Texas Rangers Tab Chi Chi Gonzalez to Start Saturday

We’re fresh off a Texas Rangers win, folks.  You know what that means.  Time to hashtag ‘Hello Win Column’, right? Well, yes.  But, it’s also time to figure out who’s starting tomorrow night’s game.  Now I know that doesn’t seem exciting – in fact, it sounds a little depressing.  But, I’ll say this name and you’ll change your tune:  Chi Chi Gonzalez!

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Why bring up a kid who was drafted two years ago?  Well, there are a couple of reasons:

1.  The last two Texas Rangers’ 5th starters didn’t fare very well.  Ross Detwiler was 0-5 with an ERA of almost 7 when he went on the disabled list.  Phil Klein, the Rangers’ most recent 5th starter was optioned to AAA Round Rock after giving up six runs on Monday of this week.

2.  We can’t do a patch job/by-committee start this time around.  The bullpen patch job has been known to happen from time to time, but the Rangers bullpen has racked up some serious innings of late.  Yovani Gallardo gave the Rangers 6 innings tonight and Nick Martinez threw in 7 last night, but giving up 23 runs to the Indians this week resulted in 14.1 bullpen innings pitched in just three games this week.  Throw in the five from last night and tonight and we’re way over the limit for one week’s worth of games.  That means we need a starter to fill-in for our already tired bullpen.

So who is Chi Chi Gonzalez?  The Texas Rangers used their first-round pick in the 2013 draft to bring young Gonzalez to the Texas system, fresh off a dominate junior season at Oral Roberts.

What can we expect from him?  A nice cutter.  And fewer than 6 innings.

Of course that’s just my opinion.  Gonzalez has been averaging about 17.5 pitches per inning over his last three starts in Round Rock, according to Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News.  If that trend continues, the Rangers would be asking for more than 100 pitches from their young gun in his Major League debut to get them through 6, which seems pretty unlikely to happen.

The other caveat?  RAIN.  But I’m sure you knew I was going to say that.  A rain-out tomorrow + an off-day on Monday could mean the Rangers skip the 5th spot altogether.

Get excited Rangers fans.  It could be Chi Chi time in Texas.

49 down.  113 to go.

Your Texas Rangers are 24-25.