Kuzul

That man is STRONG. 

Houston Astros DH Evan Gattis was the lone shining light in his team’s 14-3 loss against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night. 

In the top of the eighth inning, the big man crushed a two-run home run off pitcher Andrew Faulkner. However, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill home run. Gattis only needed one hand. 

Yeah. We know.

The 29-year-old seemed to lose his grip while swinging, resulting in one arm doing all of the work. Safe to say he worked out his forearms during the offseason. 

Here’s another look, because why not?

[MLB, Vine]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Expectations at the big league level were minimal as last April brought the start of the Major League Baseball season.

However, by the time the final out of their 25th game was made, the Houston Astros had transformed into a contender. The only question was, were they more the small-sample variety, or were they the kind of club built to sustain success through the grind of 162 regular-season games?

For about five months, they gave us a definitive answer—they were built for the long haul. Or so they made us think.

Over their last 18 games, the Astros have taken a dozen losses, including Wednesday night’s 14-3 pummeling at the hands of the Texas Rangers, the American League West’s new leading team after the Astros led by 5.5 games less than three weeks ago. Going back further, Houston is five games under. 500 in its last 105, and now its hold on the second wild-card spot is at 1.5 games with the Minnesota Twins lurking.

“We’re a good team. We’ve been a good team all year,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters after the latest loss. “There’s a reason we’ve been hanging around here with the lead for the better part of this year. We’ll be a good team again by the end of the year.”

Astros about to drop to 50-55 since May 20. Out of playoffs in ‘x’ days?

— Joe Strauss (@JoeStrauss) September 17, 2015

The Astros’ four-game series against the Rangers started as a pivotal point in both teams’ seasons. The Rangers were well into their second-half onslaught that made them a surprise contender in the way the Astros were in April. Meanwhile, this was a chance for the struggling Astros, one game over .500 since the All-Star break, to make a stand and push back against their surging in-state rivals.

Doing so would have gone quite a ways in making people forget their recent slide, and it would have halted the panic setting in about this team devolving from a surprise member of the elite into one of the league’s biggest disappointments.

However, even with their two best starting pitchers slated in the first three games, the Astros did nothing to stop the flooding. The Rangers beat both Scott Kazmir (2.63 ERA) and Dallas Keuchel (2.22 ERA entering Wednesday), and their thumping of Keuchel started early Wednesday and ensured they would win the series and walk away from it in first place no matter what happens in Thursday’s finale.

“It’s a confidence-booster,” Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields told reporters. “We have been playing good against these guys all year. To come out like this, it says we’re not going to lie down, we’re here to the end, we’re not going to make it easy.”

Houston’s offense has taken some injury hits, and in the second half it has been in the middle of the pack, which is not much different than it was in the first half.

The rotation has been quite good throughout the season, but over the last couple of weeks, its performance has dipped. The real pitching problem, though, has been in the bullpen. After the relievers were fourth in the league in Fangraphs WAR during the first half, they have dropped to sixth in the second half and 10th over the past couple of weeks.

That has helped lead to a 7-12 record in one-run games in the second half, although the team has not been great in that split all season, going 19-26 for the year.

“We’ve played some close games, and one-run losses or two-run losses are tough, especially this time of year,” Hinch told reporters Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of attention, a lot of ‘want’ factor. Our guys are pushing. We’re in it. We’re having a hard time getting to the finish line on the right side of these on a couple of occasions.”

But those numbers on their own aren’t enough to cause a complete collapse. The Rangers have done their part to facilitate it. Their rotation has gone from around the bottom of the league in the first half to very good in August based on ERA and in September based on Fangraphs WAR to help them to a 36-21 record since the All-Star break, the second-most wins in the league in that time.

Some mild faltering by the Astros and a surge by the Rangers have given them a change at the top of the standings—and a significant shift in playoff probabilities, as the Rangers have gone from a 4.7 percent chance of winning the division on Aug. 26 to a nearly 60 percent chance after Wednesday’s win, based on Fangraphs’ postseason projections. 

Time is running out for the Astros to make good on their fairytale start, and missing the playoffs is now a realistic possibility with 16 games remaining, including three more against the Rangers. 

