The Texas Rangers have placed starter Matt Harrison on the 15-day DL with an inflammed nerve in his back, and have called up Justin Grimm from AAA Oklahoma City to replace him in the rotation. Grimm will start on Thursday for the Rangers in Seattle.

Harrison, who signed a five-year, $55 million extension with the Rangers this offseason, has struggled this year. He's allowed ten runs in 10 2/3 innings, striking out 12 and walking seven. In fact, the only two Rangers losses this year have both been credited to Harrison.

Grimm has made just one start this year, allowing one run in 5 2/3 to Omaha last Friday while striking out four and walking two. The 24-year old, ranked as the consensus 7th-best prospect in the Rangers system, made his major league debut last year, and allowed 14 runs in 14 innings despite striking out 13 and walking only three.

The Rangers rotation depth has taken some hits this year, with Harrison joining Martin Perez, Neftali Feliz, and Colby Lewis on the DL. Perez broke his forearm in Spring Training, and is expected to be back in late April or sometime in May, while Feliz and Lewis both had surgery last season (Tommy John for Feliz, flexor tendon for Lewis). Feliz is expected to be out until July or August, while Lewis could be back in May or June. 

Thankfully for Texas, they're about to embark on an easy run of their schedule. Once the Rays leave Texas after Wednesday's game, the Rangers have ten straight games against the Mariners and Cubs. Following a series with the Angels, the Rangers then will get four games with the Twins. Harrison's DL stint was retroactive to Sunday, and he's only expected to miss the minimum 15 days, meaning he'll be back for the Angels series.

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It’s a legitimate question with a dozen different correct answers.  A close friend of mine noted that at the Giants home opener, after Willie Mays was introduced, a Cardinals fan who was sitting close by announced respectfully that Mays was the greatest player to ever play the game.  He wasn’t necessarily wrong either.  Willie Mays was a Rookie of the Year Award winner, was honored with two MVP’s, twenty all-star selections and twelve Gold Gloves.  His 162-game average was .302 with 36 home runs and 18 stolen bases.  Other names that are commonly mentioned include Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Hank Aaron.  They’re all correct answers too.

The “Greatest Ever” question can be debated endlessly and we’d still never be closer to one final correct answer.  But I raise the question, can this ever change?  Will there ever be a player who once and for all answers the question?  This player would need to hit for average like Ted Williams did, and hit for power the way Aaron could, run the way Mantle could before knee injuries, play the field the way that Mays did, revolutionize the game the way Ruth did, not have their careers interrupted by war, stay away from substances and performance enhancers, stay healthy and finally, get the hardware to boot.  That’s a pretty tall order, though hopefully not an impossible one.

(Please forgive me ahead of time if your favorite player was not mentioned, there was no ill-intent)

Undoubtedly by now, you’ve heard that Jered Weaver has been diagnosed with a broken non-throwing elbow.  Weaver is the Angels ace and has placed Top Three in the Cy Young race for the past two seasons and Top Five for the past three seasons.  Any team would be hurt by the loss of such a pitcher.  Arguably, many teams could be expected to fall apart.  Seeing as the Angels are many news source’s favorite punching bag since they began spending money, you could expect some serious doom and gloom to head their direction in the coming days.  But as with any team, we must ask the question, “Will the Angels be alright?”. 

To start, C.J. Wilson will now serve as the Angels ace.  Wilson was diagnosed with bone spurs in June/July of last year and his second half performance suffered as a direct result of it.  Before the diagnosis, Wilson owned a sparkling 2.43 ERA and the year before he owned a 2.93 ERA in Texas.  He’s had ace numbers since transitioning to starter.  However, not a lot of people are convinced C.J. Wilson can carry the Angels staff.  To round out the rotation, fellow left-hander Jason Vargas came over from Seattle in the trade for Kendrys Morales, Tommy Hanson came over from Atlanta in return for Jordan Walden and Joe Blanton was inked to a two year deal. 

The New York Yankees were left for dead in a gutter to start last week after a 1-4 start. New York's offense looked listless in losing two out of three to the Red Sox to start the year, and the first two to Detroit. But in the three games since, the Yankees have scored 32 runs in roughing up the Tigers and Indians, with last night's 14-1 beatdown of the Tribe coming as a high point of the season. Yeah, I think we all wrote off the Yankees a tad bit too soon. They'll still be at least a little bit of a factor this year.

PIC OF THE DAY

Will Venable, a shaving cream pie, and a camo teddy bear. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports).

Game of the Night: Nationals 8, White Sox 7. This was an odd game. After the White Sox batted in the top of the sixth, the game was tied at two, but Washington took a 6-2 lead in the bottom half of the inning after two-run homers from Jayson Werth and Adam LaRoche. Paul Konerko hit a three-run homer in the seventh to cut the lead to 6-5, but the Nationals extended their lead to three again following an RBI single from Werth and another two-run homer from LaRoche. In the ninth, Chicago cut the lead to one after a two-run homer from Alex Rios off of Rafael Soriano, but that was the only damage, and Washington hung on to win 8-7.

During Tuesday's Yankees-Indians game, Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco was ejected in his first start since August 3, 2011 for throwing at the head of Yankees third baseman Kevin Youkilis. Carrasco was ejected in the fourth inning, and threw at Youkilis the pitch after Robinson Cano hit a two-run homer to give the Yankees a 7-0 lead.

The ironic part is that Carrasco served a six game suspension to start the 2013 season after an incident in 2011 when he plunked Billy Butler of the Royals to earn that suspension. He appealed the suspension before blowing out his elbow and undergoing Tommy John surgery, but the spectre of the suspension still hung over his head coming into this year.

