● Yes, manager Ron Washington was in a really tough spot with Frankie Francisco, Josh Rupe and Eddie Guardado all unavailable due to either lingering physical maladies or excessive pitch count totals. I understand that. I comprehend that.

But, at the same time, there’s no getting around the fact that Washington set flamethrowing rookie Warner Madrigal up to fail by throwing him into the fire in the manner he did. Making your big league debut in front of 50,000-plus at Yankee Stadium is bad enough, but in a one-run game against the top of a potent New York lineup? Come on.

I’m not saying the outcome would have been any different if Washington had, say, flipped Jamey Wright and Madrigal (making the former the seventh-inning guy, and the latter the eighth-inning guy). But if Wright survives and Madrigal comes in to face a less-intimidating batch of hitters closer to the bottom of the Yankees’ batting order in the bottom of the eighth inning (a role that he is likely more familiar with than the seventh inning, given his work history in the minors), there’s a far better chance that this doesn’t turn into an 18-7 rout.

Then again, I have to ask: what on earth was the team planning to do if extra innings broke out? I have to somewhat question the wisdom behind carrying Madrigal over Triple-A Oklahoma’s Wes Littleton, who admittedly isn’t lighting the world on fire (4.91 ERA in 36.2 IP this season), but is at least capable of going two or three innings.

Perhaps Washington was set up to fail by his own superiors. But that’s a whole lot of conjecture already.

● Rehabilitating first baseman Hank Blalock has to be seeing shades of Gerald Laird (circa 2004), when the 24-year-old backstop tore a ligament in his left thumb on a May 20th tag play at the plate, and came back from the 60-day disabled list some two months later to find Rod Barajas had taken his job. It took more than two seasons before he was able to reclaim his starting role behind the plate.

The way Chris Davis is dominating all facets of the game right now, Blalock may never get an opportunity to play first base for the Rangers. And, at this stage, I’m not certain we can classify that as such a terrible thing.

Imagine the howls of discontent that will arise from this fanbase if Davis continues smashing one home run every 6.33 at-bats (while simultaneously maintaining a batting line comparable to his current .316/.381/.824 offensive clip), and Blalock forces him back to the minors?

● The next time you roll through Corsicana, Texas (home of Navarro Junior College, Davis’s alma mater) en route to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or some point in-between, do yourself a favor and stop at the world-famous Collin Street Bakery.

You’ll thank me later.

● Turns out money can’t buy you everything, after all.

* * * * *

Dallas Morning News: Short-handed bullpen ruins Texas Rangers’ sweep dreams

With a chance to sweep New York in their final regular-season series at Yankee Stadium, the Rangers found themselves constantly trying to patch holes Wednesday.

And, no, we’re not talking about doing a little emergency carpentry on the 85-year-old stadium.

On the way to an 18-7 loss – a game the Rangers led heading to the bottom of the seventh inning – they found out that maybe their roster is just a bit short of being a full-fledged contender at the time.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton up for Derby

A virtual lock to be in the starting outfield for the American League for the 79th All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on July 15, the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton has already informally accepted a preliminary invitation from Major League Baseball to participate in the Home Run Derby on the day before the game.

Hamilton declined to confirm whether he had been asked but a source close to the situation verified that Hamilton had been approached by someone with MLB.

Asked if he would participate if officially invited, Hamilton responded “absolutely.”

Dallas Morning News: Texas Rangers’ Feldman to get extra rest

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels disputed reports that 16-year-old Dominican right-hander Michel Inoa rejected a bonus offer of $5.2 million to sign with Oakland for $1 million less.

Daniels said the Rangers were prepared to offer Inoa more, but that Inoa’s agents said the pitcher had already committed elsewhere.

“We’ve scouted Michel for more than two years; our guys probably know him as well or better than anyone else,” Daniels said. “We were prepared to offer him significantly more than he ended up signing for. Unfortunately, we were told we wouldn’t have that chance, as he was committed elsewhere. That’s the way it goes in that market sometimes.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Rangers’ Ian Kinsler tough to catch

Ian Kinsler’s next stolen base will take him into uncharted personal territory.

His three steals Tuesday night pushed him to 23 for the season, matching his career high set last year with almost half a season to go. His minor league high was 19 at Oklahoma City in 2005.

He has been caught only once this season and that was on a pickoff play. He hasn’t been caught by a catcher since last September. His 95.8 percent success rate (23-of-24) is second in the majors.

