Should the Corner “adopt” a local team to offer up some weekly coverage this season? So, respond to these queries:

1. Yes or no?

2. If yes, please nominate a school and a compelling reason why multiple stories about said school might be interesting to a wider audience than just alums and students.

ARLINGTON - The possibility that C Jarrod Saltalamacchia has played his last game this season grows. Saltalamacchia  has cut short his rehab assignment after two days because of recurring symptoms  of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome in his shoulder. He played two games for Double-A Frisco over the weekend, but exited both games early.

Saltalamacchia said he started feeling numbness in the shoulder in the fifth inning Sunday and, by the seventh, he had a hard time with feeling in his hands. He plans to speak with Rangers doctors this afternoon and will seek a second opinion to determine if there is any other treatment besides surgery. Surgery to remove a rib and improve blood flow to his arm would knock him out for the season.

“I’m not happy because I want to get back and help the team,” Saltalamacchia said Monday. “But I’ve got to be fair to myself and fair to my teammates. I’m not going to be activated on Tuesday, but I’m not giving up yet. Surgery is the last option; I want to see if there is anything else we can do.”

Saltalamacchia said he believes the chances of having surgery are at least “50-50″ at this point.

While the Rangers had been more cautiously optimistic about Saltalamacchia’s return than he had been, it still does create some roster issues. The Rangers would like to have a third catcher for September. Manager Ron Washington said that C Kevin Richardson, who spent a couple of days on the big league roster before C Ivan Rodriguez was acquired, will be added on Tuesday when rosters can be expanded. Since there is currently one spot open on the 40-man roster, the Rangers could add Richardson without repercussions. But, Washington also said RHP Brandon McCarthy would be activated from the 60-day DL on Tuesday to start the second game of the doubleheader. Returning McCarthy to the active roster will require moving someone else off. The options: Move Saltalamacchia to the 60-day DL or outright/release another player.The Rangers could avoid moving roster pieces around by recalling C Max Ramirez, but he’s been injured and ineffective for much of the

Having a third catcher will make it easier for manager Ron Washington to use Rodriguez as a DH against left-handed pitching and would still leave a backup on the benc in casae the starter was injured.

Anyway, if you are going to use the in-flight wireless and if you are going to bill said usage to the company, you better at least use it for work. So here I am, blogging from the sky.

Heard two things last night on ESPN that really stuck with me and wanted your thoughts and input:

1. Concerning Pete Rose: Seems like everytime I meet somebody and tell them I’m a baseball writer, they ask if I think Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. Everytime, I say “no.” I go on to explain that Rose willingly broke the most sanctified rule in baseball when he bet on the sport. He knew the risks. He must serve the punishment. Well, last night, when an interview with former Commissioner Fay Vincent aired, his words were these: “This is not about Pete Rose. It’s about the deterrent of the ban.”

Makes a lot of sense. Let Rose into the Hall – even 20 years after he was banned – and you open the door for reinstatement for anybody who might bet on the sport. Yeah, your career could be impacted, but come the right time and place, if you say your sorry, you could be reinstated and potentially even hold a position with a club. And ultimately, that’s why Rose must remain out of the game. The ban needs to remain the ultimate deterrent.

2. Concerning stealing bases: A lot of statheads view steals as unnecessary risks. If the percentage of success isn’t above 80, you dim your win probability. I’ve never agreed, but couldn’t quite explain why. Joe Morgan, however, did a good job of identifying all the peripherals the running game can impact. Makes pitcher nervous; changes defensive positioning; creates confusion among fielders. No, they can’t be measured with percentages, but they are tangible. Saw it first-hand a couple of weeks ago when Boston was in Arlington. The Red Sox are a pretty sound team, but when Julio Borbon and Elvis Andrus started bunting and using their speed, the Red Sox ended up out of place at least three times. It led to runs. The Angels seem to be fairly successful despite a running game that approaches madness. Los Angeles will send anybody at anytime and often runs itself into outs. More often than not, though, the Angels wind up taking extra bases and squeezing the most out of every scoring opportunity. ‘Course when you have a poor pitching staff, you have to sit back and wait for a three-run homer; when you have solid pitching, it makes more sense to play for one run at a time.

So, what are your thoughts on these subjects? Anything? Anyone?

OK, here is your chance. Let’s assume the Rangers don’t do the seemingly unthinkable; in other words OF Julio Borbon remains on the roster even if RHP Jason Grilli is activated today. It gives you these outfield/DH options for the three-game series against Tampa Bay:

Marlon Byrd
Julio Borbon (left-handed hitter)
Nelson Cruz
Josh Hamilton (left-handed hitter)
Andruw Jones
David Murphy (left-handed hitter)

You face a left-hander Friday and another lefty on Sunday. You are playing on artificial turf. You have to have a cleanup hitter from this group. So, what’s your outfield/DH alignment for the weekend and why? And in what spots in the lineup do you hit these fellas?

