The Texas Rangers have looked as listless this season as they did last year. The offense is a total joke. New Skipper Skip Schumaker cannot make heads or tails of the offensive issues. This team is underperforming yet again despite the lineup looking different than it did last season. The team often looks hilariously uncompetitive. The series opener against the Houston Astros proved this.
Struggling Japanese starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai was on the bump for the Astros. He has been awful all season. He has already burned through three translators. His ERA has been well above 6.00 all season. He has already been on the IL. He had poor command and average stuff, but still managed to hold the Rangers hitless through 6. The Rangers managed to let Yordan Alvarez torment them for the entire series. He went deep in this game. The Astros opened up a massive lead in the 7th when the Rangers turned the inning into high comedy. The Rangers booted the ball around and fell down to the point where the game devolved completely. Both teams took their foot completely off the gas. The Rangers pitched position player Sam Haggerty. The crowd loved this and went nuts, just like any time a position player pitches. It shows how dim and out of touch MLB is that they limited this to extreme blowouts. The Astros used the dregs of their bullpen to secure the last nine outs.
The Rangers managed to be both boring and embarrassing. They have mastered this combination over the past three seasons. This is a crushing and damning flaw, as even bad Rangers teams in the mid-2000’s were fun to watch. These teams are soulless, lifeless, and boring. The Rangers had the best pitching and defense in the league last season and went .500. They were obviously not going to be rank 1 in both those things again. The offense had to get going. It is still completely awful. Hilariously uncompetitive. Getting no-hit by the Astros worst pitcher is grotesque. The losses the team posted against the Angels were repugnant. The Angels and Astros are the worst two teams in the AL West right now. Both teams lack pitching. The Rangers offense lays dormant. They fail to advance runners. They fail to steal or get on base. They fail to hit for power. This team is bleeding out and the rot is so deep there are no apparent answers.
Joc Pederson has been awful all season. He gets a homer right when everyone is truly sick of him, thus granting him a reprieve. Seeing Joc hit leadoff is a special sort of disgusting. It represents everything that is wrong with the Rangers, even ideologically. He is a truly wretched player that inspires rage in the average Ranger fan. He should rarely start, NEVER at leadoff. Having Joc bat leadoff is the height of absurdity. This is the sort of move that rapidly makes one lose faith in Skip.
The second spot in the lineup has been a joke since Wyatt Langford got hurt a seeming eternity ago. The opening build order of Nimmo -> Langford looked good despite Langford starting slow. His injury has caused a complete reshuffling of the lineup. Nimmo has been moved down in iterations of the lineup with Joc at leadoff. Those lineups are best left unexplored like the Metallica album St Anger.
Utility man Josh Smith had a poor start and then contracted viral meningitis. He is still in the hospital, his weight and batting average struggling to race to the bottom. Prayers for his recovery.
Superstar Shortstop Corey Seager has been truly awful this season. He is supposed to be the carry of the offense but has been a zero. He has struckout and killed enough rallies to make up for the absence of Adolis “El Bombi” Garcia, who is plying his loose style up in Philly.
Seager is supposed to be the engine of the offense. When healthy, he is the fourth best hitter in the league. When injured, the Rangers are left with the likes of Michael Helman.
Andrew McCutchen had nothing left and was cut. Zeke Duran has been solid. Evan Carter cannot hit lefties. Both Danny Jansen and Kyle Higashioka have been ineffective behind the dish. Jake Burger has been feast or famine. Josh Jung has been very good, so naturally he got injured.
The starting pitching has been bad. Jacob deGrom and Nate Eovaldi look very hittable in a third of their starts. Kumar Rocker continues to have control issues. MacKenzie Gore has been below average. Jack Leiter has regressed. This team is way worse than it has any right to be.
The Rangers continue to underperform in a distinctly boring and disappointing way.
