The Texas Rangers are headed to MLB spring training and for some reason, they’re bringing lots of mountain bikes.
Video on Monday in Dallas had the Rangers loading up the usual equipment for spring training, bats and balls primarily. However, that wasn’t everything the Rangers were taking with them. Dallas area sports reporter George Riba had this shot:
Rangers team truck getting loaded for spring training. Lots of mountain bikes! pic.twitter.com/WDbDnUMjhf
— George Riba (@georgeriba) February 9, 2015
The Rangers, like the rest of the league, are counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. The count is 11 as of Monday and the Rangers have to be looking forward to getting a start on a better season than they had in 2014. With a ridiculous number of players on the DL and an equally high number of different players appearing on the field during the course of the season, the Rangers’ year was almost lost before it even started. In fact it was, because certain players like left-hander Derek Holland injured themselves before they even got to the field. That’s just how cursed the Rangers were in 2014.
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This season, the Rangers have the majority of their injured players back, and while they haven’t done anything huge in the offseason, at the very least they should start 2015 healthy. One big key for the club is having Derek Holland turn in a good year. In 2014, right-hander Yu Darvish was not only at the top of the rotation, but he was the only pitcher consistently giving the team a chance to win games.
This year, Darvish and Holland will be the two pitchers at the top of the rotation and it’s important that Holland pitches at a level at least close to Darvish. Having that one-two punch will enable the rest of the pretty mediocre rotation to just provide innings.
The other key for the Rangers is probably Prince Fielder. Fielder never really got going last season and it wasn’t long before he had to have surgery besides. There’s really no way of knowing how well he’s returned from the surgery until he starts swinging a bat, so spring training will be key there.
Recently Fielder softened his stance on being a full-time DH, saying he’s willing to make starts there. He has previously said that starting at DH doesn’t allow him to fully get into the flow of the game. The Rangers were prepared to go with Fielder starting at first base and Mitch Moreland in the DH role most of the time.
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