NEWSFLASH: Chen DFAed, Eyre promoted

Per Jamey Newberg, the Texas Rangers have designed left-hander Bruce Chen for assignment and purchased the contract of right-hander Willie Eyre. Since the bullpen was called on to pitch eight innings last night thanks to McCarthy's meltdown, it's not a surprising move.

Frankly, the less said about last night's game, the better.

Kameron Loe makes his first start of the season tonight as he attempts to stop the bleeding.

Saturday, April 21st Game Preview

Oakland Athletics (9-7) at Texas Rangers (6-10)

Joe Kennedy (0-1, 3.75 ERA) vs. Kameron Loe (0-0, 5.40 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: KDFI/My27 | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Brandon McCarthy

Brandon McCarthy's final pitching line tonight against the Oakland Athletics, in a pretty important divisional game at home:

1 IP, 6 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K

Through four starts, he has a 10.20 ERA with a WHIP over 2.00.

The Athletics lead 8-0 after 2 1/2 innings.

There's no way around it: this team is playing absolutely terrible right now. If it's not the hitting killing the team, it's the pitching. Tonight, it very well could be both.

Sigh.

NEWSFLASH: Daniel Haigwood traded to Boston

Per Jamey Newberg, the Texas Rangers have traded left-hander Daniel Haigwood to the Boston Red Sox for right-hander Scott Shoemaker and cash considerations. Haigwood was designated for assignment last week to make room for Jamey Wright on the 40-man roster.

Shoemaker is 25 years old, and was originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 34th round of the 1999 amateur draft. He would be selected two more times: by the New York Mets in the 21st round of the 2000 amateur draft, and by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 48th round of the 2001 amateur draft. However, he opted for college instead, pitching for Long Beach State University in 2003 and San Diego State University in 2004. The Red Sox signed Shoemaker as an undrafted free agent on June 1st, 2004.

Shoemaker began his minor league career strong, putting up a 2.48 ERA in 32.2 innings for the Lowell Spinners in the short-season New York-Penn League. He was promoted to the Red Sox A-ball affiliate, the Greenville Drive, to begin 2005. After going 6-3 with a 3.50 ERA in 16 games (15 of those being starts), Shoemaker was rocketed through the Boston system, progressing all the way to AAA Pawtucket before the season was over. He was poor at every stop, and why he was pushed so far so quickly is a question I can't answer at this time.

Where he began the 2006 season is a mystery, but I do know that he was demoted from Pawtucket back to high-A Wilmington at the beginning of August. Shoemaker did better overall in 2006, going 9-2 with a 4.05 ERA at Wilmington and pitching decently at Pawtucket and AA Portland.

Here's a scouting report on the 6'4", 215 pound right-hander from SoxProspects.com:

Makes use of a solid fastball and an above average slider. Also has a workable curve and a change in his arsenal. Gets ahead in the count well. High strikeout totals. Very relaxed and mature on the mound. Good fielder and athlete. Excellent k/bb ratio. Showed the ability to go deep into games in college.

For his minor league career through the end of 2006, Shoemaker is 19-10 with a 4.19 ERA in 69 games, with 36 of those appearances being starts. He's struck out 7.43 batters per nine innings and walked 3.10 per nine, with his WHIP sitting at 1.35.

What do I think about this deal?

I don't like it.

The entire Fabio Castro sequence of events has turned into a bigger disaster than it was before. Dealing Castro away in the first place was a bad decision, but Buck Showalter shoulders the majority of the blame for that debacle due to his failure to use him more often (including blowouts), even after he was clear he was a competent pitcher.

However, the blame in this latest talent downgrade falls solely at the feet of Jon Daniels. Daniel Haigwood is no Castro, but he has several advantages over Shoemaker: he's over two years younger, he's left-handed, and he's had better minor league success.

The biggest problem I have with all of this is not that the Rangers traded Haigwood; he's a decent pitching prospect, but nothing spectacular. No, the problem I have is that Haigwood was traded as a result of him being designated for assignment. And why was he DFAed? To make room for the mediocre (and as we now know, injured) Jamey Wright, who turned in a miserable start on April 10th against the Devil Rays. Giving him the #5 rotation spot in the first place when he had failed to earn it over Kameron Loe or Bruce Chen was a poor decision to begin with, but when it starts costing the Rangers minor league talent as well - that's going too far.

The whole thing smacks of poor roster management. Maybe there's some things I don't know about Haigwood and Shoemaker, and I certainly wish both of them the best. I really hope that Scott turns into something for the Rangers.

But for the first time since Daniels was hired as general manager, my faith is beginning to waver in his ability. Not too much, just a little bit, but enough to leave me concerned.

The Morning After

Yeah, yeah, it's only one game out of 162. That may be true, but it doesn't make it sting any less.

The Rangers had only been no-hit twice in their entire franchise history: once by Jim Colborn on May 14th, 1977, and once by Mike Witt on September 30th, 1984.

