The Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant and Kevin Sherrington joined forces to talk all things Rangers on SportsDay DFW's "Ballzy" podcast. Here are some of the highlights.

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Evan Grant: A lot of roster decisions have been kind of finalized here. Hanser Alberto has made the club as the utility infielder. He's had a great last 10 days. He made the best play I've seen in spring training with a diving grab, anticipating location of a pitch, moving with the pitch and being in the perfect place to make a diving grab while he was drawn in and then throw a runner out at home. He's a premium defender. They've also added both Justin Ruggiano and Ryan Rua to the roster.

Kevin Sherrington: A big disappointment for you.

Evan Grant: Not a big disappointment, but I did think that Drew Stubbs offered this club an ability to win a game defensively or with his speed. I think Ruggiano offers the club more offense.

Kevin Sherrington: And as I pointed out to you yesterday, I said this was gonna happen because if you're gonna keep Alberto on the bench, you cannot have Drew Stubbs as well, a guy if he got 600 at-bats might strike out 400 times.

Evan Grant: Yeah, I guess you could say that Kevin. But the point of the matter is that Alberto and Stubbs are both premium defenders. And Stubbs is a premium runner and this team is not gonna pinch-hit for anybody.

Evan Grant: But enough about the bench for right now, let's move into the starting rotation. It appears that A.J. Griffin has won the No. 5 spot in the rotation.

Kevin Sherrington: Not a surprise there either.

Evan Grant: A surprise based on where I think camp started. I think when camp started this club was looking at A.J. as more of a long-range kind of possibility, thinking that he'd need some innings. It is a significant, I think, disappointment from this camp that neither Chi Chi Gonzalez or Nick Martinez stepped up and won that fifth spot.

Kevin Sherrington: I think that is, too. My feeling about that was that Griffin was a veteran guy and I think the manager values that veteran presence. I think he'll be OK in the role. He probably won't be on the opening day roster, but he will be there I believe it's April 8 when they would need him as a fifth starter. I think you're right that that's probably the biggest disappointment of camp is that Chi Chi Gonzalez continues to struggle in his inability to have an out pitch.

Evan Grant: I talked to an evaluator last night who seemed to have a feeling that this club may have distorted who he was after he got on the fast track. This was a guy who was a slider pitcher, wasn't really a sinkerballer. And I think they've tried to make him into more of a sinkerballer. This evaluator's take was that this is just not who Chi Chi is. What you look at right now is a guy who just doesn't strike anybody out. And in the big leagues, that's not gonna play.

Kevin Sherrington: If you're not gonna strike people out, you're gonna have to be getting a lot of ground balls.

Kevin Sherrington: So what do you think the long-term prospects are for him then?

Evan Grant: Well, I think again this is a guy who was a little bit rushed last year. I think he goes back to Triple-A. And maybe they will allow Chi Chi go back to being the big breaking ball pitcher that he was. Let him kind of re-establish himself. Both he and Nick Martinez can go down there and pitch every fifth day and hopefully get to a point where they can be legitimate depth options for the Rangers this year.

Evan Grant: Do you think this rotation, as it stands right now, is a strength for this club?

Kevin Sherrington: No, I don't. Not until you get Darvish back and know where he's at. Hamels has struggled a little this spring. And that's to be expected. I don't think there's any concerns there. Colby Lewis has struggled a little bit but I don't think there's real concerns there either. But I think if Derek Holland does not come back with the kind of year that they have always seen for him. They simply can't have the same thing that's happened to him the past two years, with injuries and the ineffectiveness and the inconsistency that he's displayed. I really believe if Derek Holland does not come through and put up 180, 190, 200 innings; if he doesn't win 13-14 games that this team is really gonna struggle. Because I still feel like Martin Perez is still not quite ready. He may have a big breakthrough season this year, but I feel like he is not mentally tough enough at this point.

Evan Grant: Well, I disagree with you in that I think that Perez will really establish himself this year. I think that he has gotten a lot better at controlling the emotions and the flow of the game. There's still times when things are gonna blow up. He's also 25-years-old and missed a year-and-a-half, but I think that he has made significant strides. The bottom line on Derek is if he can be a reliable middle-of-the-rotation starter, and I don't think that's asking too much, but it is clearly the X-factor on this staff. If he can be reliable. The one thing you can say about Derek Holland at this point in his career - reliable is not a synonym for him at this point in time.

Evan Grant: There is nobody that I am more intrigued by at this point in time than Rougned Odor.

Kevin Sherrington: He's not gonna do it this year. I think he has the potential to be a 30-30 guy. Now the 30 stolen bases are probably pretty problematic. He's not a good baserunner now, at least he hasn't been a good baserunner. Here is a guy with tremendous potential. I see him as another Joe Morgan. This is a guy who's gonna steal a lot of bases, who's gonna have some real pop. He's an instigator. He's the Woody Woodpecker. Isn't that what they said on Seinfeld? That Woody Woodpecker was an instigator?