The Rangers need Franklyn German and Joaquin Benoit to start throwing strikes. Both of these guys have great stuff but it won’t matter if they continue to walk batters as often as they currently are. German has pitched in 9 games this season for the Rangers and he is 0-0 with a 0.82 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP. German has only allowed 6 hits in 11 innings this season but he has walked an amazing 10. His ERA will rise very soon if he can’t get the ball over the plate. Joaquin Benoit has not been near as lucky as German has. He has pitched in 9 games this season for the Rangers and he is 1-1 with a 7.56 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP. Benoit has only allowed 7 hits in 8.1 innings this season but he has also walked 10 batters. The Rangers can’t afford to let Benoit pitch late in games if he can’t get the ball over the plate.

The Rangers are currently in last place in the American League West with a 7-12 record which has them 4.5 games behind both the Angels & A’s. Part of the reason for that record is the awful performance they have gotten out of Jason Jennings and Luis Mendoza. Jennings seems to have lost a lot of velocity off his fastball which has been topping out at about 87 miles per hour. He has started 4 games this season and he is 0-3 with a 7.08 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP. Rookie righty Luis Mendoza has been even worse than Jennings so far this season. Mendoza has started 2 games this season and he is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA and a 2.38 WHIP. The Rangers might consider putting Jamey Wright into one of the rotation spots in question, but he’s been really good out of the bullpen so far this season. In 8 games out of the pen this season, Wright is 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP.

Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, Kameron Loe and Jamey Wright have all been awful so far this season.  The Rangers will not get any better as a team unless these 5 guys get their act together and soon.  Kevin Millwood is making a lot of money for the Rangers and he’s not giving them much of a return for their investment.  He is 6-7 with a 6.16 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP so far this season.  Millwood has allowed 103 hits and 13 homers in only 80.1 innings this season.  Vicente Padilla has been horrible this season too as he is 3-8 with a 6.69 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP.  Padilla is currently on the DL and that could be the reason for his poor pitching this season.  Padilla has allowed 111 hits in 80.2 innings this season and that needs to change.  Brandon McCarthy is 4-6 with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP this season.  His pitches have been getting up too high in the strike zone and batters have be ripping the ball off of him.  If McCarthy can get the ball down in the strike zone and stay healthy he could rebound with a strong 2nd half to the season.  Kameron Loe has pitched better lately but he still is only 5-6 with a 5.36 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP so far this season.  Jamey Wright has missed most of the season as he has been injured.  He is 2-2 with a 5.55 ERA and a 1.77 WHIP so far this season.  He will need to improve on that performance to keep his starting job.

The Rangers have demoted Kameron Loe to the minor leagues and he deserved to go.  In 15 games (10 starts) for the Rangers this season, Loe was 1-6 with a 7.40 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP.  In 62 innings, he has allowed 84 hits, 9 homers, walked 20 batters and whiffed 35.  The Rangers haven’t decided who will replace Loe in the rotation but it probably will be righty Jamey Wright.  Wright started one game for the Rangers this season and he only lasted 2.2 innings and allowed 5 earned runs and walked 3 batters.  But Wright has pitched pretty well on his rehab assignment.  In 3 starts in the minors, Wright is 1-1 with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP.  Don’t expect Wright to be much better than Loe.

The Rangers have started 8 different pitchers this season and only one has an ERA of under 6.28 this season (Mike Wood 5.40).  I figured I should list all of these guys so no one gets left out so here they are:  Kameron Loe, Brandon McCarthy, Robinson Tejada, Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Jamey Wright, Mike Wood and John Koronka.  Millwood and Padilla are proven major league pitchers that are just off to bad starts and the Rangers think they will get turned around at some point.  Brandon McCarthy is a highly though of young pitcher that the Rangers traded two good pitching prospects for so he will get a chance to work through his current problems.  But, Kameron Loe and Robinson Tejada are both walking on thin ice as far as the Rangers are concerned.  But what could the Rangers really do here?  Mike Wood and John Koronka are no better than what they currently have in their rotation and Jamey Wright is hurt.  It’s time to panic about the Rangers starting staff because they aren’t giving the team a good shot to win ballgames.  They need to make some trades to bring in help and sooner rather than later or the season will be over soon.

The Rangers starting rotation has a 14-30 record with a 6.48 ERA and a 1.68 WHIP on the season between the 8 of them.