Something Has to Change With Andrus

Elvis Andrus is a really good baseball player, but at the end of the day, he is what he is — a great defensive shortstop and base-stealing threat and a groundball/singles hitter with occasional gap power when he's going well.

Like so many times before, Andrus killed a couple of rallies in Tuesday night's loss to Oakland by grounding into double plays or just grounding out in general, even if it did result in an RBI.

Andrus is now 3-for-34 in his last nine games and he's 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position, yet he's still holding strong in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, a spot usually reserved for one of the best htiters on the team.

Shin-Soo Choo is basically entrenched as the Rnagers' leadoff man with his .452 on-base percentage, but why not make a move in the No. 2 spot, at least until Andrus can get things going? Remember last season when Andrus was in a similar funk that lasted basically the entire first half of the season? Ron Washington eventually moved Andrus down in the order, took some pressure off him, and Andrus began to perform before hitting over .300 in the second half of the season.

So why not try it again, but this time just a month into the season instead of three months in?

Here's what you do, move Leonys Martin to the 2-hole as he's been perhaps the most consistent hitter on the team throughout the season along with possibly Alex Rios and Choo. Hit Rios third, Adrian Beltre fourth and drop the struggling Prince Fielder to fifth, maybe even sixth. Hit Andrus seventh or eighth.

We're by no means saying it's time to give up on Andrus. We've seen him bounce back from this before. He'll do it again. But right now, it's killing the Rangers' lineup to have him hitting in key situations and grounding into double plays after Choo reaches base.

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