Texas Rangers Offense Continues to Produce at a High Level

So far this season, much of the attention when it comes to offense in the American League has been focused around contending teams like the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins. However, very little fanfare has been given to the Texas Rangers and the amount of offense that their hitters have been able to produce to this point.

The Texas Rangers were never expected to be a contending team going into this season or be a team that was going to be relevant, outside of the idea of the team, playing spoiler for the other contenders in the American League. To this point, that has been very true, although to the Rangers credit, they currently sit in second place in the American League West with a 24-23 record. Impressive to say the least, but their chances of contending seem to be doomed given where they are in their rebuild and the rest of the landscape in the American League, let alone the American League West where the Houston Astros have just dominated things.

However, that's not to say that all has been lost for the Texas Rangers or that there haven't been specific qualities to like about this years team. You could easily say that new skipper, Chris Woodward, has had a positive influence on the team and brought about an entirely new analytical approach that might not have existed there before. Furthermore, you could say that guys like, Mike Minor and Lance Lynn, have been surprisingly good amid a starting rotation that many expected to be among one of the worst in all of baseball. On top of that, you could say the offense has been a big surprise and the sole reason why the Rangers sit in the standings, where they do and is exactly what this article will focus on.

As things stand right now, the Texas Rangers currently have the fourth best offense in all of baseball, the second best in the American League. Since the Rangers have an off day today, they've played in 47 games to date in which the team's offense has posted a cumulative batting line of: .259/.339/.472. That gives the Rangers the fourth best batting average, fifth best on-base percentage, and third best slugging percentage of all 30 teams in baseball. Again, something that you wouldn't expect and something that has gotten little fanfare because of teams like the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins.

Beyond that, the Rangers currently have the fifth most doubles (97), are tied for the seventh most triples (9), have the seventh most home runs (76), are tied with the third most RBI (261), and are tied for eleventh highest amount of walks (179) in all of baseball. Seeing those figures, you can start to make the assumption that the Texas Rangers lineup is full of hitters who have power, who know how to get on base when it matters the most, and have discipline during the right situations at the plate. Beyond that, it's stats that make you ask yourself: "Who is contributing to these numbers the most in their lineup?"

Well, to start off with, Texas Rangers centerfielder, Joey Gallo, has had an MVP-esque type of season all by himself. To date, Gallo is batting: .293/.426/.687 over the span of 183 plate appearances with (15) home runs, (35) RBI, a (.395) Isolated Power value, and a (.450) Weighted On-Base Average. Over the past few seasons, Gallo has always been one of those hitters who is an all or nothing guy. When he comes up to bat, you expected him to either hit the baseball over the fence out to rightfield or strike out, but it appears as though, so far this season Gallo is putting all of his hit tools together, during his age-25 season.

For hitters like Joey Gallo, the power can take a few seasons to fully show up and while his (88) home runs leading into this season were evidence of that power potential, this might be the season where everything clicks and he turns into a more productive hitter all around for the Texas Rangers. Beyond the numbers above, Joey Gallo has seen a significant spike in his hard contact rate (60.7% this season compared to 48.5% last year) and about a 10% decrease in his overall medium contact rate (38.9% in 2017 compared to 29.8% this year). Those statistics alone help to prove how Joey Gallo is seeing the ball better and has put some significant power behind his swing.

After all, Joey Gallo ranks second, behind only Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees, in Barrels Per Plate Appearance with a (13.7%) value and leads all of baseball with an Average Exit Velocity of (96.9 MPH). In addition, it's not just the power and better contact rates that have come through for Joey Gallo either, but he's also seen a increase in the amount of Pitches Per Plate Appearance as well. So far this season, Gallo is averaging (4.33) Pitches Per Plate Appearance, the highest value since the 2016 regular season when he had a (4.83) value in that category. However, that was also a season in which Gallo only recorded 30 plate appearances.

