A lonestar in california

I’m sitting here right now trying to think of ways to relay the latest demonstration of how not to play baseball by the Texas Rangers. It’s tougher than normal, because I (mercifully, perhaps) missed yesterdays game, and have to rely soley on the box score and postgame write-ups, but it’s also tough, because I’m getting tired of writing about how bad we suck right now.

In short, baserunning and defensive gaffes like Marlon Byrd stupidly holding up at third as Matt Walbeck was waving him home on what should have been a David Murphy RBI triple in 7th, and Milton Bradley overshooting a cutoff man with a throw in the 6th, or Josh Hamilton trying to take second on a ball that just barely got away from Jeff Mathis in the 9th cost the Rangers dearly Tuesday, as Kevin Millwood and Josh Rupe combined to blow a 4-0 lead, and allowed the Angels to score 7 unanwsered runs from the 4th to the 6th innings, as the Rangers lost for the 5th time in a row, 7-4.

The long version? I’m afraid I really don’t have the heart for that. Not tonight. If you want the long version, go here. Or better yet, go here.

Suffice it to say, the Rangers are still playing really bad baseball right now, and nobody seems to be stepping up to lead them out of it. Ron Washington, in fact, got called into a postgame meeting with Jon Daniels, making one wonder how much of a leash Ron will be on if the team doesn’t show some improvement soon. Actually, as EMC put it yesterday in her comment under my last entry, that may turn out to be the silver lining of all this - a manegerial shakeup might be just what the Rangers need right now, not only for the present, but for the future. At the very least, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

In other news, Ron Washington has announced a plan to move Josh Hamilton back and forth between CF and RF, along with some time at DH, throughout the rest of the year. The purpose of this is to try and keep Hamilton fresh, but I’m not really sure this is such a great idea. Hamilton may have played all three OF positions regularly last year for the Reds, but he’s already said he’s still learning the wind currents in CF at the Ballpark in Arlington, so moving him back and forth between CF and RF a couple times a week may not be the best course of action. And then of course there’s the fact that Josh is by far and away the best defensive CF on the team right now - you’re kind of short-changing your OF defense a little by putting him over in RF – which really isn’t that much less of a physically demanding position than CF anyway. Not that’s Josh’s extraordinary ability won’t allow him to handle bouncing between the two positions pretty well, but all things considered, I’m really not sure it’s worth the trouble, myself.

One thing that does seem to indicate, however, is Milton Bradley may spend more time at DH this season than was originally planned – which isn’t a bad thing really, considering his past penchant for injuries. Keeping him in the lineup is important, and it’s not like we have anyone pushing for time at DH.

 Jarrod Saltalamacchia watch: Salty went 0-4 today as OKC defeated Round Rock, 6-1 behind the pitching of Doug Mathis. That snaps what had been a 5-game hitting streak for Salty, but he did play some pretty solid defense in the game, making some nice blocks behind the plate, although he was only 1-3 in chances throwing out runners.

The Rangers now head up to the Rogers Centre in Toronto for two games, as Kason Gabbard will take on Jesse Litsch. After the doubleheader against Baltimore, the rotation order is a bit out of whack, so Gabbard will start today, and Vicente Padilla will go Thursday against Roy Halladay. Ron Washington has said Milton Bradley will not play in the field in Toronto, because of the astroturf, and Josh Hamilton will only play OF in one of the two games, so that means Bradley will get one of the games, presumably game 2, off.

Hopefully, we can break the losing streak in Toronto, because after that, it’s off to Fenway Park for four games with the Red Sox, and then on to Detroit to take on the Tigers. This could turn out to be a tough road trip – if the Rangers want to win many of their upcoming games, they’re not going to have too much room for error.