“We’ll be ready to play,” Hinch told reporters. “Our world’s not coming to an end.”

No, it’s not. But their postseason chances are flirting with it.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The comedic impressions, the all-around goofiness and even the recent “Wild Thing” haircut have become staples of Derek Holland‘s public persona during his seven-year career. 

It has made him a beloved player within his own clubhouse, a well-liked man within the game, a go-to interview for media members and a favorite for Texas Rangers fans. It has also made him marketable, gaining him television appearances and endorsement deals.

None of that would matter if Holland could not produce on the mound, though, and through most of his career, he has. But his downfall has been that over the last two seasons, injuries are associated with him as much as his fun-loving personality.

This season, it was a torn muscle behind his left shoulder that cost him more than four months on the disabled list—last year it was an off-field knee injury that sidelined him for the first five months of the season—but he has pitched mostly like a front-line starter since his return. That is a key reason why the Rangers, if they hang on to make the postseason as a wild card or winner of the American League West, can match their rotation with any in the Junior Circuit.

Holland talked about what he needs to do to help the team down the stretch, via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

It sucks that I am as fresh as I am, but I need to use this to my benefit and help these guys. I don’t know what the [innings] plan is from here on out, but I’m just happy they let me have the chances to go out there for nine innings.

I feel like everything is good. My job is to be prepared every five days. Now, it’s go time.

.@Dutch_Oven45, meet @charliesheen: http://t.co/S8evbGX3ne pic.twitter.com/RGqg1hCm4H

— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 8, 2015

It has been since his return on Aug. 19. Aside from a few so-so outings, Holland has been a shutdown part of the rotation, compiling a 3.13 ERA in six starts. His best of those came three turns ago when he threw a complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts against the Baltimore Orioles. He followed that with eight innings of one-run ball against the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up only three hits in each of those starts.

The numbers should not be shocking. In his five September starts last season after he returned from the microfracture surgery on his left knee, he had a 1.31 ERA and pitched less than seven innings in only one of those.

“What he did last September was eye-popping,” pitching coach Mike Maddux told Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after the Baltimore start. “What he did [against the Orioles] was like what he did last September.”

There will likely be some mild innings limits on Holland for the rest of the month—he threw 116 and 113 pitches, respectively, in those starts against the Orioles and Angels—but he feels good right now, and whatever limits exist, they should not affect him pitching in the playoffs.

His next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the Houston Astros and their ace, Dallas Keuchel, easily the most critical series the teams have played against each other since the Astros moved to the league in 2013.

“We know he’s been out to 116,” manager Jeff Banister told reporters. “I don’t know if we’ll be as liberal with that number. That’s not to say that we don’t go to that number. We haven’t taken the gloves off just yet.”

The Rangers’ postseason hopes are still delicate at this point. They are 13 games over .500 in the second half and have pulled themselves to within a half-game of the Astros in the AL West, though their lead for the second wild-card spot is at just one game over the Minnesota Twins.

If they manage to hold on and earn a berth, their rotation stacks up with any the league will throw against them. In a one-game playoff, they have an ace in Cole Hamels, who pitched seven innings and allowed three runs against the Astros on Monday. That is the kind of experienced, reliable arm any team would take in a do-or-die situation.

If the Rangers find themselves in a series, they can run out a trio of Hamels, Holland and Yovani Gallardo. That could be potentially as good as any threesome in the league, and they can use Colby Lewis, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Nick Martinez or Martin Perez as a fourth. Those aren’t bad back-end options to have.

Over the previous 30 days, just before Holland’s return and going into Monday, Texas’ rotation had the fourth-highest FanGraphs WAR in the AL in that time frame, and its 3.67 ERA was third-lowest. And even though wins aren’t a great way to gauge effectiveness, the group was tied for the most wins (15) in that span.

“We’ve got some different animals out there,” Maddux told Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News on Aug. 30. “Our rotation has been improved. We’re in a good spot.”

It is possible that spot could become great if Holland continues giving them run-preventing starts through this month and into October.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

If you can remember as far back as early August, then you can remember a time when the American League West race was between the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and nobody else.