Baseball Prospectus: Future Shock: AL West Notebook

All but buried in a rotation that includes top prospect Neftali Feliz and 2007 top pick Blake Beaven, six-foot-five lefty Derek Holland is making a name for himself with a 2.64 ERA in 15 starts, and generating the scouting buzz to match. Southpaws who can touch 95 mph are a rare commodity, and Holland has done that this year, although his heat usually sits in the low 90s; he’s missing bats with both his heater and a plus changeup. His slider is average, and there are some concerns about him throwing across his body, but his size and the two plus offerings have him on a lot of people’s radar these days.

FOXSports.com: Red Sox might be wise to wash hands of Manny

The Rangers will be a team to watch at the deadline, acting as both a possible buyer for bullpen help and seller of veteran talent. Right-hander Vicente Padilla, the subject of inquiries from the Mets, Yankees and Brewers, among other clubs, is perhaps their most intriguing commodity. The Rangers, however, only would move Padilla if they received quality young pitching in return.

Padilla, who turns 31 on Sept. 27, is on pace to produce 14-plus wins and 200-plus innings for the fourth time. His contract — $11 million this season and $12 million next season with a $12 million option for 2010 — isn’t terribly excessive for that type of performance. And his makeup, an issue in previous stops, has not been a problem in Texas.

MLB.com: Young leaves game against Yanks

Rangers shortstop Michael Young left Wednesday’s game with the Yankees after three innings with what club officials said was a “mild strain of his left groin muscle.”Young had a similar problem earlier this year against Tampa Bay and ended up missing just one game. He has also been dealing with a sore left calf muscle and a hairline fracture in the tip of his ring finger on his left hand.

Both players signed as international free agents in the summer of 1986 along with a skinny Puerto Rican kid by the name of Juan Gonzalez. The supposed jewel of that free agent class was a thick left-handed pitcher named Wilson Eduardo Alvarez.

Alvarez excelled as a prospect and even appeared in five games at the AAA level as an 18-year-old, posting an ERA of 3.78. He started one game at the Major League level for the Rangers before being dealt to the Chicago White Sox along with Scott Fletcher and 609 Career Home Runs for Harold Baines and Fred Manrique. Alvarez promptly pitched a no-hitter two years later in his second career start. Control problems and weight issues eventually drove Alvarez out of the game, but he left his mark with 1,330 career strikeouts and a career ERA of 3.96 in 1,747 innings.

The second and last Venezuelan player to be signed, developed and promoted to the show by the Texas Rangers was switch-hitting SS Cristobal Colon. Colon, who was obviously named after explorer/mass murderer Christopher Columbus, was a marginal minor league prospect that put up a career MiLB OPS of .659 in 1,098 career games. He appeared in 14 career games for the Texas Rangers, putting up a dominant line of .167/.189/.167. He finished out his career in the independent leagues until finally retiring in 2004 at age 35.

What does this mean? It means that the Rangers have let a pipeline of talent go to waste due to poor scouting, poor development and poor front-office support. But times are a-changin’.

Thanks to people like Director of International Scouting A.J. Preller, Senior Director of Baseball Operations Don Welke, various international scouts like Manny Batista and Andres Espinosa and of course Owner and man of the wallet, Tom Hicks, the Rangers have started to stockpile Venezuelan talent at the minor league level. Of course, it’s all about the arms.

Omar Poveda, signed in 2004 out of Tumero, Venezuela, announced himself as a legit prospect after a breakout season at Clinton (Low-A) in 2007. He posted a 2.79 ERA in 125 IP with 120 Ks to only 32 BB. He has a projectable build (6′4″, 220) and sports one of the best change-ups in the system. He has a solid fastball that he can locate and an improving curve that he struggles to command at times. He suffered some minor injury setbacks to start the ‘08 season, but he has since rejoined the Bakersfield Blaze (High-A). The results so far this season have been mixed; his K/IP is excellent, but his control has been spotty. Poveda doesn’t turn 21 until September and should pitch at AA Frisco at some point in ‘09. His future is as a middle of the rotation pitcher at the Major League level.

As I discussed in a previous article (click me), the Spokane rotation is littered with talent and, in this specific case, littered with high-ceiling Venezuelan arms. Having already profiled RHP Wilmer Font, who incidentally was born in the same city in Venezuela as Cristobal Colon, I’d instead like to take a closer look at some of the other exciting Venezuelan arms currently taking the bump in Spokane.

