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Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
★★★
Josh Hamilton has yet to play in the majors in 2015, as he missed all of spring training recovering from shoulder surgery and awaiting his fate for admitting he relapsed, only to find out that he wasn’t going to be suspended after all. Then, the Angels didn’t want him around any longer, so they traded him to his old team, the division-rival Rangers, and Hamilton began a rehab assignment shortly after. Now, Hamilton is back in the bigs, as the Rangers are set to call him up on Monday, in time for a series in Cleveland against the Indians.
What exactly the 34-year-old Hamilton will bring to the table is unknown: he’s coming off a disappointing two-year stretch with the Angels, but the problem was mostly in his paycheck. Hamilton still batted .255/.316/.426, which doesn’t sound like much until you remember how pitcher-friendly Angels Stadium of Anaheim is -- that was good for a 110 OPS+. It’s not superstar production, but that’s on the Angels more than Hamilton, as they never should have signed up a declining, early 30s free agent for superstar money in the first place.
The Rangers need more offense if they hope to stay alive in the AL, and Hamilton should be able to help with that. Not to the degree that he used to when he was a a prolific presence in the middle of the Texas’ order, but Hamilton still has something to offer to a team dealing with injuries and fighting to stay in the wild card race in spite of them.
- The Pirates and Francisco Liriano completed a three-game series in which each starter managed to strike out at least 10 batters, a feat the Bucs hadn’t achieved since 1969. Gerrit Cole and A.J. Burnett were the other two starters against the Mets this past weekend, with 10 whiffs apiece.
- Speaking of the Mets, manager Terry Collins held a team meeting after they were swept by Pittsburgh. New York has scored two runs or fewer in six of their last seven games, and find themselves two and a half games back of the first-place Nationals in the NL East.
- Pirates’ prospect Keon Broxton spoke with Bucs Dugout about improving his swing and getting to the big leagues.
- The Phillies are not a good team. Their manager isn’t much better.
- The Giants finally tired of Casey McGehee, and designated the struggling third baseman for assignment. No one expected McGehee to replace Pablo Sandoval’s production, but it was fair to think he’d do better than .200/.254/.282 over two months of play.
- Anibal Sanchez is 10 starts into 2015, and he’s still struggling on the mound. He’s already halfway to his career-high for homers allowed, and he’s just one-third of the way in.
- Here are four reasons Billy Burns might be good enough to start on the A’s. And no, the Athletics not being very good right now is not one of those reasons.
- The Dodgers didn’t have a good Sunday against the Padres, but this fan did, as he recorded himself catching a home run. Again.
- The Red Sox offense is starting to wake up, or at least Mike Napoli is: the former Angels and Rangers slugger batted .429/.500/1.190 with five homers against his old teams in the last six games.
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