The 2013 Texas Rangers ZiPS Projections Are Out

Over at FanGraphs this morning, Dan Szymborski -- of Baseball Think Factory and ESPN.com fame, among other places -- has posted his 2013 ZiPS projections for the Texas Rangers, and you should go read it. Seriously, go read it. Or try to read it, I guess. I wouldn't recommend reading every cell in every row unless you're really, REALLY interested in Roy Oswalt's projection for the upcoming season (hint: you're not), but there's a wealth of interesting material here that, among other things, lends us some additional insight into the overarching question of just how good we should expect this team to be in 2013.

I may attempt a more thorough rundown later, but, in the meantime, here are a few things that jumped off the page at me:

● Adrian Beltre (.296/.334/.516, 4.8 WAR) is forecasted as being near-elite again. Yu Darvish (10.5 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9, 130 ERA+, 5.7 WAR) is forecasted as being elite outright, with Matt Harrison (4.1 WAR) and Alexi Ogando (3.4 WAR) getting generous nods, and Derek Holland (2.7 WAR) faring well on the wins scale despite some foreseeably disappointing component projections.

● Two of the Rangers' top five projected position players are rookies in Jurickson Profar (.263/.331/.414, 3.2 WAR) and Mike Olt (.247/.331/.429, 2.4 WAR); it's unclear to me -- though likely -- that Olt's projection is derived from a scenario where he plays third base on a near-everyday basis.

● The Rangers' depth chart -- from which their projected win total is derived -- includes Elvis Andrus at shortstop, Ian Kinsler at second base, and Mitch Moreland at first base, with Profar and Olt both seemingly being excluded; meanwhile, the Gentry/Martin and Pierzynski/Soto tandems in center field and at catcher are each projected as being worth three wins above replacement, though that may assume an overly generous helping of platooning from Ron Washington.

● If you add up all of the positions on the projected depth chart, you get 43 wins above replacement. Dan has his replacement level set between 45-46 wins, meaning that, if you take these projections and this depth chart as gospel, ZiPS currently has the Rangers projected to win 88-89 games in 2013.