Slight Improvements Will Pay off

Many fans do not think twice about looking into a sports team past, but the Rangers recent past has a lot of useful information to predict how they will do this year.  Everyone knows the Rangers have had good hitting and bad pitching over the past five years.  How bad is another story entirely, and the answer might surprise any Ranger fan.

Sure, the team ranks dead last in runs given up, but how many have paid attention to how many have toughed it out and kept track for the month of May?  Only 52 runs have been given up by this pitching staff in 14 games.  Granted the Rangers had a run of three straight shutouts, but that’s still only an average of 3.7 runs a game for the month of May.  The other 177 runs came during the other 28 games for a terrible average of 6.3 runs per game.  The 3.7 is obviously a more favorable statistic with half of those 14 games being played in Arlington. 

What people don’t realize is the Rangers are in the top 10 in runs scored are almost every season.  The Rangers have always been able to score runs, just not enough to overcome pitching.  Currently, the team averages scoring a little less than 5 runs a game, a statistic which has been both very good and consistent over the past 5 seasons.  Yes, I checked the math even though it should not come to a surprise of most Ranger fans.

I do think the pitching staff will finish the season with an average closer to 4.5 runs per game, and the hitting should stay right around the 5 runs per game average.  Over the past five seasons the Rangers have finished around .500 or better three times.  The key statistic is the amount of runs given up.  If it’s under 5 runs per game the Rangers have roughly a .500 record or better.  Anything above 5 runs the Rangers finish well behind the .500 record.  The Rangers just seem to have had bad luck over these seasons because they are not as bad as this statistics indicate.

Over the next few years the Rangers should be able to keep up this consistent pace at the least.  They will probably do better because of the prospects on the way.  Without getting into too much detail, the Rangers now have a great farm system to sustain itself and improve itself at the same time.  Ranger fans should get excited because some slight improvements on one side or the other should put them over the top and into the playoffs.