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9/12 - 9/18

If you would have told me last week that today's report would about the best stretch of baseball the Rangers have played in nearly a year, I would have laughed at you. And I wouldn't have been wrong to do so because at that time the Rangers had lost eleven of their last twelve games, beginning with losing two of three in Houston before being swept in Kansas City, losing three of four at home against Seattle, and then being swept at home by the stupid Angels. Things, however, have made a sudden turn around.

I'm proud to report that the Rangers have not lost a game all week. They took on the Braves at home and swept them, then went to Oakland and swept the Braves. And they looked pretty good doing it.

Is this because the Rangers are finally beginning to gel a little bit, or is it because both the A's and Braves are both in the middle of collapses? I don't know the answer to that but my guess is it's a little of both. The opponents seemed to beat themselves, but the Rangers let them. The same Rangers who not long ago couldn't get out of bed without losing a baseball game.

Here is how the the AL West has gone over the last week:

The Rangers are no longer "undoubtedly the worst team in Major League Baseball". As of right now they have have the worst record, and if you look at the entire season the numbers are poor. However, the Rockies are very bad and Arizona is very bad. While it's fun to watch the Rangers win some games for a change, there are negative implications concerning the draft, international free agency, and waiver wire position. With that in mind, here are the reverse standings:

This is going to come down to the wire.

Transactions:

Jim Adduci just can't catch a break.

Games:

Now I'm not exactly sure whether or not this has been the team's best week of the season in a statistical sense. To find out would require more research than I'm willing to do. But I have a feeling it's the best. They won all their games. They allowed only three for fewer runs in each game, and the offense was much better than it has been.

Team Hitting and Pitching:

On the surface, at least, the Rangers may have gotten a little lucky with a team BABIP of .391 this week. They definitely hit some balls hard, but they also had some hits that could have been outs. Either way, the hitters were productive. The pitching made a huge turn around from last week, and maybe luck had a little bit to do with it, but the pitching was genuinely good. Maybe not as good as that shiny 2.00 ERA would suggest, but they were more than acceptable.

Anyway, luck on both sides of the ball is going to be an important part of any win streak. It's been so long since we've seen one I had to remind myself of that fact.

Individual Hitting (10 PA Min):

Smolinski. This motherfucker was a minor league free agent, but in his short time in the big leagues all he's done is hit. Even after having more than a month off with an injury, he just picked up where he left off. Arencibia had a good week, though he didn't walk at all and struck out a bunch. A double and a homer in twelve plate appearances will ensure good numbers. I hope he's gone soon. Chirinos! It's hard not to be a fan of this guy. He had a very good week by picking up a couple walks and throwing down line drives all over the place. Rosales continues to be a productive hitter, showing a bit of patience which is uncharacteristic for him. What can I say about Rougned Odor? He had a great week as did Luis Sardinas and Ryan Rua.

So the offense was powered by a mixture of rookies and spare parts. Seven players with a wRC over 120.

Players who didn't have good weeks? Beltre, but he wasn't terrible by any means. You can't carry the team every week of the season. Andrus. He wasn't really bad, either. For a shortstop that's about an average week offensively. Choice, of course, got hurt and his season is done. Martin had been hot for a long time and was going to cool off at some point. He's still hitting line drives, at least. The only Rangers hitter who was truly horrible was Dan Robertson.

Starting Rotation:

No starter failed to get the team to at least the sixth inning. Even Lisalverto Bonilla, who did start some games toward the end of the minor league season but is really a reliever.

If there's one thing that troubles me about these numbers, it's the lack of strikeouts coupled with a few too many walks. Particularly the lack of strikeouts. But it's one week...small sample size. The important thing is the starters pitched innings, were stingy with base runners, and didn't allow many to score. Except for perhaps Holland they weren't flashy but they definitely got the job done. By the way, it's awesome to see Holland back and pitching well. He's gotten into the seventh inning in all four of his starts this season and has only allowed three runs.

Bullpen:

After an awful week last week, the bullpen put things together over the last six games. The only pitcher to allow any runs was Alex Claudio. A couple other guys may not have been all that sharp, but I will say the same thing this week that I did last time: with so many pitchers on the roster it's hard to find them all innings. Bogar seems to be doing a good job at spreading things around but no individual pitcher is getting a lot of work except for Kirkman, Cotts, and Tolleson who all had short appearances.

I really like a lot of the arms out there. The bullpen should be a strength for the Rangers in 2015.

Conclusions:

It's nice to win. Even if you're all worked up about the possibility of losing the first draft pick (and I am), it's probably more important for this team for its young players to play well in the big leagues. And this week they gave us a lot to be happy about. Plus there are ten games left. Rookies are inconsistent by nature, and the Rangers are still "up" a game and a half on Colorado. My advice is to enjoy whatever happens.

Lastly, I believe it was Subcheck who made a post about the possibility of avoiding a 100-loss season but still hanging onto the last pick. At the time I did not think it would be likely to do both, but it's looking a lot more possible right now.