Texas placed OF-R Doug Glanville on the disabled list on Thursday. Glanville strained his right hamstring running to first base on a ground ball after an at-bat in the Rangers' Monday night game against Anaheim. The Rangers initially believed he could avoid the disabled list with a couple of days of rest. However, after an MRI Wednesday, the club decided the leg would need more time to heal.

As they will want him able to play centerfield when he returns, Texas will probably wait until he's fully recovered to activate him from the DL. He'll be eligible to return on the 29th, but the Rangers likely will want to wait until after their series on the Toronto turf to activate him. Then they'll have to decide whether they want him to join the club for their stand in Cleveland on May 2nd or if they prefer to wait until the team returns home on the 6th.

Texas activated OF-R Kevin Mench from the disabled list to fill Glanville's roster spot. Mench strained an oblique muscle on his right side late in Spring Training, causing him to start the season on the DL. He took his time rehabbing the injury and now should be fully recovered. The Rangers drafted Mench out of the University of Delaware with their fourth round pick of the 1999 draft. He spent most of the remainder of that season at Pulaski in the Rookie-level Appalachian League with a few at-bats at A Savannah in the South Atlantic League. Mench respectively played the 2000 and 2001 seasons at A+ Charlotte in the Florida State League and AA Tulsa in the Texas League. Last year, Mench bounced between AAA and the majors.

His lack of extended AAA experience before reaching the majors almost certainly dulled his immediate impact, but his skill history suggests that he should display strong plate discipline, considerable power, and even marginal speed skills this year. Now that he's healthy, the 25-year-old will start regularly in left field for the Rangers, though Texas may shift him into center for a couple games while Glanville is on the DL.

Even when they believed Glanville would only be out for a few days, the Rangers took action to add a substitute to the roster. Early this week, Texas called up OF-R Ryan Christenson. Provided he doesn't perform abysmally at the plate, Christenson will start in center for the majority of Glanville's stay on the disabled list. The 29-year-old has posted solid walk rates throughout his career while hinting at moderate power skills, but he received this promotion because of his defense. Texas no longer appears interested in even attempting to use Carl Everett in centerfield on a more than intermittent basis.

In order to clear room on the roster for Christenson, the Rangers sent 2B/OF-L Jermaine Clark to AAA. Clark evidently doesn't have the proficiency in centerfield that Texas desires in someone playing regularly at the position. He also likely wasn't helped by the fact that he started the season 0-9, though none of his outs were strikeouts and he had already walked three times. Clark possesses excellent plate discipline, moderate speed skills, and solid power potential. Later in the season after Glanville has returned and the Rangers are less concerned about the centerfielding abilities of their outfield reserve, Clark should rejoin the team.

Texas also already has made a number of changes to their pitching staff. The Rangers opened the season with their fifth starter, RHP Ryan Drese in the minors, as they had no need for him until almost two weeks into the season. When the team needed Drese for their April 12th game, Texas went from 11 pitchers to 12, sending down UT-L Mike Lamb to open Drese's roster spot. Lamb displayed solid plate discipline with promising power skills, which indicate he possesses hitting abilities worthy of a bench spot, especially since he also offers the Rangers the flexibility of a player capable of covering first, third, and the outfield corners, who can catch if needed. However, since Texas didn't have a significant number of at-bats available at any of those positions, they felt it would be best if he kept his skills sharp by playing regularly at AAA. The 27-year-old almost certainly will return at some point in the season.

On Sunday, the Rangers sent down RHP Reynaldo Garcia and called up RHP R.A. Dickey. Garcia, who we discussed after his brief cup-of-coffee last year, broke camp with the team as a middle reliever. At the time of his demotion, he had compiled a 7:5 K:BB with 6 H and 3 HR allowed in 7.1 IP for a 7.36 ERA. However, the Rangers might have given him a longer trial, if they hadn't wanted a fresh arm in the pen after he pitched 3.2 innings on Saturday, because Drese only retired one batter in his start.

Texas drafted Dickey out of the University of Tennessee with the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 1996 draft. After spending two seasons at A+ Charlotte, Dickey split 1999 between AA Tulsa and AAA Oklahoma. While he was in the majors for a short time in 2001, he's otherwise remained at AAA for the last three years. The 28-year-old has never posted high strikeout rates, but I'm surprised that as a former first round pick and member of the 1994 Olympic team, his solid control skills haven't enticed the Rangers to give him an extended major league audition, particularly when Texas was struggling to find pitchers last year.

Yesterday, Texas placed RHP Jay Powell on the disabled list due to a lingering viral infection. Powell came down with the infection in Spring Training, and he didn't fully recover before the start of the season. As the illness has prevented him from pitching, once he's healthy he'll need to spend some time building up his arm strength. Consequently, I don't expect him to rejoin the team until early May.

RHP Rosman Garcia replaced Powell on the roster. Garcia, who spent last season at AA in the Rangers' organization after joining the club as a part of Texas' trade of Randy Flores to the Yankees, signed a minor league deal with the club this past off-season. Although he displayed weak skills at AA, the Rangers promoted him to AAA Oklahoma to start the 2003 season. He received this promotion on the strength of an 8:1 K:BB with 4 H allowed in 8 IP for a 0.00 ERA and a meaningless 5 saves. Unfortunately, the limited sample size of his AAA stats compared to a history of minor league mediocrity indicates the 24-year-old likely won't solve any of the Rangers' middle relief problems.

The Rangers also designated LHP C.J. Nitkowski for assignment and called up LHP Brian Shouse. Nitkowski will probably pass through waivers and accept his assignment, since everyone had a chance to sign him this off-season and he did little during the last few weeks to garner interest. The 30-year-old compiled a 5:8 K:BB with 17 H allowed in 9.2 IP for a 7.45 ERA.

Nitkowski barely beat Shouse out of the job in Spring Training. While Nitkowski has significant major league experience, he's failed to demonstrate acceptable command for several years. The 34-year-old Shouse spent little time in the majors prior to last season and displayed some control difficulties with Kansas City. However, Shouse's extensive minor league experience indicates he should be able to handle a job as a major league reliever. Texas has little reason to stick with proven mediocrity when they can instead give a potentially effective reliever an extended try out.