The Rangers don't appear to be scared to spend a little money this offseason, as FoxSports.com reports ownership has approved a plan to ink both Cliff Lee and catcher Victor Martinez.

The team is prepared to increase its payroll beyond $90 million, up from $55 million on opening day of 2010.

The Rangers have $32.85 million committed to five players next season and seven eligible for arbitration. Among those, three are likely to get big raises -- likely MVP Josh Hamilton, left-hander C.J. Wilson and right fielder Nelson Cruz.

The Rangers have more money because of new ownership, a run to the World Series increasing attendance and a new 20-year television contract that begins in 2015.

While the Yankees have been overt in their recruitment of Lee, the Rangers say they're no less interested in signing the market's best starter, they're just going to do it a little more under the radar.

"I don't think there's much to say other than there isn't anything that has happened or will happen that has come as a surprise," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan .

Daniels said the team is not ignoring Lee and has spoken to all of the agents for the team's free agents.

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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Tommy Hunter will start Game 4 of the World Series for the Rangers as scheduled, manager Ron Washington said after Saturday's 4-2 victory over the Giants. And even if they'd lost, Washington said Hunter would still have been his man on Sunday.

"Well, as far as I was concerned, Tommy Hunter always had the start tomorrow," Washington said in the postgame news conference. "He will start tomorrow."

Not that Washington was left with much of a choice. While many wanted Cliff Lee to start Game 4 on short rest, that would leave Hunter to pitch Game 5. C.J. Wilson would be tough to go to on short rest with his blisters, and with the Rangers not facing elimination, they may as well put Hunter out there sooner rather than later.

The good news for the Rangers is that their bullpen is rested, as Colby Lewis went 7 2/3 innings on Saturday and Texas needed just seven pitches from Darren O'Day and 13 from Neftali Feliz to finish out Game 3. Hunter was 13-4 with a 3.73 ERA during the season, but hasn't pitched longer than four innings in either of his two postseason starts. He allowed three runs in 3 1/3 innings in Game 4 of the ALCS, when the Rangers used four relievers to beat the Yankees.

Lewis looks like a good choice for Game 7 if needed, and with a Game 5 start, Lee could be used in relief in a final game if it comes down to that.

While the Rangers feel good about Lewis, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti told reporters he's concerned about Jonathan Sanchez's lack of velocity and the coaching staff would have to discuss who would start a Game 7 if needed. Based on Saturday, if this series goes the distance, the Rangers are the early favorites. However, there's a long way to go until a possible deciding game on Thursday.

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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Last night you saw C.J. Wilson use super glue to try to keep the blister on his middle finger of his pitching hand from popping. And it worked until the seventh inning, when the blister popped and he left the game.

As Yahoo! Sports' David Brown points out , it may have worked, but it's also against the agreed upon rules. To that in, Brown looked up a precedent, from 2003 when Zach Day was ejected. Brown also linked to the AP story from the incident.

"We don't really believe the kid thought he was cheating, but that has nothing to do with it," home plate umpire Bill Miller said in 2003. "He had a foreign substance on his person and that means he is violation of this rule."

That rule is 8.02 (b) -- "The pitcher is allowed to rub the ball between his bare hands."

So I e-mailed Day (pictured on the right) about last night's incident to see if it brought up any memories.

"I watched a little of the game, but I missed the glue," Day wrote in an e-mail on Friday. "Yeah… I was winning that game. Joe West! The umpires may have missed it, but who knows, they also could have looked the other way. It's hard to say."

West was the second-base umpire for Day's game in 2003.

"There was so much super glue on my finger that the ball was sticking to it. Not really, but I called the trainer out because the super glue was more of a detriment," Day wrote. "After the glue dried, it caused the ball to slip."

Day is currently out of baseball -- as a player. He lives in his hometown of Cincinnati with his wife and working with several companies, including one called TrackMan , which has been used in golf and is transitioning into baseball. It's a 3D radar technology that tracks the flight of the baseball.

At this moment, Day is in Peoria, Ariz., for the Arizona Fall League. He sent me an interesting chart on curveballs. Basically, the more spin on a curveball, the tougher it is to hit and hit well.

A low spin ball (2,300 rotations per minute), gets hit at a .244/.260/.403 rate. Average spin (2,300-2,500) is hit .185/.231/.340 and plus spin (2,500-2,700) is hit at .178/.203/.251. A high spin curveball (anything greater than 2,700 rpm) results in a .166/.189/.212 slash line.

