How the west was won

[FWHORN]

So baseball is a numbers game and I love to look at the numbers and see why certain things happen and teams succeed.

1. Rangers won the west by beating their division mates. The Rangers are 35-17 against division opponents while the Angels are a pedestrian 26-26. Both teams have 5 games left against division opponents but look no further than this to see why Texas will be raising a banner tonight.

2. Interleague play favored the Angels who were 8 games over .500 against NL while the Rangers were only right at .500. Had the Rangers not played so well in their own division this would have been a crucial, instead its just an interesting oddity.

3. To this point the Rangers are 21 games over .500 at home while the Angels are only 12 games over at home. Whenever the Rangers had a homestand it halted any slide. On the road the Rangers are 4 games to the good with 3 left while the Angels finished 41-40.

So it can be said the Rangers won the west at home and by dominating their division opponents.

The pitching staff didnt have the streak stopper or dominating ace like Cliff Lee but overall I think was stronger this year than last because of its consistency even without an ace like Lee. CJ has 16 wins, Holland 15 and Harrison 14 followed by Ogando and Lewis each with 13. That is consistency acorss the staff.

Injuries almost caused some bad losses to blow up into bad losing streaks and when the lead fell to 1.5 followed shortly thereafter by Cruz going on the 15 day disabled I began to despair but this team showed resiliency.

Ready for playoff run of 2011 to begin.

 

[ViperHorn]

Nolan obviously read the tea leaves correctly and built a team that would win by dominating the division (i.e. playing on the weaknesses of the West).

Several issues to take care of in the offseason, but let's hope that doesn't start until November!

 

[Horn69]

Starters were absolutely the best, if not ever, in a long, long time. CJ spent a lot of quality time learning from Lee the last half of last season and then the young guys - Holland and Harrison - learned from him.

Also, Michael Young was nails. To think that he asked to be traded (or at least that was the story) and the Rangers did not do that and to each of their's credit ended up being the team's MVP. Unreal.

Daniels acquiring Beltre, Napoli and Torrealba was outstanding. Wash ditching Borbon early and going with Chavez and Gentry worked great.

How fun is it when all the pushed buttons work? Wow. Looking forward to playoffs.

Hook'em!!!

 

[orangecat1]

really amazed at moves like the Borbon move. This time last year Borbon looked like he was gonna be a lifer in the field. Gentry/Chavez were fantastic.

I wonder if Michael Young gets any serious MVP votes? He will finish with 210+ hits, 100+ RBI, and number 2 or 3 in batting title.

Maybe, just maybe if he wins the batting title he could get some MVP consideration. He would need to finish the year with a bang. They told the story yesterday how he looked at the lineup for Saturday, realized Washington needed one more infielder and volunteered to play, got two hits in the process.

Project these numbers; Michael goes two for three the last three games, a 340 avg for season, and 215 hits. Is that enough to win the batting title and MVP?

Gonzalez had a bad day earlier today, dropping to a tie with Michael at 338, has another game tonight.

The guy in Detroit is now leading, at 340.

 

[Horn69]

If MY were to get MVP, 2 consecutive years for Rangers. Wowzer.

Hook'em!!!

 

[FWHORN]

Update on number one reason Rangers won west, they finish an incredible 40-17 against the AL West. That is amazing!