Hamilton Returns to Rangers

By David Ferraro
July 6, 2009

The Texas Rangers activated one slugger and sent another down to the minors on Monday morning.

Josh Hamilton, who had been out since the end of May with a bruised rib cage and slight abdominal tear, was activated from the 15-day disabled list and will be in the lineup tonight.

Hamilton's activation comes at the expense of struggling first baseman Chris Davis. Davis has been struggling mightily this season, hitting .202 with 15 home runs and a league leading 114 strike outs.

Davis seemed resigned to his demotion, saying "When you're hitting .200 and leading the league in strikeouts, it's kind of hard to say it caught you off guard. I really appreciate how long they stuck with me. I think they stuck with me more than they really had to. I think it's one thing after another - mechanics, mental - whatever it may be, we've made a lot of adjustments with the mental approach. What I'm doing's not working and we're going to find out what that is and try to assess the problem."

On the field, Davis was playing excellent defense and was a big part of the Rangers defensive turnaround.

Hank Blalock is expected to take over the first baseman duties.

The move brings the Rangers outfield count to 6 with the addition of Hamilton and the recent call up of speedster Julio Borbón.

It was a little less than a year ago when Hamilton shocked the nation in the home run derby contest -- hitting a record 28 home runs in one round before losing in the last round. Yesterday Hamilton learned that he was selected for the American League all-star team again, despite the injury that sidelined him all of June.

Hamilton was also struggling to start the season. Battling through his rib cage injury, he was hitting just .240 with 6 home runs in 125 at-bats. Last season Hamilton hit .304 with 35 home runs.

Davis's demotion comes just days after prospect Justin Smoak's promotion to AAA-Oklahoma. Smoak is listed as one of the best hitting prospects by many rating services.