On April 18th, 2007, Mark Buerhle made that three times the Rangers have been no-hit.

Texas was baffled by Buerhle, with the closest thing to a hit all night being Jerry Hairston Jr.'s controversial play at first. Joe Crede snagged a sharp line drive off Hairston's bat down the left field line and made a great throw, while Hairston dove headfirst into first base. Whether he was safe or out is debatable, but first base umpire Jim Hoye called him out.

After a short argument, Hairston threw his hands into the air and tossed his helmet towards the Rangers dugout, prompting Hoye to eject him from the game. Hairston came flying back out of the dugout and had to be physically restrained while Ron Washington came out to investigate. Jerry may be in line for a suspension if he initiated contact with the umpire; I thought he grabbed the umpire's uniform, but perhaps not. Needless to say, it was the only exciting moment of the evening for Texas fans.

Hank Blalock hit a long fly ball to the top of the wall in the second inning, but Dye did a half-leap to take away a potential home run. The one saving grace of the game was Sammy Sosa drawing a walk to break up the perfect game; of course, he was picked off first base by Buerhle moments later.

Kevin Millwood held the Sox in check for four innings, surrendering just a Jim Thome solo shot, but got himself into big trouble in the 5th inning. After easily retiring the first two hitters, Millwood gave up a single and two walks. After a ten pitch battle, Jermaine Dye proceeded to hit one of the lowest trajectory home runs that I have ever seen, an absolute laser that just barely cleared the left field wall. With Texas down 5-0 and with the way Buerhle was pitching, everybody knew the game was over. The only question remaining was whether Buerhle could finish what he had started. He did.

And you know what? Buerhle deserves full credit; that was a gem of a performance. I don't really like or respect him as a player, which stems back to his ridiculous claims that the Rangers were cheating at home using a sophisticated light system in the center field office building. But I can certainly respect how well he pitched.

Despite the major bump in the road, Texas can still win their three game series with Chicago with a win tonight in the rubber game. Brad Wilkerson was held out of the lineup on Wednesday due to a sore left knee, which he injured late in Tuesday's game...between innings. No word on exactly how he hurt himself, but based on the timeline of events it sounds like it happened as he was jogging to take his position in left field. Classic Bad Brad.

Then again, you can't make too much fun of him: he has the second best OPS on the team at .817, behind only Ian Kinsler. In any case, Wilkerson had a cortisone shot before Wednesday's game and could be out for several more games. Jason Botts and Victor Diaz are the most likely replacements if he requires a visit to the disabled list.

Amazingly enough, Seattle fans probably had a tougher night than Texas fans. Felix Hernandez, the Mariners' ace, left last night's game in the first inning with tightness in his right elbow. Although it may not be serious, an injury such as this can often be a precursor to serious arm problems and/or Tommy John surgery. All of this happened just hours after the news came down that Seattle's NBA franchise, the Supersonics, would likely be leaving town after the 2007-2008 season. Brutal.

Anaheim's Howie Kendrick is out indefinitely with a broken bone in his left hand. He had been their second best hitter thus far behind Vlad, with a .327/.365/.490 batting line. Pretty major blow, and while it helps the Rangers, I'm getting rather tired of having to hope for misfortune to strike other AL West teams in order for Texas to stay in the playoff race. At some point, the Rangers are going to have to step up and deliver, or they're going to stay buried in mediocrity.

There is one bright spot about last night's game: things can't possibly get any worse tonight.

Thursday, April 19th Game Preview

Texas Rangers ( 6-8 ) at Chicago White Sox ( 6-7 )

Vicente Padilla ( 0-3, 6.62 ERA ) vs. Javier Vazquez ( 2-0, 1.50 ERA )

7:11 PM CST in Chicago, Illinois (U.S. Cellular Field)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Rangers No-Hit By Buerhle

I'm going to be sick.

Rangers Overpower White Sox

The up and down story of the Texas Rangers in these first few weeks of the season continues.

Following their disappointing series loss against Seattle, Texas came out and crushed the White Sox last night, 8-1. There's little not to like about this big win, which puts the Rangers at 6-7 and just one game behind the first place Mariners. In fact, the entire division is separated by just a game and a half.

First thing's first: Robinson Tejeda was excellent, showing the kind of form that he did in the home opener win against Boston. He allowed just one run, a Jim Thome blast to dead center field on a 96 MPH fastball tailing away, which MLB Gameday shows was not even a strike.

Altogether, Tejeda surrended three hits and four walks, while striking out three. Another thing reminiscent of that Boston start: Tejeda recorded 14 flyball outs, with most of them being harmless, lazy popups. Then again, Jon Garland recorded 14 flyball outs too, and he's traditionally a groundball pitcher.

