Game 1 of the World Series is set for Wednesday night, so earlier Wednesday, we've seen the Rangers' and the Cardinals' respective rosters get finalized. As for the former, there aren't any huge surprises, but there is this, from John Blake:
Texas Rangers Add Matt Treanor, Mark Lowe To 2011 World Series Roster
Rangers add Mark Lowe and Matt Treanor to World Series roster. Yoshinori Tateyama and Koji Uehara not on WS roster.
Lowe, a reliever, is all healed from a strained hamstring. Treanor will play the part of third catcher, as the Rangers anticipate some pinch-hitting when playing under NL rules. Treanor isn’t much, but Ron Washington obviously likes to have the flexibility.
What’s most interesting here isn’t the Lowe/Treanor part. It’s the Uehara/Tateyama part, because in 2011k those two relievers combined to strike out 128 batters in 109 innings, with 15 unintentional walks. They also allowed 19 home runs, and Uehara allowed three more homers in three appearances in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but one could certainly make the argument that the Rangers are overreacting, and hurting themselves by leaving off two quality relievers.
Not that their bullpen isn’t already deep. I like Uehara more than Lowe, but the difference between them isn’t big, and odds are this series won’t come down to each team’s last relievers.
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