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Welcome to a new weekly series, as we’ll take a look at a few Rangers who are on heaters and more who are ice cold in something we’ll call “Who’s Hot? Who’s Not?”
The last week of Rangers baseball has been pretty much the same as the several weeks before it — a couple of really good games mixed with more stinkers, all with some encouraging performances from young guys mixed in. Plus, Cole Hamels had another pretty nice trade showcase! Hooray. Let’s get to the action.
Who’s Hot?
Cole Hamels — The Cole Hamels trade showcase tour continued this week as the veteran lefty turned in another great outing in shutting down the vaunted Yankees lineup to the tune of two runs (both solo homers), seven strikeouts and two walks over seven innings. As much as it sucks, Hamels is well on his way to being dealt before the July 31 deadline. The Rangers just need to get the best return they can for the crafty veteran who has a reasonable team option in 2019.
Shin-Soo Choo — Choo gets dealt a bad hand around here because of his albatross of a contract. But really, the guy’s produced in his time with the Rangers and is once again getting on base at a good clip. In the last seven games, Choo leads the team in hits, runs and walks (by a mile) and even chipped in with a grand slam.
Jurickson Profar — Holy cow. The amazingly unique season of Profar continues, as he continues to hit for meager average, on-base and slugging numbers, but somehow always manages to come through in the clutch. His game-winning hit on Wednesday gave him the MLB lead for game-winning RBIs this season, and in the past seven games, he leads the team with 11 RBIs.
*For consistency sake, we’ll leave this at three guys, but two guys who deserve a shoutout for the past week are Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ronald Guzman.
Who’s Not?
Delino DeShields — Yikes. I have confidence this isn’t a long-term deal, but he’s in a reallly bad way at the moment. In the past week, the speedy center fielder is hitting .080 (2-for-25) with 10 strikeouts and one walk.
Doug Fister — In his two starts this week, Fister has worked 11 1⁄3 innings, given up 17 hits, including three bombs, and allowed eight runs (six earned). Opponents are hitting a crisp .333 against him in that time. Not a good look, Fister.