Hey. Hey, you there.
Yeah, you. Come over here. Shhh, not so loud. Come closer. I've got a secret for you.
Know who's scored the fewest runs in July so far? No, not the Pirates, you idiot, don't you know who Andrew McCutchen is? The Pirates have actually scored the most. The fewest? Actually the Texas Rangers.
Yeah, the Rangers. The fewest, man. Not like, the second-fewest, or bottom-five. Dead last. Fewer than the Astros. And I've heard they're not very good.
Who's to blame here? Well, time for another dark secret: Josh Hamilton has been close to an automatic out since June. Since the 1st of the that month, his average is .209, his OBP is .303, and he's struck out 47 times in 38 games. The Rangers are 21-17 over that period. In July, Hamilton's been even worse, hitting .178 in 13 games (the Rangers are, unsurprisingly, 5-8 in the month). Pitchers aren't throwing Hamilton strikes and he's obliging. Among qualified hitters, Josh swings at pitches outside the strike zone more than anybody else (45.7% of the time), even more than infamous free-swingers Delmon Young and Jeff Francoeur. And Hamilton's swinging-strike percentage is worst in baseball (19.6%) by a wide margin; Danny Espinosa is second at 14.8%. Hamilton is a great slugger when hot, but he can't be in the "best hitter in baseball" discussion when he's literally swinging at everything.
More slumping Rangers:
Ian Kinsler. The Rangers' second baseman is still hitting leadoff despite the worst OPS of his career (.768). He's also having a poor year in the field. Disappointing.
Michael Young. Nobody hitting .269/.300/.347 should be hitting so high in the lineup, let alone deserves the DH spot.
Nelson Cruz. News flash: Nelson Cruz isn't a particularly good ballplayer, and is extremely overrated. He was a beast in 2010, but he's no longer hitting for enough power (.435 slugging percentage and only 11 homers) to justify his poor OBP (.323).
Mike Napoli. Mike, Mike, Mike...you were so unbelievably fantastic last year. You were so hot in the postseason that you essentially had a cult following. Now you're hitting .231 with the worst OPS (.754) of your career while costing yourself tens of millions of dollars in your upcoming free agency. What happened, buddy?
Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and the bench can't carry this team to the division title, let alone the World Series. The Angels have scored twice as many runs as Texas this month, and they have two pitchers better than anything their rivals have. The way each team is playing, it would not shock me in the slightest if the Angels rallied to win the division. The Rangers are up six games with two months to play; as we learned last year, that kind of lead can vanish mighty quick. And it will if this offense doesn't come around soon.
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