The Rangers have signed 30-year old righty starting pitcher Colby Lewis. Lewis has been dominating the last two seasons in Japan and he was once a highly thought of prospect for the Rangers so I don’t blame them for taking a flier on him. Lewis has pitched in 72 games (34 starts) in his major league career and he is 12-15 with a 6.71 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP. Despite him pitching great in Japan I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much.

At the time that the Rangers acquired Buddy Bell for Toby Harrah, Rangers’ fans were not pleased. But, Bell quickly won them over with his great glove at the hot corner and his very solid bat. Bell played in 958 games in his 8 years with the Rangers and he was 1,060 for 3,623 (.293 avg, .782 OPS) with 471 runs scored, 87 homers, 499 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. Bell made the All-Star team four times with the Rangers and he won five Gold Gloves. He is to this day one of the best 3B in team history.

The Rangers have signed 30-year old righty swinging shortstop Khalil Greene to a 1-year, $750,000 dollar deal to serve as the utility infielder. Greene played in 77 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 34 for 170 (.200 avg, .619 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 6 homers and 24 RBIs. He has now played in 736 games in his major league career and he is 628 for 2,567 (.245 avg, .723 OPS) with 322 runs scored, 90 homers, 352 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. The Rangers might have a gem here in Greene who has a lot of power for a middle infielder.

The Rangers have signed 34-year old righty swinging Vladimir Guerrero to a 1-year deal worth $5 million bucks + incentives. Guerrero played in 100 games for the Angels last season and he was 113 for 383 (.295 avg, .794 OPS) with 59 runs scored, 15 homers and 50 RBIs. Guerrero has now played in 1,850 games in his major league career and he is 2,249 of 7,000 (.321 avg, .954 OPS) with 1,185 runs scored, 407 homers, 1,318 RBIs and 175 stolen bases. I love this signing for the Rangers as Guerrero has always hit well in Texas.

The Texas Rangers will score a lot of runs in 2010. Here is what the line-up would look like if the season started next week:

C-Jarrod Saltalamacchia (if healthy)
1B-Chris Davis
2B-Ian Kinsler
SS-Elvis Andrus
3B-Michael Young
LF-Josh Hamilton
CF-Julio Borbon
RF-Nelson Cruz
DH-David Murphy

The Rangers are looking at the free agent market to try to land a catcher and a DH. Rod Barajas and Yorvit Torrealba are the top catching targets while the team has made a offer to Vladimir Guerrero. If the Rangers get one of the veteran catchers and a hitter of Guerrero’s ilk they are going to score a ton of runs in 2010.