Borbon's Struggles Haven't Stopped This Spring

Lots of struggles in spring training can be brushed aside and chalked up to rust and needing more preparation time. That's totally understandable with pitchers, who spring training is really for, and even hitters getting their timing down.

But one thing that shouldn't have anything to do with spring rust is catching a baseball.

Julio Borbon seems to be struggling with that facet of the game, and that's a bad sign for the Texas Rangers.

Borbon, who was named the team's starting centerfielder prior to spring training even starting, committed two errors in Thursday night's ugly, ugly loss to the San Diego Padres in which Texas committed seven errors as a team. That brings Borbon's running total to five errors this spring. That's not good.

The prevailing thought amongst seemingly everyone in the organization was to move MVP Josh Hamilton from center field and put him in left, which is sort of known as being the easiest outfield position to play. With Hamilton's injury history, it's a wise move to get him out of center where he roams around and throws his body against walls with reckless abandon.

So is the answer moving Hamilton back to centerfield and putting David Murphy in left? Ideally, yes. But Hamilton's just too valuable to be playing in center every day, and Murphy doesn't have the range to play center. Nelson Cruz is cemented in right.

Borbon had blamed his early spring errors on the blazing Arizona sun, but on Thursday NIGHT, that wasn't an issue. Something's up, whether it be mental or mechanical, but something's horribly wrong.

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Nothing is more defeating than inducing a pop-up to center with two outs and instead of the inning being over, your opponent puts two more runs on the board. World Series contenders can't have that.

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