SURPRISE, Ariz. - A quick primer on the history of the Rangers and building starting rotations:
In the beginning, which was nearly 20 years ago, they subsisted - and not very well - on bread and crumbs and those tossed aside by virtually every other team in the majors. In the middle ages, they turned to a guy past his 40th birthday to give them legitimacy, which miraculously Nolan Ryan did. And in the dark ages, after flirtations with Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson fell flat, they simply tried to outscore opponents. And let's not even get into that brief chapter entitled "The Chan Ho Park Era.