Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections are a good measure of what to expect from players in the upcoming baseball season. We'll take a look at the Rangers' projections on a position-by-position basis. Szymborski can be found on Twitter at @DSzymborski.
Today we'll look at the projections for the Rangers' shortstops, who are slated to be Elvis Andrus and rookie phenom Jurickson Profar, when Andrus needs a day to rest.
Andrus: .276 batting average, .346 on-base percentage, .356 slugging percentage, 28 doubles, six triples, three home runs, 54 RBIs and 29 stolen bases.
You'd like to see Andrus' batting average a little higher for a guy that doesn't provide much in the way of power — somewhere closer to his .286 average from 2012, which happened to be a career-high. Everything else looks like a pretty darn good season for Andrus though.
Profar: .263 batting average, .331 on-base percentage, .414 slugging percentage, 31 doubles, six triples, 13 home runs, 60 RBIs and 17 stolen bases.
Not quite sure what to expect from baseball's top prospect? Not sure anyone really is, to be honest. In his brief stint with the big boys in 2012, he showed he's ready. He homered in his first at-bat and had a big, clutch double in the Wild Card Game loss. These numbers would be awesome for a No. 9 hitter, which is probably what Profar will be.