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Acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier starred with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the hit movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Guess which team will show up hungrier in this year’s American League Championship Series?

The actors in this year’s Major League Baseball saga may not win any Oscars or Golden Globes, but they have a chance to have their names etched in eternity as stars and winners nonetheless.

Starring for the defending World Series champion New York Yankees will be Joe Girardi, with co-stars Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, C.C. Sabathia and Derek Jeter.

Statistics aside, the Yankees may have the best batting lineup since the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals—the Gas House Gang.

The Gang featured five .300 hitters, including mammoth slugger Ripper Collins.

Which hitter will rip the opposing pitching staff apart? I predict it will be Josh Hamilton.

Playing the lead role for the Texas Rangers will be their once-beleaguered manager Ron Washington.  His supporting cast includes Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Michael Young, David Murphy, Ian Kinsler, Vladimir Guerrero and Cliff Lee.

The Rangers are no slobs themselves when it comes to hitting.

The first African-American manager in the 49-year history of the Texas Rangers, “Wash” is on the cusp of becoming the first black manager to hit the AL pennant lotto since 1993.

Clarence “Cito” Gaston was the last to do it. 

Born in San Antonio and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, Gaston was also the first African-American to win the World Series (1992).

He was also once with the Atlanta Braves, and roommates with “Hammering” Hank Aaron.

Gaston has been quoted as saying that Mr. Aaron taught him “how to be a man, how to stand on my own.” 

Wash stood on his own for a little while during the 2010 MLB preseason, when he admitted to cocaine use. 

But team president Nolan Ryan provided his manager with some much needed company by predicting a 95-win season.

“We will win,” the former flame-throwing pitcher declared.

Now a part-owner of the Rangers, Ryan almost hit a bulls-eye with his bold prediction. 

His team finished the regular season at 90-72, and won the AL West division by nine games. 

This will be Wash’s first appearance as a manager in the ALCS, and Texas’ fourth postseason run ever.  The franchise has only won four playoff games entering into this year’s pennant series.

Needless to say, this will be the first time the Rangers have played in baseball’s version of the Final Four.

Their lone playoff victory before beating Tampa Bay 3-2 in a five-game series came in Game 1 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees.

The Yankees have pummeled the Rangers in every one of their four postseason series.

Which team is hungrier? It seems to me that they both are ready to gorge on equal amounts of home runs and extra base hits.

What will separate these two offensive juggernauts is pitching. 

Enter stage right Mr. Lee. 

The Yankees wanted to acquire him from the Seattle Mariners, but Ryan was widely viewed as winning a victory over the vaunted Yankee front office in sealing the deal.

The Rangers have dealt with 23 different managers in their history, and the only other one to guide them to the playoffs was the late Johnny Oates. 

As a result, he was named the 1996 Co-American League Manager of the Year. 

Joe Torre of the Yankees shared the award with Oates.

Oates and current Baltimore Orioles manager, Buck Showalter, were very close friends.  The Rangers retired Oates’ uniform number 26 in 2005.

Washington replaced Showalter as manager of the Rangers in 2007.

Showalter sported jersey number 26 as an Oriole this season in honor of Oates.

Washington had a mediocre career as a former shortstop and second baseman with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Minnesota Twins, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, and the Houston Astros.

His main claim to fame was breaking up Odell Jones’ May 28, 1988 no-hitter with one out in the ninth inning.

Washington was sent in to pinch-hit for Jay Bell, batting ninth. 

After he hung up his cleats for good in 1989, his former Astros manager, Art Howe hired him as the A’s first base coach in 1996.

He was then promoted to third base and infield coach, and he served in that role from 1997-2006.

His players adored him to the point of handing him some of their official MLB accolades.

Washington helped to develop six-time Gold Glove recipient Eric Chavez, and shortstop Miguel Tejada.  Chavez gave Washington a Gold Glove trophy, signed “Wash, not without you.”

That sentiment was shared by Ranger’s general manager Jon Daniels after the Game 5 win against Tampa Bay.

 “Manager of the Year, right here boys,” Daniels proclaimed to reporters in the ALDS celebratory club house.

Hero Cliff Lee won’t pitch until Game 3 in the ALDS, and hopefully in Game 7 for the Rangers.

Ron Washington and current Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira had a rift over their different approaches to batting. 

Teixeira was traded three months later to the Atlanta Braves in July 2007, but he was reportedly being shopped before the rift.

