The Ranger market hit a yearly high thanks to a five-day winning streak, before a loss on Wednesday. But there are some indicators that suggest this could become a prolonged period of success for the market. A look at what’s moving, what’s shaky and what’s unpredictable this week:
Market indicators: Coupling a pair of fairly reliable success indicators for the Rangers creates a nearly pristine performance. The Rangers are 23-5 when scoring first, which is very good. They are 24-6 (.800) when they score at least four runs, the ninth-best win percentage in those situations. But if the Rangers can accomplish both feats in a game, they are unbeatable. They are 19-1 when doing so, the best record in the league. Makes investing a high-pressure offense more important because the yield is so good.
Healthcare sector: The Rangers are expected to get Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager back Friday, after missing the former for six weeks and the latter for three. Josh Smith could go on a rehab assignment early next week, putting the Rangers in position to be the closest they’ve been to full strength since mid-April. That is if nobody else gets hurt.
Higashioka Mining: The Rangers have bored deep into the earth looking for some kind of offensive production and may have finally found something. Since mid-May, Kyle Higashioka is slashing .345/.441/.621/1.162 and got back-to-back starts in St. Louis. A team looking to improve offensive output has to rely on the hot hand, so Higashioka may get more playing time. It’s been close to a 60-40 playing time split in favor of Danny Jansen behind the plate; it may grow closer to 50-50.
Gore-Tex: The one thing that seems to permeate this product is wildness, which really impacts the value, especially after the Rangers spent so much to acquire the patent. But MacKenzie Gore seems to have real trouble making quick adjustments when he encounters periodic bouts of wildness. He’s walked three batters in an inning twice and two batters six times. So eight innings of work account for 60% of the walks he’s allowed this year. Gotta fix that before there is a recall.
Communications: In preparation for activating Langford, the Rangers were faced with sending out an outfielder from the group of Evan Carter, Alejandro Osuna and Michael Helman. They chose to send out Osuna, who has executed the elements of small ball as well as anyone on the roster and has the highest OPS of all three players mentioned. But Carter is an elite defender in center and Helman is the best right-handed hitting option in center when the Rangers face a lefty, so Osuna loses out. The tactical elements all make sense, but from a simpler perspective, it just appears Osuna is doing his job better than others are doing theirs at the moment.
Burger Index: If you plotted Jake Burger’s OPS in 10-game stretches this season, it would look like a backwards “N.” Here are the numbers. Plot it for yourself: .910, .705, .276, .581, 1.179 and .568. That’s just too volatile for anybody to invest in deeply. It’s why Burger is likely to fall down in the lineup a few spots with the returns of Seager and Langford. Teams can get by with unpredictability in the bottom third of the lineup if the top is producing, but they can’t survive that kind of unpredictability in the middle. And Burger has spent the last week as the No. 4 hitter.