Those Texas Rangers

It’s Monday morning, May 3rd, and the Texas Rangers have the best record in baseball.

Most of the media coverage has focused on the Rangers’ bats. After all, they lead the league in runs scored. But the real key for the Rangers’ has been their pitching, unlooked for and unappreciated due to their ballpark.

The top graph in the American League trends section shows that their offense is only somewhat better than average once corrected for ballpark, but their no-name pitching staff is second only to the Red Sox (the graph was drawn on Saturday).

The Ranger pitchers have done a particularly good job of not allowing home runs (third least in the league, despite playing in a home run park). Keeping the ball in the park may be key to their continued success.