The Texas Rangers will play the Washington Nationals in a 3-game series this weekend which might seem like a good opportunity for Mike Rizzo to scout their team as a trade partner like they did successfully before the 2006 season when the Nats acquired Alfonso Soriano.
These Texas Rangers were once the 1971 Washington Senators before owner Bob Short packed up for greener pastures near Dallas. That move robbed generations of Washingtonians of baseball and the ghost of Bob Short still seems to haunt those Rangers who still have not won a World Series. This year’s Rangers team has already traded their closer Sam Dyson for the proverbial “bag of balls” and lost one of their ace pitchers, Cole Hamels, to the DL with an oblique injury.
The Rangers are 5 games under .500 and in 4th place in their division so keep your eyes on them and see if you like any of their moveable parts for a trade. Stranger things have happened as we know.
Future stars like Rougned Odor is batting .205 and their catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, who they traded a top prospect Ryan Cordell for is struggling. Lucroy has an OBP of .297 and looks like a shadow of his former self. Star prospect Joey Gallo already has 84 strikeouts and batting .200 but he has a lot of pop in the bat in his all-or-nothing approach, and Mike Napoli went on the DL after only batting .192.
They have some players who are playing well like Elvis Andrus, Delino DeShields Jr. and Nomar Mazara, but that has not helped them in their quest to get to the top of the AL West this season.
They have received good pitching from tonight’s starter Andrew Cashner and he will face the Nationals’ Tanner Roark. It will be a look at a team that was once considered the best team in the American League just 4 years ago, and they have tried to upgrade and sign top players—but it clearly didn’t work in a division now dominated in 2017 by their intra-state rival Houston Astros.
Tonight’s game will be played under National League rules which means there will not be a designated hitter used in this series.
Texas Rangers at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, South Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, FOX Southwest, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® XM 187 Sirius 132 (Internet 869)
Here's how we're lining up as the Rangers roll into town. #OnePursuithttps://t.co/oYco628QW8 #VoteNats pic.twitter.com/iz1gXYat2P
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 9, 2017
