ESPN

ESPN.com's Keith Law ranks Double-A Frisco RoughRiders shortstop Jurickson Profar the second-best minor league prospect in baseball.

Law ranked his top-25 prospects with Profar sitting at No. 2. Here's part of what Law said about Profar:

"It's hard to rank a guy much lower than this when he has front-line tools and has failed to reach base in just two games this year, the last one on April 7."

To read the rest of what Law wrote on Profar and his complete rankings, click here (Insider).

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Winning the HP Byron Nelson Championship has its rewards. And for Jason Dufner, that includes throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Texas Rangers-Toronto Blue Jays game tonight.

Dufner, who entered the second round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial just one stroke back of leader Zach Johnson, had an early tee time on Friday. So he plans to get to the park early enough to see some batting practice and say hello to a few players.

"I'm really excited," said Dufner after his first round Thursday at Colonial Country Club. "This will be the first time I've ever done anything like that, so it should be fun. I don't have much experience throwing a baseball in that environment, but I have thrown a baseball before. So hopefully I could get it across the plate and have a good time with it."

Dufner said he's heard it can be difficult to throw a strike from the mound if you're not used to it.

"I might cheat it and go up in front of the mound," Dufner said.

Dufner is trying to become only the second golfer to win the Dallas and Fort Worth PGA Tour events in the same season. The only other golfer to do it was Ben Hogan in 1946. Read more about that here.

It was a 3-3 road trip over the past week prior to the Texas Rangers' off day on Thursday. So let's take stock of this team the past week:

STOCK UP

Adrian Beltre: He had three multi-hit games and hit .333 on the six-game road trip with a couple of homers. Beltre also started to run a little faster on the bases, perhaps indicating that his hamstring is feeling better.

PODCAST
Rangers GM Jon Daniels discusses the team's recent struggles, the interest level in Roy Oswalt and more. Listen

Robbie Ross: He pitched 5 2/3 innings over the past eight days and didn't allow a run with two strikeouts and no walks. Opponents hit just .167 off him.

STOCK DOWN

Offense: What happened to the monster bats this past week? The Rangers, usually pushing the .290 mark in team average, hit just .244 over the six games on the road, scoring an average of 3.7 runs per game (nearly two runs fewer than normal) with just five homers. The clutch hits that helped this team to a fast start didn't come often the past six games. Will a return to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington help?

Walks: Base on balls have really hurt his pitching staff recently. Yu Darvish gave up six walks Monday and three of those runners came around to score. Matt Harrison was hurt by two walks in the first inning of his start in Seattle but recovered. Scott Feldman walked five and gave up a grand slam Wednesday. For the trip, Texas walked 25 batters. That accounts for nearly 20 percent of the club's total all season.

Following a day off, the Texas Rangers begin a three-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. LHP Derek Holland will face RHP Brandon Morrow. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM and TXA-21. Here’s a closer look at the pitchers:

PODCAST
Rangers GM Jon Daniels discusses the team's recent struggles, the interest level in Roy Oswalt and more. Listen

Holland (3-3, 4.27 ERA): Holland looks to bounce back from his last start Saturday against the Houston Astros. He allowed five runs on five hits -- three of them were home runs -- in five innings during the 6-5 loss. …Holland is 1-1 with a 2.95 ERA in his last three starts, dropping his ERA from 5.13 to 4.27. … He pitched a complete game shutout on 95 pitches last season in his last matchup against the Blue Jays on July 30 at the Rogers Centre. … Holland is 2-1 with a 5.55 ERA in five games against the Blue Jays.

Morrow (5-2, 2.63 ERA): Morrow is off to an impressive start this season. In his last outing, he had a complete game shutout against the New York Mets on Saturday. … He’s 3-0 with a 0.63 ERA on the road in four starts with a .156 opponent batting average. … Morrow picked up a win in his last start against the Rangers on July 31 last season. He allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings and struck out 11. … In seven games against the Rangers, Morrow is 3-3 with a 5.46 ERA. … He’s 1-2 with a 7.71 ERA in four appearances at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. … Morrow’s ERA ranks sixth in the American League and his 0.96 WHIP is fourth best in the AL.

Hitters: Ian Kinsler (6-for-16), Michael Young (6-for-15), David Murphy (4-for-11) and Elvis Andrus (3-for-7) have been the most successful against Morrow. Nelson Cruz (1-for-13), Mike Napoli (2-for-14) and Josh Hamilton (2-for-9) have struggled. … The Blue jays have a .256 batting average and .329 slugging percentage against Holland. … The Blue Jays’ No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and J.P Arencibia are 6-for-23 against Holland with zero home runs and five strikeouts. … Adam Lind has the most hits on the Blue Jays off Holland (4-for-12).