He had no data on how super glue would help the spin rate, though.

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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And we've got our rotations set for the World Series, as Rangers manager Ron Washington met with the media at the team hotel on Monday.

Game 1: Tim Linecum vs. Cliff Lee
Game 2: Matt Cain vs. C.J. Wilson
Game 3: Jonathan Sanchez vs. Colby Lewis
Game 4: Madison Bumgarner vs. Tommy Hunter (pictured)

However, Washington said the rotation could change, meaning Hunter's slot isn't secure if things aren't going Texas' way when Game 4 rolls around.

In other notes (thanks to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ):

• The team's bullpen hasn't been set, and the team is considering leaving a left-hander off the roster and adding a right-hander, possibly Dustin Nippert or Mark Lowe. The team added extra left-handers to face the Phillies' heavily left-handed lineup.

• Vladimir Guerrero will start in Game 1 in right field, and could also start the second game. David Murphy would start if Guerrero sits.

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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On Sunday, Rangers manager Ron Washington said he hadn't decided on his rotation past Game 1 starter Cliff Lee. Monday, Colby Lewis said in a radio interview that he expects to start Game 3, with C.J. Wilson starting Game 2.

When asked when he wanted to know when he is going to start, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has this transcription from SIRIUS XM's Mad Dog Radio:

"Um, I think it was, I don’t know if it was announced yesterday or not but I’m almost positive I’m going to be going in Game 3, so, first game back here.  Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I mean, I don’t know, it’s just a situation where hopefully we can snag that first one with Cliff [Lee] going and, of course, C.J. has been awesome for us this year and I know he’s going to go out there and give us a quality start.  Hopefully we can take two from them and come back here and take two out of three and finish it up."

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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Two quick notes from the Rangers' workout on Sunday via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 's Anthony Andro's Twitter feed .

1. The Rangers haven't set their rotation for the World Series past Cliff Lee starting Game 1 on Wednesday. C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis will start, but the order isn't set.

2. Vladimir Guerrero will start one of the two games for the Rangers in San Francisco.

Guerrero played 18 games in the outfield for the Rangers this season, 17 in right field.

If Jonathan Sanchez pitches Game 2, look for Guerrero to start that game. Guerrero crushed left-handers this season, hitting .338/.395/.536 against lefties with seven homers in 151 at-bats. David Murphy has been better against right-handers, with 11 of his 12 homers coming against right-handed pitchers. His batting average and on-base percentage is better than Guerrero's against right-handers, and his slugging is just three points lowers (.482 vs. .479).

UPDATE: MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan has an update with some of the Rangers' other questions. The biggest one may be in the bullpen.

The Rangers may drop one of their four left-handed bullpen arms for the World Series roster against the more right-handed Giants. Mark Lowe, Scott Feldman and Dustin Nippert are the choices as right-handed bullpen arms.

-- C. Trent Rosecrans

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During the Rangers' collapse Friday night that could haunt the franchise for years to come, manager Ron Washington burned through five pitchers in the eighth inning.

Not a one was Neftali Feliz, the 22-year-old closer that could have stemmed the tide. And yet, it's hard to argue against Washington's thought process in terms of bullpen machinations until tabbing Derek Holland, the fifth pitcher of the inning.

The skipper replaced starter C.J. Wilson with a runner on second and a man already across the plate. (One could argue replacing Wilson was the first screw-up.) He chose lefty Darren Oliver to face Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira in order to get them to hit from the right side of the plate. Good idea. Bad execution, as Oliver walked both batters. That meant Darren O'Day, a groundball specialist, was headed into the game to face Alex Rodriguez in the hopes of inducing a double play.

Good idea. Bad execution.

O'Day's first pitch was a groundball, technically -- a missile that skipped off the ground and ate Michael Young up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There may have been a midnight snack.

Then, Clay Rapada, who had all of nine innings of experience with the Rangers this season, came on to try to nullify Robinson Cano who had bashed a home run the inning prior. Yet again a good idea, yet again bad execution. Another hit, and New York was still on the merry-go-round and a 5-1 Rangers lead had evaporated into a tie.

At that point, Washington was faced with three choices. One, he could bring in closer Neftali Feliz, who could at least keep the game tied. Two, Alexi Ogando, a right-hander who has been excellent in relief, could come on to face what would have been pinch-hitter Lance Berkman. Three, Washington could keep Rapada in the game or bring in Derek Holland to face Marcus Thames.

This is where Washington's choices fell apart.

