SPORTSDAY

With the gaping hole at first base, it's easy to complain about the Rangers' decision to sign Ben Broussard to a one-year deal.

OK, that one was a bust, but such low-risk deals have netted some high rewards for the Rangers over the last couple years.

Jon Daniels' best move as a GM was the Eric Gagne trade, which wouldn't have been possible unless the Rangers signed the closer to a one-year deal. Gagne performed well enough in his few months in a Rangers uniform to net two young core pieces (LHP Kason Gabbard and OF David Murphy) and a promising prospect (OF Engel Beltre).

Kenny Lofton's one-year deal also looks like it might pay off for a long time. Catcher/potential utility man Max Ramirez, who the Rangers got from the Indians in a low-profile trade last summer, has been one of the best hitters in the minors this season.

And Milton Bradley's one-year deal sure looks like a smart move now, with him leading the AL in OPS (1.007) and OBP (..429) while providing protection for Josh Hamilton.

Eddie Guardado, Sammy Sosa and Sidney Ponson are other one-year deal success stories. Ol' JD struck out on Broussard, but his slugging percentage with one-year deals is awfully high.

The big right-hander (the Rangers media guide lists him at 6-foot-3, 255 pounds, but he may be bigger than that) had an excellent Double-A debut. He gave up one run on five hits in seven innings. He had four strikeouts, no walks and threw 88 pitches (64 strikes).

So what exactly does Hunter throw? He laughed when I asked because I could have sworn he was throwing sliders out there yesterday (and I'm not the only one that's told him that), but he wasn't. He said he throws a four-seam fastball, a curveball (which he changes speeds on) and a change-up. That's it. He said the fastball can cut sometimes, but he isn't trying to do anything crazy with it.

The curve is Hunter's best pitch. He only threw six change-ups yesterday and said he's working on that pitch to make it more effective and use it more. But when his curveball had the location and command it did yesterday, he can change speeds and make it like an effective change-up.

A sidenote: Hunter went to the University of Alabama. As an Auburn fan, it pains me to mention that. What hurts even more is that Hunter wanted to go to Auburn. The coaching staff that recruited him was fired his junior year of high school and the new staff didn't show as much interest. Alabama really wanted him, so he went there.

It was a good debut. It will be interesting to see how he does once the hitters have more chances to see him.

The big league club has hit a speed bump, but the juggernaut that is the Rangers' minor league system keeps on rolling. The Rangers' farm teams went 3-1 last night with Clinton (which entered the night with the best record in baseball) registering the only loss.

Player of the day? Let's go with Davis Stoneburner. Who the heck is he? Follow the jump to find out.

Well, you wanna open up the "Closer Controversy" can o' worms? I figure that's what I've got to ask about in the clubhouse tonight. You could go to something by committee, splitting duties between Jamey Wright and Eddie Guardado. Or you could stick with Wilson. It would be a lot easier to stick with Wilson if the rest of this team was struggling and the season had clearly gotten away from them. But right now Wilson appears to be the team's lone weak link. His numbers since April 20: 0-1, three saves in five chances, an 8.49 ERA and a .393 opponents OBP.

I thought the Rangers wasted a chance in the top of the 11th when Ian Kinsler popped out to shallow right field with one out and the bases loaded and then Michael Young struck out.

But Minnesota provided just as resourceless (Hey, I don't even know if it's a word, but I'm on deadline and it is late). The Twins had the bases loaded with one out in the 11th and Justin Morneau looked at a called third strike. You can not look at a called third strike in that situation.

We are going to the botom of the 12th. Franklyn German entering the game. Rangers are either trying to stay away from Jamey Wright or save him for a potential save situation. Either way, the bullpen is going to have some availability issues tomorrow with a guy making his first major league start (Doug Mathis) on the mound.

How can you take the guy out of the lineup?

OK, back to the C.J. Wilson thread.

C.J. Wilson on to try and earn first save since May 7. Feel free to angst along right here.

But he's as close as he can be. Mark Grudzielanek was 0-for-3 for Kansas City in the no-hit loss to Boston to fall from .331 to .323. Boston's Kevin Youkilis went 1-for-3 and fell from .329 to .327.

Meanwhile, Bradley is 2-for-4 and his double in the eighth inning tied the score at five. A moment later, he scored on David Murphy's single to give the Rangers a 6-5 lead in a game they trailed 5-2 going to the seventh.

He does, however, continue to lead the league in OBP at a silly .434.