The only problem for Garland was that he gave up some fly balls that didn't stay in the yard. In fact, the entirety of the Rangers' offense came from home runs last night - all in the 5th inning or later. Texas did nothing through the first four innings, but with one out in the 5th, Hank Blalock came back from a 1-2 count to work a walk. That turned out to be the turning point in the game, as two batters later Brad Wilkerson launched a line drive home run into the right field seats to put Texas up 2-1. It was the 100th home run of Wilkerson's career.

The Rangers would never look back.

The unstoppable Ian Kinsler widened the lead to 5-1 in the 7th inning with a huge three run shot off Garland, his seventh home run of the season. His monster start is worthy of some slight caution - after all, Chris Shelton hit 10 home runs in April last year with an OPS of 1.186, but wasn't very good the rest of the way. And we all remember what happened with Kevin Mench after his home run streak. But right now, I don't see any warning signs that this is just some fluke. Kinsler looks for real.

This morning I was reminded of something that made my stomach turn - in 2004, John Hart had agreed to trade Ian Kinsler and pitcher Erik Thompson to the Colorado Rockies for Larry Walker. Thankfully, Walker used his no-trade rights to veto the deal. How big of a bullet did the Rangers dodge there?

And then, of course, there was the moment that is garnering the most national media attention - Sammy Sosa's home run. With two outs in the 8th, reliever Mike MacDougal intentionally walked Mark Teixeira to get to Sosa with two men on and two outs. Sosa fell behind in the count 0-2 before depositing a 97 MPH fastball into the right center field seats, complete with his trademark leap.

After the tremendous booing that Sosa received at the hands of the White Sox fans, that felt really good. Sammy also hit an opposite field double the previous inning, and was on base when Kinsler blew the game open with his HR. Not bad, considering that he was initially not expected to play on Tuesday night. Some of his swings still aren't looking that great, but he's starting to appear a bit more focused at the plate these last few games. There may still be some hope.

The top four batters in the lineup - Lofton, Catalanotto, Young and Teixeira - went a combined 1 for 15 at the plate last night. Tex has just one extra base hit, a double, in 46 at-bats so far. Concerned yet?

Kinsler batted seventh on Tuesday between Blalock and Wilkerson, but Ron Washington notes it may be only a "temporary" move up in the batting order, due to Ozzie Guillen's tendencies to play late-game matchups. I hope this isn't the case. Washington also says that Blalock sitting against left-hander Horacio Ramirez on Sunday was just to get him a day off, not because of Hank's struggles against lefties. Blalock is expected to play on Wednesday night against Mark Buehrle, who he is just 2 for 26 against in his career.

Kameron Loe is expected to throw in a side session today in preparation for his start against Oakland on Saturday. The Rangers hope they can get 75 to 80 pitches out of him.

After reviewing more video, Brandon McCarthy does not believe he was tipping his pitches in his poor start on Sunday. In fact, here are his comments on the matter:

"It just comes down to this," McCarthy said, "I got beat."

At least he's honest.

Wednesday, April 18th Game Preview

Texas Rangers at Chicago White Sox

Kevin Millwood (2-1, 3.71 ERA) vs. Jon Garland (0-0, 4.32 ERA)

7:11 PM CST in Chicago, Illinois (U.S. Cellular Field)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Tuesday afternoon notes

Texas opens up their three game set against the Chicago White Sox this evening, a series that the Rangers really need to win. Tonight marks the beginning of a string of 20 consecutive games without a day off. With Texas at 5-7, this three week stretch could make or break the Rangers.

As you may have heard, tonight marks the return of Sammy Sosa to Chicago. It will be his first appearance in the Windy City since he left the Cubs' season finale early at the end of 2004, just one of a series of events which led to him being traded to the Baltimore Orioles that following offseason. Although the Orioles visited the White Sox in 2005, Sosa was on the disabled list at the time and was not travelling with the team. Sosa is not expected to play in tonight's game against Jon Garland, with Ron Washington instead opting for Wilkerson in LF, Cruz in RF and Catalanotto at DH. While Sosa is 5 for 12 with a home run against Garland in his career, Sosa is batting just .175/.195/.325 this year with a pair of home runs.

Speaking of Garland, he threw seven shutout innings in his last start against Oakland. He also went 2-0 in 2006 against the Rangers, allowing just two runs in 13.2 innings. Not a real great omen.

2006 Rangers Minor League Player of the Year Nate Gold went on the disabled list today with a fractured finger. Additionally, infielder Desi Relaford was sent to AAA Oklahoma City from extended spring training. Perhaps the most interesting move is the signing of left-hander Onan Masaoka, who has been assigned to extended spring training. Masaoka put together a 4.23 ERA in 93.2 relief innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999 and 2000, but disappeared shortly from baseball thereafter. According to The Baseball Cube, the Hawaiian 29-year-old last pitched in 2001. No idea what he's been doing for the last six years.

Can you guess which two Redhawks these pitching lines belong to?

