Texas Rangers 2015 Top 10 Fantasy Prospects

Just like last year, the prospect staff here at Fake Teams will be taking an in-depth look at each major league organization, including our top 10 fantasy prospects, an overview of the organization's minor league system as a whole and potential opportunities for playing time in 2015. Our goal is to provide you with more information as you prepare for minor league drafts for dynasty and keeper leagues, as well as look at players that could potentially be worth watching during the spring, as they could be in line to potentially help your fantasy team. We will be reviewing two teams per week until we are through all 30 teams, and you can see the schedule of when your favorite team will be reviewed below. if we have already reviewed the team, a link to the post, along with the team's top prospect is noted.

System Schedule

Coming off a season where they had missed the playoffs after losing game 163 to the Rays, the Rangers were looking to not only compete in the increasingly difficult AL West, but potentially have another deep run in the playoffs. They were extremely active during the offseason, both in trades and in free agency. They turned one area of organizational depth, middle infield, into another asset they really needed after the 2013 season when they traded team favorite Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for 1B Prince Fielder. They also went out and signed one of the top free agents on the market in Shin-Soo Choo, giving him a seven year contract as well, to replace at least some part of the production lost with the free agency of Nelson Cruz. They even made a bit of an underrated trade in acquiring prospects Michael Choice and Chris Bostick for outfielder Craig Gentry and reliever Josh Lindblom from the division rival Athletics.

The 2014 season played out for the Rangers about as poorly as humanly possible, to the point where fans of their rivals (myself as an A's fan included) wondered what the Rangers did to anger the baseball gods so much. It can't really be overstated just how unlucky the Rangers were in 2014 in terms of injuries. They lost Jurickson Profar for the season during Spring Training, but that was just the beginning. 3B Adrian Beltre missed two weeks in early April, and as soon as he was activated from the disabled list, his replacement (Kevin Kouzmanoff) went on the DL, and missed the rest of the season. Mid-May saw the end of Prince Fielder's season with a herniated disc in his neck, and who had not missed a game in over three years. Even DH Mitch Moreland missed significant time during the season as well, and with that the only regulars to appear in more than 150 games last year were Leonys Martin and Elvis Andrus.

The pitchers weren't immune to the injury bug either. #2 starter Derek Holland was placed on the disabled list during March as well, and didn't return to the team until September. Yu Darvish started the season on the disabled list, but was ready to start game #6 for the team. Unfortunately, his health did not hold up for the full campaign, as he made his last start of the season in the second week of August. Matt Harrison started the season on the disabled list as well, came back to make four starts in late April/early May, and then missed the rest of the season. Starter Martin Perez went down with elbow inflammation in mid-May, and missed the rest of the year. The injuries to the rotation were so bad that Colby Lewis led the team with 29 starts, and was only one of four pitchers to make even 22 starts on the year.

The team struggled to cope with all these injuries, and while they finished the month of May one game over .500, it didn't last as the injuries continued to bury the team. A 15-37 record in June and July essentially ended the team's season when coupled with the strong performances by the Athletics and the Angels, and listed the team as sellers at the trade deadline. While there wasn't a ton of activity from the team, they did manage to take advantage of the struggles of former closer Joe Nathan in Detroit, and sent reliever Joakim Soria in exchange for pitching prospects Jake Thompson and Corey Knebel.

The team was in last place in the division starting in mid-July, behind the previously inept Houston Astros. At the time it was not expected that Ron Washington would lose his job over the performance, and he didn't lose it for that reason. In a season that went poorly for everyone involved, even Washington wasn't immune. He resigned as the manager on September 5th, citing personal reasons, and within two weeks had held a press conference to address the reason: his infidelity to his wife. Interim manager Tim Bogar led the team for the last three weeks, but was not retained as a part of their manager search. They finished overall with a 67-95 record, which will allow them to pick 4th overall in the draft this year.

There were some bright spots on an otherwise difficult season. The team used an inordinate amount of rookies in 2014, with 2B Rougned Odor establishing himself as a potential starter both now and for the future. Starter Yu Darvish pitched excellently while healthy, and the team was able to get their long-term answer in closer Neftali Feliz, who took over when Soria was traded and pitched excellently down the stretch.

The farm system, while not as deep as some previous seasons, remains a point of strength and is expected to provide additional long-term answers with Joey Gallo, Jorge Alfaro, Luke Jackson, Alex Gonzalez and Nomar Mazara all expected to debut at some point in the next two seasons. They should have a very large bonus pool to work with in the 2015 draft from having the #4 overall pick, and having the third-worst record in baseball will also allow them to spend more in the international markets as well. They were not particularly active there in 2014 after spending over four times their allotment in the 2013 signing period, and being penalized for it.

