In my last post about Jose Contreras' trip to the disabled list, I marveled at the fact White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was able to string together 75 consecutive words without swearing. I'm pretty sure that's a career high for the Sox skipper. Though it also worries me because that's not the Ozzie Guillen we've all come to know and love.

Thankfully, even though Ozzie's cleaned up his language a bit, he has yet to stop holding grudges. Particularly against Texas Rangers, as Rangers closer C.J. Wilson joins a group that includes Buck Showalter and Vicente Padilla before him as somebody who just ticks Ozzie off.

A week ago today, in the last game before the All-Star break, Wilson came on to close a game in which the Rangers had a four-run lead. Well, after allowing three-runs to score, Wilson finally got the third out of the inning with the bases loaded and proceeded to celebrate as though he'd just won the World Series. Ozzie didn't like it and said something then, and now a week later with the Rangers set to come to Chicago, Ozzie would like C.J. to know he still hasn't forgotten it.

"You can be cocky, be yourself or have your own showtime," Guillen told Chicago reporters Friday. "But when you don't respect the opposition and do what he did, that's not professional. That's the reason I was screaming to him. When you're nobody and show people up like that. ... Wait till you're somebody in baseball, and then do whatever you want to do.

As I mentioned earlier this morning, the Rangers had a very strong month of May and are starting to look like a team that the Angels should start paying attention to out west. The problem in Arlington right now is that though May went very well, June is already off to a bad start.

First the team finds out that they're going to be without Hank Blalock for a month thanks to wrist surgery, and now they've learned they're going to be without the ace of their staff for at least one start.

Texas right-hander Vicente Padilla left the team on Sunday, returning to his native Nicaragua to attend to what manager Ron Washington termed "a family personal matter."

Padilla was scheduled to start Monday night for the Rangers against the Cleveland Indians. Washington said rookie Doug Mathis will be moved up a day in the rotation to replace Padilla.

The Rangers wouldn't comment on what the family matter was, so I've no idea how serious the situation is or how long Padilla will be gone. There could have been a death in the family, someone may be sick, or perhaps somebody has been kidnapped. Whatever's going on, I hope everybody in Padilla's family is safe.

If Vicente is gone for a while, the Rangers plan on calling up A.J. Murray from Oklahoma to take his spot in the rotation.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Chicago White Sox (25-20) vs. Cleveland Indians (22-24) - 8:11PM Est.

The White Sox offense has been struggling all season, but fortunately for them, they play in the AL Central where the pitching has been dominating hitters all season. Nobody in the division can hit. The highest scoring team in the Central is the Detroit Tigers, and look what's that gotten them.

Still, the Sox have been able to hang around the top of the division all season long because of their pitching, which has been fantastic. As a Sox fan I've often thought to myself this season "If we could only somehow manage to score four runs a game, we'd be dangerous."

Well, last week Ozzie Guillen finally shook up the offense by switching around the batting order. Jim Thome got dropped from third to fifth, Paul Konerko from fourth to sixth, and A.J. Pierzynski was moved up from sixth to second while Carlos Quentin was moved up to the third spot in the lineup.

Since then? The White Sox are 7-0, and looking to complete their second series sweep in a row tonight. This time against division rival Cleveland.

It came as somewhat of a surprise when the Washington Nationals released John Patterson last week, but it didn't take Patterson long to find a new home. After being unemployed for three whole days, the oft-injured starter agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers have agreed on a minor league contract with former first-round pick John Patterson.

"It's a comfortable fit and I'm looking to getting out there and getting going," said Patterson, who was 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA in three spring starts for Washington. "I feel good. I've been working real hard, throwing a lot. I haven't had any problems."

The 30-year old former first round pick has missed most of the last two seasons thanks to pinched nerves in his forearms that just never seem to go away. Patterson had surgery in September to hopefully fix the problem, but it's going to take time to recover from it, and he realizes he's not going to be ready for the Majors by opening day so he has no problem accepting the minor league deal.

Which is fine for the Rangers as well, because the Rangers can always use all the pitching they can get. They've already signed Sidney Ponson to a minor league deal this season, and are already dealing with annoying injuries to Brandon McCarthy, Kevin Millwood, and Vicente Padilla. If Patterson can manage to stay healthy, this could turn out to be a very good move for Texas.

No matter how good a baseball team is on paper, there's always one factor completely out of a team's control that can derail an entire season: injuries. Already this spring, the injury bug has bitten a lot of teams. It could be argued that it's better to get the injuries out of the way now in the spring while the games don't mean anything, but still, when you're losing a pitcher a day, that can't be a sign of good things to come this season.

