Can a member of the Double-A Frisco rotation become the Rangers next homegrown ace?
Yu Darvish doesnt count. He pitched seven seasons in Japan before signing with the Rangers. Twins, Cardinals, Braves and Expos. You could make the argument for C.J. Wilson, who had consecutive All-Star seasons in 2010-11, which means it has, at minimum, been a decade. If you dont count him, youre reaching back for Kenny Rogers or Kevin Brown before him. Kyle Hendricks would have been a reasonable answer had he not been traded to the Cubs for Ryan Dempster. As the slightly altered mantra goes: When are we gonna spend some money succeed at some development and get some pitching around here?  Its not like there havent been high hopes. We need not run through the list of names  start at Dillon Tate and work your way through that stack on your own time. However, there are signs that the overhaul of the development department  a front-office shuffle in 2018, a minor-league coaching reset a year later  is beginning to take some shape, especially as it pertains to the starting rotation at Double-A Frisco. Frisco starting pitchers PITCHER GAMES STARTS INNINGS STRIKEOUTS WALKS ERA WHIP OPP. AVG Cole Winn 10 10 49 2/3 58 19 2.54 0.77 .117 Jake Latz 10 8 37 1/3 52 18 5.06 1.37 .231 Yerry Rodriguez 10 10 30 2/3 35 13 3.23 1.17 .209 Ronny Henrquez 4 3 17 2/3 14 5 6.11 1.19 .239 Tyler Phillips* 6 5 15 1/3 18 7 4.70 1.24 .207 A.J. Alexy 9 4 33 35 10 1.64 1.09 .217 Hans Crouse 9 9 31 28 12 3.48 0.94 .165 Tim Brennan** 3 3 9 8 3 0.00 0.78 .133  * now in Triple-A  ** on 60-day IL  Youll be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks thats a plug-and play rotation for the 2023 Texas Rangers, but if Dane Dunning, Kolby Allard and John King continue to establish themselves at the big-league level (and Kyle Cody can get healthy) there are some hopeful candidates to complete the rotation aspect of the rebuild. I think its very balanced, very solid; they all have their own things that they bring  unique to themselves  that give them a chance to be major-league pitchers, said Double-A pitching coach Jeff Andrews, who has been with the Rangers in one role or another since 2009. Theyre on the right path. I think theyre motivated. They all have different pitches  some guys are mix guys, some guys are velo guys. I cant sit here and say that all of them are starters by any stretch of the imagination, but if one or two of them end up being starters, thats great. And as long as the other ones can continue to have value to the Rangers and value to the industry, thats good for them.  The two most recognizable names on that list are Cole Winn and Hans Crouse. Winn ranks third in the Rangers system in the MLB .com rankings and in Jamey Newbergs most recent Top 72 list; Crous is ranked No. 7 on MLB .com and 13th on Newbergs list. But at least one stat on each guys line makes the eyebrows perk up. How about A.J. No wonder the Roughriders are 36-18 and comfortably in first place in their division. Early on, when we were having tougher luck (at the plate)  they carried us, theres no doubt about that, Frisco manager Jared Goedert said. Its honestly not just one guy. All of them (are) racking up consistent, quality starts. Thats something that Jeff (Andrews) and I talked about a handful of times: how exciting is to every night go out and feel like  I feel good about tonight, and be genuine with that thought.  If the Rangers hope to have a better answer to the last homegrown ace question, Winn appears to be the best bet. The Rangers first-round pick in 2018, Winn has adjusted well to Double A. Ive just been throwing a lot of strikes and attacking hitters and just kind of trusting my stuff, Winn said. Trying to get the first two out of three pitches for strikes and build from there. When its 0-2, 1-2  try and put them away.  Then one thing I feel like Im working on is just overall consistency with my curveball  whether its landing it or, or burying it for chases.  Trusting your stuff and consistency are two words youll hear a lot when you talk to pitchers at any level. Im still fine-tuning, from a mechanical side, just being really repeatable and consistent, Latz said. Lately Ive been a little bit out of whack in terms of location, so I still need to do that, and then just fine-tuning the rest of my pitches. My curveball is a little bit behind right now; my slider, fastball, changeup are good.  Even without saying the words, Latz is alluding to the same things: mechanics = consistency and my slider, fastball, changeup are good = trust your stuff.  For the most part, all year, since spring, Ive just wanted to get more in the (strike) zone; I wanted to attack hitters, Alexy said. Get them out of the box as early as I can and just get as deep into the game as possible.  Once you start looking for the concepts, they start to show up like shapes in clouds: Every pitching conversation has some trace of the same ideas. It begins, Andrews said, with failing. I dont know if this is correct, or people are going to agree with me, but were here to find out what they cant do, Andrews said. By the time we figure out the cant and the can and the will and the soon and all of that, then well have enough of a file on them. And they feel confident in that. Theyve not necessarily experimented for experiments sake. But theyve tested sides of the rubber, theyve tested pitches, so theyre confident going into their big-league career, knowing, This is what works for me, and this is whats good, and Im committed to it. '  Its an interesting view into how coaching works in the minor leagues. You play to win, sure, but coaches have to keep in mind the bigger picture: Help the Rangers in Arlington. Theres kind of a bittersweetness to it, because the competitor inside of you and the competitor inside of everybody on this team (says) that you want to do well here, Goedert said. But you also need to keep the perspective of why, ultimately, we are doing this, and its hopefully to help these guys have success, to go the next level, and then the next level after that to help out the club up there. ' Andrews said. Its not necessarily getting the hitter out; that will take care of itself. I want to throw this ball down and away. Can I throw it down and away? No, I cant. Well, I gotta practice on it; how can I go to the big leagues if I cant throw it where I want?  So they answer their own questions. OK, practice it. When you get consistent with that, then  see ya.  It appears likely that most, if not all, of the Frisco starters will get a shot to ply their craft in Arlington in the coming years, but for now, theyre all adjusting to Double A  widely considered to be the biggest jump in talent as players work their way to the big leagues. I think theres a finer line of how much of a plan you should have going into the game, Latz said. You can get away with just being a thrower in the lower levels. Velocity is a big help, being able to climb your way through the org, but just being able to actually pitch  using your pitches in better counts, being able to read hitters swings.  Early on, I wanted to play to my strengths more than their weaknesses, Alexy said. Guys at the plate have a locked-in approach (at this level); theyre seeing one pitch and one pitch only, and if that happens to be their strength versus my strength, Im going to go take mine all day and go at them with it. This league is gonna allow pitchers to actually realize, like, what they can and cant do.  Tightening up a curveball for Alexy, adding a two-seamer and a more cutter-ish breaking pitch for Crouse, landing a curveball in the strike zone for Winn  everyone is working on something. But universally, it comes back to those same two things: trusting your stuff and consistency.  If you want to be taken serious in this business, get consistent. Thats it, Andrews said. Were just waiting for A.J. (Alexy) to (do this) for more than a month, month and a half. Is this the pitcher A.J. Thats what the minor leagues are for, is to give you that time to see if they are. (Then) he can do what he wants, Andrews said. Hell be able to be able to pitch in any role, if this is what he is.  So far  for Alexy and others  the answers have been good. For the most part, they dont need to do much drastically better, as Andrews put it, they just need to do it again. And again. For those who can, Arlington isnt that far off. (Photo of Cole Winn: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)