RHP Wilfredo Boscan isn’t yet a household name, but after his early performance at Spokane that could soon change. Boscan, who was born in the same city as Wilson Alvarez, won’t even turn 19 years old until October. His fastball is a ground ball machine. Period. So far this season his ground ball/fly ball ratio is more than 2-to-1. Last season, that ratio was just shy of an unbelievable 4-to-1. He is a ground ball wizard. His fastball has heavy sink and is almost impossible to hit out of the ballpark. Boscan’s secondary pitches are raw and he is still learning how to pitch, but he has projection and should continue to develop as he matures physically. He should pitch in the Spokane rotation for the rest of the year, and he could quite possibly repeat the league next year.

LHP Martin Perez might end up being the jewel of the ‘07 international haul. He made his professional debut at Spokane at the rip old age of 17 (he just turned 17 in April!). Perez throws a heavy fastball that sits in the 88-91 MPH range with sinking action. His secondary stuff is quite advanced for what would be a high school junior. Think about that for a second. What were you doing at age 17? I can’t disclose what I was doing but I wasn’t pitching in short-season professional baseball, putting up a 2.45 ERA so far in three starts. He is 17 months younger than the second youngest player in the league. Again, think about that for a second. I’m not going to attempt to project a 17-year-old so let’s just assume his ceiling is very high.

Will the Rangers finally add number three to their illustrious list of homegrown Venezuelan products? Prospect projection rhetoric aside, I feel quite confident that one of these arms will eventually take their place alongside Alvarez and Columbus. The talent-rich country known to many as Little Venice will finally get another tally on their ever-growing list of major league players. The only question now is who will get there first?

Take your time, but bear this helpful hint in mind: there’s only one unequivocally correct answer right now.

His name? Ian Kinsler.

The remarkable uptick began shortly after the conclusion of a horrific month of April that found the struggling Rangers sitting at 10-18. Kinsler, the 26-year-old franchise second baseman whom had received a guaranteed five-year, $22 million contract with an attached sixth-year club option, concluded play on May 2nd with a cumulative season batting line of .288/.344/.390 in 118 AB - certainly far from horrendous offensive production, but also far from eye-popping.

After a brief two-game hiatus from the Texas lineup as a result of residual hamstring soreness, Ian threw up another uninspiring 0-for-4 performance at Seattle on May 5th, sending his season batting line plummeting even further - this time, to .279/.333/.377 in 122 AB.

And then something clicked. It’s difficult to say exactly what. Perhaps Ian made a minor mechanical adjustment to his swing (or stance) that allowed him to improve his timing and better turn on the baseball. Perhaps something just mentally clicked in the former 17th-round pick’s head. Or perhaps it was merely the onset of his unquestionable emergence as a Major League superstar. We may never know for sure.

But what we do know is that since the conclusion of that May 5th defeat in Seattle (a 7-3 shellacking that largely fell at the feet of starter Kevin Millwood), Kinsler has freely reigned as one of the best all-around players in professional baseball.

Including Tuesday evening’s 2-for-3, two-walk and three-steal performance, Ian has batted a ridiculous .348/.406/.621 in 224 AB from May 6th onward, while also swiping 16 bases in 17 attempts and clubbing 11 home runs. His current .907 OPS ranks third among all qualifying second basemen in the majors, and first among all qualifying American League second basemen. Coming into play on Tuesday, his .310 EqA and 39.5 VORP ranked fifth and first, respectively, in the American League.

Refer back to the dream scenario I laid out above, which ultimately came to fruition on Tuesday evening as Kinsler stepped in as the lead-off hitter against not just the greatest closer of all-time, but perhaps also the greatest relief pitcher of all-time. In 36.1 innings pitched in 2008, Rivera had been in the midst of his most singular campaign yet, collecting 22 saves in as many tries and notching 42 strikeouts en route to compiling a 0.74 ERA (541 ERA+) and 0.55 WHIP.

Rivera effortlessly fired a pair of cut fastballs towards his foe, the first of which dove low and outside of home plate umpire Bill Hohn’s strike zone, and the second of which was fouled away. Kinsler correctly (and fortunately) guessed that Rivera would attempt to cross him up with a third-pitch heater on the inside corner:

“In my mind, I know he remembered how he got me last year,” Kinsler said. “That’s part of what makes him so good. So, I think he figured I’d made an adjustment on his cutter, and he was going to come in with the sinker. I was looking in the right place when he threw it.”

Moments later, Kinsler - now standing safely upon second base, thanks to the double he had just smashed into the left field corner - took off scampering for third base, exploiting both Rivera’s slow 1.6-second delivery and catcher Jorge Posada’s poor throwing arm in easily swiping his third base of the game. Shortstop Michael Young singled through a drawn-in Yankees infield, snapping the 2-2 deadlock and bringing an ominous hush over the Yankee Stadium faithful.

And C.J. Wilson, for the momentary scare he gave all of us after walking Wilson Betemit on four pitches to begin the bottom of the ninth inning, quietly took a defiant stand and unleashed the high-octane fuel reservoirs, pumping three consecutive 93 MPH fastballs to Melky Cabrera and inducing a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, then blowing away Johnny Damon with an impressive salvo of 95-plus MPH missiles and ending the affair with a harmless chopper to first baseman Chris Davis.

It’s not always easy studying, analyzing and writing about this historically inept franchise. But ultimately edifying baseball nights like the one we were privileged enough to enjoy on Tuesday certainly do make it feel as though all the time, energy and pure, raw emotion I have invested into the Rangers over the last decade has been all worth it.

Concurrently, I’d have to imagine the Rangers front office harbors a similar positive sentiment towards the long-term contract extension they struck with Kinsler back in mid-February - the latest, if not the most high-profile in a rash of pre-arbitration deals across the baseball landscape that, in the end, might well prove to be the biggest steal of them all.

Isn’t winning baseball fun?

Quick Hits: Southpaw reliever Eddie Guardado (left shoulder inflammation) reported improvement on Tuesday, but likely won’t be available to pitch until Friday afternoon’s series opener at Baltimore…sinkerballer Scott Feldman is having his next start pushed back to Tuesday against the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in order to give him extra rest…FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal reports that Texas will not deal starter Vicente Padilla without receiving “quality young pitching in return”…Brandon McCarthy (right forearm inflammation) completed a 45-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday…outfielder Josh Hamilton will receive the “Best Comeback Award” at the 2008 ESPY Awards, to be aired July 20th on ESPN…right-hander Tommy Hunter was promoted from Double-A Frisco to Triple-A Oklahoma on Tuesday.

Say what you will about Josh Lewin’s occasional detours down the path of annoyance in the Texas Rangers’ television booth, but the man knows how to call a great finish. Wow.

Two games over .500 for the first time since September 22nd, 2006, and the first time since the beginning of Ron Washington’s managerial tenure in Texas. Just 6½ games back of the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who have quietly dropped four of their last five games.

If you’re general manager Jon Daniels, do you (a) start thinking about entering buy-now mode, seeking in particular another reliever to help shore up a surprisingly resurgent bullpen, (b) begin to entertain serious offers for both superfluous players (such as Frank Catalanotto) and instrumental players (such as Vicente Padilla and Milton Bradley), (c) remain in a holding pattern like the one suggested by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News last Wednesday, or (d) employ some hybrid of the three?

Only option B seems entirely unrealistic right now, because good luck trying to convince the seething masses (a.k.a. those who actually contributing to the organization’s bottom line by purchasing tickets) that dealing some of your best Major League talent for even more prospects is a wise course of action when you’re, technically speaking, a winning ballclub.

That, of course, is subject to change, and may well change in the coming weeks that lead up to the July 31st trade deadline. A treacherous nine-game road trip against an intimidating triumvirate of winning teams (the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics) awaits the Rangers on the other side of the All-Star break, while an only marginally more comforting seven-game homestand against the Angels and White Sox precedes the four-day mid-season sabbatical.

It’s time for this Rangers squad to sink or swim. And Monday evening’s stunning performance at Yankee Stadium was a spectacular step in the right direction.

Scott Feldman, Frank Francisco, Jamey Wright and C.J. Wilson teamed up to four-hit baseball’s most storied franchise, limiting their former playoff nemesis to just a single run that was produced, ironically enough, by ex-Ranger Alex Rodriguez when he smashed a hanging 73 MPH curve from Feldman over Monument Park and into the left-center field bleachers in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Over the previous two innings, the Texas offense had managed to strike starter Mike Mussina twice - once with a two-out RBI bloop single from right fielder Josh Hamilton, and once with a well-struck RBI double to the right-center field gap by first baseman Chris Davis. Despite being a lifetime .441/.484/.678 hitter in 64 plate appearances versus Mussina, Frank Catalanotto did not appear against the pitcher he had tormented for so long. Make of that what you will.

Beating the Yankees? Great. Beating the Yankees by one run? Impressive. Beating the Yankees by one run in their house after relentlessly protecting said one-run lead for five excruciating innings?

Priceless.

