Friday afternoon Texas Rangers tidbits

Mr. Met

The New York Metropolitans are in tonight.

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Dirk Nowitzki is throwing out a good pitch. Finally, a decent closer on the mound. Ha.

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Josh Hamilton said his day-night splits are due to his blue eyes. And he has a optometrist backing him up:

"Because of the lack of pigment in lighter color eyes -- like blue or green eyes as opposed to brown -- you get a lot more unwanted light and that can create glare problems."

The solution: Sunglasses.

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Jon Daniels is not in town if you're trying to reach him to go out for drinks. I know I have. He's in the Far East. Scouting.

One specific player he's looking at is Japanese hurler Yu Darvish, the dude that's been teasing to come to the United States for two years. He's dominating, of course.

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Eric Hurley was taken off the disabled list from his concussion after getting knocked in the head earlier this season. He's at Triple A Round Rock. The 40-man roster is full.

Hamilton, Cruz to return ... now to figure this thing out

Breaking the Hambone

Outfielders Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz are set to return to the Texas Rangers' line-up tonight.

Their return will spell the end of someone's tenure with the club for now. It'll be either Chris Davis, Endy Chavez, Craig Gentry or Taylor Teagarden.

My gut feeling tells me it'll be Teagarden and Chavez keeping the left-handed Davis and the righty Gentry in the line-up.

Is that the right move? I find it hard to believe they'll keep three catchers (Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli already in tow) and Chavez is a lefty not unlike Dave Murphy, Hamilton and Julio Borbon (when he's back).

No matter who stays or who goes, I think Ron Washington needs to take this time -- as we go into June -- to establish a day-in and day-out line-up.

Even when Hamilton and Cruz were healthy, there were a ton of interchangeable parts to the line-up based on giving guys a day off, getting guys at-bats and loading up with lefties against a righty starter and vice versa.

I see the point. However, I don't think it works. Aside from the first two weeks of the season, the offense has sucked and I can't help but feel that it has everything to do with rhythm. They say swinging a bat has everything to do with timing and when a guy comes up from the minors or is injured for a long period, the period of struggle in their return or call up has to do with timing the pitch from the hand to the catcher's mitt.

How can a guy like Mitch Moreland, Napoli, Gentry, Borbon or Davis really get a good rhythm when they sit for three days and play two only to sit another four days. It doesn't make any sense. You can't really win with 15 hitters that could all be starting, or you think could be starting.

Sometimes, you've got to understand that Murphy and Napoli are best coming off the bench. Sometimes Jason Terry makes more sense off the bench than starting. Sometimes you need that back-up running back for a change of pace, but hardly do you give him 20 carries a game.

Washington needs to establish roles. There are complications. Injuries are one. It should be known that the Rangers could offset making a decision today by placing someone on the disabled list (let's say Napoli gets "shoulder soreness" at some point today).

Borbon's return complicates things, too, whenever that happens.

Also, there is initial talk that Hamilton could DH quite a bit in his return. This puts Mike Young at first base for at least a semi-regular time only and keeps Moreland (someone I consider a big-league hitter) on the bench. Of course, you could put Cruz in left, Moreland in right and Gentry/Borbon/Chavez in center. I hate it, but Washington is prone to do it.

Still, the Rangers need consistency here. At some point Hamilton will need to return to the outfield keeping Cruz in right (far more natural there) and Moreland can play first (Young at first make me feel uncomfortable ... as if something's going to go wrong).

Seems like there's not enough role guys and too many that need 500 at-bats. Doesn't seem healthy.

Lee Stevens can finally pop the cork on that chilled champagne

Keeping Lee's dream alive

The Texas Rangers great is still the last player to go into arbitration hearings after Josh Hamilton signed a two-year, $24 million deal.

He was making $3 million last season.

Sometimes, the small things are all we got.

The case of the mysterious illnesses

O, Roddy where art thou

Last year, Erick Dampier was rushed the hospital mid-season and sat out, as I remember, several weeks of games due to this illness.

It never quite came out what the illness was. Seems like they didn't know what was the matter or they were unwilling to tell anyone.

There's a lot teams and players don't want to talk about. Seems like the local media isn't asking many questions either.

On Jan. 11, Josh Hamilton was admitted into a hospital due to the "early stages" of pneumonia. Initially, it was reported that he'd be out of the hospital within "24 hours."

Five days later, Hamilton was released. Why it took one of Earth's foremost humans in terms of health and fitness to go from a day in the hospital to a week is no addressed.

Then there's Roddy Beaubois.

The Dallas Mavericks' point guard broke his foot in August. We were told it'd be a couple of months and, most likely, he'd miss the first part of the regular season. Mark Cuban downplayed the injury by stating, "He broke a foot, he didn't have it amputated."

Are you sure? It's Jan. 16 and Beaubois seems as likely to play before March as I am.

Beat writer Eddie Sefko addressed the issue in a recent Q&A stating that either the media was "snowed" by the "couple-month prognosis" or there was a huge setback and that no one's "fessed up" about.

In November, DallasBasketball.com reported that Beaubois had the walking boot taken off with an apparent return to basketball activities within a couple of weeks. Again, comments from the useless Donnie Nelson and Cuban sounded as if it were no big deal.

Sports franchises can do what they want. There's no legal obligation to truthfully or forthcomingly report player injuries.

However, isn't there a certain moral obligation. No, the fans don't own the team. We do, on the other hand, buy tickets, T-shirts and watch the games on TV where a big chunk of cash is generated. A CEO wouldn't lie to investors about a company's financials nor would he or she mislead investors as much as the Mavericks have "snowed" the media and fandom regarding Beaubois.

Josh Hamilton, a Most Valuable Player

M-V-P

There is a lot to hate about modern sports.

The continued controversy in collegiate sports. The drugs, steroids, violence. The money. The egotistical dimwits that we all think get paid too much to do too little for society.

How it's all gotten out of hand, or so we think.

One thing we shouldn't hate is Josh Hamilton. He was named the 2010 American League Most Valuable Player today.

Chances are, you know or knew someone like Hamilton: Struggled daily with some kind of addiction, where everyday you feel like you're on a precipice with some unseen force keeping you from plummeting to your death.

Hamilton is any number of any of us. He didn't win the MVP award for being a guy that's overcome drug and alcohol abuse. He won it because he is more important to the Texas Rangers than any one player on any other team in the American League.

Hamilton is the Rangers' sixth MVP, and probably the most deserving. Considering at least four of the other five came from suggest or confirmed steroid users and the other came from Jeff Burroughs amidst a cornucopia of bad teams, none was more important than Hamilton.

His season took the Rangers to a place that seem astronomically preposterous to us. The World Series, of course. Hell, the ALDS was enough. The ALCS was too much and the World Series was mind blowing. Hamilton helped do the one thing that Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez or Burroughs couldn't do. He won.

Hamilton's MVP as a little in doubt. He lead the AL in just average, slugging and, consequently, on-base plus slugging. Missing the final month killed him stat-wise because it dragged him down in RBI, homers and hits.

The award, however, is about value and just a little about stats. Hamilton hit an American League-leading .369 with runners in scoring position.

He hit .379 with runners in scoring position and two outs. He played killer outfield, battled injuries and lead a hapless, bankrupt franchise from the cellar to the World Series.

The definition of value.