MLB Baseball Betting - Texas Rangers

Manager: Ron Washington (second season).

2007: 75-87, fourth place, AL West

Training: Surprise Stadium, Surprise, Ariz.

Home Park: Ameriquest Field, Arlington, Texas, Grass, Opened April 11, 1994

World Series Titles: (0)

Acquisitions: 3B Edgardo Alfonzo, LF Milton Bradley, RHP Kazuo Fukumori, LHP Eddie Guardado, OF Josh Hamilton, RHP Jason Jennings, OF Kevin Mench, RHP Sidney Ponson, 1B Chris Shelton

Departures: OF Freddy Guzman, INF Jerry Hairston, LHP Danny Herrera, C Guillermo Quiroz, RHP Edinson Volquez, 1B/OF Brad Wilkerson.

Outlook: The Texas Rangers hired Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan to be the team president and get the Rangers moribund franchise off of life support and back to respectability.

Too bad they didn’t hire him to pitch.

The Rangers enter the 2008 season with the same problem that has plagued this franchise for several years now – a big-time lack of pitching. While starting pitchers Kevin Millwood, (10-14, 5.16 ERA), Vicente Padilla, (6-10, 5.76 ERA), and Jason Jennings, (2-9, 6.14 ERA), are all inning-eating hurlers that can toss 200-plus innings, all three are also mediocre on their best day and downright atrocious on the bad ones.

The Rangers’ fourth starter, former Boston Red Sox hurler, Kason Gabbard, may actually be the team’s best pitcher. While the fight for the fifth and final spot in the rotation remains wide open and will apparently be filled by a committee of mediocre pitchers.

While the Rangers pitching staff is in tatters, they do boast a solid lineup that should score its share of runs in the high-scoring American League.

Second baseman Ian Kinsler and shortstop Michael Young are both fixtures, and in the case of Young, one of the best hitters in the game, (.315 BA, 201 hits). The Rangers’ offense, which also has an all-star caliber hitter in Hank Blalock, should be even better in 2008 with the additions of outfielders Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley.

Former Philadelphia Phillies phenom, Marlon Byrd will play one of the corner outfield spots while veteran Frank Cattalanotto and David Murphy also split time in the outfield.

The Raners have a new closer this season in C.J. Wilson, but an absolutely mediocre bullpen with pitchers like Joaquin Benoit, Eddie Guardado, Jamey Wright and Franklyn German, an undistinguished group at best.

The Rangers began the season at +8000 to win the 2008 World Series in the BetUS Sportsbook. Check out all the latest MLB odds in the BetUS Sportsbook and BetUS futures section.

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Official Website: www.texasrangers.com