| Douglas Benton. 25th December, 2006 - 12:08 pm
 The Texas Rangers have been known, for more than a decade, as a team based around power hitting only to succumb to porus pitching come playoff time.
From the group of Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmerio and Juan Gonzalez, the Rangers seamlessly went to Michael Young, Hank Blalock and Mark Teixeira (with Alex Rodriguez peppered in there from 2001-2003), but the wins haven’t followed, but that could change with the recent trade for Brandon McCarthy.
Saturday’s deal sent the prized McCarthy to the Rangers, as well as an outfielder for three pitchers, the best of which was former first round pick John Danks. The Rangers are by no means a contender in 2007 because of this deal, but it signals a new direction under general manager Jon Daniels.
With their chances of getting Barry Zito slim, the Rangers decided to build on their pitching in a different way.
With McCarthy on board, the Rangers now have three bona fide starters to lead the rotation in Kevin Millwood, McCarthy and Vicente Padilla and await the development for pitchers Kameron Loe and Robinson Tejeda.
In Millwood, the Rangers have a veteran presence who can be the de facto leader of the staff until McCarthy is ready to take on the roll. He also has playoff experience and the stuff to be dominant over multiple starts. He is good enough to win a Cy Young and had a career high 18 wins with the Atlanta Braves on two occasions, but his mental capabilities come into question too much to have reached that level on a consistent basis.
Padilla is much in same mold as Millwood, but without the same natural talent or previous successes. However, he does have major league stuff and can be very good if his head doesn’t get in the way, like it did in a bean ball war with the Chicago White Sox last year. His fit in Texas at number three is the right spot for him and showed he might be turning the corner with a career best 15 wins last season for the Rangers.
This brings us to McCarthy, whose reputation with the White Sox far exceeds his actual stats. He has made only 12 starts in his career, but his talent prompted the White Sox to scramble to get him opportunities in the World Series run and trade proven starter Freddy Garcia to make room for McCarthy in the rotation full time. From all accounts from baseball people, the 6-foot-7 right-hander who is only 23 is that he will be an All-Star level number one, giving the Rangers their best starter since Nolan Ryan in 1990’s. |
