OPS+ takes a player’s on-base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league. It then adjusts to measure where a player ranks among league average. 

A score of 100 is league average, meaning, that players OPS is middle of the pack.

A 150 is 50 percent better than the league average. Anything under 100 means that player is that much worse than average.

It’s a great barometer of a player’s relative worth.

Here are the OPS+ scores for the current Rangers, from best to worst. Anything over 100 means the player is better than average. Anything under means he is worse than average.

Gallo, Santana, Pence, Calhoun, and Choo are having strong seasons. Forsyth and Mazara are worthy of being called average. The rest have some work to do. Jeff Mathis is pitiful. Tim Federowicz, by the way, had an OPS+ of 47. More than three times better than Mathis. 

As a fun exercise, let’s compare the Rangers OPS+ rankings with the Astros. This will give us an indication of how wide, or narrow, the talent gap is between Texas and Houston.

In conclusion. The Rangers are a million light years from the Astros. 

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Tyler Alexander(0-1, 3.86) vs. Lance Lynn (13-6, 3.83)

Game time: 7:05