6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO

3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO

If you guessed Wes Littleton and Frankie Francisco, you'd be correct. Littleton gave up three singles last night, but worked around them to pitch two shutout innings. Needless to say, I think these guys will be back on the 25-man roster sooner rather than later. With Bruce Chen losing out on the #5 spot in the rotation to Kameron Loe, and the Rangers already having left-handers Ron Mahay and C.J. Wilson in the bullpen, Chen could find himself in Oklahoma City before long.

Robinson Tejeda takes the mound for Texas tonight. Let's hope he pitches more like he did against Boston and less like he did against Tampa Bay.

Tuesday, April 17th Game Preview

Texas Rangers at Chicago White Sox

Robinson Tejeda (1-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Jon Garland (0-0, 3.65 ERA)

7:11 PM CST in Chicago, Illinois (U.S. Cellular Field)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

NEWSFLASH: Kinsler Named AL Player of the Week

Per Justice B. Hill of MLB.com, Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler has been named as the AL Player of the Week. Kinsler certainly deserved the honor after hitting .476 with 4 HR's and 8 RBI's last week. It makes you wonder if Kinsler should be batting clean-up on this team, or at least batting in the #5 spot where he could protect Teixeira. Kinsler is one player on this team, that is tearing it up.

Will April Showers, Bring May Flowers?

It's April 16th, and the Texas Rangers are in last place in the AL West. This team looks like a teen who is trying to find direction in life. You can see a battle with this team to find out who they really are. Is this a team that runs and guns, or one that plays small ball? Is this the homer happy team of the past, or a team that will -- gasp -- rely on pitching. We are two weeks into the 2007 season, so let's look at what is going right, and who...is going wrong.

What's going right?

1. Ian "Freaking" Kinsler - Kinsler is raking with 6 HR's (2nd in MLB behind ARod) and an absurd OPS of 1.338. Ian even only has one error so far.

2. Kenny Lofton - Kenny seems to be what he was advertised to be. Lofton is hitting .262 with an OBP of .347 with 4 steals. Not sure how long the soon-to-be 40-year old can keep this up, but for right now, he's solid.

3. Akinori Otsuka - Aki has picked up from where he left off in 2006. Although he's given up 4 hits in 3.0 innings pitched, Otsuka has shut the other teams down when he's needed to.

4. Joaquin Benoit - Has Jack finally put it all-together? It certainly appears that Benoit has turned the corner after a great spring. Benoit has pitched 4.2 innings and has only allowed 1 earned run with 7 strikeouts. Wow. If Benoit can maintain some consistency, look for another middle reliever to be traded within the next month.

5. Eric Gagne and Scott Feldman - Gagne has made it back and captured a save in his first appearance. Gagne's 1st save has to be comforting to the Rangers and now gives him something to build on. Feldman has pitched 6.1 innings and has only given up one earned run, while holding the lowest BAA (.174) on the team.

6. Kevin Millwood - Millwood has quietly been very good so far. The "ace" of the staff is averaging about 6 innings and is giving up about 2.5 runs a game. Kevin's BAA and WHIP are less than stellar, but he's getting the job done

7. Ron Washington - Wash has been saying all the right things and the confidence that he has in his players has to be helping the club, even with a few tough losses so far.

What has gone wrong? Pretty much everything else.

1. The Rangers, despite new manager Ron Washington's fielding instruction, lead the majors in errors with 13. It seems like the Rangers committed most of those errors in Sunday's game against Seattle. This team is playing very sloppy right now, and one has to hope that Wash's hands-off style will reap dividends.

2. The rest of the pitching staff. McCarthy has gotten bombed, Tejeda has been up and down, C.J. Wilson has not been good, and Jamey Wright was downright horrible. At least Loe will move into the #5 spot in the rotation, and I'm not sure he shouldn't have the #4 spot instead.

3. The hitting. Outside of Kinsler, Lofton, and bench players Kata, Hairston, and Chris Stewart, the hitting has been hideous. The Rangers are hitting .117 from the 7th inning on, and yet are somehow 1st in MLB with runners in scoring position (RISP) and RISP with 2-outs.

Teixeira's slow starts are starting to grate on fans. Tex makes you wonder if someone will actually be willing to pay him $18-20 million a year to play 1st base in 2009. Teixeira will break out of his slump as he always does, but his slow starts are contributing to a slow start that could kill the Rangers' chances in the AL West.

Blalock seemed to be getting into a groove coming out of spring training, and that groove has gone right in the toilet. It's still early, but Hank's walk-to-strikeout ratio has gone upside-down from the spring and so far he only has 2 walks to compare with his 13 K's.

You have to wonder when the Brad and Sammy experiments will come to an end. With Victor Diaz hitting .400 and Marlon Byrd hitting .296 in Oklahoma, it only has to be a matter of time before Sosa is waived. The more curious fate will belong to that of Brad Wilkerson. Wilkerson hasn't hit since he came to the Rangers in 2006, and he hasn't shown signs of improving. It may be time, sooner-than-later to end Wilkerson's career as a Ranger.

Maybe the biggest surprises to the negative of the early 2007 season, are the poor hitting performances so far of Gerald Laird and Frank Catalanotto. I expect that Laird will start to hit at some point, and Frank too for that matter, but with Tex and Blalock scuffling, the Rangers can't afford to have anyone else under-performing. Wash has said that he doesn't need Laird to hit, just that he wants him to call a good game and play solid defense. At this point, the Rangers need all the offense they can get.

Nelson Cruz has struggled a bit, but I think everyone expected Nelly to go through some growing pains this year. Cruz needs to be playing everyday and not shuffled in and out of the lineup. Ron Washington's comments yesterday, seem to indicate that he is thinking the same thing.

4. The scheduling. The Rangers led off with series against two tough teams in the Angels and Red Sox, won a series against the hapless Devil Rays and then imploded in their last three-game set in Seattle. The bad news is that the schedule is not going to get any easier. The Rangers start a 14-day stretch with games everyday, including at the White Sox, Indians and injury-prone Blue Jays and home against Oakland and Seattle. I am not sure that anyone could hope for more than to see the Rangers go 7-7 in the upcoming games to end April with a record of 12-14. The really bad news is that the 1st half of May's schedule does not get any easier with a home-and-away series against the Yankees and sets with the Blue Jays and Angels at home, before finally easing up by getting the Devil Rays and Astros on the road. By the time the Rangers travel to Tampa Bay on May 15th, discussion in the DFW area may have shifted to Cowboys mini-camp talk and the Mavs and the NBA Playoffs.

At the very least, the Rangers should keep thing interesting with their dilemma of what to do with Sosa and Wilkerson. Before long, Ron Washington's project for 2007, Hank Blalock may enter that discussion as well. If this team is still scuffling going into June, Rangers' GM Jon Daniels may have his biggest decision yet -- for it might be time at that point, to rebuild this team from the ground up. Until then, Rangers' fans can only hope that April showers, will bring May flowers.

Rangers Disappoint in Seattle

You know, it's hard to write anything about the Rangers after a couple of days like that.

Texas won their series opener against Seattle on Friday night, but then proceeded to drop the final two games of the series to fall to 5-7 on the year. They're now in the AL West cellar, two games behind the first place Mariners, and have lost five of their first six games against their divisional rivals. Sigh.

Here's a few notes on the most noteworthy events of the weekend:

? Ian Kinsler clubbed his 5th and 6th home runs of the year. This guy is simply unbelievable. Ron Washington batted him second against the lefties Jarrod Washburn and Horacio Ramirez, but ninth against right-hander Miguel Batista. At the pace he's going, Washington will have no choice but to move him up in the order against righties.

? The starting pitching was not what it needed to be this weekend. Kevin Millwood was his usual solid self, allowing just one earned run in his six innings of work on Friday night, but the #2 and #3 starters didn't hold up their end of the bargain. I didn't see the Saturday afternoon game, but judging by the stat line Padilla was rather shaky. I'm not really concerned about the possibility of Padilla being injured anymore, but in any event he really needs to pick it up. He's now 0-3 with a 6.62 ERA.

Brandon McCarthy was shelled to Timbuktu and back in Sunday's rubber game, allowing six earned runs in just two innings. It was the shortest start of his young major league career. Brandon surrendered three home runs, one to Ichiro and two to Jose Vidro, who had come into the game with a .343 OPS in his first 28 at-bats. We had heard about McCarthy being home run prone, but good grief. Evan Grant notes that McCarthy believes he may have been tipping his pitches, and that he's going to review video of his performance.

? Six errors in the final two games for Texas, including two from Matt Kata on Sunday as he filled in for Hank Blalock at third base. Absolutely brutal, and not something you like to see when Ron Washington has been preaching defense all spring. Evan Grant does mention that Washington had a closed-door meeting with the team after the game to discuss what went wrong and how to fix it. Hopefully whatever Ron says works, especially because the Rangers have an off day to think about their shoddy performance.

? Eric Gagne was absolutely filthy in saving Friday night's game. He allowed a leadoff base hit but struck out Ichiro and then forced Adrian Beltre to ground into a double play to end the game. His fastball was primarily at 93 MPH, touching 94 MPH, and his secondary pitches looked equally nasty. His curveball to begin Beltre's at-bat was honestly as sick a pitch as I have ever seen. The only question as far as I'm concerned is whether he can stay healthy, because I don't see any reason to doubt his stuff or command.

There isn't much else to say about this disappointing series, other than that with the Rangers missing "King" Felix Hernandez they really should have won this series. Let's hope the Rangers can move forward and play better in the Windy City.

Friday The 13th Noon Update

Boy, the last game of that homestand was a letdown.

But looking on the bright side, Texas won 2 out of 3 games from both Boston and Tampa Bay, and continue to make the season-opening series against Anaheim look like more and more of a fluke. There's still some nagging issues affecting this team, though.

