Now that the All-Star Break is upon us, I thought I would take a look back at the first half of the 2016 season and take a look at the good, bad, and ugly from it. There was some of all of the above, but more good than you may realize after the last week of bad baseball.
On the offensive side of things, the Texas Rangers had a pretty good half, especially players like Elvis Andrus (.294/.349/.422), Ian Desmond (..322/.375/.524), Nomar Mazara (.282/.330/.420) and Rougned Odor (16 home runs, leads the team). As a team the Texas Rangers are fourth in runs per game at 4.92, they are third in runs at 443, fourth in hits at 822, tied for second in RBI at 429, tied for fourth in batting average at .267, and they have left the second fewest men on base with 567. Not a bad first half at all.
Now, after the last week where the team had an ERA of 6.99 and the starters had an ERA of 11.48, it is still not as bad overall as you might think. The Texas Rangers are seventh in runs allowed per game at 4.74, they are 8th in ERA at 4.42, and they lead the league in saves with 32. On the bad side, they have allowed the fifth most hits in the league, the fourth most runs, the second most home runs, the most walks, they have the least amount of strikeouts, and their WHIP is the 5th worst in the AL. There are a few bad performances that skew some of these results, but in order to be World Series contenders, they need better pitching in the second half for sure.
My MVP for the first half has to be Ian Desmond. Several people were worthy of this award, but Desmond has been great. The Rangers really 
need to work on getting an extension done with him, I would hate to lose him to a bidding war after the season. He is an All-Star center fielder, which is amazing seeing that he was a short stop the rest of his career. He has been nothing short of an offensive and defensive spark.
My least valuable players of the first half go to Tom Wilhelmsen, who is no longer with the team, and Luke Jackson (sent down). Prince Fielder was close, but he has come on lately. Same with Mitch Moreland. Delino DeShields has been the biggest disappointment after the season he had in 2015. He may still be okay one day, but it was disappointing to see him be as bad as he was. Another disappointment was seeing catcher Brett Nicholas get sent back down after playing very well in his first stint with the Texas Rangers. I wish he would have had more time up.
The Rangers are in desperate need of this break, and I think they will come back strong in the second half. Only time will tell if I am right or not.
