it! Yan will probably not make it then due to my inability to mention Lindblom and Schep.

I'm expecting JD to add two reliever, and add them to a bullpen featuring Ross/Kirkman/Scheppers/Nathan, with the last spot going to someone off the scrapheap to provide low-leverage innings.

A FEW things:
- As long as Kinsler remains a Texas Ranger, Wash will have him leadoff... which means your top 2 slide down a slot... which means we could be looking at the very real possibility of Murphy hitting 3rd. I don't know about you but that scares the hell out of me and while it breaks up the overly right handed top of the lineup, David Murphy batting 3rd means Beltre will bat cleanup and be sandwhiched between Murphy and probably Cruz or Pierzynski... which means NOBODY will give him a pitch to hit.

- As RyanExpress pointed out, you don't have Profar. As JDW_ATX pointed out, Profar will be in the lineup (which I wholeheartedly agree with)... which means Kinsler would move to 1B (which, to me, is unfathomable)... which means MORELAND will likely be the DH. I doubt Olt will be used as a DH much as Wash will use him to spell Beltre and probably and possibly Cruz and Murphy)... which means the DH role will be a revolving door, AGAIN!

- Unless something happens during spring training, I think you're spot on in that Wash will role with Harrison as the #1. That allows him to go L-R-L-R-L (Imy guess is Perez is our #5)... so I'm in agreement with you as far as the rotation goes.
I 'm not sure if I agree with your bullpen prediction.... or I'm terrified that it could actually end up that way and I'm subconsciously disregarding it. The only sure thing we know is that Nathan will be closing and Ross will likely play a pivotal role. We also know Soria won't be ready to contribute when the season begins... which makes things very sketchy. I'm 99% sure Tateyama is a free agent and I can't see JD giving him any $ and to take a roster spot when in reality, he would likely be shuttled back/forth between AAA. In other words, I don't think we will see Tateyama ever again and his 2011 and 2012 role will be passed along to another youngster (or even Kirkman).
God help us if the rest of your bullpen is on point. I think we will see Grimm (or, as you said, Perez) and maybe some assortment of youngsters like Roman Mendez, Wilmer Font, Neil Ramirez, etc...which to me, would signify JD's throwing in the towel (for 2013).
If we make it to the ASB and we're in 2nd or 3rd place, maybe hovering around .500 and not too many games behind the Angels and A's, we could have Feliz and Colby back, which changes everything as you could slide Feliz back into a set-up role (no way he's going back in the rotation this year). Lewis, on the other hand, would go right back into the rotation which would allow Wash to maybe move Ogando back to the pen... then you're looking at a potentially unhittable combination of Feliz/Ogando/Soria/Nathan.
WITH THAT SAID, knowing Feliz and Colby may be back by the ASB is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is obvious but the curse is the possibility JD and co. are pinning their hopes on them coming back by mid-season and, as a result, decide not to make ANY moves now (or in the interim).

We will know what direction this club is headed in the next 30-45 days. They are either going to concede simply because there are just too many holes to fill this late in the off-season, or we will see 1, or maybe even 2, mega-trades. But keep in mind trades mortgage the future whereas free agents cost nothing but $$$ (and possibly a draft pick). If JD decides to go all in, you can forget about watching Profar, Perez, and a bunch of other high end prospects potentially turn into all-stars, at least not in a Texas Ranger uniform.
There's only 1 player out there that I would be more than willing to trade away big time blue-chippers for and that's Giancarlo Stanton. If JD pulled that off, and then made a few more seemingly minor trades to bring in a couple of good, established bullpen arms, an experienced #5, a legit DH, etc... then my expectations would change... but I have a feeling that JD, and perhaps this is the right decision to make, has already decided there are way too many holes to fill and too many "what ifs" (what if Profar can't play 2B... what if Kinsler can't play 1B... what if Mike Olt can't hit... what if Martin is a bust, etc...) to mortgage the future... and that this is a re-tooling year... yet there's enough excitement and hope that the uneducated fan will buy into the product on the field and attendance doesn't drop below the 3 million mark. In other words, mediocrity is ok. It won't be to us... but it will be to the casual fan that buys Texas Ranger's t-shirts at the local Wal Mart.