Up Next:

Sat. vs. Tor.: RHP Colby Lewis (4-3, 3.30) vs. RHP Henderson Alvarez (3-4, 3.30), 2:05 p.m., ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM/1540/FSSW
Sun. vs. Tor.: RHP Yu Darvish (6-2, 3.05) vs. RHP Kyle Drabek (4-4, 3.27), 2:05 p.m., ESPN Dallas 103.3/1540/FSSW
Mon. vs. Sea.: LHP Matt Harrison (5-3, 4.72) vs. RHP Kevin Millwood (3-4, 3.72), 7:05 p.m., ESPN Dallas 103.3/1540/FSSW/MLB Network

This may sound familiar, but some things never change:

Two friends of Roy Oswalt say they still believe his preference is to play in Texas, Atlanta or St. Louis. But since there's no indication the Braves or Cardinals are interested, his challenge is likely to be trying to convince the Rangers to pay him the significant dollars he's hoping for.

An official of one club that looked into Oswalt reports: "He wants a ton of money to pitch half a season. But based on how he pitched last year, it wasn't like he was dominant. So he's not a guy who's going to wrap up the pennant for you. He'd be a nice guy to add to the bottom of the rotation. He's not a guy you're adding to the top of your rotation, at this stage. But [based on his asking price] he doesn't see it that way."

The big reasons Oswalt would love to be a Ranger, according to his friends: (A) Geography, (B) no worries about run support, (C) no state income tax, (D) his relationship with Nolan Ryan and (E) lots of storylines for the media to center on besides him. But both friends stressed that money is an important factor, so if the Rangers don't make it worth his while, it's not a lock that Oswalt pitches in Texas -- or anywhere.

Read more here.

It sounds ridiculous to suggest a homer drought for the guy who is leading the American League in homers, but Josh Hamilton hasn't homered since May 12 against the Los Angeles Angels. For him, that's a bit of a drought.

He's still hitting, though. Since that game, Hamilton is hitting .308 (12-for-39) with eight RBIs. But he doesn't have a homer in 11 straight games.

Hamilton has had long stretches without homers before. He went 20 games without one in the middle of last summer.

Still, Hamilton has 18 homers, half of those in one week earlier this month.

PODCAST
Rangers play-by-play voice Eric Nadel says he's not worried about the Rangers lack of offensive production. Listen

Texas Rangers play-by-play man Eric Nadel, who will join the Rangers Hall of Fame in August, is hosting a birthday bash tonight, with the Rangers off.

The concert, featuring Daphne Willis, is at The Kessler in Dallas. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the concert starting at 8 p.m. The event benefits CONTACT, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people facing daily life challeneges, and To Write Love on Her Arms, which helps people dealing with depression.

Click here for more information.

The glaring statistic from Yu Darvish's struggling start Monday in Seattle was his command problems, leading to a season-high six walks.

Darvish now has 32 walks on the season -- that's fourth-most in the majors. But what surprised me is the fact that Darvish hasn't allowed as many of those walks to score as you might think.

Keith Hawkins at ESPN Stats & Information went through each of Darvish's starts and found that seven of the 32 batters (22 percent) whom Darvish walked came around to score. In four of his starts, none of the batters he walked ended up scoring.

Still, it's clearly an issue for Darvish as it eats into his pitch count. He has thrown an average of 17.3 pitches per inning, tied for 10th most in the AL. He's fifth in the AL in pitches per game at 107.6, by the way.

Darvish, of course, is also missing plenty of bats. It's tough to talk about walks without mentioning strikeouts. And he's tied for fifth among starters at 63 in nine starts.

The Texas Rangers picked up left-handed pitcher John Gaub off a waiver claim from the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. He goes on the club's 40-man roster, but was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock. That means the Rangers now have a full 40-man roster.

Here's the Rangers' release on Gaub:

Gaub, 27, was designated for assignment by Tampa Bay on Monday. He was acquired by the Rays in an April 5 waiver claim from the Chicago Cubs. Gaub has spent this season in the bullpen with Triple-A Durham, going 0-1 with one save and a 4.32 ERA (8 ER/16.2 IP) over 16 relief appearances.

Originally a 21st round pick (641st overall) by the Cleveland Indians in the 2006 June draft, Gaub was acquired by the Cubs, along with right-handed pitchers Chris Archer and Jeff Stevens, in exchange for infielder Mark DeRosa on Dec. 31, 2008. He made his major league debut with the Cubs on Sept. 12, 2011, and went 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA (2 ER/2.2 IP) over 4 relief appearances in his only big league action to date. The left-hander has a career 12-13 record and 3.65 ERA (93 ER/229.1 IP) in 187 games/one start over 6 seasons in the minor leagues.

The Rangers return home with a scheduled day off for the first time since May 3. In that 20-game span, they finished 10-10.

