Rangers vs. Astros: Key Pitchers Face Off in Houston

Huge series this weekend in Houston the Rangers coming to town a wide open American League Central Great pitching matchup Hunter Brown on the mound for Houston of all the on the mound for the Rangers And the Rangers reinforcements are back here Corey Seager activated from the IL list here today Pretty good stuff. You know, that's a guy that they have missed from a bat perspective Certainly if he could ever stay healthy would be tremendous 51 total games he's played this season It would be nice if he could down the stretch here to try to give Texas that bat in that order and give him an opportunity to make a run at this But either way with these two guys on the mound, I don't see a lot of runs happening here tonight Yeah, and it should be a good matchup here. There's an inherent rivalry there between these two teams There always is and I see the West Joe very different than I see any other division I think you know with the White Sox and Cleveland, you know, it could go down to the end and both teams are pretty good I think the American League West may be the worst division in baseball this season. And so I think for me Whoever makes the biggest leap in the next 72 hours among these teams. I think that team will win the division I gotta throw Houston back in there. I don't like them at all. I think they're old I think they're probably heading in the wrong direction, but it is undeniable Joe. They have the best hitter in baseball So when you have that it's like if the Yankees which they sometimes do have nothing around judge but they still have judge he takes him to the playoffs and Jordan Alvarez is gonna take Houston as far as he possibly can now You know parades is good and pain is having a great year, but they don't have enough pitching I don't think to even win the division but Could they make some deals could Houston use this series this weekend when two out of three from Texas feel like they're right in it Seattle also, I think those teams cannot just sit back Joe and and just sit back and wait and see what happens. I think Whoever it gets the most aggressive among those teams in the West including Seattle I think to me that could be the key to winning the division. I Keep hearing a couple of names with the Mets to that. I keep hearing It's important to know again that the whole CBA thing is interesting because I don't know how many teams would be willing to take on anything outside of a Rental or something affordable like teams are not going to take on Big contracts right going no matter how good it may be then because they just don't know What it's going to be January 1st or whatever is going to be agreed on right? because the whole financial structure can take if you get yourself a guy like a hunter green who's locked into you know, 20 some odd million it it changes the dynamic so teams might not be willing to take on somebody with Any sort of contract or any sort of big money at this point? I think it applies that that point applies to the top and it applies to the middle But a team like Tampa Bay Joe if now again, we don't know how this is gonna go but if we're to assume That there's going to be a salary cap and a salary floor It may behoove the Rays Joe to step on that pedal a little bit harder point and maybe even take on some salary for next season because they're gonna have to lift their floor if that is the case and so will Pittsburgh and so will Miami and so will Cleveland and so will some of these other teams so for those teams it may Be the opportunity to take a little bit of a preemptive step and say hey look Let's go ahead and just do this now because we think we're gonna be there anyway now It doesn't make sense if you are a team That's on the fringe of the playoffs Because then you could just be taking on salary for no reason at all when you could have done it next year in the off Season, but for a team like Tampa Bay Joe, that's the team that I would take exception I think the Rays can do whatever they want here And if they have to take on a guy with a lot of money, they can just simply go So we may as well get a guy that's on a two-year deal or maybe a three-year deal and pay him because we're gonna have To pay this player anyway, but Rays are in a different situation Joe They're gonna be and they're gonna make the playoffs 20 games over 500 already Not the same for Cleveland two games over not the same for Miami 500 or below not the same for Washington You know those teams don't have the same application there Tampa Bay should be as aggressive as anybody they can get anybody they want and not really have to worry about it It's a great point there because they're gonna have to raise their game one way or the other Come next come next season if all goes according to plan or at least what we're hearing there