It's been a ridiculously joyous 2016 regular season for Texas Rangers baseball fans. The Rangers have a shot at setting the single-season franchise record for wins (96). They have homefield advantage through the World Series, if we're fortunate enough to still be watching them in late October. They have 49 come-from-behind victories this year, tops in MLB. They are 36-8 in one-run games. Some are calling it lucky. We are calling it our 2016 identity.
I'm grateful for another year of postseason baseball. Let's not forget this is the fourth AL West title in the last seven years. General manager Jon Daniels has once again worked his magic, adding Carlos Gomez, Carlos Beltran, Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress in the second half - and most importantly, not subtracting clubhouse chemistry.
This is Adrian Beltre's team and Adrian Beltre's clubhouse. It's a beautiful thing from afar. In all my years watching baseball, I've never seen a player like Beltre, who strikes the perfect balance between being loose/hilarious and being crazy intense. Sometimes I think Beltre is auditioning for a role in The Sandlot. Other times - most times - he operates in the field and at the plate with surgical precision. He saves runs on defense and at 37 years old, he's hitting .299 with 32 homers and 104 RBI. His leadership practically screams World Series or bust.
As the top seed in the American League, the Rangers will face the Wild Card winner - as of this writing Toronto, Baltimore or Detroit. And the more I think about it, the more I want Yu Darvish, not Cole Hamels, starting Game 1 of the ALDS next Thursday in Arlington.
Texas set up its rotation toward the end of the season to feature (in order) Hamels, Darvish, Colby Lewis and Martin Perez. But the more I look at the potential opponents, the more I like Darvish out of the playoff gate. Consider the best hitters on each potential foe:
Toronto: Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki.
Baltimore: Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Mark Trumbo.
Detroit: Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, JD Martinez.
Common theme? All right-handed. Advantage Darvish over Hamels.
Look, I love Cole. He's been a workhorse all year, with 200 IP and 200 strikeouts on the dot. But he has also walked 77, more than he ever has in a season. And those three aforementioned lineups scare the hell out of me with runners on base.
Cole walks 3.5 batters per nine innings. Yu walks 2.8 per nine.
Darvish ended his season in dominant fashion, striking out 12 helpless Rays against only one walk. Darvish feels like the better pitcher at the moment. And if he has a high strikeout game (eight or more in his last four starts), it could throw hitters off balance and tank the opposition's confidence in a short series.
I suppose it's not a huge deal. Either way, Darvish and Hamels will be pitching Games 1 and 2. This is the moment Rangers fans have been waiting for since last year. Having a healthy Cole and Yu atop the playoff rotation, something we've never seen. It's without question the strongest 1-2 starting pitching punch in franchise history. I've been saying it since last year: Get me to the playoffs with a healthy Cole and Yu and I'll take my chances against anyone. Let's make history this year, ladies and gentlemen.
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