Sigh. 4-3 on the road trip, against two of the best teams in baseball, is pretty good.
But I wanted to see a lot more out of Brandon McCarthy in his first start back off the d.l. than that. This is a guy that the Rangers brought in with the expectation that he'd be a top of the rotation pitcher for them, a #1 or a #2, in the near future. He's got to show better than what he showed last night if he's going to get there...
Evan Grant has some quotes from McCarthy and Willie Eyre, who both said they didn't have good stuff last night.
Grant also has some injury updates...and the surprising news is that Joaquin Arias, who had been on a rehab assignment, underwent shoulder surgery yesterday, and may not be back this season. Arias looks like he'll spend the whole season on the 60 day d.l., and as a result, accrues a full year of major league service time, making him arbitration and free agency eligible a year sooner than he would have. On the other hand, he won't be out of options now until after the 2009 season, rather than after next year.
Ian Kinsler's stress fracture is going to keep him out 3-6 weeks, which sucks. And Akinori Otsuka won't pitch until tomorrow, at the earliest, because of forearm soreness, while Grant reports that Mark Teixeira may be back as soon as the first game after the All Star break.
Kevin Sherrington has a column on Jon Daniels' work on rebuilding the team, and the pieces he's going to be trading later this summer.
Oh, and Jason Botts is pretty good.