The Texas Rangers began the 2019 season with a bang. They had a record of 4-2 after their first home stand. They won their first two series. The road trip began with a victory over the Angels. Everything looked better than expected (except the pitching). Fast forward to Monday. The Ranger are now 5-5, having lost three or their last four. The Angels came into the series with a record of 1-5. They are now 4-5.
In the words of former Arizona Cardinals football coach Denny Green, they are who we thought they were. The Texas Rangers are a mediocre team at best, and that is how they played over this weekend. Pitching has given up too many walks and have struck out too few. The Rangers lead the American League in walking opposing batters (48), and they are third to last in strike outs (68). The ERA for this staff is 5.38, which is 4th worst in the American league. Edinson Volquez may be lost for the year. None of the Texas Rangers starters have an ERA below 4.50.Three of them have an ERA over 7.00.
The offense has fared better than the pitching has. The team has the sixth highest batting average in the American League and the fifth most walks. They are fourth in home runs and third in RBI. OPS and Slugging are both third in the AL. Joey Gallo is leading the charge with 10 walks and 10 home runs. He also has ten strikeouts, which is just an average of one per nine innings. Elvis Andrus is also on fire with a .366 batting average.
I expect the team to struggle pitching but be fun to watch on the offensive side. So far that has panned out for the most part. They will struggle at times to get hits, and they will strike out a lot, but it should be fun overall.
