A quick update...

A few notes on the Rangers walking wounded:

Brandon McCarthy, the subject of my last post, underwent an MRI yesterday, and the results show "severe inflammation with some fluid in the area." The good news is though, the actual elbow ligament is intact, so Brandon's problem won't require Tommy John surgery, as I had been starting to fear.

The Rangers still don't seem to know what the problem is though, as TR Sullivan reports "McCarthy will likely need a cortisone shot, but the medical staff is still discussing the situation to decide on the proper course of action."

Interpert that as you may.

On a brighter note, CJ Wilson now has a timetable for a return - the lefty thinks he can return to action sometime next week, and doesn't seem to concerned about his condition affecting his run at the closers job, saying "That's the benifit of being a releiver. You can miss a week and not lose too much ground."

Ron Washington, though, might disagree: "We'll see. It's still out there. He needs to show he can throw the ball over the plate. Just like everybody else. He has to show he has stamina. Just like everybody else. But he's got time. We still have 20 days."

Interesting statement, coming from a guy who documented last winter how he doesn't think CJ Wilson (or Joaquin Benoit) has the "experience" to close:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070922&content_id=2224256&vkey=news_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

All I can do is speculate, but it seems to me that Ron's already gearing up to use this as an excuse to annoint Eddie Guardado (who gave up 2 runs on 3 hits across 1.0 IP in todays 9-5 loss to San Diego) the closer at the end of the month - if nothing else, it looks like CJ should be a little more concerned about his closers job than he seems.

Last call: Hank Blalock was back in the lineup today for the first time since he and his family where rear-ended on Monday while driving around in the area of Phoenix. The DH, Blalock was 0-2 before being replaced by Joaquin Arias. Blalock said his back and neck are still a little stiff, but the Rangers are plowing ahead with his recovery - they plan to use him at DH tomorrow against the Angels, and think he could return to the field as soon as Monday. That strikes me as as little soon - I hope they don't wind up pushing Hank too hard.