Help in sight?

Lefties killing us And then Vlad gets some shut-eye (Glad Rays light from left) When you send your 4-5-6 hitters up against a bad team's number two reliever, down one run, it shouldn't feel hopeless. But with White Sox southpaw Matt Thornton on the mound and injuries to Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz resulting in Texas having Josh Hamilton (now .234/.300/.344 against lefthanders), David Murphy (.238/.256/.310), and Justin Smoak (.056/.146/.139) in those slots, and the bench without a legitimate right-handed-hitting threat, what followed (four-pitch strikeout, five-pitch strikeout, four-pitch groundout) seemed almost inevitable. (Texas is reportedly among the teams that have contacted Boston recently about Mike Lowell, who has asked to be traded – and who was nearly sent to the Rangers for Max Ramirez in December.) Tampa Bay is set to send righthanders Wade Davis, James Shields, and Matt Garza to the hill for this weekend's series in Arlington, and the Rays go with only one lefty in the pen (the mediocre Randy Choate). That's good. But this lineup, just league-average even with Guerrero's and Cruz's production, is a lot easier to gameplan without those two. Guerrero is supposed to be good to go sometime this series. Hope he's seeing the ball well. After these three with Tampa Bay, Seattle comes to town, sending southpaw Cliff Lee to the mound Monday night. Sometime in the first inning, as Lee faces the top of the Rangers' order, or minutes thereafter, Texas will be on the clock for the first of its four first- and supplemental first-round picks in this year's amateur draft. On Monday we ran down a bunch of mock drafts projecting what the Rangers will do with the 15th and 22nd picks, and since then there have been a few updated guesses: Kevin Goldstein, Baseball Prospectus (June 3): Asher Wojchiechowski (RHP, The Citadel) and Justin O'Conner (C, Cowan [In.] HS) Baseball America (June 3: not really a mock but instead the musings of various BA draft experts as to what they would do if in charge of the picks): Stetson Allie (RHP, St. Edward [Oh.] HS) (pick made by editor John Manuel) and Nick Castellanos (3B, Archbishop McCarthy [Fla.] HS) (pick made by assistant editor Conor Glassey) (previous mocks: May 28/executive editor Jim Callis: Bryce Brentz (OF, Middle Tennessee State) and O'Conner; May 14/Callis: Brentz and Ball State second baseman Kolbrin Vitek) Keith Law, ESPN (May 31): Kellin Deglan (C, Langley (British Columbia) HS) and Kaleb Cowart (3B/RHP, Cook County [Ga.] HS) (previous mock, May 24: Brandon Workman (RHP, University of Texas) and Deglan) Jonathan Mayo, MLB.com (June 2): Workman and O'Conner (previous mock, May 26: Cowart (mock stopped at number 20)) Jon Heyman, Sports Illustrated (June 2): Yasmani Grandal (C, University of Miami) and Vitek Jon Daniels said yesterday that most of the players Texas likes at the unprotected number 15 pick, based strictly on talent, are not signability risks. He also said that the Rangers are not limited to slot by MLB while the bankruptcy proceedings are pending. The club is bound instead by its draft budget, which contains flexibility to go over slot. For Scott Lucas's sake, I hope Texas doesn't pop Wojchiechowski and Illinois high school righthander Mike Foltynewicz Monday night. According to initial reports, Derek Holland doesn't have thoracic outlet syndrome. The Rangers' 9-5 win in Chicago on Wednesday was the club's first road win without a save all year. Only twice have they won a road game by as much as a four-run margin. Crazy. Updating an incredible stat that T.R. Sullivan ran out there earlier this week: number nine hitters are hitting .312 off Rangers pitching this season. No other spot in the lineup is hitting over .289 against Texas. According to MLB Fangraphs, the best slider in baseball right now (in terms of "pitch value") belongs not to Carlos Marmol or Francisco Liriano or Clayton Kershaw, but to Rangers righthander Colby Lewis. There were rumors that the Rays considered designating catcher Dioner Navarro for assignment once Kelly Shoppach was activated yesterday, but instead the club placed shortstop Jason Bartlett on the disabled list. ESPN's Buster Olney speculates that once Arizona catcher Miguel Montero returns to action, the Diamondbacks could shop Chris Snyder, with Texas a possible match (a sentiment shared by Baseball Prospectus's John Perrotto). Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports suggests Cleveland's Russell Branyan would be a better trade fit for Texas than Chicago's Paul Konerko, should the club seek a stopgap first baseman. Maybe, but I'd prefer a right-handed hitter. Oakland designated righthander Edwar Ramirez for assignment. The San Angelo Colts of the independent United League signed righthander Ezequiel Astacio. The Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden Baseball League signed lefthander Matt Perisho. The New Jersey Jackals of the independent Can-Am League traded infielder Enrique Cruz to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League. R.A. Dickey has a 2.84 ERA in three Mets starts. Kameron Loe has two scoreless appearances out of the Milwaukee bullpen. Casey Daigle has two scoreless appearances out of the Houston bullpen. And Joaquin Benoit is up to 12 scoreless appearances out of the Rays pen. Eleven dominant innings: two hits, two walks, 15 strikeouts. We'll probably see Benoit in a critical eighth-inning spot at some point this weekend. I hope it's with Vladimir Guerrero at the plate. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport