Daniels, Washington in trouble?

In the race for baseball's most disappointing team, the Texas Rangers have to be right up there. Their 23-41 record has shocked a lot of folks, including their owner, Tom Hicks, who is said by associates to be extremely disappointed.

In baseball circles there are already rumblings that first-year manager Ron Washington, who had an early run-in with star first baseman Mark Teixeira, doesn't have the job security he had at the start of his managerial career -- which happened to be only 64 games ago. There are also rumblings that their smart young general manager, Jon Daniels, who's had three notable trades work against him, has something to prove to Hicks, maybe even by the end of the year.

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Daniels is extremely bright and as hard-working as they come, and I believe he will someday be an excellent general manager. How soon that will be is what Hicks will have to judge.