Which is exactly what's happening to the Texas Rangers right now, as on Wednesday Eddie Guardado had to leave a game with a bad knee.

Wednesday, it was Eddie Guardado who limped off the mound with soreness in the band of ligaments on the outside of his left knee after facing four hitters in the Rangers' 5-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Guardado's injury isn't likely to be serious, but he's still another Rangers pitcher who's battling through pain right now. On Tuesday it was Vicente Padilla who had to leave a start against the White Sox after pulling an ass muscle (which is better than ass fissures, I guess), and the Rangers found out they'll be without Brandon McCarthy for up to a month the other day. Throw those injuries on the pile along with Kevin Millwood's (Millwood injured!? I'm shocked!) sore hammy, Joaquin Benoit's tired arm, and C.J. Wilson's biceps tendinitis and you have one very large and mediocre pile.

On the bright side, the Rangers don't exactly have a strong pitching staff to begin with, so maybe not having those guys around will only help the team.

"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.

The Texas Rangers haven't made the playoffs since 1999, and if there has been a consistent reason why, it's because they've never had the pitching to overtake the Mariners, Angels, or Athletics. Whether it's because the front office has no idea what to look for in a pitcher, the ballpark they play in, or the oppressing Texas heat, the Rangers pitching staff always seems to falter.

So really, if I wanted to I could just pick the entire Rangers pitching staff for this post, but that would be against the unwritten rules of our Under the Gun series. Since I have to choose only one, I'm going to take Vicente Padilla. After all, Padilla signed a three-year $34 million contract extension before last season after a 15-10 campaign for the Rangers in 2006.

In an ESPN.com chat yesterday, Keith Law nonchalantly dropped a serious allegation about Vicente Padilla. The full chat is on accessible to Insider subscribers, but here's the relevant Q&A:

Ulises (Managua, Nicaragua): Keith, for two weeks I've been trying to get your thoughts on Vicente Padilla and Devern Hansack, but you won't answer me. :( Is any Nicaraguan player in your 100 prospect?

SportsNation Keith Law: I thought I answered that one a week ago, but maybe not. Padilla's got the stuff to be a #3, but his command isn't good and he has a drinking problem. Hansack's an extra guy ..."

Wait, what? That's it? I cut off the rest of his answer because it's strictly about Hansack with no explanation, no follow-up, no anything more about Padilla's drinking problem. Maybe that's all that needs to be said, but I'm surprised he just put that out there as a matter-of-fact.

The Texas Rangers filled out their starting rotation late Wednesday night, signing free agent Jason Jennings to a one-year $4 million contract.

The agreement was confirmed late Wednesday night by two people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. The team could announce the deal as early as Thursday.

Jennings will be joining a rotation that consists of Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Brandon McCarthy, and Kason Gabbard. Not exactly intimidating, is it? Well, aside from Padilla anyway. He's always likely to throw a fastball at your head.

The Rangers needed to sign another pitcher after trading one of their top pitching prospects, Edinson Volquez, to the Reds for Josh Hamilton.

Jennings won the Rookie of the Year Award with Colorado back in 2002, but he hasn't resembled the pitcher he was back then lately. In fact, he's spent most of his time on the disabled list, missing three months last season thanks to a torn flexor tendon in his throwing elbow. In the 19 games he did pitch for the Astros last season, Jennings managed to go 2-9 with an ERA of 6.45.

Year in and year out Vicente Padilla is among the leaders in hit batsmen. You would think that when you hit a lot of guys, you probably get into your fair share of scraps. So you add two and two together, and Vicente Padilla has to be a one man killing machine right?

Wait a second, is that Padilla we see on all fours trying to crawl away from Nick Swisher and the pile as quickly as possible?

Maybe next time he should just run away screaming. He'll look tougher that way.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

New York Mets (82-61) vs. Atlanta Braves (73-71)-7:05PM Est.

It wasn't too long ago that the Mets were barely holding on in the NL East. They'd just been swept by the Phillies, and it looked as if everything was falling apart around them. Now? Now they've won 9 of their last 10 games, they finally have a healthy starting rotation, and they're about ready to drive the final nails into Atlanta and Philly's coffins. With the start of a three game series tonight against Atlanta, the Mets have a chance to knock them out of the race for good. Orlando Hernandez will start for the Mets tonight after skipping his last start with a sore foot. That's good for the Mets because Hernandez is 6-1 since June 29th, and the Mets are 10-2 in his starts. The Braves counter with Buddy Carlyle. Carlyle has struggled lately, losing three of his last four starts. He only lasted 1.1 innings in his last start against Philadelphia, and has been giving up home runs at an alarming rate lately. All of which is only sure to get worse against the Mets lineup.