Texas Rangers

Believe it or not, Kevin Millwood is pitching like an ace this year. The scary thing is his numbers could be even better if the Rangers offense would help. 

After Saturday’s performance Millwood’s record is at 3-3 with a 2.92 ERA. He’s even eating up the innings too, which will give him an automatic contract next year.  In his seven starts this year, he has gone at least seven innings. That ties a team record. A record hard to match regardless of the team you play for.

Michael Young has plenty to smile about as the Texas Rangers open a big homestand against the American League West, and for a change, it has nothing to do with offense.

My friends in the world of sports caution me constantly about expecting a playoff run from the Rangers, but I've always been a little reckless so I'm going to ignore their warnings for now.

What does a team have to display at this time of the season to be considered a true contender?

About one month is in the books for the 2009 Texas Rangers season. Before jumping into grading each hitter for their first month performance, lets look at the team's overall rank for key stats in the American League 

Current place in the Standings: 16-13, 1st in the AL West

Home Runs: 50, 1st in AL

Runs: 166, 3rd in AL

Batting Avg: .282, 4th in AL

Stolen Bases: 23, 4th in AL

On-base Pct: .334, 10th in AL

Until Monday, the Mariners were rolling.

They were coming off a comeback-riddled series with Oakland, in which they came out on top. Wakamojo was at full force.

Since then, the Seattle Mariners have lost four games in a row, and in a very disheartening manner.

Half of these losses came in the form of a 2 game sweep at the hands of the now division leading Texas Rangers. During the Texas series, we also lost one of our top performing relievers in Sean Kelley. It's looking like he's going to be on the DL for an extended period of time.

OK, so obviously, baseball fans by now have heard that Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has done steroids. He said that he did them during his time with the Texas Rangers, when he won an MVP award. Oh wait....

At this time last April, the Rangers were seven games back of first place in the AL West. They were in a slide that would take them all the way down to a 7-19 record.

Then something happened.

They had one of the best Mays a Texas Ranger team has ever had. They went 18-10 and were six games above .500, their high water mark for the season. It turned out to be a winning summer, but the Rangers could not dig themselves out of an early hole.

It's a tough economy out there. We all know that by now.

Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles
Free Pick: Baltimore Orioles (-128)
Friday, April 24, 2009, 7:05 p.m. ET—MLB Odds
Visit Touthouse.com for more MLB Picks and MLB Betting Predictions from Alex Smart.

The Texas Rangers have made it very clear that the solution to their ongoing pitching problems rests on the arms of their two prized pitching prospects.

Both Baseball America and ESPN have deemed the Texas Rangers farm system to be the best in baseball for 2009. The Rangers' prized pitching possessions are 20—year—old, right-hander Neftali Feliz (fourth overall prospect, according to ESPN) and 22—year—old, left-hander, Derek Holland (No. 21 overall).

On Wednesday night, Holland made his Major League debut out of the bullpen in Toronto.

In recent years Major League Baseball has seen new faces burst onto the scene and become annual members on the All-Star team. Players like David Wright and Joe Mauer have become fan favorites and household names as they've launched careers among the best in baseball.

Other players have seen their personal stars dimmer over the last few seasons. The 10 players whose careers used to shine among brightest in the baseball sky and have since gone the other way are included in the following slides.