Next Up: the Texas Rangers.

I can't imagine that anyone in the baseball world thinks that the Red Sox are any sort of a threat at the moment. The Rangers are probably strutting around town and Baltimore is probably giddy thinking "Oh boy! We get to play Boston this weekend. We might actually have a chance to win!" Unfortunately, even if they should go 4-158, the games have to be played.

So onward... The knock on Texas was always their pitching; they could hit with the best of them but their starting pitching was awful and their bullpen was terrible. They addressed it over the winter by bringing in Rich Harden and Colby Lewis, and moving CJ Wilson from the 'pen to strengthen their rotation. They also added Darren Oliver (from the Angels) and Chris Ray (from Baltimore) to a bullpen that already looked strong with Frank Francisco (who hasn't looked very good this year) and Neftali Feliz (who has).

They let Marlon Byrd go. They claimed Ryan Garko off of waivers from Seattle to fill the role they were going to give to Mike Lowell but, in limited playing time, he hasn't been fabulous at it. The big off-season acquisition for them was Vladimir Guerrero and while he hasn't huge amounts of power, he is hitting at a .348 clip.

Texas has been dealing with a string of injuries. Starting pitcher Tommy Hunter has an oblique problem and relief pitcher Warner Madrigal has a forearm injury. As for position players, they are without Jarrod Saltalamacchia because he is back on the disabled list with a back problem. As a result, Taylor Teagarden has started seven games for them; offensively, it hasn't gone well, he doesn't yet have a hit. Even more importantly, Ian Kinsler sprained his ankle back in March and has just started running on it.

Colby Lewis will be the first pitcher to go for Texas in the series. Lewis was originally drafted by Texas in 1999 and was in their rotation in 2003. He was claimed off waivers by the Tigers in 2004 and hung around there until 2006. In 2006 he signed with the Nats and was released in spring training 2007. He hooked on with Oakland as a relief pitcher in 2007, was claimed off waivers by Kansas City in November and released a month later. He's spent the last two years in Japan.

He throws a low-nineties fastball, a slider, a curve ball, and a change up. He's made two starts this season and would appear to be two completely different pitchers. In his first outing against Seattle, he allowed one run over seven innings and struck out three. In his second start (against Cleveland), he went five and one-third of an inning allowing only two runs. Impressively, he struck out ten in that game. He doesn't give up a lot of hits but the number of walks he allows might be a concern (four in each game so far). He's also more of a fly ball pitcher, so if Vic wants to ground into a double-play, he's really going to have to work for it.

Matt Harrison is slated to start on Wednesday. Harrison also throws a low-nineties fastball, a slider, a curve ball, and a change up. He has one career start against Boston (September 6, 2008). He allowed four runs on seven hits with one walk over six innings in that game. There are lots of balls put in play on Harrison (and with the slightly shaky defense shown by Texas so far, it might not be the best thing for him) but he does have good control.

CJ Wilson was their overly opinionated, jackass of a set up man (with a stupid beard) last year. Seriously, the man is a jerk; he has the chutzpah of a Curt Schilling, without the gravitas to back it up. He is supposed to be their starter on Thursday. His fastball which was in the mid-nineties when he was a reliever is in the low-nineties as a starter. He also throws a slider, a curve ball, and a change up. And over the winter he added a shiny new cutter. He does have a pretty nasty lefty/righty split, with lefties hitting only .118 against him while righties hit .313. He threw seven shut out innings against Toronto in his first start but gave up five runs (three earned) in six innings against New York.

Joaquin Arias (who is filling in at second base for Kinsler) and Elvis Andrus don't have a lot of power between them but they will, seemingly, single you to death. Vladimir Guerrero is also hitting well but not with a huge amount of power. And then there's Nelson Cruz, who is absolutely on fire at the moment with seven home runs. As a team, they don't run a lot but coming into Boston that's likely to change. And they strike out in really horrible numbers; they've played twelve games this year and have three players who have struck out thirteen times. (As a caution: lead by Messrs. Drew and Ortiz, Boston had the same total number of strike outs in twelve games.)