Announcing Your Texas Rangers 2011 MLB Opening Day Roster for the Bullpen

I put up a post yesterday announcing that the Rangers decided to move Alexi Ogando to fill the void in the starting rotation that Tommy Hunter left when he suffered a groin injury that is going to keep him out at least about six weeks.

Trading Matt Treanor to the Kansas City Royals opened up a spot on the roster so that the Rangers could add a pitcher to the pen to make up for the absence of Ogando while he is in the rotation. I mean, after all, there was no need for three catchers. The Rangers will now have eight relievers in the pen and two catchers – Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli.

A little later, T.R. Sullivan reported that the Rangers finalized their 25-man Opening Day roster and unfortunately, Chris Davis was not on it. Davis had a great spring with a line of .362/.387/.741 but Mitch Moreland wasn’t completely awful with a line of .403/.437/.716. Sure, Davis had a team-high of RBIs with 18 but I’m sure that the Rangers heavily considered his insignificant Major League stints as well as their commitment to Moreland. Mitch will be strong at first base and Davis will be very solid in AAA Round Rock. Who knows – Davis may very well be called up later in the season…and if he is, I sure hope he impresses instead of having a stint similar to his past call-ups.

Brett Tomko, Craig Gentry and Taylor Teagarden were also sent to AAA Round Rock while Mason Tobin, a rule 5 draft pick, has been added to the bullpen – as I projected in my bullpen outlook – and Mark Lowe and Pedro Strop were also included on the roster for the bullpen.

Tobin had nine strikeouts and six walks in nine innings pitched this spring while allowing six runs on six hits to result in a 1.86 ERA.

Lowe hasn’t necessarily been solid this spring but is definitely a good pitcher. Lowe had five strikeouts and five walks in nine pitched innings while allowing an ugly 13 runs on 16 hits resulting in a hideous 12.00 ERA. Hopefully, Lowe can return to his previous form; otherwise, his name on the roster may have very well been a mistake.

Strop definitely impressed this season with 16 strikeouts and two walks over 11 innings of work. Strop has a spring ERA of 2.45 and allowed three runs on 10 hits.

As we already reported, Dave Bush and Arthur Rhodes are both in the bullpen. Bush has a spring ERA of 5.14 after striking out eight batters and walking four over the course of 14 innings while allowing nine runs on 14 hits. Rhodes, like Lowe, didn’t have the greatest spring. He struck out six and walked two in 5 innings of work while allowing eight runs on 10 hits resulting in a 12.71 ERA. So long as he can return to his old form, he will be firm reliever in the pen.

So, your final Texas Rangers bullpen is: Neftali Feliz, Darren Oliver, Darren O’Day, Mason Tobin, Pedro Strop, Dave Bush, Arthur Rhodes and Mark Lowe.