Marcus Thames is a lefty killer and has been so his entire career. He has a career .264/.333/.505 line against lefties in 750 career at-bats. He was specifically brought to New York to act as a platoon player and face lefties.

Meanwhile, Berkman has struggled through a poor season and only snapped out of a funk. However, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out, Berkman is hitting .356 against right-handed pitching since Sept. 1, and that was the statistic Washington keyed in on and made him choose the Holland/Thames matchup.

"We really had to pick who we wanted to face," Washington said. "We got the matchup we wanted. They just beat us."

There is some doubt as to whether the matchup they got was what they wanted, as there's certainly plenty of reasons that Ogando or Feliz would have been able to neutralize Berkman. Simply looking at the ERAs and xFIPs of each pitcher shows that Holland was the worse of the three pitchers to head to the mound, and Holland did so against someone whose job is to hit left-handed pitching.

Feliz ended up never entering the game, and Washington says it's because the rookie has "never" been asked to get six outs in a game.

"He's never done anything like that," Washington told the Morning News . "I wouldn't do that. I had the people I wanted in the game. They didn't get it done. It happens."

"Never" is a strong word. It means Feliz has never gotten six outs in a game before.

So what happened April 21 and August 10 against the Red Sox and August 13 against these very Yankees? How about 2009, when Feliz joined the team in mid-August as a reliever? He got eight outs once, seven once, six outs six times (of course), five outs twice and four outs four times.

Yes, that was 2009. But he's done it in 2010 as well, against two of the more potent hitting teams, one of which was the opponent Friday night.

Feliz should have entered the game to face Lance Berkman at the latest, holding back Ogando and Holland for extra innings if needed. Given Holland was a starter, he would have been able to go multiple innings if needed. One could argue Feliz should have entered to face Alex Rodriguez.

Instead, he never did. And now Texas is down one game in the ALCS.

-- Evan Brunell

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David Andriesen, Evan Brunell and C. Trent Rosecrans are in agreement on the National League, but have a split decision in the American League.

David Andriesen

ALCS: Rangers over Yankees in 7

This is a great matchup of two teams that, despite their disparate postseason pedigrees, are very similar. While there's a lot of talk about Cliff Lee being the difference-maker, CC Sabathia gives the Yankees an equally powerful weapon. It's easy to say each of those guys are an automatic two wins, but I have a feeling one of them is due for a stumble (I just don't know which one). A.J. Burnett would seem to be a huge comparative liability for the Yankees, so of course he'll go out and pitch a shutout. Could go either way here, but I grew up a Rangers fan, so my inner fanboy tips the scale.

NLCS: Phillies over Giants in 5

The Phillies look like an unstoppable freight train right now. Even when the Reds had them on the ropes in Game 2, the Phillies swatted them away. We are seeing the importance of starting pitching so far this postseason, and nobody can match Philadelphia in that department. The Giants are obviously no slouches on the mound, but it will be an upset if the Phillies don't win the whole thing.

Evan Brunell

ALCS: Rangers over Yankees in 7
The Yankees and Rangers are pretty evenly matched up, so the nod has to go to the team with the better ace. CC Sabathia has been worth every cent of the megadeal he signed with the Yankees so far, but even he can't match up to Cliff Lee. If both teams stick to a four-man rotation, that's an added benefit to Texas as Tommy Hunter is far more trustworthy than A.J. Burnett. The one question is if Texas' offense can keep up with the Yankees, who will grind starters down and get into the bullpen early.



NLCS: Phillies over Giants in 6
While the Giants have their own Big Three and a burgeoning Big Four, the Phillies simply have too much firepower. The starting pitching is sublime while the bullpen has come together quickly to support a strong offense. San Francisco's team is essentially the poor man's Philadelphia, but that doesn't help the Giants when it comes to facing Philly.

C. Trent Rosecrans

ALCS: Yankees over Rangers in 7
A.J. Burnett can only lose one game, right? And Cliff Lee can only pitch two, right? C.J. Wilson has been good, but I still have to go with the better-hitting team, and that's the Yankees. In the end, they have too many bats for the Rangers. Of course, I said the same thing about the Rays and look where that got me.




NLCS: Phillies over Giants in 5
Let's see -- the Phillies have the better rotation and the better offense. Sounds pretty simple. It's tough to see how San Francisco's offense can do much better than Cincinnati's did against Phillie piching. We should get a couple of great 1-0, 2-1 games, but look for Philadelphia to come out ahead in both of those.




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