In what will be a daily post, we'll talk about the upcoming season for the Texas Rangers and where guys fit in on the roster. It's almost baseball time!
Last season at the trade deadline, the Texas Rangers were heavily rumored to be trying to strike a deal with the San Diego Padres for their prized relief pitcher. His name was Heath Bell and he's one of the top closers in baseball, but that wasn't the pitcher the Rangers coveted from the Padres.
Instead, the Rangers turned some heads by trading for the Padres' setup man Mike Adams, a native Texan with a propensity for sub-2.00 ERAs and ridiculous strikeout-to-walk ratios. It was a shock to some, but with Adams set up for another year of control and Bell being a rent-a-player, it wasn't too much of a surprise. The Rangers were named one of the winners of the trade deadline by upgrading their bullpen with Adams and Koji Uehara.
Uehara was a disappointment, but Adams was not.
Adams put up a 2.10 ERA after the trade, which compared to his 1.13 in San Diego was a bit of a disappointment, and Adams will be the first to say that. But a 2.10 ERA is a 2.10 ERA, and that ain't bad.
Adams will once again be the setup man for the Rangers, but instead of giving way to Neftali Feliz he'll be holding the rope for new closer Joe Nathan. As one of the key figures in what seems to be a pretty stout bullpen, Adams will try to get back to his standards of throwing up ERAs below 2.00, something he's done now for the past three seasons.
