and just get rid of dead wood.

Release Broussard already. Shelton can keep 1b warm until Davis is ready.

If someone will give Texas a flyer on some underachieving guy with a little bit of ability languishing in low-A somewhere, go ahead and move Mench for that.

Give Botts his release and let him go elsewhere.

I’d like to see them trade Cat ASAP, but I don’t think they can get anything in return. Remember in 2004 when the Rangers went looking for a “veteran left handed bat” and got Matt Stairs? What did they give up for him? Joselo Diaz. I don’t see that there’s a ton of difference in the value between Cat now and Stairs then.

I originally thought I’d be pissed if they sent Boggs down to make room for Byrd, but the more I think about it, I’d rather see them send Boggs down, play Byrd pretty much every day and hope he gets hot so that he can be traded in July. Boggs is going to be there in August and September (probably starting every day) and then next year (probably as the 4th OF).

the firing of Washington is imminient at all because JD NEVER likes to admit making a mistake.

If Washington survived the trip to Boston & Detroit, he’s going to be here for awhile.

The schedule is fairly squishy in the very near future although I’m not sure this team has played very well recenlty in Tampa, Minnesota or Cleveland .

Here’s what the Rangers are looking at as far as their teams:

Majors:
Hamilton, D Murphy, Boggs, Byrd (dl), Bradley, Catalanotto, Shelton, Broussard

AAA:
Ellison, Mench, Cruz, Mayberry, Botts, Gold

AA:
S Murphy, Gentry, Majewski, Davis, Harrison, Ramirez

High A:
Gerrard, Borbon, Mehl, Harren, Tracy, Gomez, Restko

Low A:
Beltre, Smith, Alfonzo, Paisano, Gac, Santana, Moreland

ok, where is the upward pressure? Starting at the bottom, Ian Gac has to be promoted, whether its to Bakersfield or all the way to Frisco, is the only thing up for debate. I might skip him over Chad Tracy and the guys at A ball since none of them are really hitting, or maybe even demote someone from there back to Clinton (Chad Tracy being the only one who comes to mind. none of them are really prospects). Beltre is still fine in Clinton, but Timothy smith could bubble up a level pushing KC Harren back down. At High A, no one really stands out, but You could push Borbon since he’s on the 40 anyway and his service clock is ticking.

That means that there’s really only two slots that need to be pushed from AA, obviously those are Chris Davis and Steven Murphy. What about Ben Harrison you say? well, he’s 26, he’s in AA, so, either you bring him all the way up or just leave him be. Plus he hasn’t had all that many PA’s so sample sizes can apply.

So that leaves AAA, and making room for 2 slots there. Easy. Release Broussard and Mench (I think though that they are waiting for Byrd to come back from the DL before releasing Broussard.) But, if you Release Broussard and Mench, Bring up Cruz, you now have room to put Botts back in the Outfield in AAA with Ellison and Steven Murphy, and John Mayberry, with Nate Gold at DH and Chris Davis at first. You add Cruz to your major league roster as 4th outfielder (now that Cat is backup first baseman, and if Cruz doesn’t hit, release him when Byrd comes back. If he does hit, then DFA/trade/release Cat.

But JD is no dummy and I’m sure that this is exactly what he’ll do.

traded?

The right thing to do is find Jason Botts a new start.