Wednesday's series finale against the Devil Rays found the Rangers falling behind 6-1 after a rough start from Robinson Tejeda, but Texas climbed back into the game to make it 6-5. Michael Young played no small part in the comeback, smashing a solo HR in the 1st inning and a three run shot in the 6th. Ian Kinsler also chipped in with his 4th home run of the year. Unfortunately, Tampa Bay held the Rangers scoreless through the last three innings to prevent the sweep.

When the Rangers failed to do anything in the bottom of the 8th, leaving the game up to Sosa, Blalock and Wilkerson in the bottom of the 9th, I think a lot of people knew the game was over right then. They were right. Sosa took some of the worst cuts at the plate I've seen out of him yet, including swinging late on a 89 MPH fastball from Al Reyes. Blalock has had a pretty good start all things considered, but in classic Hammer fashion he struck out swinging trying to pull a ball that was at neck-level. And Wilkerson worked the count to 3-1, but grounded out weakly on ball four to end the game. That sequence of events was more discouraging than the Rangers failing to tie the game up, for me at least.

Now, regardless of how you feel about the entire concept of protection behind a hitter, I think it's fairly clear that teams are not pitching to Teixeira. Heck, why should they? There's a nearly automatic out in Sosa batting behind him. In fact, Adam Morris of Lone Star Ball did an interesting analysis on the situation, which would seem to confirm the suspicion that Teixeira's productivity this year is being neutered by Sosa's miserable batting line. That's not to make excuses for Tex, who is not doing much with the hittable pitches that he is seeing. But if Sosa does not pick things up considerably, the Rangers are going to have to make a move. I still think Sammy can be a capable DH against left-handed pitchers, but right now he has no business in the lineup against righties. By the way, all but two of Sosa's at-bats have come against right-handed pitching this year. His batting line against them? .115/.148/.115. Uggggly.

On the subject of Wilkerson, make sure to check out Scott Lucas's great report detailing his struggles at the plate. Needless to say, Lucas doesn't sound particularly optimistic.

With three scoreless innings from Kameron Loe and one from Joaquin Benoit, the Rangers now have the 4th best bullpen ERA in baseball, sitting at 2.20 after 28.2 relief innings. Unfortunately, they're still behind the Angels, who are 3rd with a 2.17 ERA. Neither club can touch the Padres, though, whose bullpen has yet to allow an earned run in 28.1 innings.

Speaking of Loe, he may get a chance to crack the rotation sooner than many of us thought. Evan Grant confirms that Jamey Wright is headed to the disabled list with shoulder soreness after his horrible start against Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. This organization seems to be headed in the right direction, but it's things like this that make me shake my head sometimes. If Daniel Haigwood is lost on waivers so that the team could get one bad start out of the mediocre Jamey Wright, I'm not going to be a happy camper. In any event, Kameron Loe or Bruce Chen are in line for the next start from the #5 spot in the rotation, which is set for April 21st against Oakland. Although I'd like to see Loe get his big chance, I'd honestly be happy with either of them.

So who's taking Jamey Wright's roster spot? Eric Gagne, who is expected to pitch tonight against the Mariners. Let's hope his appearance finds him nailing down a save.

Kevin Millwood faces Jarrod Washburn at 9:05 PM CST tonight on KDFI/My27.

As a special note, the weather situation throughout north, central and east Texas this afternoon appears to be quite dangerous as far as severe weather and possible tornadic activity. Stay safe out there.

Jamey Wright Isn't Very Good

For your viewing pleasure, I'd like to present Jamey Wright's pitching line tonight:

2 2/3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1 HR

And a no-decision, thanks to the Rangers pounding out 12 hits in a big 12-9 win over Tampa Bay. Great job by the offense, which rose to the occasion and got the Rangers the victory to move them back to .500 on the season at 4-4. But that's not the focus of this mini-rant.

Jamey Wright needs to go.

The Rangers had no reason to expect anything more than what they got tonight. He's got a long track record of mediocrity, and he's 32, so expecting him to suddenly become better is a pipe dream at best. His spring began well, but the wheels fell off and he ended the spring with a 5.83 ERA. Nonetheless, the Rangers gave him a rotation spot, because they felt his "electric" stuff was too important for them to lose.

Well, we all got a good look at Jamey Wright tonight, and he looked awful. He did fine through his first two innings, but then completely fell apart, and the Devil Rays jumped all over him. His stuff didn't look particularly great, and his command was pretty much non-existent. It was a miserable outing, period.

And if the Texas Rangers are serious about winning this division, Jamey Wright needs to be removed from this roster. Not in a few more starts, or maybe a month. Now, as in right after this game. Admittedly, Bruce Chen and Kameron Loe haven't started particularly strong. But then again, they're pitching out of a bullpen role after being groomed as starters this spring. Their stuff and velocity has looked good so far in the appearances they have made, and I think a lot of people will agree that the Rangers have a much better chance of winning by putting Chen or Loe in the fifth starter's spot than a retread like Jamey Wright.

