Posted on July 30th, 2008 by Ryan Metcalf
How to Fix the Rangers Pitching Staff
All and all the Rangers pitching really isn’t that bad. All it would take is a few changes and the Rangers pitching staff should become better than average.
First decide what to do with Kevin Millwood. Millwood is far from being an ace pitcher, and usually gets beat up more times than not.
The Rangers are probably stuck with him because of his contract and performance. If the Rangers could package him in, then by all means trade him. He isn’t helping the team at all.
Remove Luis Mendoza from the starting rotation. This guy is obviously not a starter. He is more fit for a long reliever in the bullpen.
Insert Scott Feldman into the rotation on a permanent basis. This guy has proven he can pitch and pitch well enough to win games. That should be good enough for any team.
Keep Eric Hurley in the rotation for sure. Win or lose he needs to stay in there. Hurley has yet to have a bad pitching performance.
Vicente Padilla is an interesting discussion. Padilla certainly has been good this year, although not great. He should be a prime commodity over the next week for the trade deadline.
If a good offer is on the table for Padilla then the Rangers should take it. The Rangers must get good young pitching prospects back however. The Rangers have no need for position players at any level right now.
The other starting pitchers should be rotated in and out for now until someone becomes more consistent. That may include bringing up more pitching from the minors.
The bullpen is solid led by Jamey Wright, “Steady Eddie”, and Frank Francisco.
Once Benoit gets back he should be healthy enough to contribute successfully.
Madrigal has been nothing short of a great surprise for the Rangers so far.
Dustin Nippert probably needs some more work in the minors, but I don’t have a major complaint with him.
The biggest question for the future is the closer C.J. Wilson. Wilson is extremely up and down for being a closer. If Wilson keeps giving up lots of base runners I can’t justify him being the closer. Guardado is looking mighty strong in the setup role.
After taking a look at the pitching there are just enough outliers to make this pitching staff seem bad when in reality it’s really not. The Rangers are above .500, and you can’t even do that without a decent pitching staff.