Eddie Guardado's last four appearances over the last six days: Four innings, one baserunner. In limited doses, the guy can still be an asset to the bullpen. That includes the perfect seventh inning he pitched tonight.

To the Rangers' patient approach at the plate. They are swinging at everything. Boof Bonser has thrown 44 pitches in four innings.

Josh Hamilton hit homer No. 11 in the first inning. A quick note: It was a measley 376 feet to the opposite field. Apparently, the talk of batting practice was the ball he hit over (yes, I said "over") the upper deck in right field. It reportedly hit off the word "champions" in the AL West pennant that hangs down from the top of the dome in right center field. I really can't describe it well enough to do it justice, but I believe that's far enough away from home plate to have a different zip code.

While people are running around the field dressed in Muskie and Pike outfits (wait, maybe one is a Wallleye), I managed to concentrate long enough to determine that the Twins have five left-handed swingers in the starting lineup against Scott Feldman.

How he fares against lefties is vital to Feldman's success. Changing his delivery has given his four-seam fastball more "run" against lefties and made him more successful. He's holding lefties to a .273 batting average (.360 OBP) this season; it was .316 (.474 OBP) last year and .300 (.418) from the time he reached the majors in 2005 through the end of last year.

The Twins will have Alexi Casilla (a switch-hitter) leading off. No. 3 hitter Joe Mauer, No. 4 hitter Justin Morneau, No. 6 Jason Kubel and No. 8 Mike Lamb will all be swinging from the left side.

OK, fish race is over., Not sure who won. Wondering where the smelt finished.

First reaction to the Hank Blalock-to-first base story: Can't be good. But 24 hours later, I'm not so sure it's a bad move. It will impact a lot of people in a lot of areas. Turn the page for winners and losers in this situation:

UPDATE: Just bumping this back up to the top in case y'all want to discuss.

Frisco first baseman Chris Davis said he heard yesterday about Hank Blalock's switch to first base. If he's concerned about it, he isn't saying.

"I've got enough to worry about here," Davis said. "I'm trying to get better and not worry about anything else. I feel like I'm doing what I need to be doing and improving. I don't feel like I'm a long ways away [from the major leagues]. I'll keep playing as well as I can and everything else will take care of itself."

Time for everybody's favorite game show: Cowlishaw! (Say it just like Yahtzee!) ...

You know the rules. No special categories tonight. Just try to figure out Scott Feldman's line against those pesky Twins. You think I'm going to pick against him continuing his quality-start streak? Hardly.

Grant's call
IP: 6.2 (Comes out with Justin Morneau at the plate)
H: 6
R: 3
ER: 3
BB: 1
K: 4
Pitches: 100 on the nose

The big right-hander pitched seven innings and allowed one run on five hits with four strikeouts and no walks. He threw 88 pitches (64 strikes).

Hunter threw all of his pitches. The curveball was particularly good, but he located his fastball well, which set everything else up.

Hunter had eight ground ball outs and eight fly ball outs. He pitched quickly and effectively against San Antonio and left with a 4-1 lead. The RoughRiders are batting now in the bottom of the eighth.

so far. I think he could probably pitch seven at least.

Hunter has allowed one run -- a two-out home run in the sixth -- and has no walks and four strikeouts. He's thrown strikes and he's worked quickly. It's been a solid debut, with five hits allowed.

Chris Davis hit a home run on the sixth, a long and high shot over the foul pole in right. The umpire called it foul, but then got together and called it fair. It was his second hit off a lefty today.

Chris Davis hit a flare to center to score the only run of the game so far as the RoughRiders lead 1-0 going into the bottom of the second.

The pitch was inside and hit the handle of Davis' bat, but he still had the strength to get it to center. Davis was hitting .238 against left-handed pitchers coming in and the hit was off a lefty.

Tommy Hunter now has three strikeouts in two innings of work as he had a perfect second. Hunter has good command so far.

Tommy Hunter struck out two batters and allowed two hits in the first, but got through it without allowing a run.

Hunter's fastball was between 90-93 mph that inning. He threw a nice slow curve on the corner and a couple of sliders. He also threw his changeup a few times.

One of Hunter's hits was a ground ball that went through the spot vacated by the second baseman when he went to cover the bag on the hit and run.

It's an 11 a.m. start with Tommy Hunter, the right-hander on the mound. He's just been promoted from Bakersfield. We'll update you on how he does in his Double-A debut.

