Texas Rangers – Atlanta Braves / Game 1 of 3 (6:35 PM CT)

Many different story-lines will play out in this weekend’s inter-league series between the Braves and Rangers. There are a few current starters/prospects on the Rangers team that were formerly Atlanta Braves’ prospects. A current young prospect for Atlanta will get his first shot at the big leagues tonight. The Texas Rangers will try to end a five-game losing streak and get back on track.

Finders Keepers:

Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, and Matt Harrison were all prospects in the Atlanta system. In 2007 the Rangers were in a rebuilding year, (they all seemed like rebuilding years back then). Atlanta was making a push to the playoffs and needed some extra power; Mark Teixeira was who they wanted. Jon Daniels at the time made a very controversial decision to ship the switch-hitting all-star to the Braves. Obviously this ended up being a better deal than any of us could have wished for, as Teixeira ended up as a rental for Atlanta.

This will be the first time the three have played against their old team since the deal was done. Look for all three to perform well this weekend.

A Cup of Coffee:

After Tommy Hanson was scratched from his start tonight, the Braves have called up Randall Delgado from the Double-A Southern Leagues. This season with the Mississippi Braves, Delgado is 4-4 with a 3.54 ERA. In the minor leagues, wins are fairly unimportant stats. What I like for Delgado’s numbers this year are his Strikeouts per nine-innings ratio which is 7.8, just lower than last season’s 8.7.

Delgado has electric-type stuff; he likes to pitch for strikes and doesn’t mess around. His heater sits around 92-97mph, and he has a very impressive curveball. I expect him to be fairly shy with his curveball in his first major-league outing. Many thought he would jump to Triple-A this season, few thought he would be in the bigs. Once Tommy comes back however, I expect him to go down to Triple-A.

Which Colby Will We See?

Not much to say about right-handed Colby Lewis, who is 5-7 with a 4.97 ERA. He has been outstanding in starts, and has been miserable in others. Recently Lewis had a really poor outing against Minnesota; I look for him to rebound tonight.

My Prediction:

The Rangers jump on the young Atlanta starter early and Colby gives up a few runs as well. Rangers win 6-5.

-Jonathan

*Forgive the different format, I’m filling in for Stacy today!