Dark Days Continue In Texas

Listed below are the Rangers' road records over the past six years:

2002: 30-51

2003: 28-53

2004: 38-43

2005: 35-46

2006: 41-40

2007: 9-24

After another abysmal performance tonight by the Rangers, Texas is on pace to go 22-59 this year on the road. That would eclipse the worst road record on this list, set by the 2003 Rangers, by an entire six games.

The Rangers may be awful, but at least they're respectably mediocre at home. This, on the other hand, is just...I don't know anymore.

The top story of the day is Brandon McCarthy heading back to the disabled list, retroactive to Sunday, after breaking the blister on his right middle finger open again during a throwing session on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Kameron Loe's stint in Oklahoma is proving to be quite short, as he will make McCarthy's scheduled start tomorrow night.

Although it's yet another discouraging development in a season chock full of them, it's best for McCarthy and the team's future for him to be shut down now and come back fully healthy, rather than this becoming a lingering issue (see: Josh Beckett).

The club's issues with their starting pitching don't end there, obviously. Vicente Padilla is still dealing with discomfort in his right elbow, and Adam Morris believes he's headed for Tommy John surgery. Kevin Millwood was bombed by the Pirates on Tuesday night, and he apparently has no idea what he's doing wrong. Kind of makes you wonder where pitching coach Mark Connor is. Also, Mike Wood has been shut down at Triple-A Oklahoma with a sore shoulder.

Evan Grant reports Ron Mahay could return next week from the disabled list, with Travis Metcalf possibly being sent down to make room. Mahay hasn't been particularly great this year, but he could probably bring an average prospect in return from a contending team at the trade deadline.

BTiA favorite Matt Kata has reportedly cleared waivers, and has elected to take his free agency after being designated for assignment last week by the Rangers. Happy trails, Matt.

Jon Heyman of SI.com has a piece out discussing Tom Hicks' disappointment with this year's club, with Heyman dropping hints that Jon Daniels' and Ron Washington's jobs may be in serious jeopardy by the end of this season.

There's a lot of things I could say here, but I'm tired, so I'll leave it at this: I think that firing Daniels and Washington at the end of 2007 (or sooner), and thus uprooting the entire organizational direction once again, would do a lot more damage to the Rangers long-term than riding things out. I think that Hicks needs to wait until at least the end of 2008, and perhaps even a bit longer, before deciding whether he wants to axe Daniels. Washington is a different story, but I'd give him through June or July of 2008.

Major props to Rob Neyer, who mentioned "A Francisco Cordero Story" in his blog entry earlier this week on ESPN Insider. I'm still relatively new to the world of sports journalism, and it means a lot to me for Neyer, one of the most widely respected baseball writers in the game, to acknowledge us here at BTiA.

Unfortunately, I can't heap similar praise on his co-worker, Jeff Bennett, who is the mastermind behind the brand new ESPN Player Ratings. There's a lot of things wrong here, but the folks at Baseball Think Factory have done a much better job of ripping this rating system apart than I can. As one BTF poster pointed out, I think there's a problem with your statistic when it has Shea Hillenbrand (.246/.269/.326) ranked above Mark Buerhle, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Ted Lilly and Barry Zito.

Since Saturday's miracle win against Cordero, the Rangers have lost three straight while being outscored 24-12. To quote former NFL head coach Jim Mora, "I just hope we can win a game."