Rangers Among best...

by gr7070 on Nov 3, 2008 3:13 PM CST Comment 7 comments

...teams to never make a World Series.

Hardball Times via Neyer...

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/october-countrys-refugees-part-1-of-2/

1999 Rangers: 95-67 (.586). Wait—the Rangers won 95 games in a season once? How can that happen? Ah well, that's what I get for not paying much attention to baseball in the late 1990s. The Rangers had a good stretch, but had the nasty habit of playing nail to the Yankees' hammer in the AL playoffs.

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I still think the 1996 team was the best we ever ran out there.

But the 99 team was pretty damn legit, too.

Stupid Yankees and stupid short 5 game series.

The 40 Trumps All!!!

Rule 5? No…talk to the hand.

by thedirkatron on Nov 3, 2008 3:27 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

The pitching

was much better on that ’96 team it appears.

I'm undefeated in fights. Have I been in any? No. Thats because people know my f'ing status. Don't mess with the elite. - Miles

by Dirk Diggler on Nov 3, 2008 3:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think the '99 team was the best

but the ’96 team had the best shot at going deep into the playoffs or even the World Series.

The problem with 1999 was that it was at the peak of the Yankees total dominance of the game.

Look at how good our bullpen was in 1999. Wetteland (139 ERA+), Crabtree (148) , Venefro (153), Zimmerman (217!!!!!). The team OPS+ was 109 and ERA+ was 101.

In 1996, our pitching was amazingly good (ERA+ of 113), but we lacked a closer (remember Mike Henneman with his 5.79 ERA – yeah, you wanted to forget), and our offense was only okay (OPS+ of 103, even with Juan Gone and his OPS+ of 145).

But had we beat NY in ‘96 round 1 – they were only a 92 win team that year, and very beatable, we’d have played an 88 win Baltimore team in the ALCS.

by JBImaknee on Nov 3, 2008 3:39 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs