How The Texas Rangers Can Instantly Become Contenders

• Five SPs

• One other pitcher who can start

• Six other pitchers, at least one should be a lefty

Saltalamacchia and Shelton take care of catching, Gold takes a corner infield spot, Kinsler and Roberts fill two of the middle infield spots, Hamilton and Murphy take care of the two CF spots, and Botts adds another outfielder. German and Benoit take two of the bullpen spots, and neither are lefties. Therefore, we need this:

• Two corner INF (since Gold just plays 1B, preferably both can play third)

• One middle INF (Roberts is going to likely be the utility guy, so we need a starting SS)

• Two OFs

• Five SPs (gulp)

• One other pitcher who can start

• Four other pitchers, at least one should be a lefty

Step Two: Trades

Obviously, the biggest need here, before or after my placing the entire rotation on the block, is starting pitching, so that needs to be addressed first.

The only really glaring needs offensively are shortstop and third base, as Kinsler is an excellent 2B, Gold and Botts could both hit 30 HRs given their home park, Saltalamacchia provides good offense for a backstop, Hamilton is a stud, and Murphy is good enough to start.

Pencil in a decent SS and 3B and the lineup won't struggle to score runs, especially at home.

Where do we look for pitching?

One big problem with seemingly every Texas starting pitcher in the last decade is that they all have okay velocity and not too much sink. They also haven't found many lefties. Loading up on flyballing righties with average velocity is the kiss of death to a team playing in a park that has a virtual wind tunnel in right-center field. It's a tough problem to address, but we'll start with a nice, small move to fill the fifth starter spot.

• Trade 3B Johnny Wittleman to OAK for LHP Lenny DiNardo.

It might seem strange that I'm suggesting DiNardo for this rotation, considering I don't want him in the rotation for the A's.

First of all, DiNardo is easy to get—you could send pretty much anyone thought of as a prospect for him—because he's about to be crowded out by the slew of young lefties with more stuff: Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden, Dan Meyer, etc.

Why do I advocate DiNardo?

He's a lefty who has a career MLB ground ball percentage of about 60. He's a soft-tosser, but he's the rare pitcher whose skill set actually makes Texas' ballpark pitcher-friendly.

As a fifth man in the rotation, that's a good thing to have.

Also, if a prospect such as Eric Hurley was to come up to the majors later in the year, DiNardo could slide into that "utility pitcher" role, or even be the bullpen lefty.

Looking further, it's obvious that the biggest trade chip on the Rangers (of the players I've outlined) is Michael Young. Now, I know he's got some money on his contract, but this is the team that once gave A-Rod $252 million, so eating some of Young's contract shouldn't be an issue.

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