Currently speaking on August 9th, the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are separated by 2.5 games in the AL West standings. The Rangers have lead the division for the majority of the season with their high-powered offense and sneaky good pitching, but can the Astros make a late season push for the crown in the AL West?
Since 2017, the Texas Rangers really haven't been very competitive. The Rangers have not made the postseason since 2016 when they last won the division. The Rangers just recently moved into a new stadium in Arlington and wanted to put a good team out there so fans can show up and enjoy the new stadium and newly revamped team.
This really started last year when the Rangers made two huge acquisitions when they acquired Marcus Semien and Corey Seager in two lucrative free agent deals. With some of their homegrown talent on the offensive side, and adding new pitching such as Jacob DeGrom this previous offseason, the Rangers rebuild seems to be over and years of success are ahead of them.
The thing that is standing in their way, however, is the Houston Astros. Since 2017, the Astros have been crowned the champs of the AL West 5 times, dominating the division as of late. The Astros have established somewhat of a dynasty through these years besides all of the scandals that their previous teams have been involved with.
The Astros are an all-around excellent team with great hitting, pitching, and coaching as well with Dusty Baker at the helm. There's a reason why they have made six American League championship series's in a row and in that time have also made it to four World Series as well.
For the foreseeable future, the Astros will always remain contenders in the AL, but there is a new sheriff in town in the AL West with the emergence of the Texas Rangers. I think wherever the Astros are placed in the postseason they will thrive and ultimately I believe the Rangers will be the ones to be crowned champions of the AL West for the first time since 2016.
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