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The Ranger bull has shifted quite a bit over the past few weeks, mostly over the past week actually. Sometimes it is hard for all of us to keep up with what is going on out there or who in the world is out there or even what anyone’s role is going to be. Well, fear not. We here at the Ranger Report try to keep up with all of it so you do not have to do the hard digging yourself, you can just count on us! Here is the list and the roles,to the best of my knowledge.
First of all, if you didn’t know, Neftali Feliz and Mason Tobin have been placed on the DL, Mark Lowe and Michael Kirkman have been sent down, and Dave Bush is never used. The pen as of now is filled with:
Dave Bush
Darren O’Day
Pedro Strop
Brett Tomko
Cody Eppley
Arthur Rhodes
Darren Oliver
Those are the 7 guys in the pen at the moment. Only O’Day and Oliver were on the Rangers big league staff in 2010. Here is what I see happening right now with who will be used where. Brett Tomko and Dave Bush will be used as long men, if the Rangers actually need a long man any time soon. Their starters have been doing such a good job so far this season that they have really not needed a long man as of yet, except for the start that the bull pen and Dave Bush had. I also think once Neftali Feliz is healthy (which is supposed to happen on May 6th against the Yankees), Dave Bush will be gone. There just does not seem to be a place for him on this team. I think they eventually want to use Strop as the 7th inning guy, but his command is too erratic to count on him for any game that is very close at the moment, so I think they will go with O’Day right now. O’Day is having his worse season as a Ranger so far, and his ERA is still only 2.84. The thing that most people have noticed about him though is he just looks bad or uncomfortable out there. Next, in the 8th inning I think they want to use Eppley, and he certainly showed that he has what it takes in his first major league outing. He is a young power pitcher who has closed at every level of the minor leagues, and i think setting up Feliz when he is healthy is going to be the role of this young man. That leaves us with the new closer by the most pitching experience. While Nefti is out, I believe that Ron is going to go with Arthur and Oliver to close out games. So far they have both done a pretty good job in Feliz’ absence. Look for that to continue. I do not see either of those guys getting rattled by much of anything.
So that is where I see the bull pen right now. Agree, disagree, let me know about it. Thanks for reading.
