Today is the day. No more practices, no more exhibitions, and no more depressing injury reports. Today all of that is over. Today is Opening Day. Spring Training has seemed like it has lasted all winter, but now it is over. Now, we can move on to games that actually matter and we can start to see how this team measures up. Today is the day we start to see if the active offseason the Rangers was able to push them ahead of the Oakland A’s in the race for the AL West. As of today all things are still possible. That is the best thing about Opening Day. Everyone starts off tied at 0-0. I am really excited about today. Opening Day is one of my 5 favorite days out of the year. It is the day that it is perfectly okay to just sit around and watch baseball all day and I will be doing just that. Before the games start though I am going to finish our 2014 regular season preview by examining the Texas Rangers and giving my prediction for this team.

Lets start with the starting lineup. The lineup will only go as far as Fielder and Beltre will take them. There is not a lot of depth behind them. Alex Rios and Mitch Moreland are both very inconsistent and then it drops off even further after that. So the top of the lineup with Choo and Andrus have to consistently get on base and create havoc and Fielder and Beltre have to drive them in. This lineup will be better once Profar comes back. In the first half of Spring Training he was leading the team in RBI’s and was hitting very well. Hopefully once his shoulder heals he can pick up where he left off. Having him in the bottom half of the order will certainly give the lineup more depth. There are some unknowns though that could either be a positive or negative development. First, can Michael Choice continue the production he provided in Spring Training. I don’t expect Choice to hit anywhere close to the .369 BA he hit in Arizona. If he can provide though a .270-.280 BA with about 10-15 HR’s, that would be great. He just is a big unknown. Another one is Mitch Moreland. Moreland did hit 23 HR’s last season, but his other numbers were very poor across the board. The Rangers decided to keep him in the offseason even after acquiring Prince Fielder, because they still believe in his potential. They are going to be primarily using him as a DH/back up 1b/5th outfielder. If he hits though he will be in the lineup everyday, if he doesn’t then he will slowly be phased out in favor of other players. This really feels like it is Moreland’s last chance. The final word about this lineup is this they don’t have to be great or the best in the league. They just need to be able to drive in runners when they have the chance and be able to work counts and pitchers in their favor. They need to try to use the Texas heat to their advantage. That will allow them to gain a home field advantage.

Next lets take a look at the starting rotation. The rotation to start the season will be Tanner Scheppers, Martin Perez, Robbie Ross, Nick Martinez, and Joe Saunders. The rotation to end April is likely to be very different. By the end of April it is expected that Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis, and Matt Harrison will be ready to join the rotation. Joe Saunders will either be demoted to the bullpen or released all together and Nick Martinez will be sent down. It is up to Scheppers and Ross really to determine who stays in the rotation when all three of those veterans rejoin the team. This rotation does have depth and great potential. They have a true number 1 pitcher in Yu Darvish. He is a guy who you can count on every 5th day to give you innings and also to give you a good chance at winning the game. Darvish will be looking to build on his 2nd place Cy Young finish from last season. He was great last season as he had a 2.83 ERA, 277 k’s, and came close to two perfect games. If he just can come back from his neck and back injury then the rotation will be a strength of this team. Tanner Scheppers and Robbie Ross are two guys who are being taken out of the bullpen in order to pitch in the rotation. They didn’t get these jobs due to injury they got them because they both were spectacular each and every time out this Spring. They both were very unhittable, both showed great control, and both were very efficient with their pitch count. Scheppers was the first pitcher to go 6 innings and a couple of days after that Ross became the first to go 7 innings. They both earned their spots and will both be trying to keep them this season. Tanner Scheppers gets the opening day start today against the Phillies and he becomes the first pitcher since 1981 (Fernando Valuenzuela) to have his first start occur on Opening Day. Martin Perez will be starting his first full season at the big league level. He joined the rotation about halfway through this season and had his up and down moments early, but if he can continue to improve on his control and pitch deep into games he will be a solid #2 or #3 starter. Joe Saunders doesn’t look like he will be long for the rotation. That just leaves Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis. Both of these guys have had loads of success at the major league level. They both were part of those World Series teams the Rangers had a few years ago. If they are healthy then they should be able to be counted on to pitch innings and to pitch well. It is that phrase though, “if they are healthy”, because neither one of these guys has been healthy in over a year. Last year Matt Harrison was the opening day starter. He would go on to make just one more start the rest of the season as he had to have back surgery after that. It kept him out all season long. Colby Lewis has not been healthy since August of 2012. He had a torn flexor tendon in his elbow and then needed hip resurfacing surgery. That kept him out all year last year. He is back now and is looking and saying he is as healthy as he has been in the last several years. Both of these guys will be big contributors to this team, “if they are healthy”. I expect the rotation as a whole to be a big strength for this team. They may not have big names out there besides Yu Darvish, but they have a lot of guys that can pitch. Perez, Harrison, and Lewis fit that mold. They don’t try to overpower the hitters, they just try to outsmart them.

Finally lets look at the bullpen. Last year the bullpen was the best part of the team as Neal Cotts and Tanner Scheppers proved to be lockdown relievers. They really tied up the 7th and 8th innings . Then Joe Nathan would close it out in the 9th. In the offseason though the Rangers let Joe Nathan go to the Detroit Tigers. They thought with the great depth they had that they could find a closer from that group. It looks like they found one in Joakim Soria. Soria really looked about as healthy as he has been in about 3 years. He showed good velocity and control. He really went out there and won the closers job. There was no doubt by the end of camp that he was going to be the closer. The setup crew will look different. Instead of Tanner Scheppers it will be Neal Cotts and Alexi Ogando. Cotts was seriously unhittable against both righties and lefties. He was as good as he has ever been. He was 8-3 with a 1.11 ERA, and a .180 BAA. He started off the season in Triple-A, but ended it as the Rangers primary 7th inning reliever. This year Cotts will have even more pressure on him as Scheppers will start the season in the rotation. So he will be counted on to pitch more 7th and 8th inning stints. Then you have right-hander Jason Frasor who got better as the season went along. Frasor really shared the 7th inning duties with Cotts, but this year his role may be more about being the bridge from the starters to the setup guys. He will be that middle guy. He will share that role with Shawn Tolleson. Tolleson was acquired in the offseason from the Los Angeles Dodgers and was finally healthy the last two weeks of camp. Those last two weeks he showed that he can be a guy who can be counted on to come in and get outs. Finally, Pedro Figueroa won a spot in the bullpen as the lefty specialist. Throughout his career he has really shown a lack of control, but this Spring he seemingly has fixed that and the Rangers are counting on that to continue. He will be brought in primarily to get tough left-handed hitters. Today, you might see him brought in to face Ryan Howard or Chase Utley. This bullpen clearly is not as good as last years bullpen, but at this point last year we didn’t know how good Tanner Scheppers was going to be and Neal Cotts wasn’t even on the team. This is how the bullpen is starting the season, but it will not be how it ends it.

Overall, my predictions for this team are that they win the division. I think they win 90 games for the 5th straight season and barely edge out the Angels. I think it will be a three team race between the Rangers, Angels, and A’s. It will come down to the final two weeks of the season to see who wins. The Rangers have to survive April and May. If they can do that and still be in the race I think they will win. I expect them to have a strong second half when they get all their players back and to maybe pull ahead of and away from the A’s and Angels. We will see as it all starts today. The Rangers get it started with a 1:05 pm game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Cliff Lee gets the start for the Phillies and Tanner Scheppers for the Rangers. It will be interesting to see how Scheppers performs in his first start in a MLB game.

GO RANGERS!!!!