Attention Josh Hamilton the Rangers need your bat more than they need your defense.

Even when Josh Hamilton was in High School in North Carolina he could hit for power.  During his senior year he had outstanding numbers at the plate and not very many people know that he also excelled on the mound.  His arm strength and speed were also amazing in the outfield. After being selected as the 1st overall pick of the 1999 draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he had a long and tumultuous  road to the majors.  After a break out year in 2008, Hamilton was injured twice during the 2009 season due to crashing into the outfield wall and was injured on the first workout so far this spring.  The Rangers need Hamilton to be more cautious on defense, rather than missing time due to him trying to save a run.

There are two types of outfielders, Type A. like Hamilton who have speed and power, although lack the ability to take tumbles in the outfield, or crash against outfield walls without getting hurt.  Then there are Type B players such as Coco Crisp who hit for average, although they have amazing defense and are able to catch almost anything that comes towards them.  They can take falls, crash into walls and then jump up and  throw the ball back into home plate with very little hesitation.  Josh Hamilton is clearly not this type of player.

This video clearly has nothing to do with Major League Baseball, but I found it interesting:

The best thing the Rangers could do for Hamilton was move him to left field which is the least defensive position in the outfield.  The hope is less balls are hit his way, fewer possibilities for injuries and more time his bat is in the lineup.  The key to the Rangers success ion 2010 and the more likely that the Rangers will actually win 92 games depends on Hamilton consistently being in the lineup.

In other Baseball news the Yankees and Francisco Cervelli are very lucky today after Cervelli was beaned in the head by a pitch from Toronto’s Zech Zinicola.  Cervelli fell to the ground and was attended to by former teammate Jose Molina.  After a trip to the hospital it was determined that Cervelli had a concussion and should be ok, although the Yankees have him scheduled to see a neurologist on Monday.

The video of the incident can be seen here.