With the Rangers moving on from Arizona in a couple of days and the season starting in less than a week I am going to start a series that looks back at camp and then looks forward to the season. Today we are going to start with a look back at the most important developments from this year’s Spring Training. Unfortunately for the Rangers you will not be able to think about Spring Training without thinking about injuries, but there were some positive performances that did come out of camp and some also disappointing performances as well.

#6. Michael Choice has the chance to be a really special player and to make fans easily forget about Craig Gentry. Choice was acquired over the offseason in a trade with the Oakland A’s for Craig Gentry. The A’s knew they needed speed and the Rangers wanted more offense so the trade really made sense people thought for down the line when Alex Rios would be gone. Choice was competing for a spot, but the Rangers thought they would be sending him to Triple-A and maybe call him up during the season. All Choice did was hit though. He just kept hitting. He has been hitting for power and average. He has been one of the Rangers best hitters in camp this year. He has played so well that it has been no question that he would make the team for about a week now. Choice will fill that very important 4th outfield spot and if Martin struggles at the start of the season he could see a promotion to starting center fielder. I am looking forward to seeing if this is just a Spring Training success story or if he can continue to have success in the regular season. That part of his story is yet to be told.

#5. Neftali Feliz and his decreasing velocity. In 2010-2011 Feliz was known as a fireballing right handed closer. His fastball was clocked at normally 99-100 mph. He was near impossible to hit especially when he could get his curveball over for strikes. Then in 2012 he had Tommy John surgery. Last season he came back after the All Star Break and was inconsistent to say the least. He showed a real lack of control and his velocity was not yet back. That is normal though for a pitcher coming right off of surgery. It was thought that after seeing him play winter ball and hit 95 mph that he would be able to regain that velocity and with it his closers job back, but that has not been the case. Other than for a few pitches he has been around 90-91 mph and that is not good enough for him. He has been very hittable and has just been struggling to get people out. The team really wanted him to be the closer, but last weekend it was decided to give it Joakim Soria who has outpitched him by a lot. Hopefully at some point during the season he can regain that and become a dominant setup man or closer again.

#4. Tanner Scheppers winning a rotation spot. This has to be one of the big surprises from camp this season. With as dominant as he was in the bullpen last year, it was thought that the Rangers would be hard pressed to remove him from that spot. They did want to give him a shot at winning a rotation spot just to see what he has. He took that shot and ran with it. He looked very good in every outing this Spring. He capped it all off with his 6 inning performance last week where he allowed just two runs and threw 75 pitches. He showed that he could be economical and go deep into the game. That has been the question with him is if he could go deep into games, but he showed in that start that he could. He has went from competing for the 5th spot in the rotation to being the number 3 starter. With his repertoire he has the potential to be a guy who can get strikeouts and groundballs and keep the Rangers in games. Seeing his development this season will be one of the most interesting stories to follow this season.

#3. Rangers ability to develop pitchers. Right now it looks like 3/5 of the rotation will be comprised of players that the Rangers drafted and developed. That is significant in that it means that the Rangers aren’t spending money having to go out and sign free agent starters. They did spend big money to bring Darvish to Texas, but they were able to do that because their farm system keep churning out good pitchers. It looks like that Martin Perez, Tanner Scheppers, and Robbie Ross are the next group of starters that the Rangers have developed. All the while guys like Luke Jackson are just biding their time in the farm system waiting for their turn. I would have to do research on this, but not many teams can claim that 3/5 of their rotation came from their farm system. Credit to the Rangers player development and to Jon Daniels and his scouts for finding these guys.

#2. Prince Fielder can still hit. Fielder had a very tough season with the Detroit Tigers last season that bottomed out with his 1 rbi performance in the playoffs last year. He did put up decent numbers, but the Tigers were looking to get out from under that contract. A trade was then made in November between them and the Rangers for Ian Kinsler. The Rangers made this trade to bring more power to their offense. It looks like it will work. Fielder has 3 home runs this Spring, but is really tuning up as he had 2 home runs last week. He looks like he will be a very solid addition to this team. He will provide some pop from the number 3 hole in the lineup batting in front of Adrian Beltre. I expect Fielder to hit close to .300 with 30-35 home runs and provide some stability to first base.

#1 The biggest story has to be injuries. The injury bug has bit the Rangers in the worst way. Almost every starter has had to miss time. Lets go around the diamond. Starting at catcher Geovanny Soto had achilles surgery and now will be having knee surgery that will keep him out for 10-12 weeks. Mitch Moreland missed time with a oblique injury, but is now back. Jurickson Profar wasn’t able to play in the field for the first half of Spring Training due to a shoulder injury and now will miss 10-12 weeks with a tear in his shoulder. Elvis Andrus has been in and out of the lineup with a sore elbow. Adrian Beltre missed a few games with a quad injury. Shin Shoo Choo has been held out of several games with a sore elbow. Leonys Martin suffered from back spasms at the beginning of camp. Alex Rios missed games with a sore toe and strained intercostal muscle in his rib cage. Then you have the starting pitchers. Matt Harrison got a late start to camp due to reinjuring his back after sleeping on a hard mattress. Yu Darvish has come up with a neck strain in this last week of camp. That is in addition to Derek Holland who had to have microfracture surgery done on his knee back in January. At this point the Rangers are just trying to get to Opening Day and see who is still healthy. That is just 6 days away.

Countdown to Opening Day: 6 days