The Rangers: One Month In

First off, a little housecleaning. In case you were wondering where I've been, you can read about it here. Let me assure you, the long absences are a thing of the past, even with the potentially boring sports summer upon us. I realize that I should probably start with something about The Mavs, or about the Cowboys draft, or even the collapse of the Cowboys practice facility....and I will write about it eventually, but todays topic is Rangers baseball. I can already hear the yawns.

I realize that its technically been a few days since the end of the "first month" of the season, but yesterday marked the end of the first four weeks of the season. This is the first time in the still young season that we have the necessary sample size to actually make some judgements on this season. We've been through the rotation a few times, we've seen the bullpen at work, and we've given hitters time to either get out of early season slumps or slow up being on fire-this is the first point in the season where you can actually look at the results and make some judgements, atleast in my opinion. So where are the Rangers at?

Ah, now that's such a loaded question. They went 12-12, first off....which considering the past few seasons' terrible Aprils, is a sign of marked improvement. So in that regard, things have improved. The pitcher's have pitched more innings (and more quality innings at that) which is also a sign of improvement, Millwood (2-2 in 5 games, 2.13 ERA, with 38 IP and 1 CG) and Francisco (1-0, 7/7 in save situations, 0.00 ERA) lead the pack but on the whole the rotation looks to be-thus far-one of the best the Rangers have thrown out there in a few years. McCarthy (3-0, 4.67 ERA) has been healthy and solid and after a rough start to the season, Harrison has looked sterling in his past two starts (2-2, 6.41 ERA). For a team that has struggled with pitching for, I don't know, ever (and that seems like an understatement) there are certainly signs of progress. Phenom prospect Derek Holland has made his way to the majors and is in the bullpen, making the appearance that "Everyday" Eddie Guardado might just finally be done and the injury to Kris Benson that much more palatable.

On the offensive side of things though, its a mixed bag in my opinion. as usual the Rangers lead baseball in homeruns (with 44, 9 more than runner up Toronto and 33 more than last place Oakland) and are a very respectable 6th in runs overall (140, 19 less than Toronto but almost 60 more than last place Houston)-so that's good. But if you simple watch the games, you also see a team thats full of all or nothing hitters, a team that relies on the longball or power to score and easily folds against a high end pitcher. Now granted there aren't that many top tier pitchers in the league, but there are enough that if you rely on bad pitching (and you're not playing against Texas....) to survive, you're going to have issues. It's a great crew offensively, but their play with RISP has me concerned.

And finally on defense, you've got some improvement. Kinsler whom averaged an error every 7 games last season has 1 through 24 this year. The team on a whole sits at 15 errors through 24 games, putting them at 16th which is about as average as you can get. But hey, I'll take average over god-awful.

You combine the improvements in pitchign and defense with a consistent offfense, and that explains the better start. Now the question just becomes, can they keep it? I have my doubts, especially the way they struggle hitting with RISP and with a very hollow belief that the pitching can hold up. But as they say maybe, just maybe.....