With the Rangers' surprising season in the books, let's take a look at the season on a position-by-position basis.
2015 No. 1 starter
The guy: Yovani Gallardo
Gallardo was brought aboard late in the winter to be the Rangers' No. 3 starter, and as No. 3 starter, Gallardo would be fantastic. But before the season even began, Yu Darvish was out for the season, and projected No. 2 starter Derek Holland made it through an inning of his first start before being shut down for four months.
That thrust Gallardo into a pressure-filled role, and he responded by having the best season of his career from an ERA perspective (3.42), which was made even more impressive by the fact it was in his first season in the American League after spending the first eight seasons of his career in the pitcher-friendly National League.
Look back at recent history with the Rangers' acquisitions of guys like Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza, and they didn't go well going from dominating the National League to the American League and its more stacked lineups.
Before the Rangers got Cole Hamels, and before they got Martin Perez and Holland back from injuries, Gallardo was a stabilizing force in the Rangers' rotation and rarely didn't give his team a chance to win a game, and for that he should be commended. Overall, we'll give Gallardo a B on the season, with his main knock coming on the fact he rarely got out of the sixth inning.
