With pitchers and catchers just a few days away (thank God), it's time to look at what the Rangers have in terms of starting pitchers. Actually, let's first look back and remember what the starting rotation looked like at the beginning of 2009, shall we?

Kevin Millwood (Ace)
Vicente Padilla
Brandon McCarthy
Kris Benson
Matt Harrison

Kevin Millwood, who wasn't really an ace to begin with, more of an inning eating average pitcher, was traded to the Orioles. The Rangers, in return, got Chris Ray, Ben Snyder and $9 million in their pockets. Vicente Padilla was cut from the team because no one likes a pitcher who pegs people on purpose, then has to watch their teammates get pegged as payback. Oh, and no one likes it when your teammate gets pegged because you were the pitcher that pegged the first guy to begin with, then you're caught smiling as your pegged teammate walks down to 1st. Confusing? Probably. I'm not going to look over this and edit it. Brandon McCarthy ended up with some shoulder injury (because of his violent delivery mixed with his lanky, tall figure) and later showed up in September to show some good signs. Kris Benson, heh, well, at least Rangers fans who didn't know him had his wife's picture plastered everywhere. Matt Harrison looked strong then ended up with renowned Rangers-killer injury known as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.

So here is your 2010 Texas Rangers starting lineup!

Rich Harden (Ace)
Scott Feldman
Colby Lewis
Tommy Hunter
?????????????????????

This is different.

I remember the day Rich Harden got picked up by the Rangers. Kevin Millwood, considered to be the second best pitcher on the Rangers staff in 2009, had just been traded to the O's for an injured reliever (Ray), a player-to-be-named-later (Snyder), and a nice chunk of recovered salary money ($9 mil). Everyone flipped out. What the hell was Jon Daniels doing at the Winter Meetings? Oh God, it's Adrian Gonzalez/John Danks all over again! Then, Rich Harden. I believe this Twitter status from a loyal Rangers fan says it best: "RICH FREAKING HARDEN. Mill-who?" Michael Young went on note to say "I think he has the best stuff in the league .... I didn't say some of the best stuff. I mean the best stuff I've seen." Rangers writer T.R. Sullivan had this interesting little fact: "Nolan Ryan struck out 9.55 batters per nine innings in his career. That's the fourth best ratio in the past 60 years by a pitcher with at least 125 career starts. Rich Harden is right behind him. He's fifth at 9.35."

My mouth is watering. This is the kind of ace Rangers fans have been waiting for. His only down side is his past injury report. But with the kind of medical staff heralded by injury expert Will Carroll, Rangers fans can breathe a little easier. Another thing I don't much care about is Sullivan's stat. Yes, it's nice when there's a pitcher who can strikeout a guy. The runners won't move and the self-esteem of the batter shrinks a little. But the real stat I'm looking at is GB/FB, because Harden's about to move to homer-happy Arlington. It's a career 1.05, but he hasn't pitched anything above 1.00 since 2006. The existence of Mike Maddux, who preaches that a 1-pitch out hit into the field is better than a 3-pitch strikeout, could help out and possibly get Harden back to his early days.

Regardless, every Rangers fan is excited to see Harden in red and blue.

Second on the list is Scott Feldman, Cy Young candidate and noted bat breaker, and what a surprise he's been. After giving up 10 runs in the first inning in a game at Fenway in 2008 (and by the way, that game was amazing even though the outcome sucked), Scooter returned the next year with a nasty, best in the majors cutter. He was rewarded with Rangers Pitcher of the Year and talks of winning a Cy Young award, even though he probably didn't deserve the nominations. Before Rich Harden came along, I was calling for Feldman to be the Opening Day starter. And Jamey Newberg totally called Scott being greatness, dubbing him the "MUTRIHOF" (the Most Underrated Texas Rangers... In the History Of the Franchise).

