That has to burn at manager Ron Washington, who made his reputation as a defensive instructor for 11 years with the Oakland Athletics. He is determined to change his team's fielding futility.

"I don't know if we're going to lead the league, but we won't be last in defense," Washington said. "Somebody else is going to have to hold that up. You can take that to the bank."

The Rangers are late jumping on board a trend. Emphasis on defense is returning to baseball. After a decade-long obsession with the long ball, teams are rediscovering the importance of a strong defense.

"We've talked about it a lot," Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest said earlier this week about his team. "This team is going to take pride in its defense."

The Rays scored the ninth fewest runs in the AL last year but won a pennant because they were second in pitching and fourth in team defense. They had the second worst defense in the AL in 2007 and lost 96 games.

"As last season was in progress, we made [fewer] mental errors than we had made previous to that," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I'm not just talking about cutting down on the physical errors, I'm also taking about the mental side of things."

The Rangers, embarrassed by their performance over the past two years, want to be among those teams who emphasize defense. They did lead the league in double plays last year, but their pitchers allowed the most baserunners and struck out the second fewest batters. That combination makes erratic defense even more glaring.

The Rangers made a number of moves this season designed to upgrade their defense. Most notable was the biggest move of all. They switched Michael Young to third to open up a spot for rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus. The Rangers are attempting to upgrade two positions at once.

"We were so deficient at third base, we had seven or eight guys playing there, including two catchers and one former catcher," general manager Jon Daniels said. "It was a move to keep shortstop as a strength and to improve at third base by making the most of our assets. With Elvis, we have a caliber of player we didn't have at third base."

While Young led American League shortstops in fielding, Rangers third basemen combined for the fourth highest number of errors in the league. Young is new at the position but has one advantage.

He has one of the strongest infield arms in the game. That allows him to play farther back and possibly get to more balls. Hank Blalock, now the Rangers designated hitter, had to play much closer to compensate for the loss of arm strength from his shoulder surgery.

Chris Davis was among those the Rangers used at third base. They prefer him much more at first base, where he committed just one error in 51 games. He also had 0.76 assists per game at the position, the sixth best rate among 21 AL first basemen that started at least 30 games there.

"I think he'll be an outstanding first baseman," Washington said.

The Rangers need more from second baseman Ian Kinsler, who has the range but can be erratic. He led AL second basemen with 5.77 chances per nine innings but also with 18 errors, five more than anybody else. His biggest sin is going to his left on tough ground balls with a runner on first and trying for a force at second rather than taking the sure out at first.

"I need to be more consistent," Kinsler said. "I feel I'm a good second baseman. I feel I turn the double play very well, and I can get to a lot of balls. I'm very aggressive, sometimes too aggressive. I just need to be more consistent."

The Rangers made other defensive-oriented moves this offseason. Outfielder Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel, signed as Minor League free agents, have 21 Gold Gloves between them. The Rangers let go of infield coach Art Howe and promoted Minor League field coordinator Dave Anderson to the coaching staff. New pitching coach Mike Maddux has harped on defense from the beginning to a staff that committed the most errors among pitchers in the league.

"It seems like we have three meetings a day about defense," reliever C.J. Wilson said.

Washington has been preaching defense since he became the Rangers manager. It has been a difficult sale. He had a similar problem in Oakland, where he was in charge of defense from 1996-2006.

In his first six years in Oakland, the Athletics averaged 124.5 errors per season and 82.8 wins. In the last five years under Washington, they averaged 94.4 errors and 94.2 wins.

"All they were worried about was the three-run home run," Washington said. "We finally bought into defense, and that's when we started winning. They realized the importance of catching the ball. If you couldn't catch the ball, you weren't going to Oakland."

Good defensive teams commit fewer than 100 errors in a season. The Rangers last led the league in fielding in 1996, when they committed 87. They have had fewer than 100 errors in three of 12 seasons since then. They have committed 256 errors in the past two years. That has led to 196 unearned runs, 49 more than any other AL team.

At some point, the message about defense has to sink in with the Rangers.

"I think everybody understands the importance of defense now," Washington said. "We've been through it for two years, and they know what defense did to us. Now they seem to be taking pride in it. I'm not saying they didn't before, but it was like, 'If it happens, it happens, if it didn't, then it didn't.'

"Now they know what it takes for us to be good. I'm looking forward to us being good."