While general manager Jon Daniels remains with the organization through the 2018 season, the team saw AGM A.J. Preller hired by the Padres, and with him went Don Welke to fill the VP of Scouting Operations role. With Bogar not retained, the Rangers ended up hiring the Pirates' bench coach, Jeff Banister, to take over as the manager.

The team is expected to compete in an increasingly difficult division, and should have the capability to go out and get any additional pieces they may need at the deadline. They have to have better luck in 2015 than 2014, simply because it would be almost impossible to have worse. They remain a dangerous team for the rest of the American League, led by potential All-Stars on both sides of the game.

The following players have surpassed their rookie maximums of 130 AB, 50 IP, or 45 days of service time.

Nick Martinez (IP), Miles Mikolas (IP), Aaron Poreda (ST), Shawn Tolleson (IP), Roman Mendez (ST), Robinson Chirinos (AB), Jake Smolinski (ST), Rougned Odor (AB), Jim Adduci (ST), Daniel Robertson (AB), Luis Sardinas (ST), Michael Choice (ST), Engel Beltre (AB)

	1. Joey Gallo (3B)
Photo Credit: Tim Heitman - USA Today Sports

	2. Jorge Alfaro (C)
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas - USA Today Sports

	3. Nomar Mazara (OF)
Photo Credit: Tim Heitman - USA Today Sports

	4. Jake Thompson (RHP)
Photo Credit: Elsa - Getty Images

	5. Alex Gonzalez (RHP)
Photo Credit: Tim Heitman - USA Today Sports

	6. Nick Williams (OF)
Photo Credit: Christian Petersen - Getty Images

Drafted by the Rangers back in 2010, Jackson has been slowly plugging away at about a season per level, with his first stop being repeated for part of 2012. He started the 2014 season at AA after throwing 27 innings there to finish up 2013, and was excellent over 83 innings. He finished his stint at the level with a strikeout per inning, a solid 2.6 BB/9 and just 58 hits allowed before his promotion to AAA Round Rock. It was at this point that his season derailed, as he made 10 starts at AAA, allowed a 10.35 ERA (you didn't read that wrong), nine home runs, 56 hits and 28 walks against 43 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched.

The questions around Jackson coming into 2014 stemmed from his offspeed offerings, as he features a curveball, slider and changeup that are all still inconsistent offerings. His fastball remains his best pitch fairly easily, sits in the mid-90s, and can touch the high-90s at times as well. It sounds like the questions remain the same after the 2014 season, but the potential for a mid-rotation starting pitcher remains. This quote from Lone Star Ball's Tepid Participation gives me hope that he will continue to develop toward that end:

I spoke with [Luke] after the season and he said his stuff felt fine in AAA. He just has to adjust to more disciplined hitters and smaller strike zones- that's the way it's gonna be. I'm not worried about Luke.

Jackson was added to the 40-man roster this offseason, and could be in line for a shot at a rotation spot at some point in the 2015 season. He'll likely head back to AAA with hopes for a better second go-around. Until he can show a bit more in terms of control, he'll most likely slot in as a streaming option in shallow formats and a back-end fantasy starter in deeper ones. There is interesting strikeout potential there, but the possibility of him being a reliever long-term tempers expectations on him.

	9. Lewis Brinson (OF)
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas - USA Today Sports

Tell me if you have heard this before: The Rangers have a middle infield prospect who has shown a ton of raw tools, but may not yet be ready to translate them into cross-category production after just one pro season. Travis Demeritte played second base primarily in 2014 for Hickory, struck out 171 times in 118 games, but also provided 25 home runs and a .239 isolated slugging percentage. Before signing, he was viewed as having the tools to provide above-average production as a hitter, although it seems to this point that he has not been able to put them all to use together. This isn't a knock on him, as that's not unexpected from a young player like Demeritte, but more an observation about how some have played up more than others.

Long term, Demeritte has the potential to provide batting average and home run production, although they may balance each other out if he doesn't push for one more than the other like it appears he did this season. If he settles in as a .260-.270 hitter with 15-20 home runs, that will likely be around the top 10 most years at second base. He could see a promotion to High-A to start 2015, although it wouldn't surprise me if he went the same route as Brinson and returned to Hickory to really have a strong performance.