He was pitching well in Bakersfield and the club was ready to challenge him a little more by moving him up a level.

Hunter, BTW, has thrown three pitches and has a strikeout to his first hitter. Max Ramirez is behind the plate today.

Sorry, I've run out of lame pleas for newsletter questions, so I'm stealing from my file of already used lame newsletter pleas. But, please, here's another plea: If you've got a question about the Rangers, I'd love to try and answer it. Just send me an email here and I'll get right on it.

Remember, if you aren't already a subscriber, you can sign up for our absolutely free newsletter right here.It's free (did I already mention that) and delivered directly to your inbox every Wednesday morning. It's so amazing, you don't even have to worry about it getting wet when the sprinklers go off in the morning. How can you turn that down?

In case you didn't hear, the big story Sunday was LHP Matt Harrison's seven-inning no-hitter for Double-A Frisco. More details in the Frisco roundup. But, as good as Harrison has been lately, he's probably only been the second-most impressive pitcher acquired from Atlanta in the Mark Teixeira trade. How's that for a tease? Follow me, please, to find out more.

Hank Blalock is taking one for the team here. It says something about his maturity level and how much is wants to win. He knows the lineup has produced while he's been on the DL and he doesn't want to wreck it. A productive Blalock at first really helps this club.

It will take some time for Blalock to pick things up at first base, but he's a good athlete and a quick learner. He'll get it done. Rangers first baseman since the Teixeira trade have batted .212.

Ian Kinsler was waiting at his locker for the media after Sunday's game. He deserves some credit for that. He knew there would be questions about his baserunning blunder and he answered them. But don't make the mistake of blaming Kinsler for the Rangers' loss. It was a tough play, but you never know how the game is going to unfold.

Kinsler said he was overaggressive and was taking a chance to try to get something going. He thought he saw Kaz Matsui get back on his heels, so he thought he could get home in time. It didn't work. That happens. Kinsler said it does seem that when something like that happens, your team loses by one.

Kason Gabbard had some command issues. He also got some bad luck on ground balls that found holes.

It sure seemed like the Rangers had a bunch of close plays at first, didn't it? I do think the right calls were made, judging by the replays.

This team still has plenty of momentum. This next road trip should tell us more about this team. Minnesota has struggled the last week, but they do have good pitching. Tampa Bay and Cleveland are playing well.

Not today anyway.

The Rangers rallied to give us some late-inning drama, but a 5-4 loss to the Astros prevented Texas from sweeping the series and nosing above .500 for the second time in Ron Washington's tenure.

Houston's Jose Valverde struck out the side in the ninth to earn the save. I had a bad feeling for the home team when rookie Brandon Boggs came up with two outs and one on. He struck out swinging -- his third K of the game -- and has only two hits in his last 30 at-bats.

But let's end on a positive note before heading to the clubhouse. The Rangers have still won seven straight series -- the best streak by any team in the majors -- and can tie a franchise record by winning three of four in Minnesota.

A good-sized crowd at the ballpark in Arlington has been treated to a pretty exciting game.

Rangers down one heading into the bottom of the ninth. Cleanup man Milton Bradley leading off.

Must admit that I'd like to see Josh Hamilton, who is in the 9 hole, get a chance to win this thing.

Ian Kinsler was going on the pitch, allowing him to score on Frank Catalanotto's soft double down the right-field line.

Reckon you folks can forgive Kinsler for his baserunning gaffe earlier in the game?

Astros 5, Rangers 4 entering the ninth.

Josh Hamilton won't get the whole day off. He's pinch-hitting for German Duran with the Rangers down two in the eighth.

UPDATE: He grounded out to first. So much for the drama. Can the Rangers give him another shot in the bottom of the ninth?

There's no question that Gerald Laird gunned down Michael Bourn at second base on this throw. Laird's laser beam beat the speedy Bourn to the bag by a few feet.

Laird is 10-for-30 throwing out attempted base stealers this season. He's gunned down 40-plus percent of them over the last five seasons, the second-best rate in the majors during that span.

LHP Matt Harrison, who the Rangers got in the Mark Teixeira deal, threw a no-hitter today for Double-A Frisco.

He only had to go seven innings, since it was the first game of a doubleheader. And it wasn't real pretty with six walks. But there's no sense nitpicking a no-hitter by one of the Rangers' primo pitching prospects.

Much, much more to come on this in the Monday morning edition of Farm Fresh Goodness.