FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Wacky, awful things could happen to the Texas Rangers this season, worse than anything that occurred in their miserable 2001 season. The manager could get fired by the general manager who didn't hire him. The Hall of Fame catcher could be traded by midseason. The whole volatile thing could blow up in a chemical reaction from a clubhouse dotted with wacky and awful people.
But that's not going to happen, because Alex Rodriguez says it won't. Rodriguez sees only good things happening to the Rangers this year.
"We're going to be better," Rodriguez said. "I'd like to say we'll win 90 or 100 [games], but I don't know. We might win 85, but that's still 12 games better than last year."
Wisely, Rodriguez never made a prediction about the Rangers last year, perhaps because he knew they'd wilt under atrocious pitching (a league-worst 5.71 earned run average) and the historic surge of the Mariners, which left the Rangers 43 games back at season's end.
"Being eliminated the first week of May was very discouraging," Rodriguez said. "We have to take it as a personal challenge of ours to take our team to the next level, because what happened to us last year was embarrassing to us."
The Rangers' rapid slide cost Manager Johnny Oates and General Manager Doug Melvin their jobs (as many had predicted in the wake of Rodriguez's record-breaking contract) and forced a rethinking of the team.
In Year 2, the Rangers already feel like Rodriguez's team, despite the daunting presence of longtime Texas superstars Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez, plus the return of Juan Gonzalez. Rodriguez, who backed up his contract with a dazzling 2001 season (a .318 average, a league-leading 52 homers and 135 RBI), is the team's focal point, its pivot.
"Alex is arguably the greatest shortstop of all time," said Manager Jerry Narron, who replaced Oates.
It was Rodriguez's personality and star power that largely allowed new general manager John Hart to import a handful of baseball's most loathed (and some might say loathsome) players. Hart, who baby-sat Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez in Cleveland, traded for left-hander John Rocker and outfielder Carl Everett.
Hart also brought in right-handers Dan Miceli, widely viewed as the guy who got Manager John Boles fired in Florida, and Hideki Irabu, once labeled a "fat toad" by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
Hart calls the chemistry question "a non-issue."
"The chemistry part, as long as everybody has the same goal of winning, you don't have any problems," Narron said. "I have not been nearly as concerned about it as the media is. "
Rodriguez promises better days ahead for red-faced Rangers 
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