The Rangers are the best team in baseball. There’s really little doubt about it. At this point, in this season, I think
they’ve made it pretty obvious. They
just put a public beatdown on the Angels during Sunday Night Baseball on
ESPN. If you don’t recall, the Angels
were supposed to challenge the Rangers for the AL West but that doesn’t appear
to be happening any time soon. They have
the second best record in baseball (to the Dodgers) and are an impressive 13-6
on the road thus far. They’ve truly got
it all: pitching, hitting and defense.
When lefty CJ Wilson left Texas for division-rival Los Angeles in
free agency, most of us saw the Rangers as taking a pretty big hit. John Daniels responded by rolling the dice on
Yu Darvish, the 25 year-old phenom from Japan.
Japanese players have been
volatile in Major League Baseball, but it appears the Darvish gamble has
paid dividends. He’s jumped right into
the rotation, gone 5-1 with a 2.89 ERA (3.59 xFIP) and over 10 K/9. Derek Holland, Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison
have all been reliable starters, too.
Holland is the ace of the staff and is continuing to mature while
Harrison has had some tough outings and bad luck (5.23 ERA vs. 3.73 xFIP). Neftali Feliz has been erratic but
effective. If he doesn’t get it
together, though, his 3.38 ERA won’t last.
It’s not just the rotation, though. Texas’ bullpen has sparkled behind closer Joe
Nathan (another gamble that’s paid off), setup men Mike Adams (last season’s
bounty from a trade with the Padres) and Alexi Ogando. Mark Lowe, Koji Uehara and Robbie Ross have
been just as good in middle relief. This
bullpen is deep on quality arms, to say the least.
At the plate, the Rangers can mash with the best of
them. In fact, they are the best of them so far. They lead baseball in runs
scored (194), RBI (188), hits (353) and average (.291), are second in on-base
percentage (.349), are third in homeruns with 52 (behind the Orioles and
Yankees) and rank seventh in strikeout rate (17.6 %). The team has been somewhat lucky with a .322
BABIP. This tells us that they will have
some slightly tougher luck going forward, but with their ability to hit the
ball over the fence with regularity and leg out some hits (Andrus, Kinsler,
Gentry), they won’t plummet. They posted
a .304 BABIP last season and a .307 in 2010, so they are consistently among the
leaders of baseball in this category.
When you swing the bats like they do, hits have a way of happening. Just ask Jered Weaver, who came off a
no-hitter to throw 3.1 innings tonight, giving up 8 earned on 10 hits (he only walked
one, so the Rangers swung their way to that snowman).
Josh Hamilton is playing out of his mind right now. He has 18 homeruns and 41 RBI (leads baseball
in each category) in only 31 games. Of
course that’s not sustainable, but it’s not as if he’s exactly going to
disappear and hit .180 the rest of the way through the season. This guy can hang in there and bang all
season long. Elvis Andrus and Ian
Kinsler have been awesome table-setters with a .391 and .352 OBP,
respectively. Adrian Beltre continues to
hit the ball hard and Michael young continues to be Michael Young. Mike Napoli had one hot stretch but has
cooled off and Nelson Cruz really hasn’t got it going yet. Those two are strikeout machines (Cruz has a
24.7 K% and Napoli’s is 29.2%) but are always a threat to go yard. Craig Gentry has been good in his spot starts
and as a defensive replacement. There
are really no weaknesses here. David
Murphy is available off the bench and can contribute, too. Opposing pitchers cringe when these guys come
to town.
UZR loves the Rangers in the field, too. They have the highest UZR rating thus far
and, although there are some serious questions of sample size, the eye test
proves that they play good defense.
Beltre is a Gold Glove third baseman, Andrus at short is really
blossoming, has plus range and a good arm while Kinsler is above average at
second. Mitch Moreland isn’t the most
potent first baseman at the plate but can pick it defensively. Murphy and Gentry can run down anything in
the outfield, Cruz is a sold right fielder and Hamilton has been much better
since moving to left field full time. Of
the starters, only Mike Napoli rates as below average. Michael Young can play all over as a super
sub when he isn’t DH’ing, which offers nice flexibility, but he isn’t a great
fielder. Overall, they play solid
infield defense, being strongest at short, third and first. In the outfield, they have two above-average
centerfielders who can run ‘em down, while the corner outfielders are also plus
defenders.
The one thing that can slow these guys down is the injury
bug. Hamilton in particular is a real
concern. He’s missed large chunks of the
last three seasons, missing 73 games in ’09, 29 games in 2010 and 41 games last
year. Moving him to left field will help
keep him on the field longer, but it’s almost a “when” instead of “if” with
him. Beltre has been solid throughout
his career but missed some time last year and in ’09, plus he’s 32. Kinsler has been dinged up from time to time
and Nelson Cruz has a pretty robust injury history. The starting pitching looks young and solid
(Feliz is the only worry), but the bullpen has some injury concerns, namely Joe
Nathan. If he can stay healthy, they
have enough depth to weather any other storms.
Even if injuries do bite this team, as they certainly will,
the Rangers can put their top-rated farm system to use in an attempt to plug
holes. With the consensus minor league
system in baseball, Texas is built for the present and the future. If they don’t have an internal solution to
fit their needs, they have plenty of pieces to flip for available big league
talent.
This club will be tough to stop as they are solid in all
three aspects of the game. They can
pitch well and close down games. They
can hang up crooked numbers in any inning of any game. In the outfield they can cover ground and the
infield is full of talented fielders, too.
The top-rated farm system in baseball puts this team at the top into the foreseeable future, as well. Simply said, the
Rangers are the best team in baseball.