Unfortunately, the Rangers will probably give Wright a few more starts to fumble around, to see if they can salvage anything from the trainwreck. Good luck with that, Texas. At this point, it's not if Jamey Wright will stay in the rotation.

It's how long.

NEWSFLASH: Wright added, Wood optioned, Haigwood DFAed

The first roster moves of the young season have come down.

Per Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers have purchased the contract of Jamey Wright for tonight's start, as expected. To make room for him on the roster, Mike Wood was optioned to AAA Oklahoma City, while prospect Daniel Haigwood was designated for assignment.

The Wood move isn't surprising, as he was added merely for pitching depth in the bullpen while Gagne and Wright were absent. He had a very good spring training, but doesn't have a great career track record and was the weakest link in the bullpen. He gave up 1 earned run in 2 1/3 innings this season.

The Haigwood DFA, however, is rather stunning. As many of you may recall, he's the player that the Rangers acquired in exchange for Fabio Castro last summer after Buck Showalter refused to let him pitch. Texas will try to sneak him through waivers, but he may end up being claimed. The 23-year-old left-hander was 1-2 with a 3.63 ERA in 62 innings last season at AA Frisco. I'm not too thrilled with this.

All I can say is, Jamey Wright better be damn good tonight. Game time in 20 minutes.

Rangers Rally For 8-4 Win

Not a lot of time to put together anything today, but things should calm down considerably soon.

Great win last night, as Texas put together a six-run 6th inning to beat Tampa Bay 8-4. The Rangers are now 3-1 since their nightmare Anaheim series, and things seem to be really clicking right now. Thank the Lord.

Here's a quick rundown of Monday night's events on the pitching side:

• Brandon McCarthy had a rough start to his night, retiring the side in order in the first but giving up a pair of runs in the second. However, he settled down in a big way after that point, scattering two hits and a walk over four scoreless innings. His fastball was better than it was in his first game in Anaheim, ranging from 91-93 MPH for most of the night. The TV radar gun showed several 97 MPH readings, but I really doubt the validity of those. Anybody who watched the game will agree that it was McCarthy's breaking stuff that stole the show, though. Once he got his 12-to-6 curveball going, it proved to be a virtually untouchable pitch. All in all, a great outing from Brandon in his RBiA debut.
• Kameron Loe had some ridiculous movement on his pitches last night, but still got touched up for two runs in his inning of work. That's not to say it wasn't a solid performance, though: after two quick outs, Loe gave up a groundball single to right, and Carl Crawford cashed in on a mistake pitch with a line drive home run to right field. Kameron gave up a double after that, but that was more the fault of Kenny Lofton misreading a line drive that went over his head. You'd like to see him not give up any runs, but he had great looking stuff and I don't see any reason for concern.
• Scott Feldman and Bruce Chen each pitched perfect innings in the 8th and 9th to hold the 8-4 lead and not make it a save situation. Feldman forced three quick groundball outs, and Bruce Chen had a filthy little curveball working in the 9th that helped him close things out. Very nice, although both of their roster spots are in danger with Jamey Wright and Eric Gagne joining the team this week. I still wish Chen or Loe was the fifth starter, but I'm not going to go into that again.

The Rangers' offense finally cashed in on some big opportunities, going 7 for 14 with runners in scoring position on Monday night. After a ridiculous play from D'Rays third baseman Akinori Iwamura to kill a 3rd inning rally, the Rangers scored a pair in the 4th to tie the game at 2-2. Then, with two outs and no men on in the bottom of the 6th, Texas proceeded to string together six hits and two walks to blow the game open with an 8-2 lead. They wouldn't look back. Everybody in the lineup contributed...well, almost everybody. More on that in a minute.

• Big congratulations to backup catcher Chris Stewart, who picked up his first major league hit at a critical moment: his RBI single to center field put Texas up 4-2 during the 6th inning rally. He threw a ball into center field trying to catch Iwamura stealing in the 2nd inning, but cut him down four innings later when he tried to steal second again. Not a bad performance - I'd rather see him than Rod "Popup" Barajas as the backup catcher. Some comic relief was provided when Matt Kata pretended like he was going to throw the ball from Stewart's first hit into the stands, much to the horror of Ron Washington. Everybody got a good laugh afterwards, though.
• Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler combined to go 7 for 7 on the night, with Kinsler picking up the first four hit game of his career. Two words: absolute dominance. They won't both be batting in the bottom third of the order for long at this pace.
• Sammy Sosa was the only Ranger who failed to reach base, going 0 for 5. I wouldn't be so concerned about Sosa going 0 for 9 in his last two games, except that his swings looked really bad last night. After all the doubts about Sammy still being able to hit major league pitching, that's not something I like to see. Texas can't afford to leave him batting behind Tex if this continues.

