BALTIMORE – The Texas Rangers are changing. The arrival of 22-year-old left-handed pitcher Derek Holland in the majors is merely one of the first signs.You wouldn't know changes are afoot on a steamy Monday night as Texas wraps up a four-game series against the Orioles. It is hot – game-time temperature at Camden Yards is 89 degrees – but not especially humid. In other words, it is only a small taste of what awaits Rangers pitchers this summer in Arlington, where the heat on the field for a day game often hits triple digits.
The Rangers are already pitching like it is the middle of summer. They are surrendering home runs at a breakneck pace, and Monday night's starter Matt Harrison allows four runs in the first two innings before the Texas lineup, as it has proven so capable of doing, hits him out of trouble.
Holland does not appear in the game, but his presence in the Texas clubhouse is a hint of the future – a future where the vaunted Rangers lineup will have to come to the rescue of its pitching staff with much less regularity.
But the future is still just that. Holland, as you might expect for someone who has been here for a week and change, is just happy to be in the majors for now.
"I didn't think I'd be coming up this soon," he tells FanHouse. "Just being out in front of all these people is a little different than the minor leagues."
Holland, a 25th round pick in the 2006 draft and the 31st best prospect in the game according to Baseball America, is the product of a far-reaching talent grab over the last few years by general manager Jon Daniels that has catapulted the Rangers' farm system to the top of the sport. But he is also the product of an ongoing culture shift in Texas spurred by team president Nolan Ryan, who has gone unconventional by instituting a few changes that barely would have moved the needle when he was pitching.
The Rangers have no pitch counts, though manager Ron Washington assures reporters that he will be "very" careful with a talent like Holland.
Their pitchers endure a grueling year-round conditioning program intended to build endurance, which Holland calls "tough," but also credits for a new level of fitness.
"I feel much better than I did last year," he says. "It's helped with my stamina, being able to last longer, keeping me in shape and active."
Perhaps most jarring of all, Holland, a starting pitcher in the minor leagues, is getting his feet wet in the majors as a long reliever ... by design.
Old is new again, and Holland doesn't seem to mind at all.
"I like it," he says when asked about coming out of the bullpen after starting 40 of his 42 career appearances in the minors. "Honestly, I do.
"Especially being up here ... the first couple of nights, I felt like [being in the bullpen] really helped me, just being there, being able to see how the excitement of the game and the atmosphere is. It helped me keep myself calm. "But I also think being in the bullpen will help me in the long run, just being able to see different hitters ... and sorta get rid of the jitters."
Holland might be more comfortable in relief than the average starting pitching prospect – he was a closer at Wallace State Community College (Ala.) – but there is little doubt about where he or the Rangers expect him to pitch down the line.
"I would like to start," he says. "When the time comes, the time comes, otherwise I'm gonna be in the bullpen and help the team out."
In the meantime, Holland will keep plugging away in relief. He'll keep learning the ropes. And he'll be waiting for his teammate in the minors last year, Neftali Feliz, who was ranked ahead of him by Baseball America before the season at No. 10 overall.
"We can't communicate as well as we did before when we'd be in the dugout and we'd be like 'with this guy, you've got to do this, and with this guy, you can try that,'" Holland says.
"Once we get here, hopefully we're here to help ... but just because we have that No. 1, No. 2 prospect, that doesn't mean anything.
"It's not giving you your ticket to be here," he says. "You've still got to continue proving yourself. I may have had two good outings, but I've still got a lot more to prove."
Holland says his first week in the majors was nerve-wracking. He speaks reverently of big-league hitters. But he hardly seems flustered now, two outings into his career, humble, but also confident in himself and the rest of the talent the Rangers have assembled.
"This pitching staff is gonna take us real far," Holland says.
This pitching staff? The one that has finished 14th, 11th, eighth and 12th in the American League over the last four years.
With Holland already in the majors and more reinforcements on the way, it might not be as crazy as it sounds.
