AL West Standings Watch

[Molina00]

Thanks to an Oakland loss and consecutive Ranger wins over the last 2 days, Texas has gained 1.5 games in the AL West race and is now 5 games behind Oakland.

[Roy31]

Oakland has such an easy schedule remaining it would be absolutely pathetic if they didnt win the division...

[Molina00]

The Rangers finally managed to gain some ground on the A's with a win over TB yesterday. The A's had an off-day so Texas gained half a game and is now 7 games back.

[Providence A's]

I will do my best to keep this thread updated on the current division standings each day.

AL West Standings
1) Oakland Athletics: 72-55
2) Los Angeles Angels: 67-61, 5.5 GB
2) Texas Rangers: 66-63, 7.0 GB
4) Seattle Mariners: 58-69, 14.0 GB

Updated through games of 8/24/06

you guys are in 3rd place and you got pass the Angels before you can think about catching the A's Let's see what happens this weekend...

[Providence A's]

So I noticed you stopped tracking the standings...why not just delete it then?

[Molina00]

I just forget to update them. heh
I'll get it caught back up now.

[Molina00]

After winning 3 straight games the Rangers now need to go 5-6 over their last 11 games to finish with a winning season.

[Molina00]

The Rangers now need to go 5-4 over their final 9 games to finish with a winning season.

[Molina00]

The Rangers now need to go 4-3 over their final 7 games to finish with a winning record.

[Molina00]

After a 3 game losing streak the Rangers now have to go 4-1 in their final 5 games to finish with a winning season. The things have been going, even a 3-2 finish to go out at .500 seems doubtful.

[catman]

Losing 2 of 3 to the Indians at home did not help the cause, did it?
The Rangers are very close to being an excellent team. They have a very good core group of players -- Tex, Young, Matthews, Blalock, Kinsler, Cruz and their pitching is not terrible. They have one of the more exciting prospects -- Joaquin Arias -- that I've ever seen. If he can get his mind right, he could be a tremendous asset for the Rangers. The only problem is where would he play? He is a middle infielder by trade and those positions are pretty well set, unless Michael Young would agree to move to the outfield or 3B (moving Blalock to DH) to give him a spot.

[Molina00]

Losing 2 of 3 to the Indians at home did not help the cause, did it?
The Rangers are very close to being an excellent team. They have a very good core group of players -- Tex, Young, Matthews, Blalock, Kinsler, Cruz and their pitching is not terrible. They have one of the more exciting prospects -- Joaquin Arias -- that I've ever seen. If he can get his mind right, he could be a tremendous asset for the Rangers. The only problem is where would he play? He is a middle infielder by trade and those positions are pretty well set, unless Michael Young would agree to move to the outfield or 3B (moving Blalock to DH) to give him a spot.

That series against the Indians did not help at all. It started out looking so promising with the blowout win in game 1 too.

Michael Young really has no business switching positions again. In his time since moving to shortstop he has established himself as a very solid fielder at that position, and that was after doing a very good job at secondbase his first couple of seasons. I would say use Arias for trade bait to bring in more pitching. They don't need him at all with the Young/Kinsler double play team. There are potentially a lot of holes in their team for next year though. Padilla, Eaton, Lee, Matthews, DeRosa, and Barajas are all potential free agents this year. If they can't resign half or most of those guys that would really weaken the team, even with their young core infield.

[Molina00]

With the Rangers 8-4 win over Boston in Saturday's game they improved to 2-3 on the sesaon and moved into 3rd in the AL West and 2.5 game behind the Angels.

[Molina00]

After a 6-2 surge the A's have vaulted into first in the AL West after starting the year 2-5. The Rangers remain in the bottom half of the division tied with the Angels for last at 6-9 and 2 games out of first place.

[Molina00]

Despite a 3 game winning streak the Rangers are still in last place at 3.5 games back. They should be able to start climbing the AL West ladder now since they are getting good pitching and timely hitting at the same time.