Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no stats to back this up, but it seems like the Rangers have a long standing history of sucking when it comes to facing a pitcher for the first time.  Last night was a perfect example of this...  Hughes got lit up in his first start (against the Blue Jays, I think), but when he rolled into Arlington, he was suddenly a Cy Young caliber pitcher.  If my memory serves me, this seems to happen to us A LOT.

Shouldn't our scouting department be telling us what to expect from guys we haven't faced before?  It's easy to point the finger at Rudy or the players, but the primary function of scouts is to tell the players what to expect, but I believe history shows that the scouts just aren't getting the job done.  (One of the only other alternatives would be that our players just don't look at the scouting reports, which is unfathomable to me...)

Any thoughts?  Any stats to back up my comments?  Maybe it's just me, but I think I'm on to something here...