Robin Ventura will never step on Nolan Ryan's lawn again.

The Rangers surprisingly finished 2^nd in the West last year, with an 87-75 record, their most wins since 2004.  New faces for the Rangers include Ranger killer Vlad Guerrero, the always injured Rich Harden, and Ron Washington’s coke dealer.  As always, expect big things from the offense (especially at home), but the Rangers pitching will again be a question mark.

Outfield: In left is supremely talented but often injured Josh Hamilton.  Hamilton has primarily been a center fielder in his 1^st 3 years in the majors, and the Rangers hope keeping him in LF will keep him healthy.  After a strong rookie year for Cincinnati in 2007, and an MVP caliber first season in Texas, Hamilton struggled last year to a .268/.315/.426 90 OPS+ line in only 89 games.  While everyone hopes his demons are behind him, he did have a well publicized lapse last year.  Could that have led to his poor season?  Maybe, maybe not, but it’s worth watching.  While the pitching for the Rangers will be true wild card, a big season from Hamilton can cover up a lot of mistakes, and the move to LF should help his defense as well.  In CF will be Julio Borbon, who came up last season and shined as a rookie with a .314/.376/.414 105 OPS+ line with 19 steals in just 46 games.  Expect a drop of offensively, as he didn’t hit that well in the minors, but if he can produce at a 95 OPS+ with solid defense and speed on the base paths, Borbon will be an asset.  In RF will be late bloomer Nelson Cruz.  Long thought to be a Quadruple A player, Cruz was an All-Star last year with 33 HR’s and 20 steals to go with a .260/.332/.524 line at the age of 28.  While he, like all Rangers, hit much better at home (.931 ops vs. .778) he still hit 15 HR’s on the road, and actually had a reverse platoon split, faring poorly against LHP.  Considering he crushed LHP in the minors, expect another big year from Cruz in 2010.  Cruz is also very strong defensively in RF, so if Hamilton is healthy, the Rangers could have above average OF’s across the board.

Infield: Longtime SS Michael Young transitioned to 3B last year and responded with the second best offensive season of his career.  Defensively it wasn’t as smooth, as UZR had him at -8.4 in his 134 games.  At SS is fantastic defender, but weak hitting Elvis Andrus.  His .702 OPS last year mirrored his career minor league line of .704, though at just 21 years old this season he still has room to develop as a hitter.  As long as he provides stellar defense at a premium position and can keep his OPS+ >80, he’ll be a valuable player.  At 2B is fantasy star Ian Kinsler, who is great at home and far from it on the road.  Kinsler for his career has a .925 OPS at home vs. .730 on the road.  He simply doesn’t get it done 81 games a year.  Kinsler had a strange 2009, much of which can be attributed to bad luck.  While his line drive percentage was a career low, it doesn’t quite explain his .241 BABIP after being at .307 for the rest of his career. Even so, due to a career high 31 HR’s, his OPS+ was in line with 2 of his other 3 seasons.  Was his great 2008 the start of breaking out, or will that be the outlier, and he’ll fall in as a slightly above average hitter?  While he still won’t hit on the road, expect a bounce back of sorts from Kinsler.  At 1B, but maybe not for long, is Chris Davis.  After a great rookie year in 2008 (.285/.331/.542 127 OPS+), Davis was a disaster in 2009 with just an 85 OPS+.  He may recover, but if not, Justin Smoak (last seen in trade rumors for Brad Penny) is waiting in the wings.  Davis, along with having a ton of power, was a .300 hitter in the minors (.319 at AA and .330 at AAA), so there is still plenty of hope for the 24 year old.  If he hits, he could be the future DH with Smoak the future 1B.  If not, Smoak could be up this year, with Davis on the trade block.

Catcher: Catching for the Rangers will be a combination of former top prospects Jarrod Saltalamacchia (even Costanza can’t get that name right without looking) and Taylor Teagarden.  Salty was always regarded as the better hitter but that simply hasn’t translated at the major league level with an 83 OPS+ in almost 800 big league at-bats.  His defense (and size) is also a major concern behind the plate, and if he’s not hitting, his bat doesn’t play elsewhere.  Teagarden destroyed pitching in the low minors, but regressed severely as he went up in the system, though in pretty small sample sizes.  In 60 games last year in the majors, he struggled to a .217/.270/.374 line.  Ugly.  Catcher, once thought to be a strong point for the organization, is a huge question mark heading into 2010.

DH: The new DH for the Rangers is Vlad Guerrero, but take note; this ain’t your daddy’s Vladdy.  Once one of the best players in all of baseball, and a future Hall of Famer, Vlad was just average last year. There are however, some promising signs for the 2010 version of Vlad.  Vlad was very strong on the road last year .317/.363/.515 and will be moving into a great hitters park.  Vlad also had a strong bounce back in the 2^nd half with a .300/.347/.498 line.  Another thing of note is that Vladdy has absolutely crushed in Arlington in his career (.394/.471/.705), though it should be noted that it’s been against shoddy Rangers pitching.  I expect a solid season, not vintage Vlad, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return to the 125 OPS+ range.

Starting Rotation: The Rangers rotation is suspect, and will likely lead to their downfall.  “Ace” Scott Feldman had a nice 17-8 record last year but scary peripherals, with a 5.4 K/9 and 1.74 K/BB.  He was also very lucky with a .274 BABIP.  Expect a massive correction for Feldman this year.  Fragile Rich Harden (3^rd cousin of “The Summer George” Fragile Frankie Merman) is the Rangers #2 pitcher.  Great, good luck getting 175 innings out of him, something he has done once in 7 seasons.  Harden would have been a great high risk/high reward signing to round out a rotation, not to rely on as a #2 starter.  Next up is former closer CJ Wilson, and I applaud the Rangers for trying to get more value out of the lefty.  Wilson was a starter in the minors, and if he can keep his stuff in the rotation, he may be an asset.  In the 4^th spot is Colby Lewis, a former top prospect felled by injuries.  He re-invented himself in Japan as a command/control guy, but that likely won’t translate well into the AL, unless he can get a ton of ground balls.  Matt Harrison rounds out the rotation, a decent young lefty prospect, but has struggled in his limited time in the majors, and will never be a star.  Overall, the Rangers rotation will be the weak link of this team, again.

Relief Pitching: The Rangers bullpen should be decent, especially if the Rangers brass wastes Neftali Feliz in the pen. Frank Francisco, when not throwing chairs at women, had a decent first year as a closer and in 230 career innings has a solid (out of the pen) 125 ERA+. In the last two years he has gotten better with K/9 and K/BB rates of 11.2 and 3.41 respectively.  Very strong.  Feliz is lights out, and if not starting could be closing by the end of the year.  Somehow Darren Oliver, a free agent signing, continues to get outs in the Majors.  From 2000-2004 his era was 5.83.  Since then it’s been 3.19.  The Rangers have some other solid arms including Chris Ray (terrible last year but great in 2005 and 2006), Dustin Nippert and Darren O’day.

Final Outlook: As always, the Rangers will hit a ton and come up short due to their lack of pitching.  The AL West will be pretty bunched up, but I see the Rangers finishing last, though likely with around a .500 record.  Ron Washington will be fired on June 17^th after snorting the 1^st base line, causing a 17 minute delay in the game. Also of note, Nolan Ryan may come out of retirement (after kicking a bunch of kids off his lawn) to show these young punks how to throw 172 pitches in 6 innings.  Good times in Arlington in 2010.