per todays Newberg Report:

Ron Washington says the club has not considered moving Hank Blalock back to third base once he's healthy, nor has it considered moving Chris Davis back to third.

are you KIDDING me?

lets go over the implications for the players involved:

Hank Blalock: best value to the club is as a 3b. best value in trade is as a 3b. were talking about a guy who baseball reference says at age 22-24 was most similar to scott rolen, at 25 to gary sheffield, and at 26 to aramis ramirez. considering the long-term lack of prospects the team has at 3b (presuming davis does not move back to 3b, and i seriously doubt he does...) and considering his relatively young age (27) - as well as his lack of "typical" 1b power (broken 30 HR once in his career - at age 23.) my question: long term, how does it help the team to move blalock from 3b? be it in value to the team or value in trade?

Chris Davis:the kid has 27 AB in 9 games. he has proven himself at both AA and AA - being one of the best hitters in the minors the last two years. how does it help his development to give him say 75 AB total before the ASB then send him down and call him back up at some point in the season (after he has killed AAA pitching)? why not let him play in the majors as it is - be it in a platoon or nearly full time? if we send him down in favor of MOVING blalock to another position is it really that much different than what happened w/ jeff clement and the mariners earlier this year?

Max Ramirez: clearly he deserves to be in the majors as well - be it as a 1b or catcher. and considering right now hes the only healthy catcher we have...hes not going anywhere. does it help him to play at 1B? who knows. but do the AB help him? yes. granted he has 21 AB in 7 games (will surely go up in the near future). i know laird has done well this year but no matter how you slice it the catching position is full at AAA and the majors btwn laird, maxram, teagarden and salty. too full probably. at this point if you send maxram (or salty) down he is going to be splitting time with teagarden. if you leave him in the majors you allow him to get in AB's, take his lumps, whatever you want to call it...but does it really help his development if we send him to AAA?

German Duran: longterm, his position is (probably) not 3b. he is hitting .216 in 88 AB and not playing every day, which i would think he needs to be doing in order to help him develop

Ramon Vazquez:- lets him go back to the supersub role of split time with blalock. or let him play more at 3b and flip him at the deadline

Jarrod Saltalamacchia: at this point i really do not think at all it helps him to be sent down should be playing about as much as he currently (or more?)

so presuming you keep everyone up when laird comes back you have:
c- laird, salty, maxram
1b - blalock, chris davis, maxram
3b - vazuqez, duran

so heres my questions
1) why do you think the rangers are doing this?
2) what would YOU do?
3) what will the rangers do?

do you think it hurts davis/maxram to be sent down?
what happens with laird?
what happens with the logjam at catcher? (who gets traded? for what?
do you keep maxram playing one position or do like what was done w/ salty last year (1b/C split)?