Interesting stat provided by Gerry Fraley regarding how much it hurt the team losing Colby Lewis last year..."The Rangers lost the final 10 games that would have been Lewis’ turn in the rotation." Not sure of the details of each game but that's pretty inexcusable. Sounds like Lewis is rehabbing well but we should all take the #5 starter competition very seriously because you have to expect that at some point this season more than just one of these guys will need to be able to give us a quality start and give us a chance to win a game. Just think...had we won one of those 10 games Lewis would have started we win the West, play the the ALDS and who knows what could have been. That said, I think we will be just fine this season with our "New Look."

yawwwn

Scott Feldman basically cost the Rangers the AL West title.

That Feldman cost the Rangers the tiltle is your attempt to stir things up. Because we both know that is ridiculous. LOL You might as well say the beer vendor in right field cost us a pennant. That makes as much sense as the nonsense you just posted.

Uh, no - have you even seen his terrible numbers? Wash kept him in the 5th spot for so long without making a change. Of course, there were several things that went wrong down the stretch, but that was a huge problem. If you were a Rangers fan at all I wouldn't need to explain this.

I've seen some of your posts. You have no cred. Who should he have pitched? Awaiting your idiotic opinion.

NTE, who pisses in your wheaties everyday? You must be a real joy to hang out with.

I think it's fair to say that pitching was disappointing down the stretch, but A LOT more went wrong than that. You can't assume that Colby alone was the difference. With as pathetic as the hitting and defense was towards the end, Colby may or may not have been able to right the ship.

Pissing in your Wheaties? That must be your thing because I've never heard of that. To each hios own I guess.

Stop feeding the troll Einstein.

Romro the Homro

Feldman didn't have a great year in 2012, but he was an asset. He played long man here and there, but spent a lot of time being shuttled back and forth between the rotation and bullpen. He wasn't on a regular schedule for more than a few weeks. He ate a lot of innings for a rotation that had 40% of its pitchers have season-ending injuries. And sometimes he was able to do it without hemorrhaging runs - you may have forgotten that there was a 2-week or so stretch where Feldman was probably the 2nd best pitcher the Rangers had behind Harrison.

Really, if anything, Feldman bought the Rangers a few more games. He had an fWAR of 2.3, and I think without him, if we had to have more starts from Perez or Grimm or whoever else was next on the depth charts, we probably don't win 90 games. Yes, you can say that if he'd pitched better in some of his starts, the Rangers would have won more games. But you can say the same for every pitcher. Even Harrison, who was the model of consistency most of the year, had a couple games where he blew up.

I think a lot of people don't give Feldman the credit he deserves for last year. I'll still miss him a little bit. Good luck in Chicago, Feldman.

JD said he expects Omar Beltre to be the sleeper this year and come on strong to get the #5, maybe even the #4 spot. Good to see him healthy and dealing again in Surprise.

Wait, what? Link please?

The starting staff additions of R.A. Dickey & Zach Grienke would look real nice right now. REAL NICE!

yawwwwwwwnn

Can't you guys find something better to do with your time?

So, as was Roy Oswalt, the Rangers haven't turned their back on Kyle Lohse... yet.
Could Colby Lewis be ready by May 1st? Sounds like he's making big ready strides.

I would rather see rooks in the 5 hole.....Lohse had 1 good year. Not worth a Brinks truck contract. Patience....The Rangers of years past would always trade a prospect for an aging veteran....it NEVER worked....end of story. Watch the young talent and have a lot of fun at the games!

Neither did the prospects. Cheap is cheap. Like that bench we had in the playoffs two yrs ago.

Omar Beltre is an interesting name, thought he was back home in DR. Was always considered the better arm of the two [ Ogando the other]. Did not know he was over his life cripling lower back opertion; much less able to return to baseball at a high level. Easy to check out, Eric is Omar at Surprise? Or should we be looking also for the return of EDWIN CORREA? he should be over his broken arm by now, seeing he is now but 46.

