It’s Opening Day For The Texas Rangers

It's one of the biggest days of the year for any baseball fan...OPENING DAY!

Things are building up in the greater Dallas area for this year's Rangers season, which kicks off today with a first pitch around 3pm. I say 'around' because there are multiple ceremonial first pitches today, and the real first pitch will be around 3:09pm.

The day at Globe Life Park in Arlington will be filled with Opening Day activities, including country singer Neal McCoy performing the National Anthem, and Air Force flyover, and the ceremonial first pitches I mention, which will be thrown out by former Rangers Bobby Jones and Tom Grieve.

As for the actual game, the Rangers will be an interesting bunch to follow in 2016. On paper, the lineup is stacked. Starting with the big bat, Prince Fielder (who will likely bat 3rd), then the always consistent Adrian Beltre hitting cleanup...you know, outside of those two, I don't know that anyone can be sure EXACTLY where the rest of the bats will be slotted in the lineup. But with guys like Shin-Soo Choo, Ian Desmond, Elivs Andrus, and Mitch Moreland, you can create 3-4 different lineup combos.

The pitching though, we'll have to see how this goes. Cole Hamels is as solid as they come, but Colby Lewis and Derek Holland need to find themselves again. Marting Perez has less than 300 innings in his career, and a sub-500 record in his career as well. Yu Darvish will be a nice boost when he returns later this year (maybe mid-May), but that doesn't effect this Opening Day roster look.

Its worth mentioning that Josh Hamilton is still on this roster, and will also start the season on the DL. Watch for him to get healthy around May as well.