Reason for optimism: They might get up to four times as many starts from Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish in 2016 as they did last year, when they won the division.
Reason for pessimism: They could be a lot better than they were last year but win significantly fewer games.
One year ago, the Texas Rangers were fresh off a 67-win campaign and lost Darvish before the 2015 season began. Needless to say, their odds of capturing the AL West were quite long. Those odds got even longer one month into the season, when the Rangers were 8-16 and 9.5 games out of first place. After 100 games, they stood at a respectable (given their start) 49-51, and that's when they acquired Hamels. Fast-forward to October, and if they had managed to win just one of the three elimination games they forced, that ALDS would be remembered for a stunning upset, rather than Jose Bautista's epic bat flip.
That deadline trade clearly made all the difference, right? Hardly.