Jurickson Profar made his case to stay in the big leagues and ultimately won out. With Profar hammering the baseball and filling in nicely while Rougned Odor was out, Hanser Alberto was sent to AAA instead of Profar. With a talent like Profar it’s hard to send him down right now. With Fielder and Moreland struggling mightily at the dish, it was time for the skipper Jeff Banister to shake things up.
Watching Prince Fielder live on Friday night was interesting. His load and swing just seems to be off. His stubbornness to drive the ball to the opposite field is astounding since he has about a 100 yard circle radius over there due to the shift. When a player of Fielder’s history of smashing baseballs isn’t happening, you can clearly see a guy pressing at the plate. One of his at-bats last night he had a few guys on and a 3-0 count. He got a decent pitch to hit and of coarse a little late and hit a lazy ball to left, then Moreland followed with a ground out to end the inning. This is clearly a man who needs to sit a few games here and there and try to figure things out because this isn’t what the Rangers traded for when they got rid of Ian Kinsler.
The Rangers offense was still clicking on Friday and Saturday night due to players like Profar, Ian Desmond, Adrian Beltre, and Ryan Rua. The Rangers best 3 outfielders currently are Rua in left, Desmond in center, and Mazara in right. Even when Shin-Soo Choo gets back I don’t know how they will determine who sits. All three mentioned above have a better bat than Choo and play better defense than Choo. Your current outfield is hitting a combined (.306) BA, (20) home runs, and (72) RBI’s! “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!
Texas beat the red-hot Mariners (7-3) on Friday night and again (10-4 ) on Saturday night. This makes Texas 11 games over .500 and owns the best record in the American League; as well as a 2 game lead over Seattle! Yu Darvish had a good 2nd outing, and kept the Mariners in check for the most part into the 6th inning on Friday. The story of late hasn’t been the pitching; it’s been the consistent scorching of the baseball. The Rangers have scored 7 or more runs in 18 games this season! Just think of what this club would look like if Fielder and Moreland hit like their capable of! The Rangers last 8 games are impressive offensively; (64) runs scored, and at least 1 homer in each of the games! Not to mention the starters have won 6 of 8 of those games.
It will be interesting to see what Banister does moving forward because the offense is on fire and you really don’t want to mess up that chemistry. Sure you don’t like benching your 19-million dollar DH but sometimes its necessary and the right thing to do. Profar gives you a different element to the offense with speed and a solid bat. The Rangers front office has to feel good after watching all the young “home-grown” talent in Profar, Andrus, Mazara, Rua, and to some extent Moreland mash the ball this season.
On a side note: Kudos to the front office in finding and trading for catcher Bobby Wilson! This guy looked to be just a filler until Robinson Chirinos was out, but he’s turned into a solid contributor both with the bat and behind the plate. Batting (.317) with 12 RBI’s in a “fill in role” has been a good start for Bobby since being traded from Detroit. I really like what he brings to the catching position for Texas as he handles the pitching staff very well and controls the run game better than I would of have thought.
The Rangers get the brooms out on Sunday for the sweep and their 8th win in their last 10 games! Texas has started the month of June out with a bang and there’s nothing to think it won’t continue..