Texas Rangers

[TroutField]

I keep waiting for them to kind of come back down to earth some and they keep rolling along. 
 

Beat the Rockies 11-5 today, are now 28-17 and the offense seems very legit. They quietly put together a really good team. The starting pitching is very good, the only weak link seems to be the bullpen. Obviously anything can happen, but  with the way they are playing right now, they could definitely run away with the division or a wild card spot leaving our path to playoffs even tougher. 
 

degrom is due back soon, as well…

 

F**k!!!

[Second Base]

Offense and starting pitching are over performing at the moment. Not saying they'll suddenly be a bad team, but they're not as good as their record to date suggests. 

[gurn67]

Check back with me at the end of June. Based on each team's recent history, the Astros will be at least 5 games ahead of the Rangers by then.

A little over a year ago, the Angels were 24-13.

[Jason]

The Rangers appear to be better than the Angels and that sucks 

[BTH]

They look good, but the Angels need to focus on themselves for now.

[Docwaukee]

The Rangers are legit.  You've got a few guys on offense doing a little better than expected but not by crazy amounts.  And they just got Seager back.  Their SP is solid and overperforming a bit.  

But their pen sucks and is currently one of the worst in the league.  If they figure out that part, they'll be really dangerous.   They've lot a bunch of winnable games because of their pen.  

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Second Base said:

Offense and starting pitching are over performing at the moment. Not saying they'll suddenly be a bad team, but they're not as good as their record to date suggests. 

[Second Base]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

[Erstad Grit]

They've been good without much of Degrom and Seager. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

Rangers might not be great but they appear to be clearly better than the Angels

[Blarg]

The Angels are taking not great to a lower level. 

[nando714]

They’re a post season team 100%

[Angelsjunky]

The Nationals won the WS with a shitty bullpen a few years ago, but of course their rotation was nasty.

I think the Rangers are legit, though, but the Astros are also heating up. The two will likely run away from the rest of the pack and fight it out for 1st, with the Angels and Mariners trying to squeeze out a wildcard berth.

[TBM-850]

They are hitting .339 with RISP as a team which is 48 points higher than the next best team (redsox). If they can keep it up they deserve it but I think Hou will run them down.

[Swordsman78]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

The Nationals won the WS with a shitty bullpen a few years ago, but of course their rotation was nasty.

I think the Rangers are legit, though, but the Astros are also heating up. The two will likely run away from the rest of the pack and fight it out for 1st, with the Angels and Mariners trying to squeeze out a wildcard berth.

What do you think the # of wins it will take to make the WC?

[Stradling]

25 minutes ago, Swordsman78 said:

What do you think the # of wins it will take to make the WC?

88-90

[arch stanton]

Evoldi, Heaney, DeGrom. That’s a lot of eggs in a pretty fragile basket 

[Swordsman78]

20 minutes ago, Stradling said:

88-90

Seems doable.  Would be a let down not to get to 88 wins

[mmc]

What would these teams records be if we had Bochy and they had Nevin?

[Revad]

3 minutes ago, mmc said:

What would these teams records be if we had Bochy and they had Nevin?

Not as good I’m sure.

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, mmc said:

What would these teams records be if we had Bochy and they had Nevin?

We’d have another win maybe two. 

[Angelsjunky]

3 hours ago, Swordsman78 said:

What do you think the # of wins it will take to make the WC?

 

2 hours ago, Stradling said:

88-90

I think more than that. The Central doesn't matter, so we're talking about five playoff teams from the East and West. Every team in the East is above .500, and the Rangers and Astros both look legit. The Rays, Orioles, Yankees, Rangers and Astros are all on pace to win 95 games. Maybe one of them slows down substantially, but I think it will take somewhere in the 92-95 win range to get the third wildcard. 

Meaning, the Angels will need to both surge and for someone to fall back. Long season, of course, but my point is that this isn't going to be a year where some 88-win team sneaks into a wildcard berth. It is going to 92 wins or even more.

[Blarg]

3 hours ago, arch stanton said:

Evoldi, Heaney, DeGrom. That’s a lot of eggs in a pretty fragile basket 

In the bed of a pickup traveling down a dirt road. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

 

I think more than that. The Central doesn't matter, so we're talking about five playoff teams from the East and West. Every team in the East is above .500, and the Rangers and Astros both look legit. The Rays, Orioles, Yankees, Rangers and Astros are all on pace to win 95 games. Maybe one of them slows down substantially, but I think it will take somewhere in the 92-95 win range to get the third wildcard. 

Meaning, the Angels will need to both surge and for someone to fall back. Long season, of course, but my point is that this isn't going to be a year where some 88-win team sneaks into a wildcard berth. It is going to 92 wins or even more.

Should also take into consideration the significant increase in games against the NL this year. It’s possible that the AL collectively has a significantly better than .500 record. 

With all the interleague games now if the imbalance between the leagues continues we could start to see an NBA style effect of an entire league sporting generally poor records. At some point we will see some sub .500 teams in the playoffs.

[AngelsFaninGA]

Their main advantage is that they beat the crap out of mediocre/bad teams. Swept Philly while outscoring them 29-11, 5-1 vs KC while outscoring them 48-22, swept Colorado while outscoring them 31-10, etc. Plus teeing off against the Angels bad pitchers. Not sure how sustainable that actually is when the playoffs start though.