The Rangers Report – June 9
None of the Texas trio is factoring in the NBA finals odds and the Dallas Stars aren’t part of the Stanley Cup Final, which means the main show in Texas in the Rangers.
Season Record: 33-25
AL West Rank: 1
Current World Series odds: 16.5 to 1
THE LINEUP
The Texas Rangers will be without Josh Hamilton for the next four-to-six weeks as he is set to go under the knife. Hamilton has a partial tear in his abdominal muscle, which is better news than some people perceived the injury to be.
The Rangers are just 12-9 without Hamilton in the lineup and just 3-5 in their last eight minus their All-Star.
One player to keep an eye on this week will be Omar Vizquel, who has 2676 career hits. That leaves Vizquel one short of Luis Aparicio, the All-Time leader for Venezuela.
No pundits, handicappers or betting software would have predicted that Vizquel would be hitting .345 this season.
THE ROTATION
After posting the second-best team ERA ever in a month during May, the Rangers have been in some high-scoring affairs in June.
The Rangers have allowed 5.71 runs per game in June as they have alternated wins and losses every game this month.
Vicente Padilla made his return from the disabled list on June 2 and was promptly batted around by the New York Yankees (7 ER in 3.2 IP). He settled down in his second start, allowing just two earned runs over seven innings pitched at Fenway Park against the Red Sox on Sunday.
Scott Feldman’s streak of consecutive quality starts ended at six as the Toronto Blue Jays totaled four earned runs on seven hits (two home runs) in six innings of work on Monday.
THE BULLPEN
There is a little bit of a concern in the Rangers bullpen right now as Frank Francisco is dealing with some shoulder soreness. He was unavailable for Monday for the fourth consecutive day and the general anxieties of wear and tear are starting to creep in to the minds of MLB betting fans following this situation.
The sore shoulder is his pitching shoulder and the concern is that this is a recurring problem. He has already spent a couple of weeks on the disabled list earlier in May.
Right now, the team is taking the wait-and-see approach as to whether to put him back on the DL or not but the general point is that the Rangers bullpen simply isn’t the same when he’s not around.
OVERALL OUTLOOK
A lot of MLB odds makers are waiting for the other shoe to drop for the Rangers and as the summer months heat up, the stellar pitching that helped the Rangers early on might revert to its old, familiar self.
With Francisco out with an indefinite injury, there is even more apprehension stemming from the bullpen. Throw in the injury to Hamilton and it becomes pretty clear that this is a critical part in the season for the Rangers to either float or sink in the American League West.
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