Oh, and you better have an explanation why. Us Inglorious Basterds from the media are going to want to know why you are doing what you are doing for each particular game.

We’ve got a simple question, doctors (with Spanish subtitles, too!): Propose your best, most realistic trade the Rangers could make between now and the deadline. Be specific. Who knows if the club makes a trade and your proposal is dead-on, we might even send you a prize. Or Jon Daniels might hire you as an assistant. Time’s a wasting. Go.

Now on to daily duties:

We’ve got another commitment for the Pennant Race Pep Rally at Pappasito’s in Arlington on Thursday afternoon. David Murphy, the hottest hitter in the Rangers lineup over the last six weeks, will be joining us from 6:30-7:30. I’m still crossing my fingers over one last mystery guest, but for now the final lineup is: Murphy, Kevin Millwood, Tommy Hunter and Eddie Guardado will represent the players. Ron Washington and Jon Daniels will represent management. It is also Becca’s birthday, so she will represent herself.

Home Run Derby for the kiddos – with an Ian Kinsler jersey as a prize – and possibly adults (time permitting) kicks off at 5 p.m. The great Chuck Morgan will announce. I will hurl … whiffleballs (at least for a while). And we will party right up until the break of 8 p.m.

There is still time to sign up for your free appetizer (with the purchase of a beverage) simply by dropping me a line here.

Ticket agents will be standing by in case you haven’t purchased your InsideCorner night seats for July 21 against Boston. They are $25 for the all you can eat seats. No, the seats are not edible. You can eat all you want from a wide array of gourmet treats that include hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, popcorn and other really healthy foods. It’s worth the price of admission just to see what kind of damage I can do.

Finally, here’s a reason NOT to set your alarm tomorrow morning unless you want to be serenaded by the shrill sound of my voice. But I will be joining my pal, Norm Hitzges, to talk about SPORTS! Well, to talk about baseball at 7:55 a.m., but if Norm wants to discuss Tony Romo’s potential next celebrity girlfriend, hey, I’m up for that, too.

Media and management? Not so much.

We’re working right through the break. Here’s your chance to help us both out. I need a column idea and management can always use a little help from the fans, right? So, if you were sitting in the Rangers’ front office this week, what issues pertaining to the second half would be on your agenda to discuss? And in what order?

The bottom of the order strikes out way too much. The middle is lacking Josh Hamilton, which is kind of like a Krispy Kreme donut lacking its glaze. Those are mostly season-long problems, though. The bottom third of the order hasn’t hit all year. Hamilton has missed more time than he’s played.

The thing about right now that needs to be addressed is the leadoff spot. The long slow leak from 2B Ian Kinsler’s bat is expanding and because of it, it’s negating much of the threat the top third of the lineup posed to opponents. Without Kinsler on-base, it becomes a lot easier to pitch around Michael Young.

Did a little more stat surfing on Kinsler. It’s been exactly two months since he went 6-for-6 with a cycle. Do you know what he’s hitting since that historic night? Well, I’m going to tell you. It’s .222. It ranks 77th among the 89 AL batting qualifiers in that time. His on-base percentage? That’s .307, which ranks 71st. He’s certainly not the worst Ranger in either category (Chris Davis is hitting .215 with a .270 OBP; Hank Blalock has a .300 OBP and Marlon Byrd is at .296), but none of the other three carries as important a load as Kinsler does.

For the season now, Kinsler ranks in the lower half of leadoff hitters in the AL in the most important categories: On-base percentage and batting average. He is 10th of 18 qualifiers in OBP at .339 and 11th in batting average at .260. Now, Kinsler ranks second in the AL in on-base-plus-slugging (.847), but the slugging part really isn’t part of his job no matter how many homers he’s hit and no matter how big he swings. He also ranks 10th in pitches per plate appearance among leadoff hitters at 3.84.

So the question comes: Is it time for manager Ron Washington to move Kinsler out of the leadoff spot for a day or two and put somebody else there? First inclination: No. That would essentially be punishing Kinsler in a move designed simply to get his attention. Kinsler is a pro and I don’t think “punishment” is what he needs. On second thought, however, he’s been bad this year for a longer period than he’s been good. Take away his first 10 games of the season and the guy is having a BAD year. The Rangers need to do something to get the entire team going. So, yeah, I’m willing to drop him down in the order to sixth or so for a few days.

But who else could possibly bat leadoff for this team?

Is it too early to give 20-year-old rookie Elvis Andrus a shot? He is, after all, taking more pithces (53.4 percent) than any other Ranger regular. He certainly isn’t taking rookie-style at-bats.

