T.R.’s Memoirs: Future of Rangers’ rotation not as bleak as things appear, if prospects get to Arlington

(AP photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Starting pitching wins.

It is far and away the single most important factor in deciding which team wins a baseball game and which teams wins championships.

All others — hitting, defense, fielding, speed, bullpen — are down the list behind starting pitching.

That should be the most important lesson learned from the Rangers’ 50 years in Arlington. It is also why the Rangers’ current outlook is not nearly as bad as it seems right now.

The Rangers are going through a miserable stretch. All right, a miserable season. Even if you can’t get the Rangers on your local cable or satellite dish and rely solely on Eric Nadel, Matt Hicks and Jared Sandler — works for me — it’s still pretty obvious this season is only going to get worse as July 30 trade deadline approaches.

There is no getting around it.

But the Rangers have been in worse spots before, most notably the Dark Ages of 2000-03 when the franchise appeared to be in a real mess.

The difference now is they have good young pitching in the system, maybe the best collection of arms the Rangers have had in a long time.