Now, here we are to ask with total seriousness if the Texas Rangers have become the team to beat. Because baseball is weird like that.

But also because the Rangers have put themselves in this position, of course. They’ve been sneaking up on the Astros for the last few weeks, and are now literally (read: figuratively) breathing down their necks after a dramatic 5-3 win over the Astros at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Monday night.

The game was a tight affair right up until there was one out in the bottom of the eighth, when veteran slugger Prince Fielder came to the plate and did this with one aboard:

“I knew I hit it good, but here you never know. The wind plays tricks on you sometimes,” Fielder said of his homer, via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I knew I had hit it hard enough, but the way he was going back on it, I didn’t know if he was going to rob it or not.”

As for the impact of Fielder’s clutch dinger, it resulted in a win that pulled the Rangers within a half-game of the Astros for first place in the AL West. If Texas can win at least two of the three games left in the series, it will hold the upper hand.

But oh, doesn’t it feel like it already does?

A bit, yeah. The Rangers entered August a full seven games behind the Astros. They’ve since won 26 of 41 while Houston has dropped 19 of 40. Along the way, Texas has made it four straight wins over the Astros in head-to-head meetings, with six more still to go.

What we appear to be looking at, therefore, is one ship sinking while another miraculously rises from the depths. But since things aren’t always as they appear, we should discuss this further.

There are tangible reasons why the Rangers’ ship has risen. They’ve been getting some good pitching, particularly over the last calendar month. Their schedule has also provided a few favors, as they’ve caught teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles and, yes, arguably the Astros at the right times.

But if we’re going to assume the Rangers now have the upper hand in the AL West race, we have to assume they are where they are because they’ve outplayed the Astros and are a sure thing to continue doing so.

And the thing is, this is actually hard to do.

On this front, the credit goes to Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs for digging up pretty much all the relevant data. Though the Rangers have won more games than the Astros since Aug. 1, there’s not much else that says they’ve been the better team. Houston’s hitters have been about as productive as Texas’ hitters, while its pitchers have actually been better. 

Or, we could just look at run differentials:

• Rangers since Aug. 1: +16
• Astros since Aug. 1: +27

So, the Rangers haven’t caught up to the Astros because they’ve been a juggernaut while the Astros have crumbled. The real reason, as Sullivan explains, is because the Rangers have been more clutch:

Over August and September…the Rangers rank fourth in baseball in Clutch, and the Astros rank 29th. Some people say that timing is everything. Timing isn’t everything, but it’s a huge, huge factor, and it’s a factor that’s more or less unpredictable from the outside. Because the Rangers have recently had much better timing than the Astros—Sunday in Anaheim aside—they’ve more than made up for the fact that the Astros have quite probably played better.

Mind you, noting that this has been the case isn’t to completely discredit what the Rangers have done. Clutch isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing! Exhibit A: Look at all the wins it’s meant for the Rangers.

Rather, the problem with clutch is that it’s elusive. You can’t rely on it. Not for too long anyway, lest you risk watching your situation make like a house of cards on the San Andreas fault.

With this being the case, Texas continuing to build on its momentum and winning the AL West over Houston would have to be decided by one of two things: Either the Rangers will continue to ride their destructive wave of clutch, or they’ll ease back their reliance on it and find other ways to win games.

We’ve said all there is to say about Door No. 1. As for Door No. 2, well, there’s some optimism there. Provided you’re a Rangers fan, of course.

As mentioned above, one of the tangible reasons for the Rangers’ hot play is how well their pitching has performed. And when you look at their rotation of Cole Hamels, Derek Holland, Yovani Gallardo and Colby Lewis, that makes sense. These guys have been good pitchers before, and they’re good pitchers now. As for Texas’ bullpen, adding Jake Diekman to a back-end core that already included Shawn Tolleson and Keone Kela has worked wonders.

Relative to their pitching, however, the Rangers’ offense has lagged behind. It’s been just OK since Aug. 1 and notably features a shortage of hot hitters over the last calendar month:

Since a wRC+ of 100 denotes league-average hitting, the Rangers have enjoyed only two easily above-average hitters and one slightly above-average hitter over the last month. If they’re going to start relying less on clutch-ness and more on their own dominance, this is what will have to change.

