I don’t give a shit what the media says about Padilla and Millwood being “expensive”. Look at the price of starting pitching right now and tell me those 2 aren’t worth their contracts. I still say you only trade either one of them only if you are overwhelmed. If a team is not willing to do that then screw ‘em. They can have Ponson instead.

If Padilla or Millwood get traded it will be Hurley who will replace them. Reason is that way they can bring him up and leave him up no matter how he performs. That way you don’t burn an option unnecessarily.

would you rather keep Millwood AND Padilla, and not bring in even more top-end prospects, and miss the playoffs this year keeping them?

or trade one along with Salty/Teagarden/Laird and/or Milton Bradley and pick up a potential future ace such as Clay Buchholz, David Price, Francisco Liriano, Adenhart, Adam Miller, maybe even Manny Parra?

I’d even try taking Oliver Perez and Fernando Martinez in exchange for Millwood/Padilla, Milton Bradley and Laird…

Rangers are 5 or 6 games behind in wildcard? Where do you pull the trigger with all the politics involved here, (Young, Fans, Hicks, local Media, etc)?

how difficult it might be to replace Millwood and/or Padilla. And for what it’s worth, if Murray or Mathis reels off a series of quality starts in the next two months, it’s probably fools gold anyway, so I hope they don’t base the availability of the first two on that. Their viable internal options for top four starters for 2009 are: Millwood, Padilla, McCarthy, Hurley. They don’t have anyone else, and as we’ve chronicled, McCarthy and Hurley both are questions until they establish themselves. So if you’re going to move Millwood or Padilla and hope to win much in 2009, you’d better have something up your sleeve.

Again though, it just depends on what the return might be. There are certain less than elite pitching prospects for whom I might be willing to gamble one of our two veterans.

I doesn’t make sense to trade Padilla and/or Millwood this year since the Rangers have no chance of replacing their production for this year or even at the start of 2009. I think what would make more sense is to trade them either in the offseason or at the 2009 ASB, because by then the Rangers should have a better idea of what they have coming up.

The Rangers, while not tearing up the league, have been competitive.

obviously hes a big injury risk, but if hes on the field he would help.

3.35 minor league ERA with a 10.37 k per 9 and 1.37 bb/p

hes even now just 24.

his debut was a 4.0 era as a starter, just fine. but then the sox pushed him out of the rotation and he was meh out of the bullpen, a role he was uncomfortable with and doesnt suit him since he seems to take a while to get going, struggling early.

then with the rangers he immediately struggled with injuries all year long. after a terrible may he had a 3.5 or so ERA the rest of the way.

its much much too early to write off brandon mccarthy.

The Rangers are going to make a hard push on a Perez, Sabathia, or Sheets this offseason.