How The Texas Rangers Can Instantly Become Contenders

Look, I don't want to see the Texas Rangers win. Ever. I'm an A's fan, and we play in a four-team division. Being able to count out one of the other three teams as a contender is a huge plus.

But hey, I don't dislike them as much as the Yankees. If they offered me a job today, I'd take it.

Let's hypothetically say they did, and asked me to give them a team that would win 80 games this year.

So, much in the same vein as my earlier piece on the San Francisco Giants, here is what I would do to improve the Rangers (while making them cheaper):

Step One: Break down the roster 

The first thing to do is to identify who stays and who goes on the team.

Obviously, the Rangers have an inverse problem to the Giants; they can't pitch and never have. There are fewer market inefficiencies in pitching than in hitting, and thus, the Rangers' problem is much more difficult to fix than the Giants'. 

On the plus side, plenty of people can hit in Arlington, so perhaps the best strategy is to trade hitting for pitching, and then pick up some scrap-heap hitters later.

Who stays:

OF Josh Hamilton

2B Ian Kinsler

OF/1B Jason Botts

OF David Murphy

RHP Franklyn German

RHP Joaquin Benoit

LHP Kason Gabbard (currently on DL)

RHP Dustin Nippert (currently on DL)

That's right, four hitters and four pitchers. That's it. Although, that's not everyone currently in the organization who will wear a Texas uniform.

Who goes:

RHP Jason Jennings

RHP Kevin Millwood

RHP Vicente Padilla

LHP C.J. Wilson

RHP Jamey Wright

C Gerald Laird

C Adam Melhuse

3B Hank Blalock

1B Ben Broussard

SS Michael Young

INF Ramon Vazquez 

OF Milton Bradley

OF Frank Catalanotto

OF Marlon Byrd

LHP Eddie Guardado

RHP Brandon McCarthy

We'll get to all these in a second... 

Sent down: 

RHP Frank Francisco

RHP Wes Littleton

RHP Luis Mendoza

RHP Josh Rupe

INF German Duran

RHP Tom Diamond

LHP John Rheinecker

3B Travis Metcalf

All of these guys are fairly decent insurance, but if you're gonna build a .500 team, you don't start off with them in the majors.

Called up:

1B Nate Gold

C Jarrod Saltalamacchia

2B Ryan Roberts

1B/C Chris Shelton

So we replace the catching tandem of Laird and Melhuse with Saltalamacchia and Shelton. Yes, either one is a defensive downgrade on Laird, but both are better than Laird at the plate, and it's not like Adam Melhuse can defend well either. Roberts is a 27-year-old utility player who brings some solid pop at the plate, sort of like Marco Scutaro with a bit more pop and a bit less defense. He's an upgrade over Vazquez already.

So here's what we got:

Hamilton

Botts

Kinsler

Gold

Saltalamacchia

Roberts

Shelton

Murphy

German

Benoit

That's eight position players and two righty flamethrowing relievers.

Standard roster construction is something like this:

• Two C

• Three corner INF

• Three middle INF

• Five OFs, two that can handle CF:

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