MLB Weekend Preview: Rangers vs. Indians (And More!)

It’s an annoying week to do a weekend preview because most of the good series started on Thursday. If I ignore those series, though, you’ll get a steaming pot of Twins/Royals. Well, there’s the Cubs/Cardinals rivalry, but the Surgeon General makes you put a "Warning: May Contain Cubs" label on those previews. Too much red tape.

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Florida Marlins
Both teams are two games back of their respective division leaders, which is pretty impressive given how quickly the Cardinals and Phillies started the year. It’s tempting to call this a small-market battle royale, but it’s nothing of the sort. The Miami metropolitan area is five times bigger than Milwaukee, so this is a case of an underdog small-market team scrambling to keep pace with its large-market oppressor. The Brewers draw huge crowds and can spend, spend, spend, while the Marlins have to make do with sc ... wait, I forgot which one is which.

After donating $40M to the Jeff Suppan IV College Fund, it was pretty bold of the Brewers to get back on the free-agent horse with Randy Wolf. The lefty was just okay last year, but he’s providing a nice return on the Brewers’ investment this year, pitching well for a good Brewers team -- a synergy that the club was never able to get with Suppan. The Brewers can score runs, and they can prevent them. That’s, uh, good. Really, really good.

The Marlins aren’t going away, which is amazing considering that Hanley Ramirez has hit like Yuniesky Betancourt this season. Not only that, but Omar Infante is playing like a guy who should be scrapping for the 25th spot on a roster, not the All-Star Swiss Army Knife he was last season. He still might be the Swiss Army Knife, but the tweezers are missing and the toothpick smells funny. The Marlins were right to think that they’d get more production out of their middle infield than almost any other team in the majors -- that they’re contending with a middle infield right out of the Duane Kuiper/Frank Duffy era is extra impressive.

Fri. - Randy Wolf v. Ricky Nolasco
Sat. - Yovani Gallardo v. Chris Volstad
Sun. - Chris Narveson v. Anibal Sanchez

Texas Rangers vs. Cleveland Indians
This series kicked off on Thursday, with the Rangers thumping Carlos Carrasco and winning 7-4. The Rangers probably feel like they swung a huge deadline deal, getting Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton back on the same day and scoring more than five runs in five of their last ten games. For comparison, they scored more than five runs only seven times in the six weeks that Hamilton was out, so it must feel like the band is back together.

Of course, the real offensive star is Endy Chavez, who is hitting .415/.455/.683 in 41 at-bats for an OPS that is ... let’s see ... carry the two ... 7,302 points over his career OPS.

The Indians are the surprise of baseball, sure, but they’re not following the template of the typical surprise team. Usually a first-place team that was picked to finish near the bottom of their division is a team for which everything is going right. The Indians have had all sorts of injuries -- Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, and Mitch Talbot have all been on the DL -- and the team isn’t getting the quality innings they were hoping for from Fausto Carmona and Carrasco.

Fri. - Alexi Ogando v. Justin Masterson
Sat. - Derek Holland v. Fausto Carmona
Sun. - C.J. Wilson v. Mitch Talbot

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Seattle Mariners
The expected pitching duel between James Shields and Felix Hernandez on Thursday night was a bit of a dud, as the Mariners pounced on Shields and scored eight runs. The Mariners enjoyed a similar offensive explosion last year, but they called it "July." They’re just 1.5 games back of Texas, and they’re looking like this year’s version of the San Diego Padres -- slap, slap, slap, slugger!, slap, slap, bloop, dink, slap, comeback win. If there’s a difference between the two teams, it’s that the Padres’ bullpen had a K/BB ratio last year of 1,000/2 in 500 innings, while the Mariners’ bullpen features a bunch of sparkly-yet-unsustainable ERAs.

The Rays are either slumping or on fire -- Schrödinger's baseball team -- at any given time. Right now, it looks like they’re slumping. They’re scoring a little bit, but the offense is reliant on Casey Kotchman and Matt Joyce. The former is hitting like prime-era Tony Gwynn, while the latter is hitting like Stan Musial. While you’re right to be skeptical, the Rays can probably hope for an improvement from Reid Brignac. Even Brandon Wood is looking at Brignac’s line and saying, man, that guy is having a down year.

Fri. - Andy Sonnanstine v. Jason Vargas
Sat. - Jeremy Hellickson v. Doug Fister
Sun. - Wade Davis v. Erik Bedard