To win baseball games, you want to have your best lineup on the field whenever possible. As Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington likes to say, "That's the way baseball go."
But the Rangers have previously insisted that Josh Hamilton be moved out of center field permanently to help preserve his body with the idea that playing center is much more taxing physically than playing in left field.
While there's some truth to that, it's still stupid to take your best defensive centerfielder out of one of the most important positions on the diamond because of the fact that he could get hurt.
Now it's sounding like Washington and the Rangers might be having a change of heart, and it's a good thing for the Rangers.
There's thought that Craig Gentry would play in center and Hamilton in left against left-handed pitchers, while Hamilton would man center and David Murphy would start in left against right-handed pitchers.
Part of this change of heart could be foreshadowing to what will happen down the road.
With his latest alcohol relapse — the second public one in recent years — the team and Hamilton broke off contract extension talks with Hamilton set to become a free agent after this season.
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The Rangers could have already decided Hamilton is not in their long-term plans, therefore meaning they won't be worried about his durability down the road and they can just put their best team on the field this season to go out and try to finally win a World Series after two straight unsuccessful tries.
