Rangers are in Perfect Shape

I cannot reiterate how perfect the condition the Rangers are in. They are playing at a .500 record, which is exactly where they should be at. The lineup as a team is the best in baseball in terms of runs scored and almost every other meaningful hitting statistic. Most of the lineup is also near the top in at least one statistic in the American League as well.  

Four Rangers are among the top 10 in the league in batting average. Yes I said 4, that’s more than double any other team in the American League. Milton Bradley is leading the league by almost a full 10 points at .338. That’s good for 4^th in all in baseball.  Hamilton is falling off a little bit after leading the league, but he is right in front of teammates Michael Young and Ian Kinsler.   

The Rangers have two of the top 5 home run hitters in the league.  Only Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox have at least two players in the top 10 in home runs, let alone the top 5. Everyone knows at this point Josh Hamilton is leading the way and Milton Bradley is not far behind.

All the other statistics don’t matter because it’s extremely hard to lead the league in home runs and batting average. Those statistics will pretty much explain all the other meaningful statistics.  The Rangers do lead the league in team batting average and are number four in home runs, nothing to be ashamed about.

I know the Rangers have committed more errors than anyone else in baseball too, but all is forgiven when your offense can make up for mistakes.  They are also still a very young team overall who is still learning each game.  When the Rangers don’t have any offense for a night that’s when they lose the game which leads me to the pitching.

The Rangers are dead last in pitching in terms of ERA by a fair amount, but it’s nothing to be upset about because this should be expected for an overall young and slightly better than average pitching staff. The Rangers are also near the bottom in terms of all other pitching stats, but that too is nothing new. They are near the bottom or at least in the middle every season. Once the Rangers get their young pitching prospects pitching consistently this team should be above average. 

So basically according to statistics the Rangers do not need the best pitching staff in baseball to do well. It just needs a consistent above average pitching staff.  So what makes an average pitching staff? I’d put it around 4.5 runs per game every year.  As I wrote before if the Rangers’ pitchers are below 5 runs per game average, the team wins 85+ games every year.  If you really look hard at the statistics, it puts a big wrinkle in the whole pitching wins championships theory.  Granted you still have to have an above average pitching staff, but according to the Rangers recent ,or near, winning seasons all it takes is a great lineup which the Rangers usually have every year.    

The Rangers are playing right around they should be playing.  They are still making some young mistakes and the pitching staff has been inconsistent to say the least.  When everything is clicking this team is hard to beat. When the team experiences fielding problems or bad pitching the team usually loses.  Hence this is why they are treading water back and forth.  It’s a great position to be in with the season half way mark coming up.  Not too many things that need to be fixed coming into the season on a presumed rebuilding path.