Richard Durrett discusses the possibility of David Murphy. Adam Morris believes the problem all relates back to the absence of Josh Hamilton, which can’t be overestimated.

Murphy has often drawn comparisons to Rusty Greer in his career. And everytime the Rangers had trouble in the leadoff spot it was suggested Greer move there, so it seems only natural that the same situation apply to Murphy. Leading off wasn’t the right role for Greer and I don’t think it’s right for Murphy either.

And while the absence of Hamilton is huge, the Rangers have to try and do something with what they’ve got to get through the four or six more weeks Hamilton will miss.

My suggestion: Give Kinsler a couple of days off at the leadoff spot. Move Omar Vizquel there for a day or two. See if changing up his role doesn’t refresh Kinsler a little bit. So, if I’m Ron Washington this is the lineup I’m writing out for Tuesday’s game against Houston LHP Wandy Rodriguez

1. 2B Omar Vizquel (Gives Kinsler a mental day off from the field, too)
2. 3B Michael Young
3. 1B Hank Blalock (helping the middle of the lineup and making sure Chris Davis can limit his exposure to tough lefties)
4. LF Andruw Jones
5. RF Nelson Cruz
6. DH Ian Kinsler
7. CF Marlon Byrd
8. C Taylor Teagarden (because Jarrod Saltalamacchia has fallen into some old bad habits against left-handed pitching)
9. SS Elvis Andrus

That in mind, before we go to any proposals, let’s start narrowing our focus:

Step one: Identify the need you are most willing to address if you can only address one.

• A starting pitcher.
• A big bat for the lineup.
• A reliable, durable late-inning reliever.
• There are either too many holes or none at all; no deals.

Answer away.

Would that blow your mind?

It blew mine, but the statistics I looked at clearly indicate the Rangers are most dangerous early in at-bats and that the problems mount when pitches pile up in plate appearances. And the biggest problem is that there are far more longish at-bats than there are short ones.

Consider these stats (through Saturday):

• The Rangers lead the AL in batting average on the first pitch at .389.

• In quick at-bats, which take two or fewer pitches, the Rangers are hitting .356, second in the AL to Cleveland (.365).

• The rest of the AL is hitting .327 in one- or two-pitch at-bats, putting the Rangers nearly 30 points above average.

But here is where it gets all tricky: Brief at-bats account for only 30 percent of the Rangers’ plate appearances. The other 70 percent of the time, when they get deeper into counts, they are well below the league average. The Rangers are hitting .222 in at-bats of three or more pitches. The rest of the league: .238. We’re talking about a total of more than 19,000 at-bats, so a 16-point difference is huge.

What’s that say about the hitting approach? It says that either the Rangers aren’t doing a good job of anticipating and/or recognizing pitches or that they panic/get anxious with one or two strikes. Pitch recognition and staying calm are central to hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo’s philosophy. Right now, the message apparently isn’t getting across. It’s not the short at-bats that need to be abandoned, it’s the long at-bats that need to be improved. These hitters preach that they trust Jaramillo implicitly, which is why Jaramillo is so highly-regarded. If that is indeed the case, it’s time for these hitters to start practicing what Jaramillo preaches. They must improve pitch recognition dramatically to avoid falling too far behind in the count. And they must stop swinging with anxiety later in counts.

As aggressive hitters, they are the league’s best, lashing out hits 36 percent of the time, but that accounts for only 30 percent of their at-bats. If my awful math is right, being great 36 percent of 30 percent of the time (hello, Ron Burgundy), gives them an advantage about 12 percent of the time. Even by baseball’s relatively low percentages for success that is awful.

Now, there are other reasons for working at-bats early in the game – primarily to force the starting pitcher out earlier or to get to him late – but based on their trends, it’s clear the Rangers are more comfortable swinging early (which is when they have a marked advantage, but they’ve still got to address reducing the anxiety they seem to produce within themselves as at-bats go longer).

Here is something else to consider: The Rangers hitters believe that if the starting pitching keeps them in games, they will make a comeback. But, perhaps because they spend so much time swinging early in the count, the statistics suggest they aren’t a very dangerous team late in games. They rank 11th in the AL in OBP after the start of the seventh inning (.302, 12 points above last and 37 points from the middle of the pack). They’ve scored 88 runs in the seventh or later, which ranks 9th in the AL (albeit only one shy of tying for seventh).

Bottom line of this exercise isn’t to suggest the Rangers take more pitches because they are clearly a more dangerous hitting team in short at-bats, but to point out that long at-bats are still going to account for the majority of their at-bats and that the Rangers have significant issues in understanding what to do in those long at-bats. And I’m beginning to think they are swinging early so often out of some inner anxiety about what happens if things get to 1-2 or 2-2 count.