There’s two ways to look at it:

The Rangers know they didn’t play their best baseball. They were swept by the Kansas City Royals, split a two game series with the Oakland Athletics and lost a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners -- all teams back-to-back American League Champions should beat. Following Josh Hamilton’s home run streak, the offense cooled down considerably. The Rangers had an opportunity to separate themselves from the pack in baseball and didn’t capitalize.

Or you can remind yourself it’s still May 24. Even with a stretch of all-around bad hitting nights, the Rangers were still able to muster 10 wins during a stretch in which they dealt with a doubleheader, a nearly two-hour rain delay followed by an afternoon game the next day and with Neftali Feliz on the disabled list. Pitching, for the most part has been solid and the Rangers found ways to get the job done at the plate. A prime example is Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Mariners in which all it took was an inning of runs, solid pitching and defense to get the win.

Not to mention they’re still in first place of the AL West and nine games over .500.

What’s your take on the 10-10 record in 20 games?

SEATTLE -- It seems just about every Rangers player with a bat in his hands has been in a funk lately, and the only reasonable explanation in the clubhouse is ... well, to paraphrase the manager, that's the way baseball goes.

"We haven’t been the best offense, for sure," shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "It’s kind of gotten rough a little bit fighting through it, but that’s the way the season goes. We’re going to have good times and we’re going to have bad times, and right now it’s not the best time for our offense playing well."

Rangers manager Ron Washington plans to sleep in and relax during the Rangers' first scheduled off day since May 3. The last thing on his mind is the offensive struggles this early in the season, considering the same lineup has won back-to-back American League championships.

"We’re in May," Washington said. "We've just got to keep grinding like we always do. I have quality guys out there in that clubhouse and we’ll put it back together."

In the past 10 games, the Rangers offense has been outscored by a run in series against the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.

"We know we can play better baseball than we have right now, but sometimes you’ve got to stay humble," Andrus said.

They were on the cusp of breaking out Wednesday, but they couldn't catch a break in a 5-3 loss to the Mariners.

Nelson Cruz hit two shots to the warning track in right field. Michael Young saw 20 pitches in his first two plate appearances and he didn't have a hit to show for it. Young hit a hard ground ball up over the mound that was kicked by pitcher Kevin Millwood to keep it in the infield in the second. Young had another ground ball dance down the third-base line in the third. It appeared to be a hit until Kyle Seager made a great play to record the out.

Young is batting .233 (19-of-87) with a .322 slugging percentage and eight RBIs in May. He's struck out 16 times and collected just two walks.

"I feel fine," Young said. "Those are the at-bats I want to keep on having. I don’t look at them as grinding. I look at them as a couple good at-bats. If I keep doing that, then things will start going my way."

He doesn't see the team's struggles as a slump. Just as quickly as the bats went cold, the Rangers know all it takes is a few good at-bats to get them going again.

"If we go through a tough stretch and we’re playing .500 ball, sometimes that happens," Young said. "But we know we're capable of going on hot stretches where we get a ton of wins in a row. We just stay focused on the things we know we're capable of."

Even with the woes at the plate, the Rangers are still nine games over .500.

"We're still in first place [of the AL West], and that's all that matters," Andrus said.

SEATTLE -- Scott Feldman hasn't been announced as a permanent replacement for Neftali Feliz in the Rangers' rotation, but he looked like the other two starting pitchers during the three-game series with the Mariners in one way: He allowed walks to turn into runs.

He didn't top Yu Darvish's six-walk performance Monday, but he came close. Feldman's command was shaky in the second and fifth innings in Wednesday's 5-3 loss. His five walks gave the Mariners 13 free trips to first base off the Rangers' starters, including Matt Harrison, this series. It resulted in seven of the Mariners' 12 runs in three days.

Feldman walked the bases loaded to start the second against the Mariners' Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters. Michael Saunders' sacrifice fly would score the only run 0f the inning thanks to a couple of groundouts, but it resulted in an early 1-0 deficit.

Feldman seemed to find a groove, retiring eight straight heading into the fifth, but that inning started with a walk to Saunders. Mike Carp followed with a single, and an error by Ian Kinsler at second base advanced runners to second and third. Feldman intentionally walked Dustin Ackley to load the bases up for Alex Liddi with one out, and Liddi made Feldman pay on the first pitch. The grand slam on an inside fastball barely cleared the left-field wall over the scoreboard, but it was four runs nonetheless.

"Walking that many guys, I was dodging bullets all day, and then finally they got me in the fifth there. It finally caught up to me," Feldman said.

Robbie Ross entered the game, ending Feldman's night after five runs allowed on three hits and five walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Feldman hadn't thrown in eight days entering Wednesday's contest, and it was only his eighth appearance this season.

