Jun 4, 2019
Exceeding Expectations
Last season, everybody was talking about how the Texas Rangers were going to suck for awhile.
Many thought that would continue this year as the rebuilding of this team didn’t look good with too many old players and not enough strong youth.
However, with a rookie manager in Chris Woodward whose strong suit is in hitting, this team is a bit of a surprise with a winning record of 30–27 and a spot in second place in the AL wild card if the regular season were to end today.
As they say, baseball is a long season, and we’re just a little more than two months in, so we’re not completely sure if the Rangers are for real or if they’re fool’s gold, but I don’t know anyone who could have predicted this.
They’ve won 13 of their last 18. Offensively, they’re third in runs scored (323) and RBIs (309), and sixth in slugging percentage at .457.
The player doing the most damage is slugger Joey Gallo, who is most likely going to be an All Star for the first time. The 25-year-old is tied for second in the majors for home runs with 17 and sixth in RBIs (41) to go along with career highs in batting average (.276), slugging percentage (.653), on-base percentage (.421) and on-base plus percentage (1.074).
Gallo suffered an oblique injury on Saturday and should return by the middle or end of next week. He gets a lot of criticism for swinging too much and while that’s part of who he is being a power hitter, he’s getting on base in other ways, thanks to Woodward, as the numbers prove.
Hunter Pence, Logan Forsythe, Shin-Soo Choo and Elvis Andrus are all batting at least .300.
Pence and Choo, former All-Stars, are turning back the clock as neither has played this good in years. Pence is second on the team with 39 RBIs. Choo has the most hits with 62. Forsythe is having career highs in batting average, slugging, on-base and on-base plus percentage. Andrus is having a bounce-back year but is hitting just .194 since returning two weeks ago from a strained hamstring.
Other than Gallo when it comes to the young, possible building blocks for the future, Nomar Mazara has been good and Rougned Odor hasn’t. Mazara is having career highs in slugging (.458) and OPS (.781). Odor is having his worst season as a pro with career lows in all four major categories, including a dreadful batting percentage of .166. The Rangers might be considering a demotion to the minor leagues as he’s yet to show comprehension of his swing and improvement plan, designed by Woodward.
Even though people knew the Rangers would be pretty bad at pitching as they rank 26th in the league, they’ve improved from the beginning of the season and have had a few surprises.
When it comes to starters, Mike Minor ranks fifth in the league in ERA at 2.74 with a 5–4 record. Adrian Sampson has an ERA of 2.38 over his last four starts, winning each of them, making his record 4–3 with a total ERA of 4.14. Lance Lynn has an ERA of 4.50 and is 7–4.
In the bullpen after a horrible April, veteran Jesse Chavez had a much better May with a 0.93 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) to go along with his ERA of 3.86. Another 35-year-old bullpen veteran, Shawn Kelly, has an impressive season team-leading WHIP of 0.92 and an ERA of 2.18. Ariel Jurardo has shown improvement in his first full season as a pro with an ERA of 2.43.
The young Jose LeClerc isn’t living up to expectations with an ERA of 4.88 after being the Rangers’ best option in the bullpen last year. The rest of the pitching staff isn’t too good, but Woodward is still trying to work things out in this long season as he’s had some bullpen players open games with an inning or so.
So maybe the Rangers will end up with a not-so-bad record in their final season at Globe Life Park before they head across the street to Globe Life Field next year. (Talk about a name change!)
Speaking of which, as the summer starts to heat up, we’ll have to see how this team and their opponents deal with the weather as I’m sure it will be a reminder to the fans and everyone else for why the team is moving to an indoor stadium next year.
Needless to say, going 20–9 at home has looked pretty good so far for the months of spring, but they need to do better on the road where they’re 10–18, including 9–15 in the AL West, if they want to keep their overall record up with just a third of the season completed.
Regardless, it’s impressive nonetheless for a team many thought would be at the bottom of the cellar (and maybe for quite awhile) to suddenly be in second place in the AL West and as a wild card team that just be might have a chance at making the playoffs.
To quote the movie Dumb and Dumber, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?” Yes, I am telling you there’s a chance the Texas Rangers make the postseason.
