Cleveland Indians: Previewing the series against the Rangers

The Cleveland Indians look to get off to a hot start as they kick off the second half of the season with a weekend road series against the Texas Rangers.

Welcome back to baseball, folks! The Cleveland Indians had themselves a busy All-Star back. They sent six players to the All-Star Game in Washington D.C. They also made a trade that you may have heard about, acquiring Brad Hand and Adam Cimber from the San Diego Padres for Francisco Mejia.

So make it seven All-Stars on the Tribe roster, as Hand is an All-Star himself. Now there is baseball to be played yet again. The Indians look to take on the Texas Rangers, a team they haven’t played since the first days of May.

The Indians took that first series 2-1 and that series in particular was one of the first where we really saw the Tribe bullpen start to fall apart. We all know how things went from there. Now the Indians look to put these lowly Rangers out for good as they are the only team in the AL West with a losing record. Let’s see how they stack up.

Projected Lineups

Cleveland Indians (52-43) vs Texas Rangers (41-56)

Cleveland Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, LF Michael Brantley, 3B Jose Ramirez, DH Edwin Encarnacion, 1B Yonder Alonso, 2B Jason Kipnis, C Yan Gomes, RF Tyler Naquin, CF Rajai Davis

Texas Rangers: DH Shin-Soo Choo, SS Elvis Andrus, RF Nomar Mazara, 3B Adrian Beltre, 2B Roughned Odor, 1B Jurickson Profar, C Robinson Chirinos, LF Joey Gallo, CF Delino DeShields

The Indians made some other roster moves yesterday in order to make some room for their new guys. They optioned Adam Plutko, Tyler Olson, and Greg Allen in exchange for Yandy Diaz and Melky Cabrera. So Yandy finally gets his chance to put his bat to use in the majors again. He has been a walk machine in Triple-A but he’s struggled with every stint he’s had in the MLB.

Shin-Soo Choo was the lone Ranger (haha) All-star. He’s had himself a remarkable first half in his age 36 season and earned his first ever All-Star spot. Choo has made himself quite useful in the DH spot with an impressive .506 slugging percentage.

He also has a great .405 OBP to boot which as netted him in the leadoff spot. Remember when Joey Gallo was tied for the AL lead in homers? That was fun. He has since dropped to 12th with 22 homers. It’s still all or nothing for Gallo as he a BABIP of just .228.