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Gil LeBreton: Millwood can't be Rangers' millstone

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Gil LeBreton

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Kevin Millwood, on the disabled list for the fourth time in five seasons, is 28-29 with a 4.81 ERA for the Rangers.
AP/TONY GUTIERREZ
Kevin Millwood, on the disabled list for the fourth time in five seasons, is 28-29 with a 4.81 ERA for the Rangers.

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    ARLINGTON -- His workout regimen was legendary.

    He never wavered. He set an example that an entire generation of major league pitchers could follow.

    Unfortunately, however, the once-indefatigable Nolan Ryan is the club president of the Texas Rangers, not its Monday night starting pitcher.

    When Kevin Millwood was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday, it marked the second season in a row that at least four of the Rangers' planned five starting pitchers have been placed on the DL.

    Millwood confidently predicted Sunday that it was only a strained groin and he would soon be back. But two weeks are two weeks, especially to a team that's treading water as fast as it can.

    Can the Rangers take this latest hit, manager Ron Washington was asked?

    "I don't think anyone can afford to take hits on their rotation," Washington said after Sunday's 12-6 loss to Oakland. "But it's just a freak thing that happened."

    Freak, but probably not surprising. The Rangers can't seem to go through their pitching rotation twice without somebody summoning the team trainer.

    Pitchers Brandon McCarthy and Jason Jennings, originally slotted to open the season as starters, are both on the disabled list. Lefty Kason Gabbard also has been there, done that.

    Simple math suggests that a team already short on quality starting pitching can't keep losing its first-choice arms.

    But there goes Millwood, for the second season in a row, down again. It's the fifth time in less than four years that Millwood, age 33, has spent time on the disabled list.

    The frustrating thing for Millwood, it was suggested, has to be that this latest injury comes on the heels of a diligent off-season conditioning program. Millwood surrendered himself to the new regimen, he said, after going through his most disappointing professional season in 2007.

    "The good thing, I think," he said Sunday, "is that you heal faster when you're in better shape. I think that'll be on my side a little bit."

    The Rangers hope so. Millwood has emerged as one of the senior leaders in the clubhouse. He's also being paid well -- $8.5 million this season, $11 million in '09 -- to be at the top of the team's rotation.

    Formerly with the Braves, Phillies and Indians, Millwood is the walking answer to the Rangers fan's eternal lament of, "When is owner Tom Hicks going to spend some money and get some pitching in here?"

    Millwood is when. He signed with the Rangers for five years and $60 million at the baseball winter meetings in 2005.

    Since then, Millwood has compiled a 28-29 won-loss record in 74 starts. He has allowed 503 hits in 435 2/3 innings and has an ERA with the Rangers of 4.81.

    That's not good enough, not for a guy that you spent $60 million on and who's supposed to be anchoring your staff.

    And now, just as the club is about to get its head above water, he's injured again and can't pitch for two weeks?

    "We want to be cautious," Washington said of the decision to place Millwood on the disabled list. "We want to give him time and get it right. We want him for the long haul."

    The Rangers need the old Millwood, the one that went 18-8 for Atlanta as a 27-year-old or, more realistically, the one that won 16 games in Texas two seasons ago.

    In his nine starts this season, Millwood has pitched seven or more innings only twice. In his past two starts, he hasn't made it past the fourth. The bullpen troubles that the team experienced Sunday were the indirect product of Millwood's early exit Saturday night.

    Frankly, it bothers me to pick on Millwood. Almost every Rangers pitcher has struggled from time to time over these past two seasons.

    But Millwood's big contract, which includes a $15 million signing bonus, mandates more dependability.

    He's a clubhouse leader. He understands that. Millwood also doesn't make any excuses.

    The spanking that the Rangers absorbed Sunday at the hands of the Athletics was a firm reality slap. They are neither the best team in the American League, as their record over the past two weeks teased, nor are they the worst.

    They can handle adversity, Washington's Rangers have shown. They can fight through injuries.

    But the talent is still too thin, too young, to make headway unless the entire roster plays up to its paycheck.

    They need a healthy Kevin Millwood, but they also need a dependable Millwood.

    Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7760
    glebreton@star-telegram.com

     

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