Texas Rangers news: New York pressure, AL West chaos, an under the radar move, more

With both the Silver Boot series and the off-day behind us, it’s time for the Texas Rangers and their fans to turn their attention to the New York Yankees. This kind of series should show Bruce Bochy’s squad what it’s all about.

Can they keep winning at a 70% pace as they have over the last 10 games, or are they running into a buzzsaw that will demonstrate the Rangers are really on that second tier of teams? The biggest question is whether or not the rotation can continue to be among the best in baseball, even against a Yankees team that enters the series with a +90 run differential (the Rangers are +1).

The Texas Rangers must avoid the sweep at the very least and would ideally take two of three. The AL West has been up and down, but the Mariners and Astros are currently on the upswing. 

Angels on the come up?

Don’t look now, but the hottest teams in the division are the Mariners and the … Los Angeles Angels? The Halos have been left for dead for most of the season, but they’ve now won four in a row after sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in their rivalry series.

They won again Monday night against an Athletics team headed in the opposite direction. The last thing the Rangers need is to have three other teams in the AL West, it’s doing battle with for first place or a wild card spot.

Bad umpiring mars Silver Boot series

The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros had their rivalry series over the weekend, and for the most part, it was a well-played, hard-fought battle between two AL West and Lone Star State foes. However, a few games had some truly bad home plate umpiring.

The poor officiating was underlined in Sunday afternoon’s game when Nick Mahrley was rated among the worst in baseball that day. The ABS appeal system that all of the minor leagues are using needs to come to the Major Leagues sooner, rather than later. 

Texas Rangers make minor moves

There’s been quite a bit of shuffling of the major league club’s roster and coaching staff. Now there’s been some shuffling of the minor league teams as well. On Monday afternoon, the franchise announced it acquired INF/OF Michael Helman from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Helman was assigned to Triple-A Round Rock. In order to make room for him down there, the club also DFA’d Jonathan Ornelas. Helman has slashed .257/.330/.434/.764 with 68 home runs, 12 triples, 96 doubles, and 256 RBI over parts of seven minor league seasons.

While Ornelas has spent most of his time in the minor leagues, he did get 6 plate appearances this season for the Texas Rangers, going 0-for-5 with 3 strikeouts and 1 walk.