At Full Strength, the Texas Rangers Seem to be in Cruise Control

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The Texas Rangers have always played third fiddle to the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks. You may as well consider them the little brother who never really gets noticed by their older siblings.

Enter 2010 and little brother is no longer waiting for big brother to tell him he's doing a good job.

The Rangers disposed of the Tampa Bay Rays followed by shocking the defending champion, New York Yankees, in the ALCS in front of a sold out crowd at Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington. They did all that while the Cowboys and Mavericks watched, wondering why they couldn't have that kind of success.

Although the Mavs tasted it once back in 2006 and are doing so again in 2011, the Dallas Cowboys have "lost that lovin' feeling" since Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith decided to hang 'em up. After 16 seasons the Cowboys had just a single playoff victory.

With the 2011 season into its third month, the Texas Rangers find themselves on top of the AL West and are playing like they were at the beginning of the season.

Of course it doesn't hurt getting Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz, their two big bats in the lineup, back from the disabled list. They were able to tread water for awhile and stay just close enough to make this kind of a run when they were back to full strength.

The only question remaining at this point is what will the team do at the deadline and will they make a move to shore up their bullpen? We have talked a lot about the potential players they could be after and what kind of a deal it might take to land said players.

At this point, with the way the Rangers are playing, they may be able to ride this team right back into the playoffs and maybe back into the ALCS. However, it won't come by offense alone.

You can look at guys like Hamilton, Cruz, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young and imagine the team scoring six or seven runs per game. They have shown all year they can put up crooked numbers night in and night out. That's all well and good but this team will not succeed as they did last year unless their pitching staff and bullpen remain strong.

Starters like ace C.J. Wilson, first year starter Alexi Ogando, or young left hander Matt Harrison have each had their big starts for this team. Wilson has shown that he can be the ace of this staff even after Cliff Lee decided he didn't want to come back to Texas. Opting instead to pitch behind All-Stars Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt, making it look more like the Miami Heat than Philadelphia Phillies.

The Rangers do have lady luck on their side. The American League's Western Division is not nearly as strong as it has been in years past. If the first few months of the season are any indication, the Rangers are a team who could go on a run and put this division in the rear view mirror by the All-Star break.

But before all that can take place, this team needs to take care of business on the field. They need to be able to beat the top team in the American League and not just make a habit of beating up on the bad ones.

For now it's a work in progress. For the future, it's something that still needs to be fixed.

Texas Rangers' Closer Neftali Feliz Headed for the Disabled List

The Texas Rangers' bullpen was struggling even with a healthy Neftali Feliz at the back end. But, prior to Saturday night's game against the Kansas City Royals, that bullpen took an even bigger hit.

The team put their closer on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation. It's a move the team can't afford because as Rangers' manager Ron Washington says, they don't really have anyone who has the closer's mentality. “We’ve got no bona fide closer right now,” he told the media. “It’s that simple.”

What isn't simple at this point is to find the guy they want to take Feliz's place as the closer. Either that or the team is going to use a "closer by committee" mentality. Something reliever Arthur Rhodes says isn't going to change how the relievers in the bullpen face their roles.

“It’s not going to change our role, because eighth inning and the ninth inning are about the same,” Rhodes told the media. “We’ve just got to go out there and do what we’ve been doing, get guys out. … No mentality is going to change. I’m going to go our there and be Arthur, just do what I do.”

Rhodes has the experience of being a closer so he could be the guy Washington turns to especially since he's a veteran guy who knows what it takes to close out a game.

After Feliz was put on the disabled list, the team called up right-hander Cody Eppley from Triple-A Round Rock and quickly made his big league debut against the Royals on Saturday.

The Rangers have to hope the guys in the bullpen are up for the task of taking over for a young reliever who's been nothing but dominant when he comes in to a game in the ninth inning.

Whether Rhodes assumes the responsibility will not be known until the call is made by Washington. He is not the only reliever the Rangers' manager can call on so do not expect him to go with just one guy for the two weeks Feliz is on the shelf.

With outfielder Josh Hamilton missing for at least two months, an injury to their best reliever wasn't something this team could afford. However, if their offense continues to swat five home runs per night, maybe they won't miss their closer at all because there will not be any drama in the ninth innings.


