Texas Rangers Research Paper

Last year a whole nation came together to cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays as they made their bid to win the World Series. It was a feat that they had not accomplished in over 20 years. The excitement across Canada was unbelievable! People from all over the country were travelling to Toronto and the opponent’s city to show their support for the Jays. Unfortunately, their efforts were cut short in a series loss to the Kansas City Royals who ended up World Series Champions. Now with the 2016 season around the corner, can the Blue Jays make it back to back playoff berths with the changes that have been made in the front office, pitching rotation and player trades?

The Houston Astros have been making deals to improve their team, and avoid another collapse like the one they had last season. Their bullpen could not finish the year strong after being one of the best in baseball throughout the season. The bullpen, also, collapsed in game four of the ALCS against the eventual champions. The Royals could not hit Lance McCullers, but once he was removed with one out in the seventh inning, Kansas City 's offense got it going.

The major league World Series has come. The games that KC Royals, Lopez’s team, have won are 3 games. The opponent team, San Francisco, have won one. One more win and the Royals are the champs… again.

The Rockies bullpen is energized as in their last 3 games they needed to use 6 pitchers with 80 pitches and 17 outs. Their batting average on balls in play is a very impressive of .394 and their on base percentage is also very impressive with a .393 season to date

The Diamondbacks will rely heavily on their offense in their attempt to make a playoff push, but will need everything to go right to get them there. Several changes were made in the offseason, including making Torey Lovullo their skipper, snagging Mike Hazen from Boston to be their GM, and numerous important acquisitions, all in an effort to

If the Rangers pick up two points of any kind in their game against the Detroit Red WIngs (12:30pm), the Islanders would need to win three of their final four points to finish ahead of the Rangers and meet the Penguins.

In particular, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis, and Brandon Phillips raised their respective batting averages over .150 points in the last five games. Add the steady bat of Feddie Freeman (.400 batting average and 1.347 OPS) and the return of Kemp (.500 and 1.654) makes the lineup a bit intimidating for other pitchers.

As of this writing, the Orioles find themselves 6.5 games out of first place in the AL East and 2.5 games out of the second wild card spot, with no other team currently in front of them. However, nearly the rest of the American League is in a similar situation, with only a total of four teams being more than 5 games behind the Twins. Even though the standings could look very different by the time the trade deadline arrives, the Orioles have recently stated (again) that they will be buying at the deadline.

Fast forward to today, with Rodriguez settling back in as the everyday DH, and #36 back in RF, the Yankees sit in fourth place, at 27-30. There is still a long way to go in this season, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how exactly it ends. But the one thing you can count is that Carlos Beltran will continue to grind out productive at bats. Why, you ask. Because he’s in a contract year. And when the chips are down, Beltran shines when it’s time to get paid! Look no further than to his past contract

The Texas Rangers (54-53) beat the AL West leading Houston Astros (60-49) 4-3 tonight in Arlington, Texas. Nick Martinez (7-6 3.91 ERA) got the win for the Rangers and Houston ace Scott Kazmir (6-6 2.08 ERA) took the loss for the Astros. Sam Dyson came in and made things interesting, but ultimately got the saved and preserved a huge series sweep for the Texas Rangers.

The road to the actual playoffs began in a single game in which the Houston Astros defeated the Yankees in an effort to win the last playoff spot. Two days later after their win the Astros faced the Kansas City Royals and this series lasted the 5 games. Sadly for the Astros, the Royals won the series and advanced to the ALCS. The Royals did everything right but they wouldn’t have done it without the help of Alcides Escobar who got on base almost every single game and Eric Hosmer who hit a couple of home runs and managed to get an RBI in almost every game. This series was really intense because all the games were played; meaning that there was a tie between the teams and games 5 was the last shot for both of them. Both of these teams played really good and players from both teams made a lot of sensational plays that led their teams to a win. Alex Gordon a former gold glove award winner who is always diving for impossible fly balls didn’t fail to make several catches. Mike Moustakas playing the hot corner managed to snatch every single shot that was hit towards

They are no longer the lovable losers and I think the floodgates have opened for this franchise and are quickly going to become hated because they win too much and I think that's the biggest compliment I can give any sports franchise. The reason why is the curse breaker Theo Epstein. He broke the

The Giants have been one of the best teams in baseball for a few years now and it sure didn’t look any different this year, until the second half of the season. The Giants have made it to the postseason three times since 2010 and won the World Series each time. The Giants are somewhat a hit and miss club that is use to inconsistency. Unlike their counterpart, the Dodgers have made it to postseason since the 2013 season including this year, unfortunately, they haven’t been able to get passed the NLCS in any of those years. The Giants are in that same position this year, on the brink of victory or failure. As of today, they are in the second Wild Card spot, but expect there to be quite a bit of shake ups until the postseason starts.

The same night, another trade was struck between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves. The Braves sent the young stud Shelby Miller, who recorded a 3.02 ERA in 2015, to Arizona in exchange for top D-Backs prospect, Dansby Swanson and two other prospects. This move proved that the Dbacks want to go all in for 2016. There are still many players on the market who have yet to be signed, primarily outfielders. Outfielders such as Jason Heyward, Yoenis Cespedes, Alex Gordon and Justin Upton have yet to reach deals with teams. The Giants, after losing out on the major free agents and trade candidates that they wanted are the frontrunners to sign the 2015 World Champion Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals. The meetings conclude on December 10th, but the offseason won’t stop. Many deals will continue to be made all the way up until January before spring training. The current rumor now is that Jason Heyward will choose between the Cubs, Angels and Cardinals. An outfield consisting of Heyward and Mike Trout would be one of the best defensive outfields in all of baseball because they are both spectacular

And it is quite likely that at the very least, the Yankees will hold on to the No. 1 wild-card spot and host a one-game playoff against either the Houston Astros, the Minnesota Twins or the Los Angeles Angels on Oct. 6. But it is truly hard to imagine the team that lost Friday to the lowly ChiSox mounting any kind of serious charge in the postseason. Sure, it would be nice to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012, but does anyone really believe the 2015 Yankees have it in them to do anything more than make a quick and unceremonious