And this, fortunately, is where there’s hope.

The guys who are holding the Rangers down aren’t slouches. Adrian Beltre is better than that. Ditto Mitch Moreland. And certainly ditto Fielder. If these guys start living up to their track records—Monday’s dinger would be a nice place to start for Fielder—the Rangers will have more offense to go with their pitching. Then, they could truly take off and run riot over their remaining 19 games.

For now, though, it’s hard to say the Rangers have the upper hand in the AL West as much as it feels like they do. The Astros know their instate rivals are there, but Houston’s not about to look at Texas as the superior team. Nor should it. The Astros still have the lead, and it would be bigger if not for the Rangers’ darned clutch-ness.

Which is to say that the AL West race is hardly a foregone conclusion. Instead, it’s become what we desire all playoff races to be this time of year: a darn good one.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

On Friday, Nike unveiled Mike Trout‘s second signature cleat, the Nike Lunar Trout 2, which will also be available as a turf shoe—a first for the Los Angeles Angels center fielder.

The company tapped what it described as Trout’s “otherworldly athletic abilities” for the launch colorway, the Nike Lunar Trout 2 Blueprint, which will be available exclusively on Nike.com on October 3.

It features some of the reigning American League MVP’s most notable stats—the 20 mph speed he reaches between first and third base, the 60 inches he can jump to catch a fly ball and the 489 feet he can slug a home run.

The other colorways will be available online and at select retailers the same release day.

Trout recently spoke with Bleacher Report, naming LeBron James as the athlete he would most like to switch places with.

He also took a neutral stance on the Drake vs. Meek Mill beef, though Drake’s “6 God” has sounded through Angel Stadium of Anaheim every time Trout has stepped up to the plate this season.

[Nike]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

As the Houston Astros continue their chase for a playoff spot, their starting rotation will be without a key piece the rest of this season thanks to Scott Feldman‘s shoulder injury. 

Continue for updates. 

Astros Shut Feldman Down

Friday, Sept. 11

According to the Astros’ official Twitter, a sprained right shoulder will force Feldman to miss the rest of 2015. 

The 32-year-old right-hander last pitched on September 1 against Seattle, going just 2.2 innings and allowing five walks before calling the training staff out to look at him. 

Feldman made 18 starts this season, posting a 3.90 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 108.1 innings. He has started and pitched out of the bullpen in his career, which would have given Astros manager A.J. Hinch versatility with his staff down the stretch. 

Houston is currently 2.5 games ahead of Texas in the American League West. General manager Jeff Luhnow did add rotation depth before the deadline, acquiring Scott Kazmir to pitch behind Cy Young contender Dallas Keuchel. 

The Astros’ rotation behind that top two will have to step up in Feldman’s absence to ensure this surprising run has a happy ending in October. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Texas Rangers‘ depth took a considerable hit as Josh Hamilton underwent knee surgery to repair a “slight tear” in his meniscus on Sept. 11, according to Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News.  

Continue for updates.

Rangers Remain Hopeful for Hamilton Return This Season

Thursday, Sept. 10

Although there is always concern when a player has their knee operated on, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the Rangers aren’t ruling out the possibility of Hamilton playing again in 2015.

There is still nearly a month remaining in the regular season. With the Rangers currently holding on to the American League‘s second wild-card spot, Hamilton may have even more time to heal up as Texas has a great chance to make the playoffs.

The surgery doesn’t come as a huge surprise since the 34-year-old slugger recently returned from a stint on the disabled list due to left knee soreness. He has since been wearing a brace and has been used primarily as a pinch hitter rather than a starter.

Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, as recently as last week, Hamilton wasn’t ready to throw in the towel on playing a big role for the club this season: “I haven’t given up on it. There is a month left. I know I can make an impact as a pinch hitter, but I think I can make more of an impact with four at-bats a game. The concept of being a pinch hitter only is nice, but I’m going to keep working to be a full-time guy.”

Since the Rangers reacquired Hamilton in a trade with the Los Angeles Angels in late April, he has contributed to the tune of a .257 batting average, six home runs and 21 RBI.