I believe the Rangers pitchers will send a text message to their former star. 

It could read something like: “Tex, without you.”

I predict the so-called “Evil Empire” will fall in seven games to the Rangers, and that Ron Washington will be named 2010 AL Manager of the Year.

His boldest move was perhaps slotting SS Elvis Andrus in the lead-off spot.  Wash’s base-running aggression against the Rays helped to get his team to this point.

Considered plodders on the base paths, New York may play possum in the running department.

The Yankees may have played possum to finish second to the Rays, but possum is a delicacy in certain parts of Texas—so I hear.

The Rangers swept the Yankees in September. 

Texas will clean the New York house with an ALDS triumph in seven games.

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“Six-and-a-half games back and not playing very well in a season we thought we ought to be in contention.  I think we were losing ground with the field,” Ranger managing general partner George W. Bush said in June of 1992 upon firing his manager.

The manager?  None other than Bobby Valentine, a baseball man with nearly four decades of baseball experience sorely needed in the dullard Seattle Mariner organization, made famous for its uncanny ability to create 100-loss seasons regardless of the payroll or who is running it.  Valentine has the personality horsepower needed to confront a dogmatic front office that Mariner fans are ready to run out of town amidst a mob of ropes and flaming torches.

The Texas Rangers were 46-41 at the time of the firing, and were in third place in the division, 5.5 behind first-place Minnesota in the days of dual divisions in each league.   Valentine then in his 25th baseball season at the age of 41, his eighth with the Rangers,  he had been the third-longest tenured manager in the major leagues behind only baseball icons Tommy Lasorda of the Dodgers and Sparky Anderson of the Detroit Tigers.  Bobby Valentine had been the youngest manager in the major leagues when offered the job on May 16, 1985.  A former Dodger, he had long been a favorite of Lasorda and once was thought to be his heir apparent as manager of the Dodgers.  

Almost a decade later on a different team, Valentine was again fired, but this time following a tumultuous and controversial summer of 2002 in New York.  The Mets finished with a 75-86 record in spite of their $102 million payroll, in last place in the NL East for the first time since 1993 and below .500 for the first time in six years.  It had been a mere two years after Valentine had led them to the first Subway Series in four decades.

Many felt Valentine had taken the fall for then knucklehead general-manager Steve Phillips.  Valentine left with an overall record of 536-467, reaching the playoffs in 1999 and 2000.  But in late-season 2002 came one of the worst months in team history with a 12-game losing streak where the Mets didn’t win a game at Shea Stadium in August, during a NL-record 15-game home losing streak.

Earlier that summer Mets part owner Fred Wilpon issued several dreaded “votes of confidence,” but by mid September was fed up with underperforming players, seven of whom Newsweek magazine had claimed were caught smoking marijuana and goofing off.  “The team just did not respond to the manager,” Wilpon explained at a packed news conference after the fact.  “Whatever grip Bobby had on the team was gone by the end of the season.”

Sports pundits ripped the move.  Ian O’Conner of USA Today wrote a scathing column insisting the Mets had fired the wrong guy, and that the Mets “should’ve fired his loser of a general manager, Steve Phillips.”  Phillips had embarrassed Valentine by refusing to allow him to attend the winter meetings and embarrassed the franchise with rumors of an extramarital affair with a subordinate.”

Valentine himself said, “I told Fred that that he had to give the next manager authority in the clubhouse and on the field, that he had to get Steve off the field and out of the clubhouse.  You can’t let a GM high-five guys and joke around after a win and then after a loss act like it’s the end of the world. Get him out of there for the sake of the next guy.”

Sobering words for Mariner fans, given that current Mariners manager Jack Zduriencik spent a large part of July and August this past summer hobnobbing in the dugout with Mariner icons while “evaluating” soon-to-be fired manager Don Wakamatsu, claiming that Wak too had “lost control of the team.”   

Mariner fans responded in ways not seen before.  Fed up with a perceived meddling by an incompetent front office, radio talk shows and newspaper comments were bombarded with scathing rebukes of long-time Mariner management figures Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln.  Fans weren’t buying management’s latest line about “needing change, ” considering the next hire will be the team’s seventh manager since Lou Pinella left in 2002.

If this franchise was a horse, it would have been shot two decades ago.

The Seattle Mariners are in dire need of a manager like the only successful manager in team history: Lou Pinella.  Unlike his predecessors, Pinella routinely had shouting matches with owners who felt they knew baseball better than he did.  Pinella had no problem getting in the face of decision-makers and publicly scolding them for failed or non-existent moves.  Valentine is a guy who shares this trait.

