Day 20: Texas Rangers

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: Texas Rangers

2007 Regular Season Record: 75-87

Cost per Win: $68,318,675 / 75 = $910,915 per win

2007 Season Recap: The Rangers played in a tough division in 2007 and just lacked the talent to really compete with the Angels and Mariners. The finished last in the AL West and were 19 games behind the Angels overall and used 2007 as more of a rebuilding year than anything. One big move they did make was to trade Mark Teixeira to the Braves for a collection of younger players that they will be able to build their team on in the future. As a team the Rangers had a season where they were in the middle of the road offensively and on the pitching mound. As a team they hit for a .263 batting average with ranked 10 in the AL and the pitching staff had a 4.75 ERA which was the 11th best in the AL.

Individually one of the offensive standouts was Michael Young. Young led the team with 94 RBIs and a .315 batting average. Another good offensive showing came from journeyman center fielder Marlon Byrd who hit for a .307 batting average and had 70 RBIs in only 109 games. The Rangers were also getting strong offensive contributions from both Mark Teixeira and Kenny Lofton before they were traded in the mid-season for young talent. By the time both players were traded the Rangers were 15.5 games back in the AL West so they were ready to look to the future and grow the amount of young talent on the team.

The place that the Rangers spend the bulk of their salary is pitching. This was also the area that needed the most improvement for the Rangers in 2007. Their team leader in wins was Kevin Millwood but he had only 10 wins and 14 losses which is a really bad sign when 10 wins is the most on the team, Millwood also had a 5.16 ERA so it wasn’t just a matter of his team not scoring for him. One of the things that I found interesting was that the team leader in saves was Eric Gagne who was traded off to the Boston Red Sox near the trade deadline. The Rangers did get 3 players in the trade so it will most likely help the team out in the future and Gagne was in the final season of his contract. The Rangers overall did a good job of building their youth talent base in a season that was something of a lost cause.

Key Free Agents: OF Jerry Hairston, OF Sammy Sosa, 1B Brad Wilkerson, RP Jamey Wright; None of these guys are really all that notable and most won’t be major losses in the lineup. Hairston had a terrible season where he hit for only a .189 batting average. Sosa is probably the biggest loss only because he led the team in home runs with 21. He most likely would have been dethroned of that title by Teixeira if he hadn’t been traded since Teixeira ended up with 30 in total at both Texas and Atlanta.

Offseason Needs: The Rangers need pitching there is no question about that. It is a possibility that some of the young guys they brought in through trades could pick up for those holes in their pitching staff but that is always a big risk. Offensively they are in fairly good shape but could use some more consistent hitting but I don’t think they need to spend a lot of money in that department. It would however probably be a good idea if they use some of their money to bring in a starting pitcher or 2.

Prediction for the 2008 season: I don’t foresee a lot of really good things happening for the Rangers next season. 2008 will be a year of experimenting to find out what mix of the young talent they have will work best so the lineup will be consistently changing and they will learn a lot but probably won’t win a whole lot. They are most likely destined for last place in the AL West once again and will probably have a worse record in 2008 than they did in 2007. This will especially be true if the A’s can improve, which I think they will do.