Link here (insider required)

1. Texas Rangers
The Rangers' plan is to give Mitch Moreland a chance to establish himself as the first baseman in spring training, but they will also be devoted to the concept of making sure their best players will be in the lineup; if it becomes clear that Jurickson Profar -- who turns 20 next month -- is one of those guys, he'll play. Profar was shut down in winter ball because of an elbow problem, but the Rangers say he's fine now and is ready to go. The left side of the Texas infield is dynamic defensively, with MVP candidate Adrian Beltre at third and the improved Elvis Andrus at shortstop. Andrus is only 24 years old and still developing as an offensive player, and he showed in the first half that he has room to grow.

The X factor: Ian Kinsler. There was a general regression throughout almost every part of the Rangers' lineup as last season progressed, from Josh Hamilton to Michael Young, but Kinsler's decline may have been the most perplexing. At age 30, his OPS slid by 83 points from 2011 to 2012; his WAR went from 7.1 to 2.0 in the same time frame. The damage he did against fastballs dropped considerably last year. As Profar emerges, Kinsler could be asked to change positions and move to first base, as he has acknowledged, but no matter where he plays, the Rangers will need better production out of him than they got last season; when at his best, Kinsler can be an elite hitter, among infielders.

They're obviously speaking offensively only since the tigers are #2. That might be the worst defensive infield in baseball.

This piece also had a great excerpt about the effect of the Astros moving to the AL West has on playoff odds.

It's true, the Rangers do have an elite infield.

However (not like Buster Olney needs extra money), posting Insider content on a free forum is kind of a no-no. Or should be, at least.

Didn't realize you were the board police officer Eric.

And btw, if you go to the rangers espn blog you don't need insider access to read what he wrote about the rangers.

Actually, I'd bet he means defensively too, although in keeping with most things valuing players, he probably values offense significantly more than defense. Peralta and Infante are no slouch, and if Cabrera and Fielder weren't just plain bad defensively, the Tigers would probably be rated the best.

I don't care. Having awful defense at both corners does not warrant a #2 ranking in all of baseball of your infield.

Even though the Rangers lack a Pujols / Fielder / Votto at first, it probably was not a hard call by Olney. A more intriguing question is " Where would he rate the Ranger's second line?" of: Guzman [ a tad early to call admitally ] at first, Leury Garcia and Profar up the middle [ hard to call who would be best at short ] and Olt at third.

You didn't make the list, Romeo. Olney did. I'm speculating about why he ranked them the way he did.

I'm just commenting on the stupidity of his rankings. I don't care why he did it. It's still dumb.

I've seen Joey post excerpts of paid content plenty of times, and BZ posted a link to the content. He didn't break any unwritten rules that I'm aware of. But what do I know?

I didn't post the entire article, which had a breakdown of the entire top 10 + 2 more + extra. I just posted to relevant part about the Rangers, which is about what espndallas had for free. Also, I linked the original source.

IF the Rangers ever replace CRUZ in RF, with a better Def Player, our whole lineup is above
average. As much as Upton may lend a descent Mid Bat, his corner play is pretty good.

I'd like to look at the other top 10 in the list.

Superficially I'm a little skeptical we should be #1, considering our uncertainty/mediocrity at 1st and catcher.

Plus, Ian played as a 2 WAR player last season.

AFAIK that article is free for all anyway.