I don't want to end 2012 on a sour, downer note... and even though Chirstmas has come and gone, here's my 2013 wish list:
- Elvis is signed to a long term contract
- Profar, M.Perez, L.Martin and Cody Buckel are traded to the Marlins for Giancarlo Stanton
- Derek Holland, L. Sardinas, Mitch Moreland are traded to the DBacks for Justin Upton
- Michael Bourne becomes desperate and signs a very reasonable 3yr/$48M contract
- Kyle Lohse becomes REALLY desperate and signs a very reasonable 1yr/$13M contract
- Grady Sizemore signs a 1 yr/$1M "make good" contract and becomes Comeback Player of the Year
- Olt becomes the full-time 1B and provides better offensive numbers than Moreland, while also winnning a Gold Glove
- Wilmer Font and Justin Grimm are co-American League ROY winners
- Roman Mendez becomes the next Alexi Ogando
- Neftali Feliz comes back in June and is unhittable
- Colby Lewis comes back in July and is unhittable AND Kyle Lohse suddenly becomes trade bait
- Yu Darvish cements his place as one of the top pitchers in the league and wins his first Cy Young
- Jon Daniels FINALLY wins Executive of the Year.
- Last, but not least, our Texas Rangers are crowned 2013 World Series Champions

I think the Rangers already signed Tateyama to a one year deal.

I'm pretty sure yoshi is still unsigned, we declined a one year 1.2 mil team option, could be wrong though

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions/free-agents/pitchers

Yoshi was re-signed.

Well nevermind then

@ Pablo. Good thoughts. However, we need Kins to be more of a run producer now due to the TxRan power outage. I suspect Wash will conced this fact. Our best hitter should hit 3rd (Beltre).

Pablo, that's one heck of a wish list. If 80% of that comes true, the last wish may too. But as you said, a wish list.

Hey, the bench looks as strong as the two World Series benches we assembled!

Yoshi was signed to a minor league deal I believe. He and yan are similar pitchers and would have similar roles and I dont see them both being here at the same time (barring injuries of course).

@Pablo: I hate to just rain on your parade, but...
- In order to sign both Bourn and Lohse, we'd lose our first 2 draft picks. No, thank you.
- We don't need to trade for both Stanton and Upton. Also, don't want to trade both Holland and Moreland for Upton.
- Why in the world do you want Sizemore?
- If we were to sign Lohse, we probably wouldn't trade him, even if Colby is unhittable. Did you learn nothing from last year about depth at starting pitching?
- Ian hasn't always been a leadoff hitter. Wash might stick with him up there anyway, but it might be time for him to move back down.

Barring spring training injuries (which will happen ) or additional free agent signs or trades ( already suggested by Levine) the 25 are not hard tp predict. Wash likes a pitching staff of 12, 2 or 3 catchers ( currently with two full timers, a third is not needed), 6 infielders and 5 of/dh. The rotation: Darvish, Harrison, Holland, Ogando, Perez. Closer: Nathan, SETUP 8TH: Ross/ Scheppers, 7TH: Kirkman/ Lindblom and long: Cotts/ Grimm. Catchers: AJP and Soto. Infielders: Moreland / Kinsler / Andrus / and Beltre around the horn, with Profar and Olt beginning on the bench. Outfield: Murphy/ Martin / E. BELTRE, with 4th of in Gentry and Cruz as dh. Only real surprises, if that, are Beltre and Cotts. Wash favors experience and he liked Cotts last year, and had made the team until pulling up lame. Beltre is still a 5-tool talent, whose time has come to make the big jump and will be the surprise at Surprise, This is what the Rangers currently have, the season is now in the hands of the 5 starters. Interesting though, even now a MLB commentator has predicted the Rangers winning the West. AND there is cavalry on the way in first Soria, followed by Colby, and much later Neftali.
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^All of this.

There are still a lot of uncertains about the 2013 roster, but I feel pretty comfortable saying Ian won't be leading off given #1 his performance last year, #2 a dip in projected power from other positions, and #3 viable options in Martin, Gentry & Elvis to fill the 1-2 slots.

Ian would be my 4th choice to lead off as the team currently stands (if not 5th behind Murphy).