| | Gabe Kapler has never been an All-Star, let alone an MVP. His rookie season was a bust, and scouts no longer declare him one of baseball's most intriguing prospects.
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RANGERS LOWDOWN |
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|  | | Gabe Kapler hit .245 with 18 home runs as a rookie last season. |
1999: 95-67
Runs: 945, 2nd in AL
Allowed: 859, 7th in AL
Key facts
After setting career-highs in average (.332) and slugging percentage (.558), AL MVP Pudge Rodriguez has increased those marks each season since 1996.
Jeff Zimmerman allowed five runs in one spring training inning this year. He didn't allow his fifth run of the season last year until Aug. 2.
In three years as a starter with the Rangers from 1993-95, Kenny Rogers averaged 15 wins per season.
Tim Kurkjian's scenarios
Best-case: Young outfielders Ruben Mateo and Gabe Kapler advance rapidly, sparking the Rangers to their fourth division title in five years.
Worst-case: The kids aren't ready, neither is the starting pitching; the Rangers drop from first to third.
Prediction: 3rd in AL West
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Yet Kapler has been a welcome arrival for the Texas Rangers. On a daily basis, he has two things that predecessor Juan Gonzalez rarely ever did -- grass stains on the knees of his pants.
Texas pitchers never complained about Gonzalez's hitting. But pitchers and fans alike in Texas went home many nights moaning about balls that Gonzalez played on a hop rather than trying to make a catch.
Kapler made an all-out dive for a ball in an intrasquad game.
"That's the way he is," said second baseman Frank Catalanotto, who was among the six-pack of Detroit Tigers who came to Texas in the Gonzalez trade. "He's not going to change, whether it's spring training or the World Series. I've never seen him loaf it or not give everything he has. Get used to it because that's what you'll see every day."
Kapler sees nothing special in his approach. "I've seen Chad Curtis dive for a ball in practice," he said. "I've seen Rusty Greer dive for a ball in practice. If those guys can do it, so can I."
Rangers GM Doug Melvin, architect of the team that has won the AL West in three of the last four years, has been stunned at the backlash that followed the trade of Gonzlaez and loss of free agents Aaron Sele and Todd Zeile. "It's like we've dropped off the earth or something," Melvin said.
But Melvin believes his moves will pay dividends over the course of the season. He took the $15 million salary that it would have taken to sign Gonzalez beyond this year and invested it in pitching. Kenny Rogers, Darren Oliver and Justin Thompson (once recovered from shoulder surgery) should give Texas its deepest rotation in years.
Reigning MVP Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro provide star power. Kapler, a bodybuilder who drove in 146 runs in the Southern League two years ago, joins Greer to give manager Johnny Oates two corner outfielders willing to get dirty.
It's a new approach. Time will tell if it is progress.
-- Phil Rogers
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Lineup comments and grades from ESPN The Magazine
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Player
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Comment
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Grade
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R. Clayton, SS
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Career .313 OBP suggests his role as leadoff hitter is not etched in granite
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B
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Rusty Greer, LF
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Another 100-RBI year will be tough without a burner in front and Igor behind him
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B
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Ivan Rodriguez, C
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Most catchers tire in 2nd half. Not Pudge: 20 HR, .369
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A
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R. Palmeiro, DH
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Game's fastest hands generate remarkable power: 206 HRs the last 5 years
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A
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Dave Segui, 1B
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Great defensive 1B. Fewer Ks, but also fewer HRs than Stevens
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B
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Gabe Kapler, RF
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Loop gone from swing, but tries to pull everything. That'll hurt him at The Ballpark
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C
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Ruben Mateo, CF
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Undisciplined? Last season, he swung at a Pedro Martinez pitch that hit him
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I
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Tom Evans, 3B
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Beat out fellow rookie Mike Lamb because of superior D. Some pop
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I
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Luis Alicea, 2B
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Shares with Frank Catalanotto. Neither any great shakes defensively
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D
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Pitching comments and grades from ESPN The Magazine
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Pitcher
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Comment
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Grade
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Rick Helling, SP
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Only Randy Johnson threw more pitches last year, so 13-11 didn't come easily
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B
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K. Rogers, SP
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Best in Texas, where he had his best seasons
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B
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J. Thompson, SP
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Rangers think his arm strength will be 100 percent by May 1
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C
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Darren Oliver, SP
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HBP 1996-99: 10, 11, 10, 11. Odds on his plunking 10 in 2000?
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C
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J. Zimmerman, RP
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Zero ERs in June/July. Then he tired: 18 in Aug./Sept. Heads great middle corps
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A
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J. Wetteland, RP
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Never healthy; still had 43 saves. This spring, velocity is back up to mid-90s
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A
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