The Texas Rangers’ Outfield Has a Ton of Questions With 2017 on the Horizon

If the general premise of this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve talked about this before.

On the heels of the Texas Rangers returning to the playoffs in 2015, I noticed they had similar roster uncertainties in advance of 2016. All they did once Opening Day rolled around was win the American League West with ease by posting an AL-best 95-67 record.

While they proved to be masters of winning one-run games, having just a +10 run differential made some wonder if they’d be able to hang in the playoffs. And before there was an answer, they were packing up for the winter after getting swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS.

The 2017 season is fast approaching, and the AL West will be interesting to follow. After all, Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto won’t stop making trades and the Houston Astros are doing whatever they can to make Sports Illustrated look like a bunch of geniuses.

The Rangers still have some roster questions to answer ahead of Spring Training — like, is this Mike Napoli reunion happening or not? — but one area that’s set is the outfield.

Texas will go to battle with 21-year-old Nomar Mazara in left, Carlos Gomez in center and Shin-Soo Choo manning right. This looks good on paper, but it’s far from a sure thing judging from each player’s recent history.

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Daily Fantasy MLB DFS Picks For DraftKings 5/31/16

P- CC Sabathia (vs. Toronto Blue Jays): $9,000. In 177 career at bats against Sabathia, the Blue Jays lineup is only batting .186, with three home runs, 12 RBIs, 46 strikeouts, and a .239 OBP. Sabathia faced the Blue Jays in his last start and he was very successful. In seven innings, Sabathia gave up two hits, zero earned runs, walked one, and struck out seven. In 2016, Sabathia owns a 3-3 record, 2.83 ERA, 36 hits against, 36 strikeouts, and 15 walks in 41.1 innings pitched.

 

P- Mat Latos (vs. New York Mets): $6,700. In 90 career at bats against Latos, the Mets’ offense is batting .222, with there home runs, nine RBIs, 19 strikeouts, and a .313 OBP. Latos has found his groove in 2016 after a few rough years. He is facing the 24th ranked offense in baseball, so this could be a good matchup for Latos. At only $6,700, he provides a lot of value to spread the rest of your cash out to your offense.

 

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Daily Fantasy MLB DFS Picks For DraftKings 5/28/16

P- Zack Greinke (vs. San Diego Padres): The Padres’ offense has been one of the worst in Major League Baseball all year long. Not only have they struggled this year, but they have struggled against Greinke every time he stepped on the mound. In 178 career at bats against Greinke, the Padres’ batters are batting a cool .191, with one home run, eight RBIs, 44 strikeouts, and a .237 OBP.

Greinke has struggled at some points in 2016, but he has been very good in his last two games, which were against the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. Greinke has thrown one game against the Padres this year, in which he threw 7.1 innings, giving up six hits, two earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts.

 

P- Wade Miley (vs. Minnesota Twins): $9,100. In Miley’s last six starts, he is 5-0 with a 3.12 ERA. So far this season, he hasn’t had a noticeable “easy” matchup, so it should be nice to face a struggling Twins’ offense.

The Minnesota Twins have by far the worst offensive stats against left-handed pitchers this season out of all Major League Baseball teams. In 263 at bats against lefties, they are hitting a whopping .209 (last in MLB), 21 runs (last in MLB, and a .285 OBP. Well folks, we are in luck because Wade Miley does in fact throw with his left arm.

 

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Daily Fantasy MLB DFS Picks For DraftKings 5/14/16

If you have any questions or comments about this article or fantasy baseball, please Tweet me @dynasty_digest. I post daily DFS lineups for Draft Kings everyday, so please make sure to follow my blog (dynastydigest.sportsblog.com) and my Twitter for updates.

Saturday could be a very rough day for pitchers, which is why I’m spending more money on hitters. Out of the 15 games on the slate, 11 games are being played at a stadium that has at least a 10 MPH wind blowing towards the outfield. Weather can play a huge role in daily fantasy, which is why the intense winds on Saturday could really shake up some of the potential pitching math-ups.

P- Aaron Nola (vs. Cincinnati Reds): $9,500

P- Ervin Santana (vs. Cleveland Indians): $7,000

 

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TRADE RUMOR: Will The Los Angeles Angels Trade Mike Trout?

As of right now, the Angels only have 3 starting pitchers listed on their depth chart (Jared Weaver, Hector Santiago, and Nick Tropeano). This team is falling apart and it could be time to make a drastic move. They are currently 13-18, but they are expected to continue to drop in the standings considering their team can’t stay healthy. Just to make matters worse, their farm system is widely considered to be the worst minor league system in baseball. With that said, is it time for the Angels to consider trading Mike Trout to restock their farm system and focus on building their team for the future?

