The Texas Rangers are loaded and winning…but what will keep them from the World Series?

Since the trade dead line on July 30th, the Rangers are 21-14, which Texas acquired catcher Jonathan Lucroy from Milwaukee and Carlos Beltran from New York Yankees. The batting line-up is now loaded with Beltran batting 3rd and Lucroy  batting 5th. Lucroy is batting .298,22 homeruns with 72 RBI and being a huge addition to the already dangerous Texas batting line-up. Beltran who when in New York was crushing the baseball hitting .304 with 22 HR.

With the Rangers rolling along just fine with a comfortable 9 game lead in the A.L. West division and a almost definite playoff birth, unless they completely fall apart like they have in the past,then you think they should be fine in October...right? The big weakness for the ball club in Arlington is not their bullpen like it has been in the past few years but instead it is their starting lineup on the mound. Yes, they have Yu Darvish (3.28 ERA) and Cole Hamels (3.25 ERA,175 K) out there but who else? Martin Perez who is throwing 4.25 ERA and is very inconsistent. Colby Lewis? who is throwing a decent 3.21 ERA but cannot seem to stay healthy.

Powerful batting lineup for the Rangers will not be enough and Cole and Yu will not be enough either. The lack of depth in the starting lineup will be the downfall of Texas if they do not step it up. Lets hope and pray that the Rangers and Jeff Banister will tinker a few things and bring a World Series to Arlington.