Filed under: Rangers, Spring Training
SURPRISE, Ariz. -- No one can accuse the Texas Rangers of not being risk-takers.
The Rangers are taking one of their 2010 breakout stars, closer Neftali Feliz, and giving him a chance to make the starting rotation.
It's not the kind of move that most defending American League champions make. Feliz saved 40 games last year and didn't give up any runs (and just one hit) in six innings of combined work in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees and in the World Series against the Giants.
None of Feliz's 90 games in the big leagues the last two seasons have been starts. But he was a starter after signing with Atlanta and later after being traded to the Rangers in what is becoming ever more clearly one of the great swindles in the game. Back in 2007, the Atlanta Braves, desperate for the power that switch-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira could bring, traded Feliz, shortstop Elvis Andrus, right-hander Matt Harrison, outfielder Beau Jones and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Teixeira and lefty middle reliever Ron Mahay.
Feliz is the defending AL Rookie of the Year, Andrus is maybe the best defensive shortstop in the league and Harrison is a sometimes starter with promise. In exchange, the Braves got 54 games from Teixeira in which he hit .321 with 17 homers and 56 RBI. Atlanta finished third for all of that and Teixeira lit off for Anaheim and later Gotham where, curiously, he was eliminated from the 2010 World Series by Feliz, Andrus and the Rangers.
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Source: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2011/02/23/rangers-see-reward-in-neftali-feliz-risk/
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