Games won in April help stockpile wins for when a team needs them in September.

The Rangers have won twelve so far. Only Tampa Bay has won more. And they begin the season winning thirteen.

Yes, five of them have been against Kansas City. But five of them have also been against Philadelphia and Houston, the two teams that were just in the World Series.

Now they face Oakland, which might end up being one of the worst teams of all time. Their .158 winning percentage puts them on pace to win 26 games. The Rangers, 108 games.

Oakland’s owner, one of the richest in all of baseball, has decided he wants to move his team to Las Vegas because the city of Oakland and the state of California will not build him a new ballpark. The Giants faced the same dilemma years ago. Their owner built the park himself. 

So, Oakland’s owner decided to tear it down to the studs, only there are no studs.

If the Rangers win the next three against the Double-A team wearing Athletics uniforms, forgive them for stockpiling even more wins against another horrible team. Yes, they are cheap wins. But the 12 under the W column does not take into account cheap wins or hard-fought wins. 

And it wasn’t long ago (like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that) that the Rangers were the team that all the good teams were stockpiling wins against when their owner decided he, too, did not want to win games. His motivation wasn’t to get a new city to build him a stadium. His old city built him one anyway. 

So, as last-place Oakland comes into town to face first-place Texas, let’s not feel sorry for them. Let’s hope the Rangers hand them just what they want: three more loses. 

Then they can go on their way horrible and contented.

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