Texas Rangers: 10 Worst Pitcher Acquisitions of All Time

With spring training underway, the Texas Rangers are looking at one of their strongest pitching staffs ever, even after the departure of C.J. Wilson.

With the signing of Yu Darvish and likely conversion of Neftali Feliz into the starting rotation, the Rangers can't even guarantee Roy Oswalt a starting spot.

The times have changed dramatically for the Texas Rangers when they don't go all out for a pitcher with even moderate success. 

In order to appreciate just how far the organization has come, here is a list of the team's 10 worst pitching acquisitions of all-time

Honorable Mention: Brandon Webb

Season: 2011 (no games played)

Since 2009, Webb has had two major surgeries. In that same time he has only pitched four total innings.

Knowing this, the Rangers signed the former Cy Young winner to an incentive heavy contract last season with a base salary of $3 million.

Considering that the Rangers didn't give him a huge one-year contract, the signing was a pretty good gamble. Unfortunately for them, the gamble didn't pay off. 

10. Pedro Astacio

Season: 2005 (2-8, 6.04 ERA)

Astacio was not an awful addition in terms of dollars. The Rangers signed him to a small contract, but it was more the timing of the matter.

At the age of 35, Astacio was five years removed from his prime. Still, the Rangers crossed their fingers that he would put up numbers like in 1999 when he won 17 games (although with a 5.04 ERA).

Piggybacking off the success of the movie Napoleon Dynamite, the organization even sold "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts. He was released later that season.

Not even a curly headed, wolverine fighting high school student could save Astacio's career. 

9. Kevin Millwood

Seasons: 2006-2009 (48-46, 4.57 ERA) 

Kevin Millwood is probably the best pitcher on this list. It's true that he was often plagued with bad run support, but in two consecutive years he finished with over a 5.00 ERA.

The Rangers thought they were getting a much better pitcher than a guy who barely had a winning record for them.

That's why he was signed to a five-year, $60 million deal. 

8. Rob Bell

Seasons: 2001-2002 (9-8, 6.73 ERA)

Not to be confused with the mega-church pastor by the same name, the Rangers traded for this Rob Bell from the Cincinnati Reds in the middle of the 2001 season.

He went win-less in nine starts for the Reds that year. The Rangers must have thought he would be a nice addition to their rotation. 

In 2002, Bell lowered his ERA by almost an entire point for the team. Unfortunately, it was a 6.22. 

7. Jason Jennings

Seasons: 2008-2009 (2-9, 5.50 ERA)

Jennings is another classic example of a player the Rangers signed well after his peak. In fact, Jennings reached the top of his career his very first season in 2002 when he won the National League Rookie of the Year.

With a Guaranteed $4 million contract, Jennings naturally required season ending surgery two months into the 2008 season.

The next year, the team signed him to a minor league deal. At least they didn't rip themselves off twice. 

6. Roger Pavlik

Seasons: 1992-1998 (47-39, 4.58 ERA) 

Pavlik is most known for being the pitcher with the near 5.00 ERA selected to the 1996 All-Star game.  

In truth, he did have a few good seasons for the Rangers, but he was an extremely inconsistent player. Without the high run support he received, his career record would not be near what it is.

Pavlik constantly had control issues. As a result, he is tied for the league record for most consecutive walks to start a game, with four. 

5. Rich Harden

Season: 2010 (5-5, 5.58 ERA)

In 2008, Harden had a 10-2 record with a 2.07 ERA. The Rangers gave him $7.5 million to hopefully produce something similar, but he didn't even do half of that. 

In an injury-nagged season, Harden was worth -0.3 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in 2010. For context, the average starting pitcher is worth around two WAR.

What that means is that a replacement player was valued more than Harden. Realizing this, the Rangers released him at season's end.

4. Todd Van Poppel

Seasons: 1998, 2002-2003 (5-4, 6.45 ERA)

Van Poppel has the rare distinction of being the only pitcher on this list who had two different stints with the Rangers. 

In 104.2 innings for the team he gave up 126 hits. Somehow, Van Poppel didn't make it through his final season in Texas. 

His greatest contribution to the Rangers came in 1998 when he was part of a trade that landed the team Esteban Loaiza. In other words, he contributed almost nothing.  

3. John Rocker

Season: 2002 (2-3, 6.66 ERA) 

Rocker showed talent with the Atlanta Braves earlier in his career, so the Rangers thought they would take a risk and traded for the troubled reliever. Apparently, the team was looking to add a racist and homophobic lefty.

Rocker thanked the Rangers for taking a chance on him by producing the worst season of his career. He was cut after the season and was completely out of major league baseball after the next year.

Is it any surprise he ended his only season for the Rangers with the ERA that he did?

2. Mark Clark

Seasons: 1999-2000 (6-12, 8.37 ERA)

After a less than mediocre season with the Chicago Cubs, Clark signed a two-year contract in 1998 with the Rangers for a guaranteed $9.3 million.

His ERA obviously jumps out, but Clark's WHIP was also atrocious. He averaged a 1.918 in two shortened seasons. For reference, a typical pitcher's WHIP is around 1.40.

Once the organization realized that Clark's pitching was a nightmare that they would never wake up from, they cut him partway through the 2000 season.

Even the team owner, Tom Hicks, called the signing a mistake.

1. Chan Ho Park

Seasons: 2002-2005 (22-23, 5.79 ERA)

Did you have any doubt about this selection? Desperate for an ace they didn't find, the Rangers inked Chan Ho Park to a massive five-year, $65 million contract in 2001. 

He was traded in 2005, so the Rangers didn't pay all of that contract but they still coughed up more than $2 million for each game he won.

In 2002, Despite not pitching the entire season, he led the league in hit batters with 17. 

When he wasn't plunking batters, he was busy surrendering home runs. For this, Rangers fans affectionately called him Chan Ho "out of the" Park.