April was quite a month for the Texas Rangers and their fans. The Rangers sit atop the AL West, and the Angels are battling the Astros for last place. In fact, lets start this review off with the standings:
Texas – 17-9
Oakland – 16-12
Seattle – 12-17
Angels – 9-17
Houston – 8-19
Now we all know that the Texas Rangers are not going to continue getting 17 wins per month, otherwise it would be a great year with 114 wins! We also know that the mighty Angels are not going to continue on the path that they are traveling on, winning only 9 games a month. Oakland seems to not be going away either. But it was a good first month. The Rangers are one game behind Boston for the best record in all of baseball, and in general our offense is off to a slow start. The Rangers are seventh in the AL in batting average (.262), sixth in home runs (30), sixth in RBI (108), ninth in stolen bases, seventh in on base percentage (.328) and fifth in slugging percentage (.429). Last season at this time the Rangers were first in every offensive category. One thing remains the same though, the Texas Rangers are still in first place! And here is why:
Pitching: The Rangers are first in team ERA (3.14), second in win to loss percentage (.654), second in shutouts (4), have allowed the sixth fewest hits in the American League (202), the fewest runs (86), the second fewest earned runs (80), the third fewest home runs (19), are fifth in strikeouts (214), and have the fourth lowest walk total in the American League (67). In a hitter friendly ballpark like the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington, they have accomplished all this. And of course we all know how guys like Darvish (5-1, 2.33 ERA in April!), Tepesch (2-1, 2.53 ERA), and Grimm (2-0, 1.59 ERA) have started the season, and it is great to see such young pitchers doing so great at the major league level. The relief core has not been so bad either. Here are a few of the standouts.
Tanner Scheppers: in twelve appearances (13.2 innings pitched) he has an ERA of 0.66, he has walked four (one intentionally) and struck out eight, giving him 5.3 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Robbie Ross: in eleven appearances (12.0 innings pitched) he has an ERA of 0.75, he has walked three and struck out eight, giving him 6.0 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Joseph Ortiz: Ortiz had a great start to the season, but struggled a little down the stretch. In ten appearances (13.1 innings pitched) he has an ERA of 4.05, he has walked two (one intentionally) and struck out twelve, giving him 8.1 strikeouts per 9 innings.
Of course the offense has not been all bad. Lance Berkman, Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz are all batting above .300, and only David Murphy is below .200. Bench guys like Jeff Baker (.364), Leury Garcia (fantastic defense) have really helped this team and I believe that the Rangers picked the right guys to be on the bench for this team. The Leonys and Craig switch seems to be working for now, although for now I would have to say that Leonys is doing a better job impressing than Craig has been. Just my opinion in watching the games. (all stats via Baseball reference)
Being in first is great, and knowing that guys like David Murphy and Elvis Andrus are going to hit above or around .300 by the end of the season and guys like Craig Gentry and Elvis Andrus are going to steal a lot this season makes me very optimistic about this season after a month of it has finished. If you would like to know who some standouts from the minors are after a month of the season I recommend that you read this from Clayton Shearman of Nolan Writin.
FSSW