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Texas Rangers, New York Yankees Ready for ALCS Rematch

When the 2010 American League Championship Series came to a close, the New York Yankees sat in an unfamiliar position. They were the ones sitting in their dugout watching as the Texas Rangers celebrated their first ever American League Championship.

More than six months later, the Rangers and Yankees will meet again in the Bronx for a three-game set which gets underway on Friday night.

Both teams have changed both aren't the same as when they met back in October of last year. The Rangers are off to their best start (9-3) since 1989 while the Yankees are currently sitting at 6-4 through their first 10 games of the 2011 season.

Texas will be missing the one key ingredient that was one of the biggest factors in their ALCS win over the Yankees, Josh Hamilton, after the outfielder suffered a small fracture in his right arm in a game against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday afternoon.

They're also missing their ace, Cliff Lee, who moved on to the Philadelphia Phillies after deciding against re-signing with Texas and not signing with the Yankees.

New York also has their fare share of changes.

Pitcher Andy Pettitte decided for retirement instead of returning for yet another season with the Bronx Bombers.

Without him, the Yankees' rotation has struggled after ace C.C. Sabathia. Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova, and A.J. Burnett have each had their struggles so far this season but Hughes has gotten the worst end of them.

He's given up 11 earned runs through just six innings pitched while Burnett has given up at least two runs in each of his first three starts.

As for the Rangers, their rotation has been better than most thought it would be. Young left hander Matt Harrison and first year starter Alexi Ogando have opened everyone's eyes and have proved a lot of people wrong.

Ogando has dominated with just two pitches, fastball and slider, and has been this side of unhittable. As for Harrison, he's given up just two earned runs through 14 innings pitched, dominating both the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox to start the season.

While it seems manager Ron Washington doesn't have many worries with his starters, it's his bullpen that might make him reach for the Tums to cure the heartburn created by aging relievers Arthur Rhodes and Darren Oliver, not to mention the struggles of Mark Lowe.

The only bright spot for them thus far has been young closer Neftali Feliz who has converted each of his first four save opportunities and has yet to give up a run through just over six combined innings (6.1 IP).

When these two teams converge at the new Yankee Stadium, there will be a new feeling in the air and a clean slate where each team has a chance to prove last year was either a fluke or the real deal.

Without Hamilton, the Rangers will need their offense to step up and fill in the gap left by their 2010 MVP. Nelson Cruz, Ian Kinsler, and Michael Young will need to be the catalysts and they'll need help from the rest of the lineup to stay afloat for the next two months at least.

This series against New York will be telling to see just where this team is at this point. Was their fast start a fluke or can they handle a little adversity right off the bat and show their championship selves once more?


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Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz Will Remain The Team's Closer

It's been the subject of conversation among not only the media but the fans of the Texas Rangers as well. Would Neftali Feliz step up into the rotation or would he remain as the closer?

The question seems to have been answered as ESPN's Buster Olney reports the Rangers have decided they will keep Feliz as their closer.

"We looked at all the options of the rotation with him in it and him not and the bullpen with him in it and him not," manager Ron Washington told the media earlier today. "The need is greater in the bullpen."

Of course, that hasn't stopped fan from piling on the team for not giving him the chance to be a part of the rotation. Not sure if they were thinking he'd be another version, a younger version, of Cliff Lee. Seems to me that expectation is a little much to put on a young man who's only in his first few seasons in the big leagues.

So, with that decision announced just a little while ago, the rotation sets up as follows:

C.J. Wilson
Colby Lewis
Matt Harrison
Tommy Hunter
Derek Holland

According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Feliz will pitch against the San Diego Padres tonight in Surprize, Arizona but is expected to pitch the ninth inning instead of being the starter.

This is the right move for the Texas Rangers moving forward. No matter how many fans want to grumble about it and talk about how Feliz was going to be the next "star," there was nothing to prove he could go six to seven innings every fifth day.

He's never been a starter in the big leagues and he's too young for this to be an "experiment."

After coming off an American League Championship, why mess with success? Why change something when it got them as far as it did?

The argument a closer isn't as important as a starter is one that can be debated. While a closer means nothing when your team is up five runs or more, coming in with a one run lead and the game on the line takes a mentality a lot of pitchers can't handle.

Feliz did exactly that all last season.

This debate is going to be hotly contested over the next few months. Make no mistake about it, the first time Feliz blows a save, this argument will be brought up by every media outlet and every fan.

As Ron Washington says, "that's the way baseball go."