The Texas Rangers clinched the AL West on Friday night with a 3-0 win over the A’s in Oakland. In keeping with this site’s annual tradition, what follows are 17 awesome things about the 2016 Texas Rangers.

A disclaimer: Please note that in all of these lists, some items may be holdovers from previous seasons, as many things that were awesome about the Rangers in 2015, for example, remain so in 2016. To best avoid repeating myself, I will write all these lists without first consulting those from previous seasons, but I suspect I will not fully avoid repeating myself. Here we go:

1. Hall of Famers!

](Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

By this site’s count there are eight players in the Majors who’d likely be Hall of Famers if they retired today. And after the deadline deal that put Carlos Beltran in Texas, the Rangers are the only club with multiple sure-fire Hall of Famers. Neither Adrian Beltre, 37, nor Beltran, 39, yet has a World Series ring.

2. Adrian Beltre’s excellence

Adrian Beltre (USA TODAY Sports Images)

As recently as a couple of seasons ago, Beltre’s Hall of Fame case seemed up for debate. But at this point, anyone who doesn’t think Beltre’s a Hall of Famer simply hasn’t been paying attention: He’s so good. One of the best defensive players at his generation and perhaps one of the Top 5 third basemen in baseball history, Beltre should cruise past 3,000 hits and perhaps even get to 500 homers before his contract with the Rangers expires after the 2018 season.

3. Adrian Beltre’s weirdness

(giphy.com)

That’s the other thing about Beltre: He’s every bit as weird as he is good, and, again, he’s extremely good. Beltre’s built for GIFs, mixing spectacular defensive plays with homers struck from down on one knee and a whole lot of full-blown on-field freakouts. He’s so entertaining that I thought about making this post simply 17 awesome things about Adrian Beltre.

4. Adrian Beltre’s teammates’ commitment to messing with him

(giphy.com)

OK, last Beltre one, I promise. But Beltre’s teammates and opponents seem to find him every bit as fun as the rest of us do, so they mess with him all the time. He especially hates it when people touch his head, so people touch his head all the time.

5. Carlos Beltran as the begrudgingly fun dad

The Rangers’ other future Hall of Famer spent the bulk of his career as a wonderful all-around player, like Beltre. But unlike Beltre, Carlos Beltran is not at all one for demonstrative on-field behavior. In the past, his seriousness brought accusations that he was sullen or selfish or hated baseball, none of which was ever true. Now everyone kind of gets that Carlos Beltran’s just not here to mess around, and Beltran seems to have begrudgingly taken to some dugout shenanigans, like painting his head with eye black to mess with Rougned Odor. Beltran comes off like the dad at the beach who’d love to be sitting in a lounge chair sipping a beer but is allowing the kids to bury him in the sand because then they’ll shut up and leave him in peace.

6. Their record in one-run games

(Jim Cowsert/USA TODAY Sports)

This is a weird one: The Rangers are 36-11 in one-run games, on pace for the best winning percentage in MLB history in those situations. Typically, experts expect clubs to go about .500 in one-run games and attribute especially high success rates in close contests to luck. And there could certainly be an element of good fortune to the Rangers’ one-run record. But manager Jeff Banister insists there’s more to it than that, and that it’s a testament to his team’s spirit. Either way, it’s fairly fascinating.

7. Absurd ballpark food

(Delaware North)

Perhaps no club in Major League Baseball pushes the culinary envelope as far as the Rangers, who seem to act more like their minor league cousins when it comes to novelty foods. Shown above is the Cotton Candy Dog they trotted out for last year’s postseason. You can bet the 2016 playoffs will bring a whole new round of wacky concessions.

8. Baseball’s second Nomar

Nomar Mazara (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

Major League Baseball got its second dude named Nomar in 2016 in the form of Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara. Nice player, too. Leads all AL rookies with 20 home runs, though Gary Sanchez is charging hard.

9. Cole Hamels’ pitching

Cole Hamels (PHOTO: Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports Images)

Is Cole Hamels underrated? Feels like Cole Hamels might be underrated. He’s about the clear the 200-innings mark for the seventh-straight season and he finishes every year with numbers somewhere between pretty good and very good. His is a rare consistency, especially among starting pitchers, to the extent that his massive contract now appears a bargain. If Hamels were to hit free agency after this season, he’d get way, way more than the three years and $71 million he’ll get from the Rangers if his 2018 option vests.

10. Cole Hamels’ modeling

True story: I’m pretty sure I owe this job to a post I made at my old blog called “Embarrassing Photos of Cole Hamels.” Hamels doesn’t actually seem to take himself all that seriously, but he had some forays into modeling in the past that made for hilarious photos.

11. Their patchwork bullpen

]Tony Barnette (Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

That fellow there is Tony Barnette, a 32-year-old MLB rookie with a 2.15 ERA out of the Rangers’ bullpen after six seasons pitching in Japan. Texas’ bullpen had some messy stretches this season, but they seem to have settled on a decent mix now, culling relief arms sources like the waiver wire and the penal system.

12. Alex Claudio’s funkiness

(Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

The internet apparently doesn’t know about Alex Claudio yet, as there’s scant video evidence of his full, fidgety delivery online. But the sidearming, soft-tossing lefty now owns a career 2.90 ERA and a 3:1 K:BB ratio over 77 2/3 innings across parts of three seasons. Claudio generates tons of grounders with his mid-80s sinker, and flummoxes opposing hitters with a changeup that averages 67.3 mph. He’s quite fun to watch.

13. Yu Darvish’s slider

(PItcherList.com/Giphy.com)

LOL!

14. Front office confidence

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, file)

Jon Daniels became the youngest general manager in Major League history when he took over the Rangers following the 2005 season. He’s now one of the sport’s longest-tenured general managers. The Rangers’ success in recent seasons, largely a function of the club’s strong player-development pipeline, allows Daniels to get away with some bold trades, like the one that traded a package of prospects to Philadelphia for Cole Hamels last season or those that overhauled the Rangers’ offense in this one.

15. Colby Lewis’ career path

Colby Lewis (Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports)

Colby Lewis came up with the Rangers in 2002, pitched horribly in 2003 and got hurt in 2004. He missed all of 2005 with injury, spent most of 2006 in Class AAA with the Tigers, then a miserable half-season in the A’s bullpen in 2007 before going to Japan (and pitching quite well there) for all of 2008 and 2009. He resurfaced in the Majors with the Rangers at age 30 in 2010 and put together three straight pretty good seasons for Texas, then suffered elbow and hip injuries that limited him to seven minor-league rehab starts in 2013. He’s now 36, he has been waived twice and released twice and he’s been a free agent four time without ever inking a multi-year deal, but he’s made nearly $15 million playing baseball and will probably slot in to the back of the Rangers’ playoff rotation. Colby Lewis is why you keep going.

16. Rougned Odor’s right cross

(giphy.com)

This site does not condone violence, even if Jose Bautista was clearly windup up to punch Odor before he got hit. This item consists more as a public service announcement: Do not mess with Rougned Odor.

17. Their youth

Joey Gallo (Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports)

That large gentleman is Joey Gallo, one of the game’s best power-hitting prospects and a player seemingly unlikely to crack the Rangers’ postseason roster. But even after the trades to get Hamels, Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy, Texas maintains a host of promising young players at the big-league level and in the high minors. Odor, Mazara and Jurickson Profar all made major contributions to the Rangers this season and none is older than 23. It bodes well.