Down in a Cole

Cole Hamels is leading the Texas Rangers' pitching staff in strikeouts with 79. Meanwhile, Joey Gallo is leading the lineup in strikeouts with 96. Not really the problem you want to have.

Hamels is still the best player on the team, and might be one of the more important pitchers in baseball. He just notched his 150th win, which...in the era of 5-man rotations, its a lot more attainable than 300 to be honest, and he's recently notched his 2300th strikeout. He's also been nothing but dominant for the Rangers, even if he's been robbed of some numbers thanks to his injury-plagued 2017 season. He's still the right guy to base a rotation around, but...not when there's not a ton of other options for one.

Bartolo Colon is finally pitching like a 45-year old man again, Mike Minor and Matt Moore still give up too many runs, and there's not too many other healthy options in terms of starters. The Rangers may have to start digging deep into the minors in order to salvage this team, because...let's face it, it's too damned old. The starters are in their 30s (with the exception of 29-year-old Matt Moore, who only PITCHES LIKE he's in his 30s), and even if only 3 starting lineup members are in their 30s, the inexperience of the rest of the lineup is adding up. Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo strike out way too much to let their subsequent home runs be acknowledged. Ronald Guzman and Isaiah Kiner-Falefa are upgrades, but not by a great deal. Even promising players, like Nomar Mazara and Delino DeShields, have their imperfections.

This is a team in disarray, and I don't know if they have many plans to solve problems. Elvis Andrus will be coming back soon, and Adrian Beltre is already back, but it remains to be seen how much good they will do.

The Rangers won't seek contention this year. Not sure if they will for the remainder of the decade, which says a lot for the team that started off in two World Series'.

Coming Tomorrow- Another member of the middle-relief revolution, helping his team sprint back to first.