Whatever the real story in the clubhouse as Mets manager, off the field Valentine had been a force for compassion following the unsettling attacks at 9/11.  People close to the manager felt his unyielding commitment to the families of victims put things in perspective for Valentine, and perhaps made sports far less important.  Gone was the focus, some claimed, which led to apathy towards superstar tantrums during his last season in New York.

He has held various jobs in baseball other than his managing stints.  Following his departure from Texas, early in January 1993 Valentine was hired by the Cincinnati Reds to be an advance scout that included consulting player personnel and watching talent on other teams during spring training. 

Also spending part of the last decade in Japan managing the Chiba Lotte Marines, Valentine was soon headed back to the United States for reasons other than on-the-field success.  Making somewhere around $3.9 million a year, he priced himself out of the market and was told by Marines management that the club would not be able to afford him after the 2009 season, regardless of how many games his team wins.  Thus he returned to commentating on ESPN this past season.

Valentine’s players may have been chided for misbehaving, but he too has been known to be part of on-field mishaps and mayhem.  In December of 1998 he admitted he made a “bad guess” when he speculated why Todd Hundley blamed him for being replaced by Mike Piazza.  Hundley felt Valentine had it in for him, but Valentine blew it off saying, “It’s an Italian thing.  He thinks that I would do something because he’s not Italian or because I am Italian.  I think that’s ridiculous.”

And then who can forget the infamous if not somewhat humorous two-game ban and $5,000 fine in June of 1999?  While Met manager, Valentine returned to the dugout during a game versus Toronto donning a fake mustache and glasses after being ejected from a game against the Blue Jays.

He might need that humor if hired in Seattle, since this is only one of three organizations that have never played in a World Series.  But clearly Valentine would hold the most baseball experience of anyone in the organization.  On a team in Seattle with cranky fans still living in memories of the past, hiring Bobby Valentine should be a no-brainer.

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Cliff Lee is flat-out dominant in the postseason.

Lee had a historic 2009 postseason for the Philadelphia Phillies. He was 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in five starts. He was 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA in his two World Series starts against the New York Yankees. He earned the win in game one of the World Series in Yankee Stadium, and in his two game one starts last season he threw two complete games with a 0.50 ERA.

He was only the second pitcher in history to throw a complete-game victory with double-digit strikeouts and zero walks. He also was the eighth starting pitcher in postseason history to win at least four games with a sub-2.00 ERA.

Lee made his sixth career postseason start today in his win against the Tampa Bay Rays and was phenomenal. He only gave up five hits and one earned run in the seven innings that he pitched. He also had 10 strikeouts and a 1.29 ERA.

Lee is just what the Yankees are missing.

New York is in desperate need of consistent pitching after CC Sabathia. They have pulled A.J. Burnett out of the starting rotation for the postseason, going instead with Andy Pettite and Phil Hughes. If Cliff Lee was in that rotation there isn’t a team in the American League that has the pitching to match.

The Yankees have been and continue to be the most likely destination for Cliff Lee’s talents next season. But the cost of his services continue to rise with every playoff pitch he delivers from the mound.

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It took the Texas Rangers 11 years, but they are back in the playoffs.

With their 4-3 victory over the Oakland A’s on Saturday, the Rangers clinched their first division title since 1999 and now will have a chance to do something they have never done before—win the World Series.

Of course, the keys for the Rangers as they head to the postseason:

A. Health

B. The starting rotation

When I say health, I really mean Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton hasn’t played since colliding with the outfield wall and injuring his ribs in a game against the Minnesota Twins on September 4. He hopes to play in a game this week, but if he is not ready to go, that will be a big blow to the Rangers lineup.

As I wrote last week, the Rangers lineup without Hamilton doesn’t look nearly as imposing as with him in it. David Murphy and Julio Borbon are nice players, but no Hamilton.

The other question I have about the Rangers heading into the postseason is who is going to step up after Cliff Lee? C.J. Wilson has had a great season, but he has showed signs of slowing down in September (5.24 ERA and over a hit per inning against).

Remember, Wilson coming into this season never threw more than 73.2 innings in a season. He is approaching 200 innings this year. If the Rangers are going to go deep into the playoffs, Wilson might have to throw 230 innings this season. That is a huge increase in workload.

