NEWSFLASH: McCarthy Activated, Kinsler To DL

Michael Young is the last man standing.

Ian Kinsler became the third Rangers infielder to go on the 15-day disabled list this year, as an MRI in Dallas today showed that he had a stress fracture in his left foot. According to Evan Grant, Kinsler will be out at least three weeks. With Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock already out for extended periods of time, that leaves Travis Metcalf, Michael Young, Ramon Vazquez and Brad Wilkerson as the club's starting infield for the time being.

The move is retroactive to June 28th, meaning that Kinsler would be eligible to be activated from the disabled list on July 13th, but it doesn't sound like that's going to be the case. With Kinsler removed from the 25-man roster, Brandon McCarthy has been activated from the disabled list, and will make tonight's start against the Red Sox. Desi Relaford, who probably would have been designated for assignment had Kinsler's foot improved, will stay on the roster as a backup infielder.

As you've probably heard by now, former Rangers player Mike Hargrove resigned as manager of the Seattle Mariners yesterday, and former Rangers manager Jerry Narron was fired by the Cincinnati Reds. Best wishes to both. T.R. Sullivan has a few touching thoughts on Narron over on his "Monday Morning Manager" segment.

The complete All-Star rosters are out, and as usually happens around this time of year, lots of people are complaining. Evan Grant takes issue with the construction of the AL roster, criticizing the fans, players and All-Star manager Jim Leyland for some bad choices. Gil LeBreton at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram feels that Sammy Sosa got snubbed, and he takes a curious shot at sabermetrics in general:

Sosa's batting average, granted, is only .255, but he has 14 home runs and 63 runs batted in, seventh-most in major league baseball.

The geeks that are trying to measure this season's Sosa by Win Shares, VORP and Runs Created Per 27 need to get a life.

We're trying to fill an All-Star roster, not a Bill James spreadsheet.

You know, I would have liked to have seen Sammy make the All-Star roster, but strictly statistically speaking, he didn't deserve to make the team or the "Final Vote." Runs batted in are nice, but it's a statistic that is largely dependent on the ability of a player's teammates to get on base ahead of him. The funny thing is, the statistics LeBreton names are all vastly superior ways of determining a player's value compared to RBIs or batting average.

While I've had a real love/hate relationship with Sosa this year, I can't endorse a .255/.308/.476 hitting DH making the All-Star team while players like Orlando Cabrera or Gary Sheffield are getting left off. With the All-Star Game determining something as important as home field advantage in the World Series, it would make sense to do away with the "one player per team" roster limitations and truly let the best players in each league make the squad, but MLB will never go along with that.

And if that had been the case, the Rangers wouldn't have had an All-Star representative in 2007.

Jason Botts hit his 9th and 10th home runs for the Oklahoma Redhawks last night, and Eric Hurley threw six shutout innings of three-hit baseball. He struck out nine, and walked just one. Jason's batting line on the year is now .317/.426/.530. For anybody reading this who happens to be in the Rangers organization and thinks that Botts is destined to be a AAAA player, I have two words for you: Jack Cust.

Eric Gagne will likely not be available after throwing 16 pitches on Saturday and 22 pitches on Sunday, and Aki Otsuka will probably miss tonight's game after leaving Sunday's game with a stiff right elbow.

In other words, this would be a nice night for a 13-4 win.