Hey, if we're going to throw some grease on the fire by adding AJP and Puma, why not bring in
Carlos Zambrano too? We could always use his bat, seeing that our bench will add to the weakness
of the overall team in 2013. I'm really dubious about what Daniels is trying to replace/build this year.

Some think we are going to press that 90 win water mark(thanx Colt 45's), but this 2013 can be well
below .500 before the All Star break, not to mention the total revamp take during that period also. JD
seems paralyzed in pulling any strings to seriously help the 2013 Rangers to be actual contenders.
I'd hate to think where the Rangers would be, if not for the addition of division games with the LOSTros.

Oh, I forgot... not to worry. The SABR figures add up to a real winner here. Let's watch "Money Ball" again.
Go StrangLers! Everybody dance the "Daniels Choke"... Wins Against Replacement huh? Where?

You can overstate depth is your depth sucks.

Having 8 people to fill 5 starting rotations spots is fine and dandy... but not so great if 5 of those 8 are AAAA level pitching (Replacement Level, think 0 WAR).

The flat truth of the matter is that Ogando and Perez could easily #bottom out. While I don't like playing the role of debbie downer, I can't honestly believe that our rotation (outside of Darvish) is that great. Harrison is bound to regress, and the fact he hasn't is a statistical oddity.

Very possible senario:

Darvish is Darvish and does wonderful things every time he takes the mound, posts Cy Young esque numbers, gets serious consideration.

Harrison regresses slightly, gives up more hard hit balls but still manages to win a respectable amount of games, performs as a solid #3, but not TORP.

Holland brings his big bag of nothing back to the table and shows flashes of putting it together while also shitting the bed on good occasion. Holland says something to the effect of, "I am trying to focus on putting my game together and avoiding mistakes more. I think I'm making strides but it's not showing in the results yet." Holland goes .500 but posts career strikeout numbers. At the end of the year, his season is mostly the same of what he did last year.

Ogando has 3-4 great games to start the season then the #bottom falls out. Hitters start to turn on his fastball and his off speed offering just fail to fool anyone. He has to shut it down about the end of June because of a blister.

Perez continues to be an enigma, frustratingly so. His slow start gives way to a stellar June where he strings together a couple great starts followed by a couple less than inspring starts and calls for someone else (Grimm) to give it a shot start echoing. Perez puts up numbers similar to his stint in the majors last year, overall a massive disappointment.

I don't think we should even bother factoring in Lewis to the discussion. We cannot predict his performance once he returns. Is he going to be the Lewis that gives up TONS of HRs or demonstrates TORP potential?

Do I think Lohse is the solution? No. I think that Greinke was the solution.

^^^^^
I don't think it's a downer more than the reality, that the team is not better than it was in 2012.

The expectations being that 90+% of the players HAVING to have stellar/career numbers, for the team
to be contenders, therefor being successful. Elvis, Beltre & Darvish(?) are the only players rounded enough
to count on a plus side performance. The rest are a dice roll. I suppose I could throw in Murphy in the pot,
seeing that he's matured into a nice player... but as an everyday starter? Gentry is more of the same. He may
be better with more play, but...?

For all you "Trade Elvis" fans... he may be the glue that leads the team to 85+ wins, but that's an intangible
for all you sabr nerds. It doesn't register or math-out. That's ridiculous new school, but then again, the whole
2013 could be all about the intangibles. You've already done the SABR and you preach patience. OK, I savvy.

Roll the Dice.

The problem with intangibles is, well, that they aren't tangible. If you can't quantify something with empirical data then it does not exist in the material world.

That is why all of Michael Young's fancy "intangibles" never did anything for me. Neither did his #leadership.

I share the same concerns as Nomptan, and have even written about that. I think it's a totally realistic scenario. When the season unfolds, I tend to think the rotation will be the team's only plus strength, but I will not be surprised if it turns for the worse.

There is a very real possibility the 2013 Rangers flounder and we sell off all of our assets who are only under the contract for the next 1-2 years (like Andrus, Murphy, Cruz, Nathan, Pierzynski, Berkman, et. all).

* Nompton