RANGERS FORSAKE YOUTH MOVEMENT IN PITCHING

Chris Young, youngest Ranger starter at 25

For some reason the Texas Rangers are still reluctant to take young pitching prospects and put them on the mound and leave them there to sink or swim like Los Angeles and Oakland are.

Last night the Rangers were beaten by Oakland, a team that traded off two front line starters they could not afford. Dan Haren, a newcomer at the ripe old age of 24, bested 32 year old Chan Ho Park in that game.

This season, looking at the five man rotation of each team in the American League West, Oakland has the youngest rotation, 24.8 years old. This is made up of Rich Harden (23), Dan Haren (24), Joe Blanton (24), Kirk Saarloon (26), and the old grizzly veteran Barry Zito (27).

The Los Angeles Angels are next at 29.6 years. Their rotation consists of Kevin Gregg (26), John Lackey (26), Jarrod Washburn (30), Bartolo Colon (32) and Paul Byrd (34).

Texas is a sad third with a rotation age of 32 -- hardly considered a youth movement. Chris Young, at 25, is the youngest starter. He is followed by Ryan Drese (29), Chan Ho Park (32), Pedro Astacio (35) and Kenny Rogers (40).

Seattle is oldest in the West at 32. Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro are the youngsters at age 26, followed by Ryan Franklin (32), Aaron Sele (34) and Jamie Moyer (42).

Oakland management has the knack of putting young players on the field and letting them sink or swim. If they swim they become a permanent fixture until the threat of free agency prices them out of competition. Then they get traded and replaced by a rookie.

But everytime the Rangers audition a new player -- especially a pitcher -- the go to the mound under the threat of one bad pitch and they are going back to the minors.

Doug Davis and Danny Kolb were two who tried to make the grade with the Rangers but repeatedly got bounced back after one good outing. Davis is now a prime starter for Milwaukee and the Atlanta Braves just traded for Kolb to be their closer.

Young pitchers are going to mess up and get bombed -- but given the chance a lot of them will survive it.

If you don't believe it, go back and look at the career records of a couple of guys named Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan and see what they did their first three years -- and then compare it to what they did the rest of the time.