The Texas Rangers are loaded in the outfield so they should look to move Cruz for some much needed pitching. The 27-year old righty swinging outfielder has played in 59 games in AAA ball this season and he is 71 for 214 (.332 avg, 1.131 OPS) with 53 runs scored, 20 homers, 51 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. The Rangers should at least be able to get some bullpen help from a team like the Padres, Indians or Royals seeing how none of them can hit.

When the Rangers acquired outfielder David Murphy in the trade of Eric Gagne last July most experts saw Murphy as nothing more than a nice #4 outfielder. But, he has really played well this season and he’s in line to make a run at the Rookie of the Year Award in the American League this year. Murphy has played in 66 games this season for the Rangers and he is 77 of 263 (.293 avg, .721 OPS) with 39 runs scored, 10 homers, 46 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. If Murphy keeps this up the Rangers are going to continue to be a surprise team in the American League West.

It looks like veteran DH/OF might have finally found a home in Texas. The Rangers are very pleased with Bradley’s production as he has played in 59 games this season and he is 70 for 210 (.333 avg, 1.083 OPS) with 46 runs scored, 14 homers, 45 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. But, Bradley needs to be a little bit better of a team player. He should be on the bench instead of watching T.V. when his team is playing the game. That was a problem yesterday as he wanted to go after one of the Royals’ T.V. announcers for essentially telling him to grow up. It seems that Bradley has been a little better in his behavior this season as the Rangers’ have been able to handle him well this season. It’s just that until now Bradley always thought he was way better than he was. If he were performing like Albert Belle of the Indians used to then he might still be with the Expos/Nationals but he never has. After all this is Bradley’s sixth team in 9 years in the majors. He also has never been able to stay healthy as he has only played in more than 101 games 1 time in his major league career. The Rangers have their fingers crossed that Bradley will remain happy and healthy this season as he has been a huge force for them on offense.

This came out of nowhere and it will likely hurt the team on the field as Ponson was pitching pretty well. But, his repeated actions both on and off the field made this a move that had to be made. It will be addition by subraction as the Rangers feel they are better off without him no matter what happens the rest of the season. Ponson started 9 games for the Rangers this season and he was 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP. He allowed 71 hits in only 55.2 innings this season so you had to figure that his ERA would eventually go up. Still, this move was a shock.

27-year old switch hitting OF/DH Jason Botts is heading off to the Far East to try his luck in Japan with the Nippon Ham Fighters. Botts played in 15 games for the Rangers this season and he was 6 for 38 (.158 avg, .699 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 2 homers and 5 RBIs. He also whiffed an amazing 18 times this season. The Rangers got tired of waiting for Botts to produce but he might do well in Japan as a lot of players who have failed in the majors have dominated in Japan. Botts played in 93 games in his career with the Rangers and he was 65 for 282 (.230 avg, .669 OPS) with 33 runs scored, 5 homers and 28 RBIs. He also whiffed an astounding 108 times with the Rangers. They won’t miss Botts at all as a lot of players have passed him up in the Rangers system.