ESPN Chalk's Joe Peta is sharing his season win total projections for every MLB team, including a reason for optimism and pessimism.
Plus, he recommends an over/under play, or a pass. This is the entry for the Texas Rangers.
Texas Rangers
Reason for optimism: Ron Washington is no longer in charge of in-game strategy.
Reason for pessimism: Injuries, a huge factor in last year's collapse, has already taken out the biggest name on the team.
The demise of certain teams is well telegraphed. Aging and poor roster management by their respective front offices made recent multiple last-place finishes inevitable for last-decade playoff teams like the Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs. Currently, the Philadelphia Phillies are firmly in control of that blueprint. However, no one could have predicted that the Texas Rangers, with lots of highly rated prospects and coming off a third-straight playoff appearance in 2013, which included two American League pennants flying above their Arlington ballpark, would be staring at a second consecutive last-place finish entering the 2015 season.
Yet here we are, as the team with the worst record in the American League in 2014 and the worst run differential in all of baseball, enters 2015 quite possibly in worse shape than they were in 2014.