Did anyone see the Rangers early season success coming? If you said you did, then you are truly amazing because most “so-called” experts had them picked to finish behind both Houston and Seattle. The experts did not feel that the starting rotation, even with Yu Darvish included was that good. They had no faith in the line-up and the outfield was ranked as the worst in all of baseball. This is what was being said all off-season despite the fact that the Rangers were the defending AL West Champions.
The reality has been the team has won, and the starting rotation has the lowest ERA in the entire American League, and the team is second only to the Chicago Cubs in total wins.
This begs a couple of questions:
How have they done this? Can it continue?
The Rangers put this team together with a mix of veterans and rookies. The team has won without Yu Darvish, with Sin Soo Choo missing significant time, Josh Hamilton is a distant memory, the bullpen started out erratic, AJ Griffin who showed early success has been gone for a while, and Delino DeShields who started in Center last year is back in AAA.
Yes, the team has had challenges, but it makes you wonder how big an impact Roughned Odor’s right cross to Jose Bautista has played in galvanizing this team. After that game the team went to Oakland and were promptly swept in 3-straight, but after that the team got hot. In fact the team is 24-9 since that Toronto game, and if you take the series sweep in Oakland out the team is 24-6. Also, since the trade last year for Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, and Sam Dyson the team is 85-47 going back to last season, which is a .643 winning percentage.
The Rangers are just good, they have depth, and John Daniels despite various criticism over the years has firmly imprinted his stamp on this franchise, and provided the blue print for every other team in terms of how to build a franchise. I am sure he might reconsider the big contracts of Prince Fielder and Sin Soo Choo, but there is a lot of baseball left so let’s see how these guys end not how they started.
Chemistry, is absolutely a huge part of it, but a team works best when all members contribute and that has been the case so far.
For those that really like numbers consider this: Most teams make the playoffs with 90 wins and with 46 wins already they are over half way there. They have played 71 games which means there is still 91 left to play. If the Rangers win half of the 91 left, that is another 45 wins and that reaches the magic number of 90. It is highly doubtful any team is going to continue winning at a .650+ clip all season. Last year the Astros were comfortably in the division lead, but the Rangers improbable comeback caught and passed them. It is a game and anything can happen after all.The Astros are getting hot, and Seattle is still good they are not going away.
This is about enjoying the ride, as anything can happen, and some remember the bad old days when this team was horrid. To see this is truly special, let’s just win 45 more and go to the playoffs and see what happens!!!