One last thing I want to say about the Rangers is congratulations to Michael Young. After playing in over 1,500 games in his career, Young will be heading to the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Young is one of the good guys in the game and one of my favorite players in baseball. Good for him.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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If you look in the National League, you see teams that have surprised many, such as the Braves, Reds, and Padres.

In the American League, it’s a whole other story.

The Yankees and Rays look like the best teams in the AL, maybe even baseball, but in this slideshow, I will tell you why the Rangers are going to edge them out and make the Fall Classic.

Begin Slideshow

When the Texas Rangers slipped in and made the deal for left-hander Cliff Lee, stealing him right out from under the New York Yankees, Ranger fans and players couldn’t have been more excited.

They were getting a guy that was a proven winner not only during the season, but also in the playoffs.

However, that’s not what they’ve gotten. Through 11 starts, Lee is 2-5 with a 4.69 ERA and has been nothing short of awful over his last five starts, giving up a combined 25 runs in those starts.

He’s also struggled against two potential first round playoff opponents, Tampa Bay and Minnesota.

It’s easy to look back now and call Lee a bust. I will admit that I wasn’t sold on this trade from the beginning but wasn’t completely against it because of his postseason track record.

With his struggles, there has been more and more doubt planted in the minds of fans and the Dallas media, but there are also those that will defend him tooth and nail.

Here are five reasons Lee won’t be able to help the Rangers come playoff time.

Begin Slideshow

It’s amazing to me that a team that is supposedly in financial ruins continues to add players at the trade deadline.

If there is an early winner from the July 31 trade deadline it has to be the Texas Rangers. First they added Cliff Lee, then they added Jorge Cantu, and now they have added Cristian Guzman. Obviously, the latter two aren’t in the same category as Lee, but they are solid pieces that can be used to help solve the Rangers’ World Series puzzle.

The Rangers acquired Guzman from the Washington Nationals for minor leaguers Ryan Tatusko and Tanner Roark. The Nationals will also send over $2 million to the Rangers to cover Guzman’s salary.

Guzman was batting .282/.327/.361 with two home runs and four stolen abses in 346 plate appearances for the Nationals this season.

With the Rangers sending Chris Davis down to Triple-A (his Rangers days might be over), Texas will now move Cantu over to first base full-time. Acquiring Guzman fills the void left by Ian Kinsler when he went on the DL.

Guzman has played 63 games at second this year for the Nationals, posting a -1.9 UZR. He will be a decent fill-in for Kinsler while he is out and he could spell Elvis Andrus from time to time. Once Kinsler returns from the DL, Guzman will move into a utility role.

The two prospects the Rangers gave up are nothing more than fringe prospects. Tatusko is 9-2 with a 2.97 ERA in Double-A, but he is already 25-years old and his K/9 has declined three years in a row. Roark is also a pitcher in Double-A, who was 10-5 with a 4.20 ERA in 17 starts.

Not only have the Rangers added a star player in Lee, but they have added depth in Cantu and Guzman. I really like what the Rangers have done this trade deadline.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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With Texas Rangers’ pitcher Rich Harden impressing in his last rehab start on Monday (10 K’s over six innings) in Triple-A, it has been speculated that Harden will take the struggling Scott Feldman’s spot in the rotation. It’s quite possible that Harden could start as early as this weekend for the Rangers against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I think the Rangers are making a mistake. I think the Rangers should use Harden out of the bullpen upon his return. Here are the reasons for my thinking.

1. The Rangers don’t need Harden in the rotation. If and when the Rangers make the playoffs, in a five or seven game series they will most likely have the following rotation:

• Cliff Lee

• CJ Wilson

• Tommy Hunter

• Colby Lewis

There is no room for a No. 5 starter in the playoffs.

Why not work Harden into a seventh inning guy, who can come into a game and blow hitters away now instead of in late-September? Feldman has no purpose on this team, so why not use him as the No. 5 starter to finish out the season. There’s a good chance Feldman won’t even make the post-season roster.

Harden on the other hand, has value coming out of the pen. October is all about power arms and Harden can be that power arm out of the pen in the sixth or seventh inning. That is not possible for Feldman.

2. Harden’s days as a starter are over.

Let’s face reality: The days of Harden being a dominant starter are over. He can’t go deep into games (not that he ever did) and his stuff isn’t as sharp as it was even two years ago.

Harden at this point in his career is a pitcher that may give a team five innings, strike out five or six, walk three or four, and give up three or four runs.

