The Rangers are ranked with the 18th pitching staff in the majors by mlb.com. Considering they were top 5 in WAR, and top 10 in nearly every stat not named ERA, it seems harsh. We lost Dempster. He didn't do anything. We shouldn't have the horrendous injury luck we did last year...and players like Darvish and Perez should only get better. Seems very surprising.
And Anthony Castrovinces's Rotation rankings have the Rangers off the top 10 and not even in the honorable mentions.

And?

The Rangers' rotation right now seems capable, but far from a sure thing. Compare this with the Giants' rotation, which seems about as close to a sure thing as you can get. The only question I see is whether or not Lincecum will regain his CY form and give the Giants 4 excellent pitchers instead of 3.

The Rangers, on the other hand, still have some questions. IF Yu continues to look like he did in September, the Rangers may have a bona fide ace. IF Matt Harrison continues to defy his luck dragons (a la Weaver), then they might have a legitimate #2. IF Ogando looks like 2011.0 (not 2011.5), he could be a solid rotation guy. And IF Holland looks more like 2011.5 instead of 2012.2, he might also approach #2 status, but right now I'm skeptical he rises above #3 - if that. I see Holland as the linchpin; if he's good, the rotation overall will be pretty good. If not, I don't think it will be that great.

Then, of course, there's the biggest question of all - who will be starter #5? Assuming the Rangers don't go for broke on Lohse or someone, there are approximately 37 candidates for the job. You'd like to think one of them will be good enough to eat some innings while the Rangers hopefully put up more runs than they hemorrhage.

Really, I can't blame anyone for ranking the Rangers' current rotation around the middle of the pack. There are so many questions and no sure things (except that Holland will have great games and terrible ones, frustrating us to no end). Really, I think the Rangers have a Lloyd Christmas-type outside chance at a top 5 rotation if everything goes right for them. More than likely, I think it will be top 15 or so.

Haven't read the article, but somewhere between 15-20 sounds about right. After Darvish and Harrison, there's just questions. Will Holland return to form or will he have another inconsistent year? How will Ogando make the transition back to starting? Who is the #5 starter? In fact, you can even wonder if Darvish will have a sophomore slump this year, or if Harrison will repeat last year's performance.

^^^^
Duck's got a point. The rotation has a question mark attached to it of sorts. I tend to think it will be a good rotation with the potential to be excellent. However, these preseason rankings of any kind are rarely on point.

Don't follow these rankings. The Rangers rotation is fringy-top 10. Darvish is an ace. Harrison, Holland and Ogando are all #3's. Sign Javier Vazquez and you've got a hell of a rotation.

MLB.com also had the Red Sox lineup #1 12 months ago and we all know how good they were(n't).

YAWWWNNN

@Not Me

Hey man, when are you going to change your name? It must suck for you, being that I don't respond to your troll posts anymore. :/

@eric: where would you rank the Rangers' rotation, then?

Like I said, top-10-ish.

Top 10ish get you close to a .500, at the backend of 10. That's nothing to smile about. Slight gassy grin?

Eric you keep pushing Vazquez, it would be great to have him on Opening Day in the Starting 5. But the Nats have pushed hard to sign Javier prior to Gio's predicament. That desire since has heavily increased, and the Rangers interest seems minimal.. So the question as of 12 FEB 2013, who will be the likely choice of the proclaimed 8 to fill the #5 spot??

But yet you just did respond Eric.

Rangers staff had pitchers ranked #1, #8 and #14 in road ERA in the AL last year. This is a top 10 pitching staff. The thing is there isn't any flashy TORP.

Rank Player Team Stats
1 Matt Harrison Tex 3.10 ( 42/122.0 )
2 David Price TB 3.16 ( 41/116.2 )
3 Jon Lester Bos 3.20 ( 35/98.1 )
4 Jered Weaver LAA 3.21 ( 33/92.2 )
5 Felix Hernandez Sea 3.43 ( 39/102.1 )
6 Justin Verlander Det 3.57 ( 49/123.2 )
7 Jake Peavy CWS 3.61 ( 47/117.1 )
8 Derek Holland Tex 3.65 ( 33/81.1 )
9 Chris Sale CWS 3.77 ( 41/98.0 )
10 James Shields TB 3.83 ( 45/105.2 )
11 C.J. Wilson LAA 3.87 ( 48/111.2 )
12 Wei-Yin Chen Bal 3.91 ( 39/89.2 )
13 Max Scherzer Det 3.92 ( 46/105.2 )
14 Yu Darvish Tex 3.92 ( 43/98.2 )
15 Dan Haren LAA 3.95 ( 37/84.1 )
16 Luis Mendoza KC 3.95 ( 36/82.0 )
17 CC Sabathia NYY 4.02 ( 46/103.0 )
18 Hiroki Kuroda NYY 4.23 ( 41/87.1 )
19 Ivan Nova NYY 4.26 ( 47/99.1 )
20 Kevin Millwood Sea 4.34 ( 40/83.0 )

Uhm, Yu Darvish is a flashy TORP. Yu Darvish is about as flashy as a TORP could be.

I agree Eric, not sure that is the consensus yet nationally. I think he's viewed as a high #2 right now by most with torp upside.

You're using last year's road ERA to determine ranking this year? That's not a very good way to measure it.

I'm still not convinced this is a top 10 rotation. Not yet.

In agreement with Andy, just don't think this is a top 10 rotation yet. And not certain anything that happens in ST will change my mind about that.

And how about we wait and see how Darvish does in his 2nd year before declaring him a TORP?

Hard to rate the rotation in the top 10 when it depends on Yu being the post Aug Yu, Harrison continuing to outperform his peripherals, Oganda getting by with 2 and 1/3 pitches, Holland and Perez improving, and Colby and Feliz returning as good as they left. I don't like the idea of Yu pitching a lot of innings, especially if the Rangers are not contending.

5 teams with better rotations than Texas
Det
TB
Wash
Philly
LAD

10 Teams that are debatable whether or not they are better top to bottom than Texas or Texas better than them.
NYY
LAA
Oak
TOR
BOS
CHW
CIN
St Louis
Arizona
Atlanta

So if you put Texas in the middle of those 2nd 10 teams that is right on the cusp of a Top 10 rotation.

I missed the giants. They belong in the first group.

Yu Darvish came to America to prove that he is the greatest pitcher in the world.

No debating Det, TB, Wash, Phil, LAD, & SF have better rotations right now. I would also argue that Tor, Cin, and especially Atl are definitely better. The others are debatable. So, like I said, almost certainly top 15, and top 10 is possible. There's still plenty of room for improvement.

And then there's the question of the bullpen minus Adams and Uehara................quite frankly people I am somewhat worried about all our pitching.