Quick Hits: Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus notes that Low-A Spokane right-hander Neil Ramirez flashed a “90-94 MPH fastball, an outstanding hammer curve, and a developing change-up” last Friday evening en route to posting six shutout innings of one-run baseball…T.R. Sullivan emphatically states in his latest MLB.com mailbag that 2008 first-round pick Justin Smoak “will sign” before the August 15th deadline…southpaw Eddie Guardado has been diagnosed as day-to-day with mild left shoulder inflammation after being unable to get loose before the bottom of the eighth inning on Monday evening; Jamey Wright replaced him…ailing starter Kason Gabbard (left elbow inflammation) received a cortisone injection on Monday, but is not believed to have any structural damage; he’ll continue his rehabilitation in Arizona.

Though the deal will not become official until the international signing period commences on July 2nd, the reported deal, according to popular trade publication Baseball America, would be the most lucrative ever for an international amateur not hailing from Cuba, “eclipsing both the $2.44 million paid to Willy Mo Pena as part of his Major League contract back in 1999, and the straight $2.25 million bonus paid by the Dodgers to Joel Guzman in 2001.”

What makes Inoa such an alluring talent? Simple. The 6′ 7″, 205-pound flamethrower flashes a low-to-mid 90s fastball that has been clocked as high as 95 MPH, which he couples with a high three-quarters arm slot that enables him to deal major heat with armside run. Throw in a trio of developing secondary pitches (a curve, change-up and splitter, all of which project to be above-average pitches), plus athleticism and a reportedly clean delivery, and it’s easy to see why multiple teams have been falling all over themselves for the opportunity to ink Inoa.

And yet, one irrefutable fact lingers: that’s a whole heck of a lot of money to throw at a 16-year-old teenager, projectability and upside be damned. Even the most remarkably blessed prospects face an inherently stacked deck in their quest to emerge as big league superstars; indeed, many never progress past AA-ball.

The odds are far better than not that Inoa, for one reason or another, will never live up to his promise and break through as a primo big league contributor. It’s one of the many sad realities of professional baseball.

BTiA minor league correspondent Jason Parks has suggested to me on more than one occasion that Inoa’s unusually strong velocity isn’t raising nearly as many eyebrows as it probably should; athletic pedigree or not, there’s very little that’s natural about hitting 95 MPH at such a young age.

And though there are multiple reports floating around that suggest his delivery and arm action are clean, Jason’s primary point of contention - that Inoa is placing a tremendous amount of mechanical stress on his still-developing arm as a result of that ridiculous velocity, thereby potentially laying the groundwork for future arm problems - is an interesting theory to digest.

But even if you’re not a believer in that line of thought, there is a lot to be said for properly diversifying your risk. Given how intrinsically difficult it is to accurately forecast the future upside of even the most well-documented 16-year-old Latin American prodigies (let alone precisely gauge the talent differentials between such young amateurs), there’s a certain wisdom in preferring quantity to quality where international free agency is concerned.

Granted, $4.25 million does not go nearly as far in Latin America as it used to; salary inflation in baseball is not a phenomenon exclusive to the majors. As more and more teams beef up their presence in the Latin American talent acquisition market (namely, through more extensive scouting and greater monetary allocations), demand and competition for the available top-tier talent skyrocket along with signing bonus demands.

On June 25th, Kiley McDaniel of SaberScouting.com reported that Major League teams are expected to pump roughly $65 million into the Latin American market this year, representing a 30 percent increase over the $50 million spent by all teams in 2007. With the 2008 international free agent crop projecting as one of the strongest in recent memory, don’t be surprised if that figure eventually soars north of the $70 million threshold.

Dumping a significant share of your available amateur signing budget into a single player can obviously pay tremendous dividends if said player ultimately fulfills the weighty expectations placed upon his shoulders. But with the entire process being such a crapshoot, it can also be considered unnecessarily dangerous to consciously slash your chances of unearthing a hidden gem in favor of inking a player that is, at the end of the day, only marginally more likely to become a productive big leaguer than the majority of his peers.

Nobody is denying how exciting it would have been for Texas to have added Inoa to an already remarkable collection of young talent that is already positively impacting the big league club. Multiple industry sources have tabbed Inoa as the best Dominican pitching prospect of the last decade, and I’m not going to be the one to attack that evaluation.

But there is, after all, strength in numbers.

UPDATE: Per Enrique Rojas of ESPNdeportes.com:

Inoa and his parents turned down more lucrative offers from the Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers due to Oakland’s positive results developing young pitchers. The Reds offered a $5 million signing bonus and a major league contract, while the Rangers offered $5.2 million, according to Inoa.