I think without having to pace himself, Harden would fare much better out of the pen.

Of course, there are some negatives to this move as well.

1. Can his shoulder hold up pitching without a set schedule? It might be easier for Harden’s shoulder knowing that it’s going to pitch every fifth day rather than every other day.

If you listen to a lot of doctors, they will say it’s better for a pitcher to throw 100 pitches on one day with a set schedule than throwing 100 pitches over the course of 10 days with no schedule.

2. Harden would have to start the inning he comes in. In order to use Harden in relief, the Rangers would have to allow him to warm up at his own pace. With his achy shoulder, I doubt Harden could warm up in five minutes and then come into the game throwing beebe’s.

Looking at the positives and negatives of a Harden move to the bullpen, I think the positives outweigh the negatives and Harden would have the most value to the Rangers out of the bullpen.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @theghostofmlg

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It’s now official: Left-handed ace Cliff Lee, along with injured right-handed reliever Mark Lowe and $2.5 million to pay much of Lee’s remaining 2010 salary, are headed to the Rangers, while the Mariners will receive first baseman Justin Smoak and three minor league prospects (Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke and Matt Lawson) in return.

On balance, I think it was the right move for the Rangers at the right time. The Rangers haven’t made the play-offs since 1999, but 85 games into the 2010 season they find themselves 5.5 games ahead of the second place Angels, and 9.5 games ahead of the third place A’s. The AL West is a weak division, but making the play-offs is making the play-offs, and the Rangers have certainly improved their chances of doing so.

This move is going to give the team a big boast, both on the field and also in terms of the pending sale. Cliff Lee is originally from Arkansas, so you’d have to figure he’s excited about playing in Arlington, where it’s only about a five or six hour drive for his family and friends in Benton to see him pitch in person.

With a 5.5 game lead already, the Rangers didn’t necessarily have to make this move to win the division, but they’re a young team, and the Angels are probably a better team than they’ve shown in the first half.  When you haven’t made the post-season in a more than a decade, you have to pull out all of the stops and give yourself the best chance to do it.

Did the Mariners get as much as they could for Lee?  I’m not convinced they did.

Clearly, they wanted Justin Smoak, so much so that they were willing to accept less than A-grade prospects (except maybe 21 year old RHP Blake Beavan) as far as the other players going to the M’s are concerned.

Smoak is certainly a legitimate A-grade prospect, but I have this nagging feeling that the idea of receiving Justin Smoak in this deal is better than the reality of receiving Smoak.  Everyone knows who Smoak is and that he’s a highly regarded prospect.  He was the 11th player selected in the 2008 Draft, and he’s already playing regularly in the major leagues.

The thing is, Smoak really hasn’t played well above AA ball. After 275 major league plate appearances, he’s hitting all of .209 with a .670 OPS, and that’s in one of MLB’s best hitters’ parks.  Last year, after hitting .328 with a .930 OPS in 227 AA plate appearances, he hit only .244 with a .723 OPS in 237 AAA plate appearances in the hit-happy Pacific Coast League.

Sure, Smoak hasn’t been in pro baseball very long, and it could just be growing pains.  However, at age 23, it’s not too early to expect him to prove that he’s a major league hitter really and for true.

As for the other players the M’s received, 21 year old RHP Blake Beavan is clearly the best.  He was the 17th player selected overall in the 2007 Draft.  He currently has a fine 10-5 record with a 2.78 ERA at AA Frisco in the Texas League and a line of 110 IP, 100 hits, six HRs and 12 walks allowed and 68 Ks.  He was recently promoted to AAA by the Rangers but hasn’t made a start there yet.

The biggest concern about Beavan is that his strikeout rates aren’t impressive for a young pitcher.  He has struck out 5.15 hitters per nine innings in his minor league career to date, and that’s without having pitched an inning at the AAA level.  However, his control is outstanding, with a career minor K/BB ratio of 3.7/1.

Beavan already has the command to be a major league pitcher.  Whether he has the stuff to be a major league starter remains to be seen.

Josh Lueke is a 24 year old right-handed reliever who is having a fine year roughly split between A+ and AA ball.  His combined stats for the year are a 2.11 ERA, 32 appearances, 38.1 IP, 30 hits, two HRs and ten walks allowed and 62 Ks.

