By: Stephen Patterson
Since lighting up All-Star weekend in 2008, when he blasted a record 28 first round homers during the Homerun Derby at Old Yankee's Stadium, Josh Hamilton has been one of my favorite players in Major League Baseball. He is definitely the Texas Ranger's most popular player, and having finally seen him play in person last week against the Pittsburgh Pirates, I can tell you exactly why he's so popular: The man is a monster on the field. No one in the majors has had a better month of June than Hamilton. He is currently in the middle of a 25 game hitting streak, which covers the entire month of June. On Sunday, Hamilton blasted the 2nd longest home run in Rangers' ballpark stadium history, a whopping 468-foot bomb. Tommy Hunter (4-0) may be Josh Hamilton's biggest fan. Hamilton has homered in all five of Hunter's starts this season.
During the closing game of the Pirates series last week, Hamilton was making his return to the line-up after a day off to rest. While manager Ron Washington said he was just giving Hamilton a break after, it was later reported that the rest was due to a sore hamstring. In the game, Josh went 3-4 with two doubles and a stolen base. On a bad hamstring, Hamilton was still able to run out the throw and slide safely into second, causing the crowd to erupt.
For the month of June, Hamilton is batting .457 with 9 HR and 31 RBI. He has more hits in a month, with 48, than other other player in Texas Ranger's history. If he can keep putting up scorching hot numbers like these, Hamilton will likely receive plenty of MVP votes in the American League.With a line-up including Vladimir Guerrero, Ian Kinsler, and Michael Young and with the team already leading the division over the Angels, I think the Rangers have an excellent chance of winning the AL West and making a deep postseason run if Hamilton can stay healthy. The only problem I can the Rangers having late in the season or in the postseason is pitching because they don't have any of the top pitchers in the American League. Hopefully with Hamilton, the Rangers will still find ways to overcome poor pitching outings when it counts.
