I really expected them to be active in the OF market. Napoli and Hamilton gone, they're really planning on Murphy, Cruz and Moreland full-time? They'd have been a good spot for Choo, I didn't hear anything about them making an offer to Swisher or Hunter (doesn't mean they didn't). Did they not have the players for Upton? Even with Martin around I thought they might go for Bourn.

It just seems to me the offense is taking a big step back this year.

Moreland is slated to play 1B. Craig Gentry and Leonys Martin will battle it out for CF with Julio Borbon I guess technically in the mix. Murphy in LF, Cruz in RF.

I really expected them to be active in the OF market. Napoli and Hamilton gone, they're really planning on Murphy, Cruz and Moreland full-time? They'd have been a good spot for Choo, I didn't hear anything about them making an offer to Swisher or Hunter (doesn't mean they didn't). Did they not have the players for Upton? Even with Martin around I thought they might go for Bourn.

It just seems to me the offense is taking a big step back this year.

Yeah, the offense has the potential to be pretty bad. I'm sympathetic to not wanting to dump cash on mediocre bats, but what's all that money good for if you can't turn it into hitting talent?

Yeah, the offense has the potential to be pretty bad.

Beltre, Andrus, and Kinsler are all solidly above average for their position. Pierzynski could be. I think Cruz will be if he stays healthy, same for Berkman. That leaves Murphy, the CF platoon/timeshare, and Moreland as the only likely soft spots, and I don't think any of them mare black-holey enough to be a major cause for concern. With Olt and Profar pushing, I wouldn't worry too much about the depth either.

I always forget about Olt. He helps with Moreland and Berkman days off.

Give me the under on Cruz. Career OPS+ of 112, only one season over 515 PA, career average WAR/WAA, defense on the decline and he's turning 32 and has 1.2 WAR total over his last two seasons. He's a big risk at the moment. League average seems his upside to me. Murphy looks a better bet but can't hit LHP. Even Scott Hairston might have helped these guys. (Can Olt play OF? I think we discussed this before and the consensus was no.)

It's not a black hole offense by any means but they lost 2 of their top 2-3 hitters, have marginal players at the 3 corners (the place to have marginal players), have Kinsler coming off a sub-par year and are apparently hoping Soto will rediscover himself.

Of course the A's will hit 150 through mid-May and the Ms and Astros are best not mentioned so probably still the 2nd best offense in the division.

Olt can and will play in the OF. He'll likely be in the lineup against all LHSP, subbing for any one of Murphy, Moreland, or Berkman. Gentry will probably platoon with Martin or Murphy too in most games against lefties.

The Rangers roster situation looks like a terrible fit for Ron Washington. He seems to have done a very good job developing talent, but the roster described above needs a Joe Maddon type, someone who plans lineups two weeks in advance and can run six overlapping platoons. That's incredibly hard.

they lost 2 of their top 2-3 hitters

Whatever the Rangers are saying publicly, I gotta think that they figure "hey, we lost the World Series twice with those guys." And hence, at least for the moment, they're trying a more San-Francisco-Giants approach: sign some canny veterans and rely on the pitching staff, hope it all falls together for them. You never know, it might, but they're putting a lot of wishful thinking into their roster, I agree: it could completely blow up on them, Moreland and Murphy and the CF could be awful, and Kinsler, Beltre, and others might get hurt. If so, as others have mentioned, I reckon we'll see a lot of shakeup on the roster midseason.