That production is a far cry from the player who made five straight All-Star appearances and won the 2010 AL MVP Award with the Rangers, but he is still a dangerous hitter when he is healthy.

Hamilton has an uphill climb when it comes to returning despite the Rangers’ optimism. But with the likes of Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Shin-Soo Choo and others in the lineup, they have enough offensive depth to be a threat in the AL without him.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Los Angeles Angels have been without an official general manager since Jerry DiPoto stepped down in July, but with the season winding down, the search to fill the position is expected to pick up. 

Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com reported the team is “hopeful” they’ll name their new GM by the end of the 2015 season. 

Continue for updates. 

Angels Reportedly Favor Yankees’ Assistant GM 

Friday, Sept. 4

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, New York Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler is “expected to be a strong front-runner” for the Angels’ general manager position. 

The Angels know Eppler well, dating back to 2011 when the team hired DiPoto, as noted by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal:

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported on September 1 the Angels had finished conducting interviews with internal candidates Matt Klentak and Scott Servais and were preparing to interview additional candidates from outside the organization. 

After losing out to DiPoto for the Angels’ GM job in 2011, Eppler was promoted to his current role with the Yankees by their general manager, Brian Cashman.

DiPoto resigned from the position this summer in part due to a contentious relationship with Angels manager Mike Scioscia, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. Bill Stoneman, who was the team’s general manager from 1999-2007, has taken over the role on an interim basis. 

The Angels are in a unique position to attract whoever they want to hire as general manager. Ownership has spent at least $137 million on payroll in each of the previous five seasons, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, and they have the reigning American League MVP Mike Trout signed through 2020. 

Any GM candidate would love to work for an owner who isn’t afraid to spend money for a championship—not to mention having arguably the single-best player in the sport to build around.

This has been a difficult season for the Angels on and off the field, but there’s a lot to work with heading into 2016.   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The struggles moved from one level to the next without a stumble.

Joey Gallo was part of the heralded rookie prospect class to debut or become full-time major leaguers this spring and summer. During his first five weeks with the Texas Rangers, there were clear signals of why Gallo gained instant membership into the group. He flashed incredible power, smashing five home runs in his first 14 games, one of them off Clayton Kershaw, with a .942 OPS.

There were also signs of vulnerability. Gallo was a strikeout machine, punching out 44 percent of the time. Once pitchers realized they didn’t have to throw Gallo a pitch in the zone to get him out, his OPS dropped to .529 with one homer and 27 strikeouts in his final 14 games (52 plate appearances).

Things did not get much better when Gallo was sent down to Triple-A Round Rock—he was initially called up from Double-A Frisco. He had struck out 90 times in 53 games with a .289 OBP by the time September rolled around, and the Rangers recalled him to the majors. It was expected that most of his playing time would come in the form of a pinch hitter, although he started Wednesday and went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his return to the lineup.

However, none of this means Gallo cannot be a factor in the Rangers’ playoff push, one that currently has them leading the race for the second American League wild-card spot and just two games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West. When a hitter has the kind of prodigious power Gallo has, he has the potential to alter a team’s fate for the better whether off the bench in late innings or as a spot starter.

“All the things he went through, all of that has to happen for a young guy,” manager Jeff Banister told reporters this week. “When they come out the other side and they confront another problem, then they realize they’ve been here before, that they have a tool in their toolbox and reach down and find it.”

Gallo searched for that tool during his entire stint with Round Rock. Realizing his myriad weaknesses—plate coverage, willingness to chase out of the zone and swinging-strike percentage among them—were exposed in the big leagues, the 21-year-old set out to fix them. The problem: There was a huge variety of remedies available to him, and instead of focusing on one, he attempted to use them all.

He tried altering his two-strike approach. He worked on covering both sides of the plate since he was exploited on the outer half in his first major league call-up. He worked on overall swing mechanics. And those were just the things he was willing to admit to reporters when speaking to them Tuesday.

None of it seemed to work. In Gallo’s first 40 at-bats with Round Rock, he hit .175/.250/.400. He eventually improved to .195/.289/.450 in 228 plate appearances at the time the Rangers recalled him as a September addition.