Third is Colby Lewis, the failed Ranger starter turned amazing Hiroshima Toyo Carp starter (having the most strikeouts in Japan's Central League in 2008 and 2009) turned Ranger starter. Honestly, I don't know much about the Japanese league and how it translates into how well a player will do in the Majors, but I have faith in the Rangers making the right decision. I mean, we're talking about the same team who moved Gold Glove (another award I question) shortstop Michael Young over to third for a AA player and gained a great defensive improvement. Lewis will end up the workhorse of the rotation, similar to that of what Millwood was last year. And he can strikeout some people, or so it seems.

Fourth, Tommy Hunter, a player who I wrongly doubted. Anyone remember his first 6 starts last year? ERs: 3, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1. I like. He's also following in Feldman's footsteps with a cut fastball of his own, though it's not as strong as Feldman's. It's not like he can't improve it, though. He fell apart towards the end of the year, but otherwise, he had a solid season ending with a 4.10 ERA and a 1.8 WAR in a little more than half the starts that Millwood or Feldman got, and I'll happily take that for the #4 guy.

Fifth, ????????????????????? Will it be Brandon McCarthy, Matt Harrison, Derek Holland, Dustin Nippert, Neftali Feliz, C.J. Wilson, oh the possibilities... which I will discuss next time.

I like links.

Howdy, I'm StoneRanger, residential Rangers homer and addict. Good to be aboard. So anyways, on to blogging.

Assuming you watched Texas over the past two years, you've probably noticed one thing about our great All-Star 2nd baseman: his swing has changed. It went a route similar to that of Chris Davis, uppercut-y, and it affected his average. His Batting stat (courtesy of Fangraphs) dropped from 29.3 in 2008 to 13.1 in 2009. His average dropped from .319 to .253. And his on-base percentage, a stat that almost no Ranger player excelled in during all of 2009, dropped from .375 to .327.

Let's look at some stats to prove this. His flyball rate unfortunately improved from 43.3% to 54% (a change of 10.7), a 2009 percentage only beaten out by Carlos Pena in all of the majors. At the same time, his line drive percentage dropped from 24.2% to 15.9% (a change of 8.3). Looking at Ian's career, he's a .219/.213/.597 hitter on fly balls, but a .733/.731/.961 for line drives, so let's stick to trying to hit liners.

Of course, the only reason Kinsler changed his swing was for those delicious home runs. He spent weeks trying to get his 30th home run to reach the 30/30 club in 2009. And with 81 of his 83 career home runs coming from fly balls, he's going to stick to that uppercut swing.

So how'd he do against specific pitches? His production against fastballs, a pitch he sees over 57% of the time over his career, dropped from 14.3 runs above average to 1.5! Slider, which he sees almost 19% of the time, fell from 2.4 to -2.1. Against changeups, he's raised from 1.2 to 8.8, and against cutters and curveballs, he faired a little better as well, but he only sees those three types of pitches a little over 20% of the time.

There's another thing that the swing seems to work with, other than most breaking pitches: left-handed pitchers. His wRC+, a stat based on wOBA and OPS+, went from 116 to 159. Against righties, 141 to 93, where anything under 100 is below average.

Hitting at the tiny home ballpark in Arlington helps too. 148 wRC+ at home, 82 away. Last year, 147 at home, 135 away.

So how do you beat Kinsler? Be right handed and throw fastballs and sliders, and hope you're not at the Ballpark in Arlington.

How does Kinsler beat pitchers? Well, he could always just go back to his 2008 swing. Does he even need the power swing? With power hitters like Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, and Chris Davis (and Michael Young and Vlad Guerrero somewhat) surrounding him, is it really necessary? Especially with Kinsler's speed, he might be more annoying to pitchers dancing around on the basepaths waiting to get hit in.

If he wants to keep his power to an extent, he could go uppercut versus LHP, 2008 swing vs. RHP. He could go uppercut at home, 2008 swing away. He could go uppercut vs. breaking pitches, 2008 swing versus fastballs, but that's probably asking too much.

Regardless, Rangers fans would love to see a happy medium. It would mix well with his improved, range filled and double-play-happy defense, as well as his excellent speed. I know I will. But if he sticks to his uppercut, expect moaning on any site involving the Rangers, as well as any social networking site where you know a Rangers fan, like we all did last year.