"I’ve been doing as good as I can to try and stay sharp," Feldman said. "The last couple times just haven’t been good."

Rangers manager Ron Washington said he isn't going to hold too much of this start against Feldman when judging him as a possible replacement for Feliz. Washington said Feldman made one bad pitch.

"It’s unfortunate that the one that he made put four runs on him," Washington said. "I thought he was doing a good job.

"There's decisions to be made and we'll make decisions, but you can't put that on Scotty."

Although Washington hasn't made any commitment, Feldman is preparing with the intention of starting Tuesday when what had been Feliz's turn comes up in the rotation.

"My fastball was decent but all the other pitches were lacking the command that I need," Feldman said. "I'm going to work really hard these next few days in between starts and throw a lot of pitches and work on that kind of stuff."

The bats went relatively silent and Scott Feldman wasn't able to get out of the fifth inning in a 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Texas did score three runs in the eighth to get closer, but it wasn't enough.

What it means: Texas went 3-3 on this road trip. They end 20 straight games without a scheduled off day at 10-10.

Offensive drought: Since the second inning of the final game in Houston, the Rangers have scored eight runs in 35 innings. ... In the last 10 games, Texas has scored 35 runs (an average of 3.5 per game). Coming into Wednesday's game, they had hit just .251 (78-for-311) in the last nine games. The Rangers have gone 4-6 in the last 10 games. ... The eighth inning did keep the Rangers from getting shut out. They haven't been shut out this season, along with the Orioles, Indians, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Giants.

PODCAST
Manager Ron Washington joins ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Bryan Dolgin following the Rangers' 5-3 loss in Seattle on Wednesday. Listen

Grand slam: Alex Liddi's grand slam in the fifth ended Feldman's day and pushed the Mariners lead to 5-0. The inning started with a leadoff walk -- usually a killer -- and a single just over a diving Elvis Andrus. Ian Kinsler dropped a throw to second on a pickoff attempt and with one out Dustin Ackley was intentionally walked to load the bases in the hopes of a double play. Instead, Liddi hit the first pitch he saw from Feldman to left field for the grand slam. ... The last opponent to hit a grand slam off the Rangers was Scott Sizemore of the A's on Sept. 10, 2011 off Yoshi Tateyama.

Feldman can't get through five: Feldman, filling in for the injured Neftali Feliz, wasn't able to get out of the fifth inning. After the grand slam, he was taken out in favor of lefty Robbie Ross. In 4 1/3 innings, Feldman gave up five runs on three hits with five walks (one intentional).

Walks: The Rangers pitchers are starting to have issues with walks. They came into the road trip second-to-last in the AL in walks, but in Seattle they've had issues. Feldman was the latest one. He walked the first three batters he faced in the second inning but managed to get out of the inning with only one run allowed (on a sacrifice fly). ... Yu Darvish walked six on Monday and three scored. Matt Harrison had two walks in the first inning Tuesday and one of them scored. Harrison, however, rebounded from it and didn't walk another batter. ... The Rangers issued 15 walks in this three-game series.

Wasted chance early: Yorvit Torrealba hit a fly ball to left field that should have been caught by Alex Liddi. It wasn't and Torrealba ended up at second (he wasn't running hard out of the box, thinking it was going to be caught) with no outs. But Mitch Moreland, Kinsler and Andrus weren't able to get him home.

Beltre's day: Third baseman Adrian Beltre came in hitting .300 on the road trip (6-for-20) and added a double in the fourth -- but was stranded -- and a two-run homer in the eighth.

Up next: The Rangers get an off day Thursday before playing three at home against Toronto and three at home against Seattle before heading to Anaheim.

SEATTLE -- Yorvit Torrealba is in at at catcher for the finale of the Rangers' three-game series against at Seattle. Manager Ron Washington is giving catcher Mike Napoli the day off. Torrealba will bat eighth in the lineup. Here's how the rest of the order looks:


Rangers
2B Ian Kinsler
SS Elvis Andrus
CF Josh Hamilton (L)
3B Adrian Beltre
DH Michael Young
LF David Murphy
RF Nelson Cruz
C Yorvit Torrealba
1B Mitch Moreland

Mariners
2B Dustin Ackley (L)
LF Alex Liddi
RF Ichiro Suzuki (L)
3B Kyle Seager (L)
C Jesus Montero
1B Justin Smoak (S)
CF Michael Saunders (L)
DH Mike Carp (L)
SS Brendan Ryan

RICHARDSON, Texas -- Join us for a live in-game chat from Fox & Hound off Campbell and 75 in Richardson (click here for a handy map that editor Mauro Diaz managed to put on the blog ... impressive) at 2:30 p.m. Master Tesfatsion is in Seattle and will also be joining us. The room is now open for you to ask some early questions and participate in polls. We'll start chatting around 2:30 p.m. or so.