Texas Rangers

For starters, I despise using the word "epic"—it's way too trendy for me.

But as I rolled through my inner thesaurus, epic fit. It fit so much that it outweighed the negative overtones that come with using such an overdone word.

Since the word has been so blurred and demeaned and been used to describe nouns from breakfast burritos to ankle socks, I feel it necessary to define the word of the day.

Epic is heroic; majestic; impressively great or of unusually great size or extent.

Before the start of last postseason, the Rangers had never won a playoff series.  In three playoff appearances, they were knocked out in the first round each time by the New York Yankees.

After dispatching the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in the ALDS, the Rangers defeated the Yankees in six games to win the pennant.

Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP, Neftali Feliz won the AL Rookie of the Year and Cliff Lee was a postseason hero. 

But now Lee is gone, so we'll see if the Rangers can get enough from their pitching staff to once again take the AL West crown.

TEXAS RANGERS

Last Year: 90-72, 1st in AL West  

Manager: Ron Washington 

PROJECTED LINEUP 

C- Yorvit Torrealba (R) 

1B- Mitch Moreland (L)

2B- Ian Kinsler (R)

3B- Adrian Beltre (R) 

SS- Elvis Andrus (R)

LF- Josh Hamilton (L)

CF- Julio Borbon (L)

RF- Nelson Cruz (R)

DH- Michael Young (R)

Texas Rangers (2010 record: 90-72)

The Texas Rangers won their first American League pennant, but eventually lost the World Series to the San Francisco Giants. Their drive to the Fall Classic was spurred by an MVP season from LF Josh Hamilton, a Rookie of the Year campaign from closer Neftali Feliz, and all-star efforts from five players.

There is a general feeling among many people that Elvis Andrus is overrated.  When you look at his numbers from 2010, it isn’t a surprising thought:

588 At Bats
.265 Batting Average (156 Hits)
0 Home Runs
35 RBI
88 Runs
32 Stolen Bases
.342 On Base Percentage
.301 Slugging Percentage
.317 Batting Average on Balls in Play

Chris Davis leads the majors with 15 RBI this spring.

He’s hitting .409 with an OPS of 1.247. Davis has seven doubles and four home runs in 44 at bats.

He destroyed Triple-A pitching last year hitting .327 with 14 HR and 80 RBI in 398 at bats. He tore up Triple-A pitching in 2009, also hitting .327 with six home runs and 30 RBI in 165 at bats.

At this late date in spring training, the majority of teams across Major League Baseball have made most of their critical personnel decisions regarding who will be coming north with them once camps break and the regular season commences.

There are however, still important decisions to be made in Rangers camp, as the days dwindle and Opening Day rapidly approaches.

Previously, The Fantasy Fix reviewed and gave projections for the 2011 Texas Rangers rotation. Now, it's time to dive in and analyze the Rangers positional players.

Julio Borbon is second in all off baseball in committing errors thus far in Spring Training. The league leaders in errors typically are infielders who have many more opportunities than outfielders. Borbon has five errors this Spring, he has a total of seven errors in his career in the regular season.

In 2009 Ian Kinsler was just the fifth second baseman to complete a 30/30 season since 2000. Think about that—During those heady days of crazy power numbers he was only the fifth second baseman to accomplish this feat. That should give you a pretty good idea of just how good this young man is capable of becoming.

Below are Kinsler’s stats for the last three seasons: