In the meantime, they still have to deal with the stark reality of whether they have enough pitching to help their powerful offense contend in the AL West. They've found out what they find out every spring: If they get solid, yeoman-like efforts from their starting pitchers -- nothing fancy, just lots of innings -- they actually could be a dangerous team.

The club went to spring training committed to a five-man rotation of right-handers Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, Scott Feldman and left-hander Matt Harrison. All five pitched adequately this spring. All five stayed healthy. And still the Rangers are toying with the idea of shifting Feldman to the bullpen because of perceived weaknesses there.

The club went to camp with other questions, too.

The Rangers needed to find out how 20-year-old shortstop Elvis Andrus would look and how Michael Young, their former shortstop, would adapt to a move to third base. No problems there.

They needed to find a right-handed power bat and a possible cleanup hitter. After some indecision, the Rangers seemed content to go with designated hitter Andruw Jones. The club is hoping to get better results against lefties; the Rangers were 21-31 against them last year.

But after sorting through all that, there was little progress in putting together a pitching staff that could look competitive. The club isn't ready to bring prized prospects Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz to the majors just yet, so it is trying to cobble together a staff from holdovers and retreads.

It's essential the Rangers get off to a good start in April. Because of it, the Rangers might end up starting with a roster built more for April than the long haul.

The Rangers have taken themselves out of the race with awful first months in each of the last two years, then they have rallied after that. This season, the schedule seems much more favorable with nine of the first 12 games at home and none of them against teams that finished above .500. It's essential the Rangers capitalize on that. They appeared to be playing close attention to that as spring training winds down.

THE RANGERS WILL CONTEND IF ...: RHPs Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla each give the team 200 innings pitched. Neither has for either of the last two seasons. Both are in contract years. The last time they were in the same situation, Millwood led the AL in ERA (2.86 in 2005) and Padilla set a career high for wins (15 in 2006). If they can properly carry the burden of a 1-2 combination, a lot of the Rangers' pitching questions will nicely fall into place.

PRIMED FOR A BIG SEASON: 2B Ian Kinsler was on pace to outproduce AL MVP and former college teammate Dustin Pedroia if a sports hernia had not derailed his season in mid-August. In three major league seasons, Kinsler has quickly become one of the most dangerous leadoff men in the game. The only thing missing is a 150-game season. He's spent at least a month on the DL in each of his first three major league seasons.

ON THE DECLINE: At some point, you have to figure a 38-year-old reliever with chronic shoulder soreness and a fastball that tops out at 85 mph would slack off, but LHP Eddie Guardado has defied time for some time. There's nothing to suggest Guardado will markedly decline this season, except that he's a year older. But the Rangers believe that even if his performance declines some on the mound, he will be a valuable asset to the growth of some young, unproven relievers.