I was a doubter, in regards to the C.J. Wilson as a starter experiment this spring.
I didn't have much doubt that Wilson could be a major league starting pitcher. My concern wasn't that he'd fall on his face as a starter.
Rather, my feeling was that stamina issues, both in terms of how far into a game he could pitch and how he'd hold up over the season, would be problematic, and the chances that he'd be anything more than a back-of-the-rotation starter were not great enough to make it worth the hole moving him would rip in the bullpen, particularly given the plethora of other starting options that the Rangers had available.
It is still early, and I still am concerned about how much gas Wilson will have in the tank come August, but at this point, Wilson looks to have proved me wrong. My concerns about Wilson's departure from the bullpen have been completely justified, but Wilson's performance to date has been so good as to make that irrelevant in considering the wisdom of the decision to put him in the rotation.
Ray Buck's game story is about Wilson pitching like the Rangers' ace this season. T.R. Sullivan's game story is also C.J.-centric. Evan Grant has his post-game comments up here. Tim MacMahon has his post-game thoughts up here.
Kevin Sherrington has a column about C.J.'s transition to the rotation.
Rich Harden hopes to build on his last start when he takes the mound today. I'm going to be paying a lot of attention to what Harden does today. If we see something close to what we saw his last time out in Oakland, then the Rangers suddenly have three guys -- Harden, Wilson, and Colby Lewis -- that you have to feel match up well with any other trio in the American League.
If Harden is the Harden we've seen the rest of the season, though, we're back to trying to figure out what is wrong and how much rope he's going to continue to get.
The S-T has injury updates on Nelson Cruz, Matt Harrison, and Joaquin Arias, with Cruz set to start a rehab assignment on Monday, with the plan being to activate him on Wednesday.
Joe Posnanski, meanwhile, writes about yesterday's game and the continuing inability of the Royals to support Zack Greinke up on his blog.