“After careful thought, my parents and I decided that Oakland has a better pitcher development program, and that will be more important for my career in the long haul,” said Inoa, who became eligible to sign with any major league ballclub on Tuesday at the strike of midnight.

Wow.

Notes: Per Anthony Andro of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Rangers left-hander Kason Gabbard had an MRI on his ailing left elbow Monday. Gabbard received a cortisone shot Monday and will be on a throwing program until after the All-Star break. Luis Mendoza has taken the rotation spot of Gabbard, who was 2-3.

But Chris Davis has a funny way of making you regret the fact that you ever remotely entertained such a thought. Call it the Chris Davis Effect, if you will.

The 22-year-old Longview, Texas native is going to create an exceedingly difficult roster dilemma for the Texas Rangers’ already inundated brain trust in the weeks to come. And I absolutely love it.

Right-hander Eric Hurley was quietly effective in collecting the first of what will hopefully be many big league wins to come in a Texas uniform, yielding just one earned run on five hits and a pair of walks in 5.2 innings; 63 of his 105 pitches were strikes. And despite a still-frightening ground-to-fly ratio (2-to-11 on Sunday evening), I couldn’t help but get the vibe that not nearly as many of those fly balls were sailing so dangerously close to the outfield warning track and points beyond.

Chalk one up for quickly learning how to better utilize your secondary pitches and simultaneously better pitch to your environment.

Neutralizing such a dangerous opposing lineup and ultimately winning a ballgame, of course, is also dependent on unfaltering defense, quality offense and steady relief assistance. Inadequate performance or catastrophic failure from any one of those three vital components can turn any otherwise sparkling starting effort into a no-decision, at best - or an unrivaled disaster, at worst.

But second baseman Ian Kinsler overshadowed an eighth-inning fielding blunder - the Rangers’ lone defensive error of the evening - by reaching base four times in five plate appearances. Shortstop Michael Young (1-for-5, 1 R, 2 RBI), designated hitter Josh Hamilton (2-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB) and third baseman Ramon Vazquez (2-for-4, 1 RBI) also made particularly helpful offensive contributions to the winning effort.

Right fielder Milton Bradley, despite going 0-for-4 at the dish and stranding three baserunners, made several nifty grabs in his territory that temporarily revived hopes of the 30-year-old outfielder being able to play his natural position on a semi-regular basis without living in constant fear of further health-related setbacks. And 3.1 perfect innings from the bullpen trio of Jamey Wright, Eddie Guardado and C.J. Wilson brought home a victory that this club desperately needed after Saturday evening’s heartbreaker.

Transecting all of that virtually flawless execution from an enticing collection of talent was a second-inning lightning bolt from the youngest Ranger present on the active roster, Chris Davis, who laced a 78 MPH “fastball” from the 45-year-old Jamie Moyer into the narrow cavity separating the teal-green center field wall at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington from Greene’s Hill:

Truly special hitters can easily compensate for such a high leg kick and tremendously loaded power swing with ridiculous bat speed. You know, the kind of bat speed Davis has twice exhibited in his first two Major League starts. And watching those hips and hands move in perfect concert as he lets the pitch come to him, a mere instant before transferring the entirety of his explosive power from bat to ball, is really something to behold.

I can’t quite recall the last time I was so excited about a homegrown Rangers prospect, particularly one who has already graduated to the majors and is already making his thunderous presence felt.

And assuming that this organization doesn’t employ some asinine plan that ultimately stunts his development (such as allowing him to ride the Major League pine while playing only once or twice a week, thereby depriving him of much-needed regular playing time), the Rangers appear to be well on their way to solving their little production dilemma at first base.

For a long, long time.

Quick Hits: Davis is the first Ranger ever to homer in his first two Major League starts…Bradley, Hamilton and Kinsler are all among the top six hitters in the American League in EqA…Triple-A Oklahoma right-hander Dustin Nippert tossed a seven-inning no-hitter for the RedHawks on Sunday…southpaw Kason Gabbard (left elbow inflammation) will undergo an MRI on Monday…the Oakland Athletics have reportedly agreed to terms with top Dominican pitching prospect Michel Inoa on a $4.25 million signing bonus; Texas was one of several teams actively pursuing the 16-year-old prodigy.

Notes: Per Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News:

Dustin Nippert threw a seven-inning no-hitter for Triple-A Oklahoma today. Nippert walked two and struck out five. He is now 6-2 on the season with a 3.98 ERA.