Part 1
Everyone wants a prediction of how the Texas Rangers will do this year. Will it be better than last year’s 65 wins, above or below the betting line of 77 wins, or can the team actually compete and find a way to get into that magical 90+ win category to compete for a division title or wild card slot. One of the ways that people look at this is to look at a comparison by position of every team in the division, after all with the new schedule format teams play within their division more than ever before. For accounting purposes I am going to give each team a rank, and add up the numbers at the end to use this simple method to determine the order of finish. This may not be accurate, but since this is just a projection and paper let’s see how it turns out. I am also using who is listed on the top of the depth chart, which in some cases could change before opening day. A 5 is the best and 1 is the worst.
Catcher
The Rangers starter is Robinson Chirinos who had a breakout year last season, he is still young with a plus arm and a nice bat. How do the numbers look?
Career Stats Avg OBP OPS HR RBI AB
(TX)Chirinos .231 .285 .676 14 47 389
(Hou)Jason Castro .243 .316 .716 40 149 1362
(ANA)Chris Iannetta .236 .357 .771 90 344 2281
(OAK)Stephen Vogt .254 .298 .694 13 51 429
(SEA)Mike Zunino .203 .266 .648 27 74 611
Clearly Iannetta from the Angels is the veteran with twice as much playing time as the next closest person. Seattle appears to be the weakest at this position, I would rank them like this:
5 Angels, 4 Oakland, 3 Houston, 2 Texas, and 1 Seattle
First Base
Career Stats Avg OBP OPS HR RBI AB
(TX) Prince Fielder .285 .388 .910 288 886 4882
(HOU)Jon Singleton .168 .285 .620 13 44 310
(ANA)Albert Pujols .317 .403 .991 520 1603 7943
(OAK)Ike Davis .240 .336 .759 78 270 1848
(SEA)Logan Morrison .251 .333 .758 53 200 1631
Although Albert Pujols production has fallen over the past 3-seasons, he is clearly the best at this position. The rest are as follows:
Angels 5, Texas 4, Seattle 3, Oakland 2, and Houston 1
Second Base
Career Stats Avg OPS OPS HR RBI AB
(TX)Roughned Odor .259 .297 .402 9 48 386
(HOU)Jose Altuve .302 .340 .741 21 160 2083
(ANA)Johnny Giavotella .238 .277 .612 4 45 437
(OAK)Ben Zobrist .264 .354 .783 114 511 3850
(SEA)Robinson Cano .310 .368 .857 218 904 5930
Cano is the class at second, but the little man Altuve is darn good.
Seattle 5, Houston 4, Oakland 3, Texas 2, Angels 1
Short Stop
Career Stats Avg OBP OPS HR RBI AB
(TX)Elvis Andrus .272 .335 .680 20 305 3523
(HOU)Jed Lowrie .261 .330 .741 56 284 2253
(ANA)Erick Aybar .277 .318 .702 45 373 3830
(OAK)Marcus Semien .293 .380 .673 8 35 300
(SEA)Brad Miller .302 .389 .691 18 58 673
It is somewhat hard to judge this because the young guys with not very many at bats look really good. The veterans are consistent and all very close together, but to follow along this is how I would rate them.
Angels 5, Texas 4, Houston 3, Seattle 2, and Oakland 1
Third Base
Career Stats Avg OBP OPS HR RBI AB
(TX)Adrian Beltre .285 .337 .816 395 1384 9145
(HOU)Luis Valbuena .229 .313 .686 45 173 1809
(ANA)David Freese .280 .348 .765 54 292 2029
(OAK)Brett Lowrie .266 .323 .748 43 157 1304
(SEA)Kyle Seager .262 .328 .757 70 264 1981
Adrian Beltre is clearly the veteran, leader of the Rangers, and nobody else is close.
Texas 5, Seattle 4, Angels 3, Oakland 2, and Houston 1
If one is completely objective it would seem that the infield ranks Angels, Astros tied with Seattle, Rangers, and Oakland. Certainly, this is a good time to debate who is better, and keep in mind that I am using only the projections based on the depth chart.