The Texas Rangers went into Friday night’s game with the Los Angeles Angels with a 5-2 record. They had won their first two series at home against the Cubs and Astros and won the first game of the series in Anaheim. Nobody saw that coming. This is a team that most prognosticators had pegged with a losing record. For them to start off by beating two of the best teams in the sport was unheard of. Was it luck? Or is this a team that can continue to surprise for the rest of the season? Let’s take a look at the team so far.
2019 Texas Rangers Surprising Start
Pitching
The starting rotation consists of Mike Minor, Lance Lynn, and a M*A*S*H* unit of Tommy John surgery pitchers in Edinson Volquez, Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller. Volquez, Smyly and Miller were signed for cheap but are all low-risk, high-reward types of players. If they can return to their former selves this could be a formidable starting five. They need to eat innings and save the bullpen.
Speaking of the bullpen, the standouts so far have been closer Jose Leclerc, Chris Martin, and Adrian Sampson, who pitched great in long relief in his debut this season.
(As of this writing Edinson Volquez had been placed on the 10-day IL with a right elbow strain.)
Offense
There’s not much wrong with the offense at this point. New hitting coach Luis Ortiz has brought in a new philosophy and the guys have bought into it. Joey Gallo is finally hitting to the opposite field. Elvis Andrus is looking better at the plate so far then he did last season. Asdrubal Cabrera had the daunting task of replacing Adrian Beltre, who retired after the 2018 season, and has not let the team down so far, currently leading the team in batting average and home runs. Keep in mind that Texas signed him to a one-year deal for just $3.5 million. If there’s one hitter to worry about, it’s Delino DeShields. He has the defense and the speed, but he’s lacking discipline at the plate.
Coaches
New manager Chris Woodward is an analytical-minded guy who brought in Luis Ortiz and new pitching coach Julio Rangel. Don Wakamatsu, who took over as interim manager last season after Jeff Banister was fired, remains as the bench coach. The Rangers have also hired other special assistants who are also analytic people. They realized that they needed to catch up with other teams in the era of advanced statistics. This should help a lot when it comes to the amateur draft, as Texas doesn’t have a good history of drafting top pitching talent recently — and those they did have were traded when Texas was gearing up for their playoff runs.
Overall
Both the Rangers and Seattle Mariners were predicted to battle for last place in the AL West this season. The Mariners started off the season with a surprising 7-2 record and sit in first place. How long can they both keep it up? Nobody knows because the season is still early. But it is an exciting start.
Final prediction for Texas: 83-79, third place in the AL West.
Main photo
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