At 2:35 on Thursday C.T, your Texas Rangers will open the season against the defending World Series Champion Houston Astros!
The starting lineups are ready, and the team will soon be back for game one of the regular season. Your starting lineup will look very close to this:
Delino Deshields CF
Joey Gallo 1B
Elvis Andrus SS
Adrian Beltre 3B
Nomar Mazara RF
Sin Soo Choo DH
Robinson Chirinos C
Roughned Odor 2B
Ryan Rua LF
Jeff Bannister I am sure will tinker with the batting order as time goes by, but I think the idea is to get Gallo some early at bats and drive DeSheilds in for early runs.
This can be a very good lineup, and they will be able to inflict some damage on other teams at times. The team will have Jurickson Profar as the utility man, Drew Robinson as the backup outfielder, and Juan Centeno most likely the backup catcher. As of today Carlos Tocci and Rule 5 addition will round out the outfield spots. With 13 fielders that leaves 12 spots open for pitching. Your starting pitchers are:
Cole Hamels—Opening day starter
Doug Fister
Matt Moore
Mike Minor
Martin Perez—begins season on DL with a return of April 5 possible
The bullpen:
Alex Claudio
Jake Diekman
Matt Bush
Keone Kela
Jose Leclerc
Ricky Rodriguez
Tony Barnette—begins season on the DL
Tim Lincecum—begins season on the DL
Jesse Chavez
The Rangers signed Bartolo Colon for a couple of starts to fill in for Martin Perez. This, Rangers fans, is your opening day 25-man roster.
When considering breakout players, look for Ryan Rua who was the opening day starter a couple of years ago, but broke his foot the first week of the season and never regained the position. Delino Deshields has had a breakout spring training and if he carries that over to start it should create a lot of excitement at the top of the batting order. Joey Gallo is swinging the bat well, and doing lots of little things to his at bats. Nomar Mazara continues to show consistency and should do better this year.
Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus are still the team leaders and I expect them to be the same players that they have been.
Make no mistake this is a very steady lineup with a lot of pop in those bats. Every single hitter has the potential to hit 15-20 home runs, and put up numbers for average. The question is can they play small ball to manufacture runs or will they live or die with the long ball as they did last season. The team must reduce strikeouts and unproductive at bats. The pitching staff is the concern, but we have discussed that non-stop since the 2017 season ended, so let’s just hope for the best.
There are new menu items available including a Dilly Dog, which is a hotdog in a dill pickle. The food is waiting, the beverages are ready, it has been a long wait to see baseball again.
Everyone has the same record, so anything is possible! It is a long season and it is almost time to play ball! There is rain in the forecast Thursday morning, but it should be out before the first pitch.
Let’s go play baseball! Go Rangers!
