Wednesday: The Good Health

The Rangers, despite their flaws, seem to be in better shape than they were this time last year, thanks in part to the struggles of the Angels and the Athletics (the Angels can be excused due to the tragedy of Nick Adenhart and the injuries inflicted on Guerrero, Lackey, and Santana). Texas is in second place in the West, and only three games behind the Mariners, whose unforeseen success has been a bit of surprise. I know it’s still only April, but one thing that I haven’t heard much talk about is the Rangers’ health situation. Right now, Kris Benson is the only starter who’s been shelved, but his injury isn’t serious, plus Scott Feldman should do a stellar job during Kris' absence. Willie Eyre is also out, which is a shame because he's worked so hard since 2007 to stay healthy. As far as the offensive players go, there have been no serious problems, though right now we must wait with baited breath to see if Josh Hamilton’s rib injury is serious. Also, according to T.R. Sullivan’s Inbox column, David Murphy has occasionally felt discomfort from last year’s collision at the plate with Ivan Rodriguez. But besides that, this is a healthy Rangers club, and though injuries are never good excuses for answering a team’s failures, they do in fact bring a team down.

Around this time last year, injuries were plaguing the Rangers left and right. On April 30th, Jason Jennings went down, and the day before Hank Blalock began what would be an injury riddled season. On April 23rd, Dustin Nippert headed to the DL, preceded by Marlon Byrd, Eddie Gaurdado, and Brandon McCarthy, who was hurt before the season even started. Soon after Jennings went down, Kevin Millwood followed. So compare that to April this year, and things don't seem so bad.

Josh Hamilton may end up on the DL, and though that would dent the Rangers’ offense, their lineup is still good enough to keep producing (I mean, they’re hitting all these homeruns even without Hamilton smacking the ball like we expected). What’s really important though is that the pitching staff remains healthy. If the Rangers want to play meaningful baseball through August and even September, they’re going to need the rotation, especially Millwood and Padilla, to stay off the DL.

So far so good (I don’t think we need to worry about Padilla’s velocity, seeing as he seemed to be back to normal with his last start) with the staff health wise. Quality innings aside, the good health is a necessity that always comes first, because without the good health, pitchers wouldn’t throw quality innings in the first place.