Joe Sheehan had a column up yesterday, comparing the teams he projected from 16-30 before the season, with their runs scored and allowed, to where they stand now. This snippet from his Ranger comment jumped out at me:
The X factor is Roy Halladay, a pitcher the Rangers can afford both talent-wise and financially, and who would make them the favorites in the West over the Angels. Unless they make that kind of addition, however, they’ll slip under .500 by the end of the year.
Here's the thing...the Rangers are currently 9 games above .500. Something I had forgotten, incidentally, during the break, until I went to check the standings this morning...I had thought they were 7 games above .500.
Anyway, the Rangers have 75 games left. At 1 game below .500 the rest of the way, the Rangers still would end up winning 85 games. To finish below .500, the Rangers would have to go 32-43 the rest of the way, a .427 winning percentage. Over the course of a full season, that would be a 69 win team.
I expect the Rangers to end up in the mid-80s in wins, going around .500 the rest of the way. But if the Rangers finish below .500, that will mean a pretty precipitous slide after the ASB, and I imagine that could potentially mean some heads rolling.