Buck Shuffles Lineup

A quick note that I felt was important to mention about the Rangers loss to the Angels last night was the lineup changes that Showalter made for the game. He must have heard my pleas that Brad Wilkerson be taken out of the leadoff spot, because he was batting 7th last night. Wilkerson went 1-for-4 last night with no strikeouts to raise his batting average to .175. He was hitting behind Ian Kinsler, who was moved up from 9th to 6th. According to the Rangers website, Showalter isn’t quite reader to move Kinsler into the leadoff spot for fear of the pressue it would put on the rookie. In fact, he said he was hesitant just to move him up to sixth, for fear of disrupting the success he’s had in the 9th spot.

Speaking of Kinsler, really bad news out of last night’s game. Rangers.com is reporting that Kinsler dislocated his thumb and is likely to go on the DL. Fortunately, X-rays did not show any fractures or any ligament damage. The Rangers are reportedly hoping he will miss no more than 2-3 weeks.

Replacing Wilkerson in the leadoff spot last night was veteran outfielder Adrian Brown. Brown went 1-for-4 in the game, and currently has a .200 batting average. Laynce Nix was moved into the 9th spot in the lineup where he got three striketouts, but at least he finally got his first hit of the season. His batting average is .045. The other lineup change involved Mark Teixeira. He hurt his finger taking a line drive at first base the other night. While he recovers, he will be the DH and will be replaced at first by Phil Nevin.

By way of update, I should also mention that Robinson Tejeda got rocked in his second minor league start. He allowed five runs on eight hits in five innings. Fortunately for the Rangers, Rick Bauer is performing well, so this doesn’t kill them. Hopefully John Koronka will be as sharp as he was in his first start when he goes against LAA tonight. The Rangers need all the help they can get right now.

(All statistics courtesy of The Baseball Cube. To read more about the Rangers, check out Baseball Time in Arlington.)

Date
Wed 04/12/06, 6:53 am EST

Source

 * http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060411&content_id=1395599&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex
 * http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060412&content_id=1396169&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex