Are the Texas Rangers really going to hang on here?
As of this writing, the Rangers lead the American League West by two games over the Astros and are overachieving based on their initial price tag, which hovered around +1000 to win the division.
Reasonably, while the Rangers have impressed, you have to question if they can sustain it, and the Astros have more than enough equity built up to suggest that their pathway to overtake the division is more than realistic.
The value is also there, which won’t be the case forever.
| AL West Standings | Odds to win division |
|---|---|
| Rangers (51-36) | -120 |
| Astros (49-38, 2 GB) | +115 |
| Angels (45-44, 7 GB) | +2000 |
| Mariners (42-43, 8 GB) | +2000 |
| Athletics (25-64, 27 GB) | 1999/1 |
The Houston Chronicle is also expecting them to be active between now and the trade deadline at the top of August.
The Astros have the fourth easiest strength of schedule remaining when factoring in their forthcoming series’ and the winning percentages of their opponents to be over the next three months, according to Tankathon’s metrics.
Remaining Astro opposition have a .486 winning percentage, elevated to a slightly tougher .496 for the Rangers, who are tied for the last spot in the bottom 10 of the same category.
This month alone, they’ll see the Seattle Mariners in a home, four-game series, the Los Angeles Angels, Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics on the road, followed by the Rangers themselves at home shortly before the aforementioned deadline.