Neftali Feliz

The Texas Rangers road to an American League championship repeat took another wrong turn on Saturday when the team announced that the team's 22-year-old closer was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Monday night at the Ballpark in Arlington, the Rangers handed the Mariners a 6-4 loss to remain undefeated in this young 2011 MLB season.

A decent outing for Derek Holland, as he pitched six innings en route to his first win of the season. He allowed three runs and seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk.

Some could argue that the Texas Rangers had a devastating offseason. That wouldn’t be too far from the truth.

The loss of key personnel (Cliff Lee), as well as losing guys to injury in spring training (Tommy Hunter), and the mix-up in the outfield—Nelson Cruz dropping the first fly ball because of Julio Borbon bumping into him in the home opener—the Rangers have a long season ahead of them.

Two games into this long 162-game season, however, the Rangers have had some great things happen already.

Texas Rangers (2010 record: 90-72)

The Texas Rangers won their first American League pennant, but eventually lost the World Series to the San Francisco Giants. Their drive to the Fall Classic was spurred by an MVP season from LF Josh Hamilton, a Rookie of the Year campaign from closer Neftali Feliz, and all-star efforts from five players.

While teams throughout the Major Leagues monitor their rosters this spring, there are a number of players who are taking the field with a certain level of uncertainty.

Relief pitchers are an integral part of any team's successes. They enter games in tight spots and are counted on to shut out the competition when it counts.

If that's not enough pressure, a number of pitchers in team's bullpens are playing with the possibility of being pulled into a new role, that of a starting pitcher.

The Texas Rangers are gearing up to defend their American League championship.

With the Rangers having questions in their starting rotation,  Neftali Feliz reportedly prefers the closer role.

One has to ask, why not?

At the age of 28 years and 41 days, Jon Daniels became the youngest GM in baseball history on October 4, 2005, succeeding John Hart.

Daniels took over a team that was restocking the roster from the outside via free agency. After turning that around completely by rebuilding through the draft he's turned around the Rangers win-loss column as well. He led the Rangers to their first World Series appearance last year in his fifth season at the helm.

This is part two of a three part series where I am ranking the top 30 major league players on the Texas Rangers roster. In part one I covered players 30-21, which was mainly players on the fringe of the 25 man roster and younger players who will contribute at some point during the season. The players ranked 11-20 are not quite core players, but they are more so components of the Rangers. Every team has a few stars at the top of the roster and average players that fill out the bottom of the roster, but its the middle section of a team that puts a team over the top.

The Texas Rangers already have a strong starting rotation. However, after missing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes and acquiring no other strong starter such as Lee, it raised the question of whether or not Neftali Feliz should be converted to a starter.

The clear answer to that is a simple "no."

Yes, I do understand that he posted great numbers as a starter in the minor leagues, which included a 3.49 ERA in 25 games (13 of which he started) at the Triple A level. 

Some people prefer to wait until late in their draft to acquire their fantasy closers, figuring that you can take some risks while also finding saves on the waiver wire throughout the season. 

Others like to use early- to mid-round picks in order to get an elite closer or two, hopefully stabilizing their standing in saves.  Which strategy is right is a debate for another day, but let’s look at how I currently rank the Top 15 closers heading into 2011: