Photo Courtesy: Darryl Briggs
By Lew Patton
The Texas Rangers were 3-3 this past week, but played some solid ball and have made improvements in many areas. Chi Chi Gonzalez has a 0.42 ERA (1 ER/21.2 IP) over his 1st three starts. According to baseball-reference.com, Gonzalez is the 5th pitcher to pitch 5.2-or-more innings and allow one-or-zero runs in each of his first three ML outings (all starts). That is pretty select company. Gonzalez took his first career loss at Oakland despite allowing one run in 7.0 innings. Things look pretty bright for this new Ranger pitcher.
The starting rotation are making great improvements each game as well. The Texas rotation has allowed has allowed 8 R/7Er in 49.0 IP in their last seven games (1.29 ERA) to drop their season ERA from 4.42 to 3.88, 5th in the AL and lowest since 5/14 (3.77).
Mitch Moreland batted .450 (9-20) with a pair of homers, a double, and 5 RBI. He is still shy of a few at bats to qualify for league leader status, but would rank in or near the top 10 for the season average (.308), OBP (.368) and SLG (.521).
Sign ‘em up
Lots of good things are happening for the Rangers and the additional good news is they signed several draft picks, including their #1 pick Dillon Tate. The Rangers announced on Friday that they signed the right-hander as the 4th overall selection in the draft.
The 6-foot-2, 200 pound right-hander went 8-5 with a 2.26 ERA (26 ER/103.1 IP) and 111 strikeouts against 28 walks in 14 starts for the University of California – Santa Barbara in his junior season this year. Among his honors this season, Tate was 2015 Louisville Slugger All-American and UCSB’s first ever Golden Spikes Award Semi-finalist. He was rated the top pitcher and third best prospect overall in the draft by Baseball America. Here was Tate at the press conference Friday:
The Rangers came to terms with an additional 6 draft picks:
Right-Handed pitcher Jake Lemoine
Shortstop Dylan Moore
Right-handed pitcher Blake Bass
Right-handed pitcher Peter Fairbanks
Shortstop Leon Byrd
Center fielder Ledarious Clark
Upcoming Schedule
6/15 vs Dodgers 7:05 pm
6/16 vs Dodgers 7:05 pm
6/17 @Dodgers 9:10 pm
6/18 @Dodgers 9:10 pm
6/19 @White Sox 7:10 pm
6/20 @White Sox 1:10 pm
6/21 @White Sox 1:10 pm