There is some good news, though: Ron Washington hinted on Monday that Nelson Cruz may become the everyday right fielder in short order. That would mean Sosa, Brad Wilkerson and Frank Catalanotto competing for two spots - left field and DH. Sosa and Wilkerson would likely split time against right-handers, with Cat getting the other lineup spot. Against left-handers, Cat would likely be out of the lineup, so that leaves Wilkerson in LF and Sosa at DH. Anything that means less Wilkerson and Sosa in the lineup is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Jamey Wright will start tonight against Jae Sao at 7:05 PM CST on FSN Southwest. I'll be rooting for Jamey, but I'm not expecting too much. Here's my prediction from earlier today over at the Newberg Report forums of what I think Wright's pitching line will look like tonight:

4.1 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR

Better keep the bullpen on call, Ron.

Gaining Lost Ground

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

After a horrible season opening series in Anaheim, Texas seems to be getting things back on track, as they took 2 out of 3 in their weekend series against Boston.

Saturday's game was definitely the Rangers' best performance of the year to date, as they won 8-4 in perhaps the coldest home game in franchise history. It was 38 degrees at first pitch, but that didn't stop the bats from warming up to the tune of 14 hits. Kevin Millwood pieced together a 6 inning, 3 run quality start and the bullpen delivered three solid innings to close out Boston.

Of course, the huge story was Sammy Sosa hitting his first home run of the season, a 409 foot shot to left center field beyond the glove of the leaping Coco Crisp. It was his second home run as a Ranger, with the first coming on June 21st, 1989. I've been ragging on Sammy pretty hard for a while, but that was a really special moment to see.

Things didn't go quite as well on Sunday though, with Texas losing the series finale 3-2 on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Here's a quick rundown of the game in a segment I like to call "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

The Good

• Vicente Padilla threw seven quality innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out four. All three runs were courtesy of David Ortiz, as he launched a solo home run in the first inning and a two run shot in the third. Nonetheless, it was a very encouraging start, especially after his tough spring and poor first start in Anaheim. Padilla's stuff looked excellent (other than the pitches he grooved to Big Papi), as he worked in the mid-90's with his usual filthy breaking stuff. Needless to say, my worries about Padilla possibly being injured have lessened considerably.
• The bullpen seems to be really coming together, just as I hoped it would. C.J. Wilson looked excellent in his 1 1/3 scoreless innings; Aki was a bit shaky, giving up a pair of singles, but got the Rangers into the bottom of the 9th with no damage done.
• Frank the Cat replied to Ortiz's first inning shot with one of his own, snaking a Curt Schilling changeup around the right field foul pole in the bottom half of the frame. It was his first hit in 11 at-bats this year.
• Kenny Lofton's beautiful bunt in the bottom of the 8th inning to load the bases with nobody out. It was only intended as a sacrifice, with men on first and second, but the Red Sox defense was thrown completely off balance. Texas was down 3-1 at the time, so the stage was set to at least tie the game and hopefully take a lead.

The Bad

• Texas's inability to cash in on their big rally. Nelson Cruz pinch hit for Catalanotto and scorched a Javier Lopez pitch off Youkilis's glove at first, robbing Cruz of extra bases. Lofton was cut down at second, but the Rangers scored on the play, leaving runners at first and third with one out and the Rangers down 3-2. Unfortunately, Terry Francona brought Jonathan Papelbon in for a five out save opportunity. He promptly blew Mike Young away on strikes and forced Teixeira to pop out. What a buzzkill.
• Speaking of Tex, he went 0 for 4 on the night, and is now hitting .211. That's not particularly concerning, but the fact he's failed to pick up an extra base hit yet is. The Rangers can't afford another mediocre first half out of Tex.

The Ugly

• Sammy Sosa, Hank Blalock and Brad Wilkerson looked about as overmatched by Papelbon in the 9th inning as I've seen any hitter look in a long time. It was pretty obvious none of them had the slightest idea what was coming. Papelbon's a great pitcher, but come on...
• Jon Miller and Joe Morgan's commentary. Enough said. Also, all the Red Sox "fans" at the Temple. I wonder how many of them existed before 2004?

Still, it's hard to rag on Texas after a nice series win against one of the better teams in the American League. They may be sitting at 2-4, but things look much better than they did four days ago. And with Tampa Bay coming to town for a three game set, hopefully the Rangers can move a bit closer to the .500 mark - or surpass it.

Brandon McCarthy will face Edwin Jackson Monday night at 7:05 PM CST. You can find it on KDFI/My27 - although that may not be the case for some, including myself, as numerous blackout issues have been reported regarding KDFI games in markets outside of Dallas/Fort Worth. Not to name names, but it sounds like Time Warner and Suddenlink are the biggest offenders.

I've got a very stressful week coming up, so Chip will likely take the reins for several days.

Hopefully he'll be writing about some Rangers wins.