Beyond Joey Gallo, another keycog to the Texas Rangers lineup so far has been shortstop, Elvis Andrus. Andrus is currently in the midst of his age-30 season and has been one of the more productive hitters in the entire American League. To date, Andrus is batting: .325/.373/.510 over 169 plate appearances with a (.366) BABIP and a Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) value of (129). His (.325) batting average puts him third among American League hitters in that category and is a little over, ten points higher than the next best batting average, in the Texas Rangers lineup.

To date, Andrus is seeing virtually the same amount of pitches this season compared to last, but like Joey Gallo, the power and all of the hit tools have begun to click on all cylinders. As is the case with Gallo, Andrus has seen an uptick in the amount of hard contact that he is putting up so far this season.  To this point, Andrus has a hard contact percentage of (43.4%) compared to (33.8%) last year and has relied on the groundball less often (45.7% of the time this year compared to 49.8% last season).

Given the changes in the hard hit percentages for both Gallo and Andrus, it's fair to say that the new approach to analytics that the Texas Rangers have taken is clearly helping and promoting the idea of every batter hitting the ball with an enormous amount of power. Obviously, not being able to know exactly what's going on inside of the coaches room or the exact formula/game plan that the team is relying on it's hard to determine that, but the metrics make it obvious.

It hasn't been just Joey Gallo or Elvis Andrus contributing at a high level in the Texas Rangers either. Former San Francisco Giants outfielder, Hunter Pence who looked as though he could be on the verge of retirement at the end of last year, has found himself again and transformed himself into a new-age analytical hitter. To his credit, Hunter Pence has basically been able to benefit tremendously from a change of landscape and a change in the thinking that goes on behind-the-scenes when it comes to hitting and trying to identify that "sweet spot" for each pitcher.

Pence, who is in his age-36 season, is currently batting: .312/.364/.651 over 121 plate appearances. In that span, Pence has a (.339) Isolated Power value, a (.304) BABIP, and an overall Weighted On-Base Average of (.415). Spectacular considering that he ended last season with a (.106) Isolated Power value, (.282) BABIP, and a (.254) wOBA with the San Francisco Giants. Again, it's a credit to Hunter Pence and a credit to the new formula and analytical models that the Texas Rangers have seemingly embraced under the guidance of rookie skipper, Chris Woodward, and his coaching staff.

Furthermore, Hunter Pence has seen a resurgence in his power and has been able to tap into that. So far, he has (10) home runs, which is incredible considering that the last time he ended a season with (20) or more home runs, was in 2014. The best part is it's still only May so there's plenty of time for Pence to continue raking and see how high he can make that home run total come September! Granted, AT&T Park (now called Oracle Park) is an extremely hard ballpark to hit the ball out of, but regardless of that factor, Hunter Pence has still seemingly transformed himself almost overnight.

Beyond all of that, opposing team's pitchers are throwing more sliders to Hunter Pence, which is something else interesting to note. According to the data composed by FanGraphs, (24.1%) of the pitches that Pence has seen this year have been sliders. That percentage was (19.6%) last year. Furthermore, the sinker has simply become Hunter Pence's friend especially from a velocity standpoint. His pitch hit type percentage isn't necessarily higher with that pitch, but so far this year he has an average hit velocity of (94.7 MPH) on the sinker compared to (91.3 MPH) last year. Definitely two interesting trends and notes to make of this current resurgence for Pence.

While the Texas Rangers are still in the midst of a rebuild, it's fair to say that the offense has certainly not been a disappointment this year and has seemingly gone unnoticed across the entire league. Now, there's no saying that these numbers or power trends will continue all season, but for now, the Texas Rangers deserve a lot of credit for their overall approach to hitting and the new analytical trends that the entire team has embraced in a short period of time.

The Texas Rangers might not have their eyes set on contending this year, but they certainly have their eyes set on putting up high offensive numbers and potentially ending the season as one of the best offensive teams in all of baseball.