“I tried to eat a whole buffet in one sitting,” Gallo told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. “I went down there and got in a bad way about some things. But I’d rather do that down there than up here.”

The one change we might notice, the one that actually stuck from his time with Round Rock, is a more open batting stance. Gallo used a wider approach in high school and rookie ball, and his Double-A hitting coach, Justin Mashore, suggested the subtle change.

“I tried to make too many adjustments before,” Gallo told Grant. “But I’ve hit this way before, and I’m comfortable. Right now, I’m trying to do what is comfortable.”

The change was not effective at all in Gallo’s second Rangers debut Wednesday. Facing San Diego Padres right-hander Ian Kennedy, Gallo made himself an easy out by swinging and missing five times in his three at-bats. From Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Ian Kennedy has struck out Joey Gallo three times on a total of 10 pitches. When he makes contact it’ll probably go 600 feet.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) September 3, 2015

But notice the last sentence of that tweet, because no matter what Gallo does or how he might struggle this month, that possibility always exists. The Rangers know that, and so do opposing pitchers.

His power plays. Always. It does not matter if Gallo is slumping or if he is hot, if he is getting sporadic at-bats or regular playing time. The possibility of him wrecking a pitcher’s mistake is the kind of off-the-bench, game-changing force that all contending teams want at their disposal as they enter the final weeks of the season.

Gallo might strike out a ton. That is almost a given at this point in his career. But he can also run into a homer or five, and if they come in high-leverage situations this late in the year, they could be enough to help push the Rangers back into the playoffs a season after they finished last in their division.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

September is here, and with it comes pennant-chase baseball and prospect call-ups. Not many prospects are gifted with the opportunity to immediately step in and take on a prominent role with a team competing for the postseason, so we’ve highlighted one player with the best opportunity to do that: Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers.

Gallo was already called up earlier this season and turned in a mostly mediocre performance. Regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball because of his otherworldly power, Gallo also features an otherworldly strikeout rate.

During his first tenure with the Rangers, Gallo mostly filled in for injured third baseman Adrian Beltre and injured left fielder Josh Hamilton. Gallo provided some pop, homering in each of his first two games, but was sent to Triple-A when the roster got healthy.

Gallo was up for almost the entire month of June, giving us a decent enough time to dissect what he did at the big league level.

The numbers aren’t particularly good: just two games with multiple hits, five home runs, a .218 batting average and 43 strikeouts in just 87 at-bats.

So why is Gallo a player who could make a difference? Here are a couple of reasons.

Firstly, we already mentioned his enormous potential.

According to MLB Pipeline, which ranks and discusses prospects, Gallo is the sixth-best prospect in baseball. He’s ranked so highly because on the 20-80 scouting scale, Gallo’s power rates as an 80.

But he has other discernible skills as well.

While Gallo’s fielding rates as a below-average 40, his arm is a 70, making him a decent option, or at least not a liability, at the hot corner defensively. He’s certainly not going to win any Gold Gloves, but he can handle his own.

At the plate, we’ve seen Gallo’s tremendous raw power on display, and we’ve seen his horrible plate-discipline as well.

Taking away the power rating of 80, Gallo’s overall hit tool rates as a 45, which is slightly below average to average.

A player with Gallo’s potential can always be a possible difference-maker if he has one thing: opportunity.

That’s the second reason why Gallo could make an impact on the Rangers’ playoff chances. To put that into name form, Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton is one of the more injury-prone players in baseball, and Gallo has already been featured in left field to spell Hamilton earlier this season. Even if Hamilton were to remain healthy, Gallo’s ability to play corner infield and outfield, as well as the chance to have his power as a pinch hitter, could make him at least a valuable bench player.

All it takes is a hot streak, and in the minors at least, Gallo has shown the ability to mash, hitting 127 home runs in just 383 games.

Gallo’s power certainly makes him an interesting potential threat. He tends to either strike out or homer, two of the most exciting plays in baseball, so at the very least, he could be fun to watch.

All stats and info are courtesy of Baseball-Reference unless otherwise noted.

Follow Aaron Brand on Twitter @AaronBrand47.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com