Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud:
Wash and coke. Kinsler's on the DH to start the season. Who the heck did they say is the opening day starter? CJ Wilson is a starter, maybe? Is the sale of your Texas Rangers even final?
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining:
Scooter Feldman is your opening day starter. Good, for Scooter. And here's why. As backwards as the below may read here's why your Texas Rangers may have a chance (all the below pitchers' salary numbers and whether they're starters, relief pitchers or somewhere in between is taken from Yahoo! sports as of 4/1/10; also, this is not a complete list of Rangers' pitchers per Yahoo! sports):
Scooter Feldman SP, salary: about 435 thousand
Rich Harden SP, salary: 7 million
Frankie, "FrankieFran", Francisco RP, salarly: about 1.6 million
Matt Harrison SP, salary: about 405 thousand
Tommy, "Big Thunder", Hunter SP, salary: about 400 thousand
Colby, "Mr. Baseball", Lewis SP, salary: undisclosed
Neftali, "Nolan Jr.", Feliz RP, salary: 400 thousand
Dusty Nippert RP/SP, salary: about 400 thousand
Darren, Doomsday, O'Day RP, salary: about 400 thousand
Darren Oliver RP, salary:
CJ, Mayday, Wilson RP/SP, salary: about 1.8 million
Doug Mathis RP/SP, salary: about 400 thousand
Luis, "SuperNova", Mendoza SP, salary: about 400 thousand
They all, for the most part, have something to play for and prove. Whether it's to themselves or GM's or who knows who. For example, I haven't looked around the league to compare but, how many opening day starters do you think make less than half a million dollars? They all should have something to prove. They started to prove it last year, here's to hoping they continue to prove it this season and beyond. I genuinely hope and think they will.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes:
The batting and defense, or lack thereof, might be what what holds them back from winning. Or maybe the pitching that I'm so high on is not nearly as strong as I think it might be. Maybe they don't rally around Wash like I think they might.
But, anything is possible this time of year. This year they win the division. This year they win a post season series. This year they have a 20 game winner. This year they have a Cy Young winner. This year they win the Pennant. This year they win it all. Maybe this is the year they find their way out of the wilderness of baseball futility. 162 games is a long haul. Starting tomorrow, we'll see.
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