As Pitchers and Catchers start to report at training camp, the excitement I feel about it cannot be recorded onto a blog post.
In the words of the great PA Announcer of the Rangers, Chuck Morgan: "It's (almost) baseball time in Texas!"
The spring training schedule will begin in a few weeks, and most fans are expecting another great season, as am I. Everyone knows the big names: Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Mike Young (maybe?), but there are many other players that contribute, as you saw in the World Series run.
With that said, here is my list of the 3 players who have (sort of) flown under the radar that will have a huge impact on this season.
Elvis Andrus
I'll clear it up now. I know that Elvis Andrus is a big time name in the Ranger household, but that's the case for different reasons than the players previously listed. My die-hard Ranger Mom and I had a conversation about this a few days ago, and I think she was right in what she said. "Mike Young is known for his play on the field, which is why he's known by the fans, but not looked at as a necessity. Elvis Andrus is known by the fans not only for his play on the field, but because of his constant autograph signing, appearances in videos played during the games, and the occasional shaving cream towel that he shoves in a teammates face after big games."
She was dead on, which is why I'm not upset about the whole Michael Young issue. Elvis Andrus had a rough start in 2010. It took awhile for his bat to wake up, and he hopped back and forth between the 1 and 9 spot in the batting lineup. His defense is extremely underrated, and I believe he's at least top three in the league in that category after working on his throws to first. Look for Andrus to start hot and have an All-Star caliber season, especially with the Jeter situation in New York.
Mike Napoli
Napoli came over from the Los Angeles Angels in the offseason, and he's always been a player that doesn't get much appreciation for his work. Last year, Treanor did a great job behind the plate, and Benjie Molina was brought in to help him out. This year, barring a spectacular spring training from Taylor Teagarden, Treanor and Napoli will most likely begin the season the same way that the Molina/Treanor tandem did at the end of last year. Napoli hit .238 last year with 24 homers and 68 RBI's, and that was with batting towards the bottom of the lineup, which was all but dead in Los Angeles in 2010 besides Napoli and Howie Kendrick.
David Murphy
The Baylor Bear will come into spring training in the same position he was in last year, the utility player in the outfield. Washington (for some reason) loved Hamilton in left, Julio Borbon in center, and Nelson Cruz in right. My preference would be to have Murphy and Nelson in Right or Center, but for some reason he doesn't feel the same- I'm willing to not argue since he does have a World Series appearance and I don't. Murph-Dog hit .291 last year in 138 of the 162 games, so even though he was the utility player, he did get a lot of playing time. Not that I hope any of the Ranger starting outfield struggles or gets injured, but I am hoping for another year of solid playing time for Murphy, as he proved to be vital many times last year (i.e. walk off hit into right center against the Yankees in early August last year.)
Every player has his own story this year, and all of them are hoping to at least repeat last year's success, and once they do that, are also hoping to win 3 more games. Though the AL West has gotten a lot better, the Rangers are still my favorites coming out of there.
And since we're still in pre-Spring Training mode, I'm going to bank that most of you won't remember this by October, but I will go ahead and make my predictions now.
Rangers regular season: 96-66
Rangers Playoffs: Boston def. Yankees 4-2 in ALDS
Rangers def. Boston 4-1 in ALCS
Rangers def. Philadelphia in World Series 4-2
That's all I've got. Also, check out my column on Todd Monken, the new Oklahoma State offensive coordinator, here: http://www.ocolly.com/sports/column-monken-connects-with-cowboy-faithful-1.1979384
Go Rangers, Cowboys, Pokes, and Mavs!
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