October's Upset Special: The Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers, as of right now, will have the Cy Young winner (Cliff Lee) and American League MVP (Josh Hamilton). Plus they will likely have the Manager of the Year (Ron Washington), and Executive of the Year (Jon Daniels), and Comeback Player of the Year (Vladimir Guerrero). However, when it comes to the postseason they are generating about as much buzz as Gigli did around Oscar time.

They could become the first team to sweep the postseason awards, but as far as October is concerned, they seem to be an afterthought. Part of this could be because they are the Rangers and they play in Texas where the whole state has been fixated on how many games the Cowboys will win since February. But let’s not undersell this team and what they bring to the table in a postseason series.

As a matter of fact, let’s focus on what this team could very easily do when the playoffs come around. They have arguably the best pitcher in all of baseball in Cliff Lee and if they meet up with the Yankees in the first round we have seen what he can do on that big stage in New York in October when he dominated them in his two starts, which by the way were the two games the Phillies won.

Josh Hamilton has played like a man possessed ever since the beginning of May and has really carried this offense since Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz disappeared. He is a game changing offensive force and can help the rest of the lineup because teams will pitch around him creating more and more opportunities for the other guys to step up and shine.

There are a lot of question marks around this team as well, like can Guerrero find the swing that made him look like he was reborn? Can CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, and co. form a reliable rotation behind Lee? Can the bullpen continue its impressive performance (3.31 ERA, third in the AL) into the postseason?

If the playoffs started today the Rangers would play the Rays, who have been prone to offensive slumps and no-hitters and perfect games more than any team in history this year. The Rays would be favored and deservedly so, they are the better team overall. But suppose Cliff Lee pitches like only he can and someone else catches fire for one game, then the Rangers are in the ALCS. There are a lot of ifs involved with this team being able to win a postseason series, let alone the World Series, but let’s not look past them because they have the talent to pull off the unthinkable this year.