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 at second base, which is a position that is somewhat up in the air long-term but not much in doubt to start the season as youngster Rougned Odor looks to be the starter over former top prospect Jurickson Profar, who will likely start the year in the minors after missing 2014.
Odor: 597 plate appearances, 25 doubles, 8 triples, 17 home runs, 70 RBIs, .270 batting average, .309 on-base percentage, .436 slugging percentage, 15 stolen bases
Wow. Look, if Odor can put up these numbers in his second season in the bigs at age 21, that's going to be a huge development for the Rangers. A lot of Szymborski's projections for the Rangers are unfavorable, but this is definitely one that would be wonderful to see.
Odor showed some serious power in flashes last season, and if he can hit 17 homers, that'd be huge for what is likely the bottom third of the order. He showed a nice edge in 2014 and always looked like a gamer who was never overwhelmed as a 20-year-old playing in the majors when he probably should've spent the entire season in Frisco.