After this incident, it's likely that Carrasco will be handed another suspension. You can't throw at a hitter the pitch after a homer,  let alone at his head, and expect the league to ignore it. For the record, Youkilis hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning, and the Yankees rolled to a 14-1 win.

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The Minnesota Twins have had an up and down start to the season on the field this year and it now seems that their struggles have seeped into the team's business decisions as well. On Tuesday morning, the Twins put out a press release that they were going to begin charging fans to watch batting practice. Yep, that's right. Don't believe me? I don't blame you. Here is the policy straight from the Twins:

Early entry tickets will be sold on a walk-up basis at the main Target Field Box Office beginning 30 minutes before the early entry time for that game. Tickets will cost $15 dollars, and sales will be limited to the first 60 fans. Fans will also be required to have a normal entry ticket to the game, and will not be allowed to exit and reenter the ballpark after batting practice.

For a team that many think could lose 100 or more games this season, it seems awfully ballsy to try and charge fans for a privilege that is enjoyed for free by every other fan base in the league. And this isn't like the Astros charging $45 to watch BP on the field. This is just $15 to do what you used to be able to do for free. It is a business strategy born out of pure greed or pure stupidity. I mean, who really wants to pay money to see Pedro Florimon Jr. hit more than they have to?

As you might expect, this announcement was not warmly received. In fact that backlash was so bad that Minnesota waited literally hours before backtracking on the whole thing. Here is the Twins team president trying to cover his ass on the topic while speaking to the Star Tribune:

Said Twins President Dave St. Peter: "We’re looking at ways to add more access to batting practice, but I’m not sure charging incrementally is the way to go about that. ... It was released before it ever should have been. It’s hard to believe, but it was not pulled down because of fan reaction."

Saying the plan was released before it was ready is the business version of claiming your Twitter account was hacked after you made an ill-advised offensive joke. The even funnier notion is that he specifically refutes the idea that the negative fan reaction was the reason they pulled the plug because I'm sure he would've still canceled the plan had the reaction been overwhelmingly positive, right?

Bravo, Twins. Bravo.

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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim got a hit to their 2013 campaign on Tuesday, when they placed starting pticher Jered Weaver on the DL with a fractured left elbow suffered on Sunday against the Rangers. Weaver landed awkwardly on his elbow while dodging a line drive off the bat of Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland.

To replace Weaver on the roster, Dane de la Rosa was called up from AAA, and it's expected that Garrett Richards will replace Weaver in Anaheim's rotation. Aaron Harang, acquired by the Rockies on Saturday and then immediately designated for assignment, does not appear to be an option for Angels according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.

Luckily for the Angels, their schedule isn't a killer over the next four to six weeks. They have two series against the Astros, two against the A's, one against the Twins, and a pair of four game series against the Mariners and Orioles. Now, there is definitely a possibilty for some of those series to go pear-shaped (especially if Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton continue to struggle).

Weaver didn't exactly light the world on fire in his first two starts of the season, throwing 11 innings with a 4.91 ERA, allowing two homers, six walks, and striking out six hitters. But the Angels still need his presence in their rotation, especially with the homer-happy trio of Tommy Hanson, Jason Vargas, and Joe Blanton following Weaver and CJ Wilson in the rotation. The Angels can survive a month and a half without Weaver, especially if Richards ia able to shine like many are confident he's able to, but if this injury turns into a several month affair, even more pressure will be placed on the rest of the Angels rotation and their offense.

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In what is becoming an annual tradition, the anointed Proven Closer^TM for more than a few ballclubs has found himself in hot water, inciting panic in their respective fan bases, dugouts and front offices.

In Chicago, Carlos Marmol needed all of four appearances before he lost his job as closer to Kyuji Fujikawa. For John Axford, it only took three before his job security was put in jeopardy. The same goes for Greg Holland, even if his manager claims he still has his job, though the save Aaron Crow picked up yesterday afternoon would beg to differ. And then there is the whole closer mess in the back of Detroit's beleaguered bullpen.

Gosh, for such a supposedly important role, it sure seems like teams are wildly reactionary and/or uncertain of what to do with their closer slot whenever things don't go exactly according to plan. Their distress is understandable because of the myth that teams need  a Proven Closer^TM leading them to believe they are screwed without one.

That may make sense on a logical level but, fortunately for the Brewers, Tigers, Cubs and Royals, history has shown that to not be the case. We aren't talking about ancient history here either, you only have to go way, way back to last season to see how an injured or underperforming closer is hardly a death knell for a team's hopes.

At the end of last night's Rays-Rangers game, home plate umpire Marty Foster called Ben Zobrist out on a pitch that was (clearly) a ball, as you can see in the video above. Also in the video above, you can see the reactions from Zobrist and Rays manager Joe Maddon, who were clearly displeased at the awful call. But while the call was clearly a disgrace, and Foster won't even have to publicly defend his call (thanks MLB!), just how much of a screwjob was it?

John Lackey hasn't gotten much good news during his three years with the Boston Red Sox.

After missing the entire 2012 season following Tommy John surgery, the 34-year-old right-hander was slated to be the Red Sox's fifth starting pitcher.  Lackey didn't have the best spring training, but with a healthy, surgically repaired elbow, the hope was that he could give Boston 175 to 200 innings at the back end of its rotation.

Making his season debut last Saturday versus the Toronto Blue Jays, Lackey initially looked strong, allowing no runs and three hits in his first three innings. In the fourth, however, he served up a two-run homer to J.P. Arencibia, putting the Red Sox behind 2-0. 

Lackey struck out Emilio Bonifacio to begin the fifth inning. But after throwing a 2-2 pitch to Jose Reyes that ran far inside and nearly hit the Blue Jays shortstop, Lackey grabbed his arm in pain. He staggered off the mound with his right arm hanging at his side.