However, Lueke missed almost the entire 2009 season after being arrested in Bakersfield on charges that he raped an unconscious woman.  He ultimately accepted a plea deal , pleading no contest to a charge of false imprisonment with violence.  Here are the details of the original allegations from a reputable news source.  They aren’t pretty.

Matt Lawson is a 24 year old second baseman, currently having a strong season with AA Frisco.  He’s hitting .277 with an excellent .371 on-base percentage and an .809 OPS.  However, he’s getting old be a prospect at this level, and he’s having his best minor league season this year, which suggests that he may be playing above his true level of ability.

The right-handed reliever the Rangers received, Mark Lowe, went on the disabled list in early May with lower back disk inflammation that required surgery and will keep him out of action for the rest of 2010.  He had a fine year in 2009 for the M’s (3.26 ERA in 75 relief appearances with good ratios), but back injuries requiring surgery tend to be recurring.

Perhaps Lowe will be able to help the Rangers in future seasons, but at the moment he looks a bit like a throw-in to provide cover for the Rangers agreeing to give up a fourth prospect in return for Lee.

In the short term, this deal doesn’t weaken the Rangers at all.  24 year old Chris Davis, who has a .961 OPS at AAA Oklahoma City, will be called up to replace Smoak on the Rangers’ roster, and whoever the Rangers play at first this year will hit as well as Smoak did in the first half.

In the long-term, the Rangers may regret giving up Smoak one day, but they are trading from a position of depth, and they didn’t have to give up more of their best young pitchers, including any of Tommy Hunter, Tanner Scheppers, Michael Kirkland or Neftali Perez.

I’m surprised how quickly the deal came together considering how long the Mariners had until the trade deadline to move Lee.  A couple of days ago, the Twins appeared to be the favorite to nab Lee.

This morning the Yankees jumped in front with a reported offer of 20 year old catcher Jesus Montero, 23 year old 2Bman David Adams and possibly 22 year old RHP Zach McAllister.  That deal didn’t go through because the Mariners reportedly had concerns about Adams’ health (he badly sprained his ankle and hasn’t played since May 22nd).

The M’s may have done the Yankees a huge favor in not accepting a package containing Jesus Montero.  Barring injury, Montero looks like a sure bet to be in the majors for good before the end of the 2011 season.  There aren’t many 20 year old catchers you can say that about.

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Here is what I wrote about the Texas Rangers’ catching situation back in January…

“You know what’s funny? At the end of the 2008 season, the Rangers had Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden, and Gerald Laird on the roster, and everyone, including the Rangers, thought they had a surplus of catching.

Molina is heading to the Lone Star State

The Rangers sent Laird to the Detroit Tigers before the 2009 season. Then Saltalamacchia got hurt, so the Rangers needed a catcher.

The Rangers then went out and brought Ivan Rodriguez back to Texas. Now, if Saltalamacchia’s arm injuries persist, the Rangers might be forced to add another catcher this off-season.

This just proves there is no such thing as a surplus of anything in Major League Baseball. This is why I don’t think the Atlanta Braves should trade Javier Vazquez or Derek Lowe.”

Well, the Rangers didn’t add a catcher in the off-season, but they were forced to add another catcher yesterday. The Rangers acquired catcher Bengie Molina from the San Francisco Giants for reliever Chris Ray and pitching prospect Michael Main.

I kind of like this trade for the Rangers.

Current Ranger catchers Matt Treanor and Max Ramirez have combined to put up a .227/.328/.362 hitting line with seven HR’s. Molina was hitting .257/.312/.332 with two HR’s in 202 AB’s with the Giants this year.

I have to think Molina’s offensive numbers are going to increase moving from the pitching-friendly AT&T Park to the softball hitters paradise otherwise known as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Plus, hitting is contagious. I also have to think that some of the hot bats in the Ranger lineup will rub off on Molina.

Look, we all know Molina is as slow as molasses and has offensive deficiencies, but all they gave up was Ray and a low-level prospect. Even if Molina contributes to just two wins over the course of the next 85 games, the trade is worth it.

Ray has been serviceable for the Rangers coming out of the bullpen, with a 3.41 ERA, but has a one-to-one strike out to walk ratio (16 a piece) and has struggled in May and June since having a very solid month of April.

The Giants made this trade not for Ray and Main, but to open up the catcher position for Buster Posey full-time. Main was the Rangers’ first round pick in the 2007 draft, but has never made it above High Single-A ball. He had a 3.45 ERA in 15 starts with High-A Bakersfield this season.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @theghostofmlg

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