A lot of people’s concerns when paying attention to spring training games are overblown. When Texas Rangers’ pitchers throw a high ERA in spring, it means absolutely nothing as far as the MLB season is concerned. The Rangers’ record is even less of a concern because they are not playing their stars for full games and their pitchers barely throw more than a few innings each.
However, there is one thing that Texas Rangers’ fans should be very concerned about right now. Neftali Feliz is suffering from shoulder stiffness and left his third start of the spring because of it.
Go back to spring of 2011. The Rangers were testing out Feliz as a starter but he began to suffer from shoulder stiffness. Finally, they moved him back into his closers role, ending the experiment. Feliz started the season as the closer but began to struggle, having arm problems for the first couple of months and landing on the DL. He picked up and finished the end of the year fine.
Feliz actually made the comment in an interview at the time that he never wanted to start again, blaming his shoulder problems on the extra innings pitched in spring as a starter. He said that he wanted to remain a closer for his entire career.
That was not Feliz’s choice and the Rangers want him to be a starter. They moved him into the starting lineup this year and brought in Joe Nathan, a pitcher who used to be great, to be their new closer. It reminds me of when the Rangers brought in Eric Gagne, a formerly great closer, and watched him play very few innings with them while battling injuries. Hopefully, they have better luck with Nathan.
But Feliz might be in trouble. He only lasted three of his scheduled four innings in his third start of the spring. He was pitching a great game, giving up no runs on two hits and a walk. He struck out two. He looked good, but at the 54 pitch mark, he suffered the stiffness. If he is already suffering discomfort after three starts, I don’t feel comfortable heading into the MLB season.
Luckily, Texas has Alexi Ogando ready in case they need a starter but this might mean trouble for Feliz and his spot with the Rangers if they don’t figure out what is wrong with his shoulder.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and awaits the year they finally win the big one.
Source: MLB.COM
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