The Texas Rangers enter the All-Star break at 49-47 and in first place in the American League West. Given the circumstances that the Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford have missed a good portion of the 96 games that have been played, the Rangers have to be happy. The Fans should be too. Here are some other things to be optimistic about.
Since June 1st, The Rangers are 8-4 in series and 21-16 overall. The Rangers have had 17 comeback wins. The Rangers are 17-10 in one run games. 2-1 in extra inning games. This team has 4 walk off wins on the season. Two of those came the last two series of the half.
Makenzie Gore hasn't exactly lived up to expectations in the first half of the season. It hasn't helped that a couple of the prospects that were dealt for Gore are having pretty good seasons in the minors. However, given the injury to Leiter and his performance, where would this team be without him?
Three times this season he has pitched on short rest. Sunday's game saw Gore go on three days rest, at his request. Gore showing up for his team, when he could have just coasted into the All Star break after his last bad start, says a lot about Gore and his leadership. It might seem like a small thing, but that was the difference between this team being .500 at the break instead of two games over.
There seems to be a lot of heat on Kumar Rocker. Kumar had a terrible start on Saturday vs the Astros. Let's not forget, the Astros still have a pretty good offense. Kumar is entering the break with a 4.40 ERA. By comparison last season Jack Leiter entered the All Star break last season with an ERA of 4.37.
Leiter has regressed some this season. Some may be due to injury, but considering that Kumar is learning to pitch at the big league level, I think there is a lot to look forward to with him. Kumar only pitched in 21 minor league games prior to this season. Jack Leiter pitched in 61 (one's a rehab start).
If you want my opinion. The Rangers are doing the right thing by keeping Kumar at the big league level, because the Pacific Coast League is a horrible training ground for pitchers. Every Stadium is either hot or elevated, or both.
By the way, last season Kumar Rocker's ERA on the road was 9.29 in 8 starts. This season his road ERA is 3.60.
Evan Carter is probably my biggest disappointment of the year. He's playing elite defense, but he's hitting .188. The good news: He's stayed healthy for most of the season.
Carter in his last 15 Games is hitting .250 with a .362 OBP. For the month of July he is hitting .273 with a .407 OBP. Carter is still only 23 years old, lets not forget that as well as the season ending injury that Carter suffered last season was a fractured wrist. Sometimes it takes awhile for hitters to come back from those kind of injuries.
The Rangers offense is getting better. Don't get me wrong, it's not great, but again consider how many games Seager and Langford have missed. At the break the Rangers are above league average in batting average, on base percentage, and OPS+. They are just below league average in strike outs.
A win for the Rangers in the player development department this season has been the improvement in the offense at all levels. Last season Ranger minor league affiliates hit .246 , .343 OBP. .712 OPS, 511 HRs, So far this season the Ranger's affiliates are hitting .260, .366 OBP, .787 OPS and 489 HRSs.
That's right the Rangers minor league teams are only 22 HRs away at the All Star break from matching all of last seasons home run totals. Arturo Disla, Dylan Dreiling, Malcolm Moore, Rafe Perich, Hector Osorio and others are starting to gain attention with their power.
This gives the team some ammunition for some pitching help as we get closer to the deadline. I think the Rangers are going to be buyers at the deadline and I think they should be because I believe that this is going to be a playoff team.
