[Lefty Noob]

Who will be the Texas Rangers fifth starter come opening day?

There are basically three candidates: Edinson Volquez, Juan Dominguez and Roger Clemens. Clemens is a long shot, and everybody knows what he's capable of -- not to mention that if he signed, he'd hardly be the No. 5 guy on the rotation. So we'll take him out of the equation.

Both of the other guys are righties. Volquez is a 6-1, 190-pound rookie from La Segunda in the Dominican Republice. Dominguez is also Dominican, from Sanchez Ramirez, and is a 6-2, 195-pound hurler with 3 years of experience. The two split time on Wednesday. Volquez surrendered five runs in two innings, walking three, while Dominguez surrendered five in 3 1/3 innings of work, walked three and surrendered a pair of homers.

I guess the question here is less who will win the job, and which one will do less to lose it? So who's it gonna be? I'd give the edge to Volquez based his slightly less awful body of work overall this srping (1-2, 5.73 ERA vs. Dominguez's 1-1, 8.25 ERA). But really, if either one of these guys are the best they can trot out there as a fifth starter, Texas is in trouble in '06.

[CityofBrotherlyShove]

Texas desperately needs to acquire a 5th pitcher before the season starts. And I'd be willing to bet that Daniels is trying his hardest to do just that.