Rangers Go Meekly, Swept by Houston in Dominant Fashion

Any hopes of a weekend push back from the Texas Rangers were summarily crushed by a vastly superior squad from down south.

It’s time to face facts. The Texas Rangers just aren’t that good. We tried to assuage our fears and apprehensions about this bunch. We tried to talk ourselves into not believing the stark truth staring at us from our TV screens night after night. But after a thorough shellacking at the hands of the Houston Astros, it’s readily apparent that this team is mediocre, at best. Truthfully, they’re probably just bad. The weekend’s abject disaster was an apt microcosm of a truly underwhelming campaign.

Bad pitching? Check. Spotty offense? You bet! Flailing at bats? Bushels of them! The discrepancy between the two teams is as pronounced as it looked. Even Yu Darvish couldn’t set the tone Friday night’s 7-1 snoozer. Saturday was an exercise in falling short in a game they chased all night but lost, 6-5. Lastly, yesterday’s Houston batting practice session sealed the sweep in a 7-2 laugher that was over in the top of the first.

To add insult to injury, the sizable crowd at Globe LIfe Park seemed to display a decided Houston following. While irksome, I’m sure the Astros’ faithful deemed it some form of karmic payback for the torture they’ve endured in their stadium the last two seasons. Yes, the proverbial chickens have come home to roost in this rivalry. To further rub our noses in it, the division deficit is now a whopping fifteen games.

Let that sink in for a moment. It’s June 5th. The season is one-third of the way over. The Rangers are basically done. Not only done in the sense of contending for the division, but done in terms of wild card aspirations. Ok, maybe it’s still a reach to say they’re done in the wild card race. But even if they got there, who feels good about their chances?

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This team was supposed to contend. This isn’t taking anything away from Houston’s accomplishments, either. It’s obvious that this is their year in some capacity. But the product the Rangers have fielded this year is bad beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. The starting pitching fell off after a strong start. The bullpen’s been a mess from opening day. Large swaths of the batting lineup can’t get out of their own way. And no matter what the manager does, the magic of the past two seasons just isn’t there. It begs the question: Will they be sellers at the trade deadline?

Right now, all realistic signs have to point to “Yes”. It’s probably time to see what General Manager Jon Daniels can get back in return for what assets they do have.

But, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, the Rangers could try to move a player like Darvish or Jonathan Lucroy, but the return probably wouldn’t be as much as they expect. This would be especially true about Lucroy, since he’s yet to find his groove.

As a whole, the Rangers find themselves in a very unenviable position. Do they siphon off talent for future returns, or do they stand pat and try to make a run at a wild card? Right now, it’s still too early to think about being sellers. There are roughly seven weeks until the end of July. A lot can happen in that time. But for the glass-half-empty crowd, a lot of bad things can happen in that time. Given their recent history and upcoming schedule, a lot of bad seems imminent.

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Nevertheless, it probably won’t go by without incident. If Jon Daniels has taught us anything, it’s that surprise moves are the rule around here, not the exception. I just doubt we’ll see a Cole Hamels-level trade to try to bolster the ranks. It will more than likely be a fire sale-type transaction–or a series of them–with an eye on improving down the road. But it cannot be at the sake of a precipitous decline. There are too many seats to fill in that new stadium for mediocrity to rule the day in Arlington.

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