Sportandfashion-news MLB Preview: Texas Rangers

Here we go. My hope is we are going to start pumping a couple of these out a day. Today is our first one, and then we will continue to run through the current division. If there is something you would like to see added to these previews, shoot me an email: sportandfashion-news12@gmail.com or tweet me: @Sportandfashion-news12, I would be happy to oblige with the people.  

What went right for Texas in 2013: Yu Darvish - What a second year for Darvish. He finished second in Cy Young voting for the American League, and made his presence felt to the rest of the Major Leagues. Darvish's numbers were downright scary as he led the league in Hits per nine innings as well as strikeouts per nine innings plus leading the American League in strikeouts with 277. He came in either second or third in multiple other categories. Darvish is only getting better which is bad news for the rest of the American League.

What went wrong for Texas in 2013: Another September swoon - For the second straight year, Texas hit a spiral like when you decide it is a good idea to do multiple shots of Rumplemintz at 1:30 am on a Saturday night. From August 30th to September 16th, Texas lost 16 of their 19 games including multiple losses to Oakland falling out of first place on Friday the 6th and they would never reach that mountain again. How Ron Washington got an extension is beyond me.

Key Additions: 1B Prince Fielder, LF Shin-Soo Choo, SP Joe Saunders, SP Tommy Hanson, C J.P. Arenciba -  Big splashes around this one for Texas. They add Fielder via a trade and Choo comes over in the free agency. The bats could be back for Texas in a major way.

Key Subtractions: 2B Ian Kinsler, C. A.J. Pierzynski, 1B Lance Berkman, 2B Jeff Baker, SP Matt Garza, LF/RF Daniel Murphy, OF Nelson Cruz, RP Joe Nathan - Things ended like the Biebs-Selena when it comes to Kinsler as things got rocky. Some of these guys got old, and Garza flamed out with Texas.

What to watch: Prince Fielder - I am going on record and saying Prince will have a near MVP season for Texas this season. When this trade happened, I started to wonder about all the bombs he will be able to send out of the Ballpark in Arlington. I am telling you this plays to Fielder's advantage. I think when he was at Detroit, the pressure got to him leading to many times where he pressed for the home run. Fielder will have a huge year.

Population: Breakout: 2B Jurickson Profar - We see this a lot where a prospect gets called up midway through the season, and they do not really come through with as big of a season as some may have expected. People tend to forget he was only 20 years old last season. There is a ton of time to grow and it will happen this year. I think we are leaning towards a fringe All-Star appearance for Profar this season. While ZIP's only has him down for 14 homers at a .261 clip, I see something a little bit more on both end, maybe 19 homers with a .275 average but I could be crazy.

Population: Regression: SP Alexi Ogando -  Quite a career for the young pitcher who went from a bullpen pitcher to a starter back to the bullpen and now it seems he will spend another year starting for Texas. Are we really sure he is a starter? I mean he had a good year when Ogando stayed healthy, but we do not really have any indication he will be a front-line starter like Texas wants him to be this season. For whatever it is worth, the projections have his ERA above 4 with a WHIP of 1.45.

Prospect to Watch: OF Michael Choice - He was the first round pick for Okland in 2010 and got traded away for peanuts essentially. Choice seems to be making an impact in Spring Training where people are starting to wonder if he will get the starting role this season out the gate. Choice is Texas' best prospect option that might make an impact on this year's team with many of their other top notch prospects being a couple years away.

Outlook and Prediction:  Maybe I am putting a little too much faith in Prince and Darvish, but I think they will cure the September blues finding themselves back into the postseason for the first time since 2011. This team has a good makeup and I believe some are not seeing the possibility for this team to really grow throughout the season. I am predicting first in the AL West with about 94 wins. 

Charlie.

Keeping Up With the Red Sox

New York Yankees watched their arch rival Boston Red Sox win their third World Series title in 10 years while the established Yankees had only one in that time span. This is a reverse of what happened for the last 100 years. Without a doubt, New York believes they need to make multiple moves this offseason to compete again at the top of the American League and Major League Baseball. While they have brought in older guys, it is fair to say the Evil Empire is starting to look like itself again even with their older talent and especially with their mega splash adding Masahiro Tanaka

For those unfamiliar, Tanaka is a 25 year old Japanese phenom pitcher. We have seen the likes of Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuwa come into the American League, and dominate for the greater the part right upon arrival. The scary thing is Tanaka has been better than the last two Japanese pitchers before heading to Major League Baseball. This also means he was worth more than these two players with New York ponying up 155 million dollars over seven years for someone who has never pitched in Major League Baseball. Is this a significant risk? Yes, it is but it could pay off for New York in a big way.

In the last three years in Japan, Tanaka's ERA has not been over 1.90 with barely walking anyone, and he only gave up six home runs in 2013. While his SO/9 ratio went down in the last couple of years, his BB/9 also went down meaning Tanaka is pitching a little more to contact and not trying to strike out everyone. Which would be evident as in 2011, he has 241 strikeouts, a career-high for Tanaka although he does not have those numbers across the board. While some feel the money given to Tanaka will be only worth it if the Yankees make the playoffs this season, it is true at a smaller scale, more so the expectation is he will be great right away versus suffering through the usual rookie up's and down's.

New York now established front-line pitching staff, and if they can avoid injuries, American League East has another team competing for the crown making it on paper look like the hardest division in baseball. All five of those teams are definitely 80 win teams without question with four them probably worthy of 85. Yet New York really needs to at least make it look like to their fan base, they are the ones with the grandest things similar to a family who needs an Escalade,  80" HD TV, biggest house and all of the finer things even if maybe they are not the most stable group of people. There is no telling all of the pieces New York brought in, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran and now Tanaka, are all going to come together and mesh like they are supposed to plus with precedent showing it does not always work out. The weird thing is even if New York struggles next year, they can at least look at their fans and say 'we tried.'

The last statement is very important especially if Boston or Tampa Bay makes another run this season because at least, it looks like on the surface, New York made an attempt to build a better team instead of sitting on their hands not doing anything.  The surface level comfort of knowing this will keep the front office and some of the fans pleased at least for the time being.

Charlie.