Larry Stone / Baseball reporter
A.L. West-best Rangers are no fluke

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

You may have missed it in all the excitement over the beginning of the Miguel Olivo era, but the best team in the American League West is in town.

In a season peppered with surprising turnarounds — Cincinnati and Milwaukee in the National League, Tampa Bay and Detroit in the American League — the Texas Rangers top the list.

Yeah, the starting-pitcher-challenged, Alex Rodriguez-less, Chan Ho Park-plagued Texas Rangers. The doormat of the AL West for the past four years, they now find themselves, somehow, some way, atop the division.

The unsettling news for the Mariners, who have taken over the cellar spot usually inhabited by the Rangers, is that Texas has the undeniable look of one of those young, developing, talent-laden teams that should only get better.

"Early on, people thought it was a fluke, it wasn't going to last, our pitching was going to break down," said Rod Barajas, whose 12 home runs lead all major-league catchers. "We've proven everyone wrong, and there's no reason for us to sit back and be satisfied with what we've done. We're hungry. We want to win, keep proving everyone wrong.

"I still think a lot of people don't believe we're going to be around come August and September. We have a lot of people we want to prove wrong. We like winning. We're having fun."

To show how much things can change in a year — take heart, Mariners fans — consider that the Rangers on June 29, 2003, one year ago yesterday, stood 31-49, 21 games behind division-leading Seattle. They wound up losing 91 games, then proceeded to trade Rodriguez to the Yankees in the offseason, leading to prophecies of even deeper doom. But just like the 2001 Mariners, jettisoning A-Rod turned out to be the formula for success — or so has gone one theory of Texas' rejuvenation.

"I think it's a big coincidence," scoffed Michael Young, who replaced A-Rod at shortstop and just might be the league's best performer at the position this side of Carlos Guillen. "There's no way a player of Alex's caliber can't help every team he's playing for. This year, look at our team — we have a lot of pluses that have nothing to do with Alex."

Young cites the performances of starters Kenny Rogers (10-2, 3.32 earned-run average) and Ryan Drese (4-5, 3.39) and closer Francisco Cordero (23 saves, .195 opponent's average), who have indeed been outstanding. As have a slew of hard-throwing setup men that have stabilized what was a perpetually troubled bullpen.

The remainder of the rotation has been undistinguished, to put it kindly, but even without the transcendent talents of Rodriguez, the offense has hummed. With perhaps the major leagues' most productive young infield — Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Young and Hank Blalock — the Rangers went into last night's game leading the American League in total bases, second in slugging percentage and batting average, third in home runs and fourth in runs scored.
 
"When you combine that with the veteran guys we brought in, like Eric Young, Brian Jordan and Jeff Nelson, it proved to be a great balance with the young players we already had in place," Michael Young said. "Everyone gets along. We're on the same page. It's just been great from Day 1. For whatever reason, right from the beginning of spring training this team believed we could go out and do good things."

The A-Rod factor is an intriguing one. Eric Young ascribes to the theory that the departure was necessary for the young, developing Rangers players to fully blossom. The fact that Rodriguez's departure led most observers to write off the Rangers for another decade just upped the ante.

"I hope they took it as a challenge," Young said. "A-Rod is a great player, a superstar in this game. But you know what? It wasn't the first time A-Rod left a team. He left Seattle, and you saw what they did. Junior left, Randy Johnson left, and the other players kept clicking.

"Sometimes, when all the pressure and all the focus is on a superstar, sometimes you get caught up in that, too, and don't do what you're capable of. I think this year has allowed some of those young players to bring out their personalities a little more."

Manager Buck Showalter challenged the team to start strong in April, and they ended the month in first place. The Rangers kept afloat through a series of injuries that have felled Park, Nelson, Jordan, reliever Jay Powell, starters R.A. Dickey and Colby Lewis, outfielder Laynce Nix and catcher Gerald Laird.

And now they are in the midst of their latest test, a 14-day, 14-game, four-city road trip stretching from Seattle to Boston that brings them up to the All-Star break.

The Rangers have thrived long enough to start believing they can sustain it through the hot summer months and into the fall. Management, in fact, may have to rethink its trade deadline philosophy. Owner Tom Hicks has suggested that the impending activation of several injured players will serve the same purpose as a deal, but the temptation to go hard after a frontline pitcher like Pittsburgh's Kris Benson or an outfielder like Colorado's Jeromy Burnitz will likely grow.

"If the front office thinks we might need a player here or there, so be it, but I think with the players we have now, the formula we have, we could definitely keep it going, and hopefully make the playoffs," said Barajas.

Said Eric Young, "We've just got an overall good thing going on."

The Mariners can just watch it from afar and wonder if they can become the next Texas Rangers.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com

More columns at seattletimes.com/columnists