Monday a.m. things

You know, I was thinking this weekend...I wouldn't be surprised if the Mavs lost the first game against the Warriors in this series, and then won the next four.  The first part of that certainly worked out...

Nice win last night, and Robinson Tejeda continues to impress.  The peripherals, overall, are still a little bit shaky, but you have to love the 3.55 ERA.  I'd take a full season from him with an ERA a run higher.

And the offense, of course, continues to struggle.  Jan Hubbard notes that several Rangers who started slowly are getting even worse...Hubbard notes that Gerald Laird is 1 for his last 31, Michael Young is 2 for his last 32, Sammy Sosa is 0 for his last 9, and the Cat is 2 for his last 19.  The Rangers' only decent offensive players have been their second year second baseman and their injured left fielder.  

And personally, I'm getting tired of hearing about how Michael Young and Mark Teixeira are too good of hitters to keep struggling.  I'm ready for them to stop struggling and start hearing.  

Anaheim and Oakland are just a game ahead of Texas.  Along with the other issues those two have had, Rich Harden is going to miss his next start for the A's, and Milton Bradley is expected to go on the disabled list with his hamstring problem, which will leave the A's with another outfield hole.

The Rangers have hung in there while the offense has gone through a really bad first three weeks of the season, and the problems with the rest of the division have left Texas within striking distance.  This division is still imminently winnable...but the bats really have to get it going to take advantage of the situation.

A return by Brad Wilkerson should help the offense, and he should be back soon, possibly tonight.  Wilkerson had the knee lock up on him in spring training as well, he said, but Ron Washington says it isn't going to require a d.l. stay.  

Still, I'd be shocked if this is the last injury issue Wilkerson has this year.  He looks like he can still hit some, but his health issues are going to make it hard to count on him to be in the lineup every day...which makes getting production from Nelson Cruz, Sammy Sosa and Frank Catalanotto that much more critical.

Eric Gagne's injury is apparently not serious, and Gagne says it is his "first butt injury."  I am not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

Gil LeBreton seems a bit histrionic about the Gagne situation this morning, saying that the Rangers are trying to "piece together fruitful innings" while at the same time acknowledging that it has been the team's pitching that is carrying the Rangers right now.  The bullpen is the least of the problems for Texas.

T.R. Sullivan has some Monday Morning questions up, including asking whether it is fair to compare Brandon McCarthy and John Danks at this point.

I don't really care about whether it is fair or not...but I do think that you have to at least see where they are in August before you can make a reasonable conclusion.  If you want to say the trade sucks right now because both are in their respective rotations and Danks has been better, that's fine, but if Danks is back in AAA in August and McCarthy is rocking along, that changes things rather dramatically.

And personally, I still don't think Danks would have been in the rotation this year, anyway.  If the Rangers don't trade for McCarthy, they would have traded for Jon Lieber or signed Tony Armas, Jr., or found some other veteran option.  Danks would be in AAA right now, and Lieber or Armas or someone of that ilk would be in the rotation right now.