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| Right to left: GM Jon Daniels, New 1st basemen Prince Fielder, Manager Ron Washington |
Right now the roster is still being constructed so I know everyone is wondering why I would even start looking. It's because I can. I hate predicting who might or might be on the team. I just want to have a preview of what the team might look like. I will preface this with saying, I think I will be completely wrong about this. Let's just go base by base and see what our red shoed Rangers will look like in 2014.
I want to start with the Catcher position because I believe that this position is set. Rangers signed JP Arencibia on Friday and Geovany Soto has been pretty much named the starting catcher. Soto in my opinion had a pretty decent year backing up AJ Pierzenski. Soto's numbers as far as OBP and SLG were pretty respectable. Yes the sample size is a little small, he was pretty productive. Behind the plate, he is no gold glover, he is pretty decent at throwing base runners out. His high marks are for the way he deals with the pitching staff. Pitchers respond well to him and I think it shows. JP is a different story. His bat took a severe hit this year with Toronto. He batted a whopping .194 with an OBP of .227, holy crap man, how do you let it get this bad? I would say in most baseball minds, he would be considered a complete bust. His best year he hit 23 home runs and was able to crack .233 BA. He is going to be a back up catcher for the rest of his career. He is just a gap until Jorge Alfaro, Rangers number 1 prospect is ready to come up.
First base is going to be a little easier this year finally after the trade of Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder. I'm going to admit at first I didn't like this because of what Kinsler has done in the past. I finally came to the realization of the regression of Kinsler and that it was in the Rangers best interest to move on from Kinsler. Prince Fielder wasn't exactly my first choice because of his stature and his poor season last year. Prince has been known for that in the past. He has had some killer years with a WAR over 6 but as low as 1.7. Its hard to say he hasn't been consistent but he has for sure been reliable. Yes he doesn't get injured or miss games. Yes he is fat, slow on the base paths and pretty crappy at first. Mitch Moreland is Mitch. He will be a bat off the bench and will be great to have at first when we give Prince a DH day off.
Second base, barring any crazy ass trades involving Elvis Andrus, Jurickson Profar will be the opening day second basemen. Profar is going to give the line up some pop on occasion. Profar its time to put up or shut up. Kinsler has been shipped out to give him a full season at one position. My expectations are actually pretty low for the kid. I think Profar has been slightly over rated and I was never a fan of getting rid of Andrus so Profar could play shortstop. Profar should do fine this season but don't be disappointed if he runs into some problems against major league pitching.
Shortstop with Elvis Andrus.....Need I say more? Well I probably should calm some people who feel uneasy about Elvis's performance last season. The glove, no one has a problem with, the best in the game. Andrus had a pretty inconsistent season in 2013. He was up and down and at times mostly down. At the end of the season he had a career low OBP. I know what he has done and at 25, I'm not seeing any type regression. Its just a run of the mill "down year". I'm expecting Elvis to get on base at a more regular pace and hitting more extra base hits. His OPS should should be at around .700 instead of where it was last year at .659. Elvis is 25, so lets relax.
Third Base we have Texas Rangers's most consistent player. Adrian Beltre. He had another stellar year at the plate hitting 30 home runs, 88 runs scored with an OPS of .880. What you want from your top guy. Now this is something people don't wanna hear and I can tell you Adrian doesn't want to hear it either.....he could possibly be regressing. Actually I'm pretty certain he is. Adrian will be 35 at the end of the 2014 season so there is no shame in not being as good as you were the season before. It happens. I'm looking at his batting and it doesn't look like it has stats have dropped dramatically there, even though I believe we could see a slight drop this next season. The significant drop we are seeing in his defense. I know that may seem crazy but he just isn't the man he use to be. Adrian's UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating in runs above average (Arm+DPR+RngR+ErrR) has been hovering around 10-13, his 2013 season he had a -1.2. What brought it down so much? I'm thinking his range was significantly cut down because of his injury. Is Adrian Beltre a below average fielder like UZR shows, hell no. I believe he just had an off year with his reduced mobility. Adrian is not a guy I like to bet against. I thought his career was on a down fall when he left the Mariners. Adrian has two years left on his contract with a vesting option. Don't be surprised if you see a slight drop in production from Adrian.
Outfield should be a lot of fun this year, good coverage all around the field. Right now from what I'm seeing, the opening day outfield should be newly acquired Michael Choice in left, Leonys Martin in center and Alex Rios in right. I'll start with Michael Choice, who I've heard and read a little on the guy so there is a little insight on what we are getting. Choice has a decent arm and has average speed in the outfield. He is a big guy and he will hit for power. Time will tell, he is very young in the league and needs to get his at bats in. He will struggle at times but it should be fun to see how he develops. Alex Rios had a pretty standard year for himself. His OPS was .772 which is pretty respectable. Rios is going to be a plus defender which the Rangers right field hasn't seen in quite a while. Rios isn't going to be All Star material and isn't going to hit a ton of homers. He is going to hit extra base hits and get on base, that's all you can ask.
Leonys Martin, oh Martin. I'm very interested in seeing what kind of full season Leonys can have. I pegged him last year to have a break out season and I would like to say I WAS FRIGGIN' RIGHT! Leonys showed us he had power, he could slap the ball around, he could run the bases efficiently and that he had an arm better than anyone in the league. Some will miss Craig Gentry in center and I believe he was slightly better when tracking down balls, but in the end Leonys will be much better all around. I'm not sure how great he will be at the lead off spot because last year he wasn't great at getting on base. He is right now between average to below average in OBP last year. I think he should do better in his 2nd full season. But if this persist, they should start looking for an alternative in Elvis or maybe even Alex Rios. (Shin Soo Choo too if they Rangers sign him)
While saying all this, I'm not sure if the Rangers get Shin Soo Choo or resign Nelson Cruz. Right now I think their outfield is pretty decent but we all know that just won't cut it around here. I'm not sure what the Rangers do to add another piece. Another bat will be welcomed though. We might not want to be stuck with watching Michael Choice figure MLB pitching out. A bat will be welcomed by this guy.
Should be another fun season, with some added pop. There is still speed but the only thing that should be alarming is there is no serious on base guy since Kinsler left.
Possible opening day line up*:
- Leoyns Martin CF
- Elvis Andrus SS
- Prince Fielder 1B
- Adrian Beltre 3B
- Alex Rios RF
- Michael Choice LF
- Geovany Soto C
- Mitch Moreland DH
- Jurickson Profar 2B
*not actually opening day line up. I'm just screwing aroun, so I do not wanna hear it.
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