The Texas Rangers are in Surprise, Ariz. getting ready for the 2011 season. I'm here in my mom's basement blogging. This is an installment of posts about those Texas Rangers and what they'll need to do to win.
Keys: Tinkering and Neftali Feliz.
There are many names on the Texas Rangers' 25-man roster that might appear more important than the others.
I'd daresay that Mark Lowe matters more than most of them. And getting 50 appearances out of Lowe is of the utmost importance.
Why? Because Lowe is the hinge on the door. He makes everything swing.
Lowe might end up manning the seventh inning. Or the eighth inning. Or the ninth inning. All depending on the final resting place of Neftali Feliz and Alexi Ogando. He's the big reason the Rangers are able to possibly displace Feliz and/or Ogando.
He's the third-biggest right-handed arm in the bullpen. He can hit mid-90s on his fastball. He's just 27 years old.
The rub on him his health. He's been in the Majors since 2006 and he's pitched more than 20 innings in only two seasons. Last year, he missed most of the season due to a bad back. Bad backs are typically bad news.
There's a reason the Mariners threw him into the Cliff Lee-Justin Smoak deal.
Why care? He's a product of The University of Texas at Arlington and actually lives in Arlington. As noted, he's young and seemingly healthy. He throws hard.
He also might be your closer. And if Feliz is worth his weight as a starter, he makes him expendable.
I can't say the same for Arthur Rhodes, Darren O'Day, Darren Oliver or any other reliever. They can't do what he can do.
If nothing else, you might have three guys with the ability to hit mid- to upper-90s on the radar gun from the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Either way, Lowe has a distinct possibilty of becoming a part of a really good bullpen. Keeping Lowe healthy is very important. It makes everything else -- personnel-wise -- possible.
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