 

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MLB Power Rankings 2016: Week 2 – April

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_Hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

Disclaimer:  We based these rankings on best strength to win the World Series.  Therefore some teams that have an easier division to play in, with the least path of resistance to the postseason overall may be ranked a lot higher than a club who is equally talented, yet may play in a juggernaut of a division.

The Cubs will top our list for a second straight week despite losing 2 out of 3 games to the Rockies at Wrigley Field this weekend.  The biggest reason is the pitching.

Jake Arrieta is 3 – 0, and has picked up right where we he left off in 2015, and Jon Lester has thrown awesome too.  The Bullpen has also been good.

The bats are too solid not to come around and gel as the season moves along.  They are playing .750 baseball after a 4 – 2 week still.

Bryce Harper is the best player on the planet, and has homered in 6 straight contests at Citizens Bank Ball Park (4 overall in a row for the MLB this year.)

Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg. Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy are their top players – and all performing like it, the rest of the club is following through in their secondary roles.  This team is scary.

I have the Royals as the top American League club.  This squad is 8 – 1 in games that are not started by back end of the rotation man Chris Young.

The reigning 2 time pennant winners have company on the top of the Division to make it interesting, however this team has the better pedigree the last few years.

Some may say with a weekend series win – that the Dodgers should be put in front of the Giants, yet they are still only one game ahead of San Francisco.

With the Giants – there is no real weakness, while with the Los Angeles team, the Bullpen is not giving everyone confidence in the back half of games.

The Dodger Blue is still in the top 5, so I am high on them. Kenta Maeda could be the steal of the winter with how this guy is throwing so far.  Reinforcements are starting to come back.

MLB Power Rankings: Week 1 Results – April 2016

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_Hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

Disclaimer:  We based these rankings on best strength to win the World Series.  Therefore some teams that have an easier division to play in, with the least path of resistance to the postseason overall may be ranked a lot higher than a club who is equally talented, yet may play in a juggernaut of a division.

Team – Rank (W – L Record) (Last week ranking in parenthesis)

(1) Chicago Cubs  (5 – 1)  (1):  The Cubs weathered the loss of their slugging OF Kyle Schwarber this week – by taking 5 of the 1st 6 games played, and all on the road.  After these 6 contests – the squad is outscoring their opponents 42 – 15.

Love the idea of setting the table with Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist 1-2-3 prior to the boppers coming after in Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant.

Having the 2015 NL ROY may help Rizzo win the NL MVP this season.  He had 10 RBI this week – including a 6 RBI effort.

Jake Arrieta is already 2 – 0, and this team shows no signs of slowing down.

(2)  KC Royals  (4 – 1) (2):  This club just knows how to win with the dominant Bullpen and clutch hitting.  They have only yielded 11 runs thus far, and this team has not even hit huge strides on offense yet.

The AL Central is better in 2016 there is no question, however KC will be ready to take them on.  There may not be a more filthy Late Inning Reliever right now than Wade Davis.  Edinson Volquez has picked up right where he left off in 2015 as well.

Texas Rangers Call Up Nomar Mazara, But What Is His Potential?

It was announced today that Shin-Soo Choo will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a strained calf. This injury has led to the much anticipated debut of one of the Texas Rangers’ top prospects, Nomar Mazara. Mazara will serve as the everyday right fielder during the absence of Choo. While the hype is certainly alive and well with Mazara, how good can he really be? To read the rest of the article, click the link below:

 

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Odds To Win The American League Rookie Of The Year

The American League has some young talent, however about only half of the guys on this list will even break camp with their parent big clubs,and others will be blocked for various reasons -including against each other on their own squads. There is really only one good bet and one bad for entire 15 guy list.

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

Follow The BBBA On Twitter Follow @baseballblogs

1st off the Twins have the top 3 players listed for the category in Buxton, Ho-Park and Berrios.

All Minnesota youngsters could make the squad, although Buxton is posting just a .567 OPS  in Spring Training –  after only putting up a .576 OPS in his 129 AB for 2015. He will be given the starting job to either make it or not, after the trade of Aaron Hicks.  Don’t like the favorite status for most of these categories, this will ring true one more time.

Ho-Park has looked solid at the dish so far with a 3 Slash of .283/.306/.543 – with 3 HRs and 13 RBI in his 46 AB, and at 29 years of age – coming over from the KBO, he has years of experience next to his classmates.

Jose Abreu and Ichiro Suzuki both came over as later in life rookies to the Junior Circuit and took the honors  Ho-Park was a beast in Korea – blasting over 50+ HRs in each of the last 2 years there for his club team Nexen.

While you have to temper expectations coming overseas to North America from there, what I love is that the guy improved his numbers in each of the last 5 years.  This bodes well for him in Minny.

With a 4 year deal in his back pocket, Park will and should remain on the big roster based on his early success.

I am not sure he will win the Award, and I am not placing any cabbage on him too, but at least he won’t be subjected to service time restrictions like other rookies.