According to baseball sources, the Texas Rangers have promoted Double-A Frisco first baseman Justin Smoak to Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 22-year-old slugger has batted .328/.449/.481 with six home runs in 227 plate appearances for the RoughRiders this season and has gone 11-for-32 at the plate since overcoming an oblique muscle strain that cost him nearly an entire month on the minor league disabled list.

The promotion dovetails with the Rangers' accelerated developmental philosophy vis-a-vis their top-tier prospects; Texas has repeatedly demonstrated its inclination to relentlessly challenge its most highly touted young players by means of aggressive promotion schedules, as we have already seen in 2009 with the major league debuts of Derek Holland and Julio Borbon and the seemingly inevitable promotion of Neftali Feliz to the major league bullpen -- the last of which admittedly doesn't appear imminent, but seems likely to transpire if he adapts well to his new role and chinks in the Rangers' bullpen armor begin to manifest.

To what extent this development will affect the major league job security of struggling Rangers first baseman Chris Davis isn't immediately apparent, but if the status quo does not change in that regard and Smoak hits the ground running upon his arrival in the Pacific Coast League, the Rangers might be faced with a very difficult decision once they reassess the first base situation during the 2009 All-Star break.

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