Texas Rangers: 2nd In The Final A.L. Standings Possibly Better?

The Texas Rangers currently hold the top spot in the A.L. just .5 games up on the Boston Redsox and 1.5 games over the Cleveland Indians. With 4 games remaining the positioning of these teams have gained attention but would it be better to end up playing the Cleveland Indians or a team that is fighting for a Wildcard spot?

I don’t think the Texas Rangers would purposefully attempt to land in a certain seed but it’s fun to talk about. And I think this subject is starting to gain some traction as the season is almost to a close. In case you didn’t know, whoever the first seed is will play the winner of the 1 game wildcard playoff and the 2nd and 3rd seeds would play a series in the first round.

The current 2nd seed Boston Redsox have been on a roll as of late and have a dangerous offense to go up against. They have gone 11-1 through their past 12 games but haven’t scored more than 7 runs in any of those games. Their pitching is in top 10 of the important pitching stats and is led by Rick Porcello who leads the league with 22 wins.

The 3rd seed is the Cleveland Indians were believed to have the best starting rotation out of the playoffs teams up until about a week ago. Thats about when they discovered they would be without their 2nd and 3rd starting pitcher for the rest of the year. Number 2 starter Carlos Carrasco will not be available throughout the playoffs with a broken finger in his hand. Number 3 starter Danny Salazar was sidelined with a forearm injury and looks like at best he may be available out of the bullpen in the postseason.

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The blows continued for the Cleveland Indians when their Ace and local Dallas native Corey Kluber would be out 6-10 days. If everything goes to plan for the Indians then Kluber could be back around the 3rd game or so of the first postseason series. With these injuries happening when they did, the question is would it be more appealing for the Texas Rangers to land in the 2nd seed and play the Indians instead of a scrapping wildcard team?

That wildcard team looks like it will be Toronto or Baltimore/Detroit. It should be noted that Toronto had a recent brawl with the New York Yankees and had a relief pitcher (7th/8th inning set up man) tear his calf muscle. The BlueJays also had their 2nd baseman hurt himself in that brawl as well. One last thing is that the BlueJays best pitcher Sanchez is dangerously close to his “inning count” for the year and could be shut down or solely used out of the bullpen.

Next: Texas Rangers Bullpen Is Not Suspect

Who would you like to see the Texas Rangers face as everything looks lead towards a Rangers/Redsox series for the World Series. Join the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages and let your voice be heard!