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The Texas Rangers are playing winning baseball right now to the tune of the best record in the American League, and the second best record in all of baseball. This version of the Texas Rangers is starting to remind me of the 2011 version. It is still early, but the numbers are good, like, very good right now, and a good portion of that damage is being done by the young players, some of whom were not even supposed to be on the roster yet. Players like Nomar Mazara, Jurickson Profar, Rougned Odor and Ryan Rua.
The average age of the starting nine for the Texas Rangers right now is 27.78 years old, the youngest in the majors. Of course the oldest is
Adrian Beltre at 37, and the youngest is Mazara at 21. The infield is comprised of three men under the age of 27. That would not be such a big deal in my opinion if it wasn’t for the amount of hits and defensive plays that the young players are contributing. For example:
Nomar Mazara – .318/.367/.495 with 10 home runs and 27 RBI
Jurickson Profar – .380/.392/.620 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI
Rougned Odor – .267/.292/.460 with 8 home runs and 28 RBI
Ryan Rua – .300/.374/.464 with 3 home runs and 12 RBI
Besides Mazara, Ryan Rua has been the biggest surprise to me. He is really playing well right now. This team is playing well on defense too, with 29 errors so far in 58 games. The league average is 32, and the 29 errors are enough to rank them 4th in the AL. They also lead the league in double plays and are second in fielding percentage. Their 81 double plays are 19 ahead of the closest competition.
But the offense is not the only thing going for them right now. Since his terrible start in Toronto where he gave up 11 runs, Derek Holland has only given up 10 runs in starts since that date, and in his last three starts he has only given up 5. The Texas Rangers have a team ERA of 3.91, and that includes the bullpen which was terrible early on.
The Texas Rangers still have Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland, Shin-Soo Choo, and Robinson Chirinos who have done nothing, some due to injury and some just not playing well, so they may be even better when they get to full strength. Of course, looking at the way the young guys are playing, I am not sure that they are not at full strength right now.
