Feldman continues to struggle and Cliff Lee continues to impress.

The Rangers opened up a three game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Angels got the edge in a 6-5 win over the Rangers in Los Angeles.  Over 3,000 miles away on the mound of Yankee Stadium Seattle Mariners starter Cliff Lee pitched a third consecutive complete game win.  In tonight’s game he went 9 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits with 1 walk and two strikeouts.

Feldman on the other hand against the Angels only went 5.2 innings giving up 9 hits with five earned runs and 3 walks with two strikeouts.  The line was not much worse than Lee’s, although Lee completed 3.1 more innings and the Mariners offense actually showed up and scored 7 runs as to where the Rangers offense only scored five runs.

Out of those five runs, Josh Hamilton’s bat scored one of those runs to push his current game hitting streak to 22 games.  In the month of June he has absolutely been on fire, in 297 at-bats he is hitting .343 with 18 home runs and 59 RBI’s he is definitely going to be tabbed as the American League Player of the Month for June and will be in Anaheim next month for the all-star game.

I know I have been against going for a star player, because of what the Rangers would lose in return for the player.  I never thought I would say this after what Feldman did last season, but something needs to change with him.  Whether that be with him being sent to be with some of his buddies who have faltered this season at Triple-A, or if he needs to be moved to the bullpen where he can be the most expensive reliever with the Rangers or he could just figure his stuff out and maybe recover and have somewhat of decent second half.

I don’t think the Rangers should just keep shoving him out to the mound every fifth day hoping he gets his stuff straightened out, whether that be the money issue or the fact the Rangers are hoping to solve his troubles.  You can almost predict how is going to do by throwing a dart in the dark.

One thing that can be said though is he is owed too much money to be traded and no team is willing to take a gamble on him now since he has had less than a fmediocre first half.  Cliff Lee on the other hand is showing what he has to offer and I am sure the Mariners are pretty elated about that.

If a player plays well for the first 3-4 months of a season and he is a star player, teams looking for that final push to the playoffs will forget everything they said about building the team from the minors up and trade away prospects for sometimes only two months before the player leaves via free agency.  One player that the Rangers fans are familiar with is Mark Teixiera.

He was drafted by the Rangers and was traded close to the trade deadline in his fifth year, which brought over shortstop Elvis Andrus and catcher Jarrod Saltlamacchia.  Almost exactly a year later the Braves realized that they would not be able to sign him to a extended contract and again flipped him to the Angels for prospects and he then left them two months later for free agency and big money with the Yankees.

In some regards it would be nice for the Rangers to get Lee, he is a free agent after this season and is only owed minimal money for the rest of the season.  Lee is from here in Arkansas where I went to high school and I am only about five hours from Arlington so he might be opted to sign for at the Rangers for less money in somewhat of a hometown discount.  Whatever the Rangers do as far as acquring a player, the Rangers first priority should be to get Feldman and his troubles straightened out.