Rangers’ Washington could be first to go

The answer to the perverse annual question of “who will be the first manager fired” seemed to be an easy one.

Many didn’t (and still don’t) expect Ron Washington to survive the Rangers’ current trip. But Washington might have bought some time with Texas’ three-game winning streak, through Friday.

All the warning signs were there – a horrible start by the Rangers (10-18 in April, worst in franchise history) and a series of organizational meetings involving owner Tom Hicks, president Nolan Ryan and general manager Jon Daniels. The votes of confidence for Washington by Daniels have been tepid, at best.

The big culprit for the Rangers has been defense, which is damning for Washington because that was supposed to be his teaching specialty.

One of the parlor games in the Dallas area, in fact, is guessing which will be higher at the end of the year: Josh Hamilton’s runs batted in, or Rangers errors.

Through Friday, Hamilton had 32 RBIs, while the Rangers had 31 errors.

Shapiro pulled off steal

The roaring success of Cleveland’s Cliff Lee, who is 5-0 with a 0.96 earned-run average, brings to mind one of the great trade hauls of recent memory, executed by Indians GM Mark Shapiro.

In June 2002, Shapiro and Omar Minaya, who had been installed as GM of the Montreal Expos while MLB operated the team, swung a trade in which the Indians sent Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew to Montreal for Lee, Brandon Phillips, Lee Stevens and Grady Sizemore.

Drew fizzled and was soon out of the league. Colon pitched well the rest of the 2002 season for the Expos, going 10-4 with a 3.31 ERA in 17 starts. But the Expos, who had envisioned a pennant race, finished 19 games out of first.

The Expos traded Colon to the Chicago White Sox that winter for Rocky Biddle, Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Liefer and cash. Hernandez, the key to that trade for Montreal, missed the entire season after shoulder surgery, and left as a free agent.

For the Indians, meanwhile, Sizemore has blossomed into one of the league’s best outfielders. Lee, who was 46-24 in 2004-06, is back in top form after faltering last season. Phillips, dumped by the Indians early in 2006, has developed into an All-Star-caliber second baseman for Cincinnati.

Gibbons sits on hot seat

Another endangered skipper could be Toronto’s John Gibbons, whose contract expires at the end of the year. The Jays, who had high hopes of contending in the A.L. East, have dropped into the cellar.

GM J.P. Ricciardi defended Gibbons as criticism of Toronto’s start grew. The Jays entered the weekend ranked 12th out of 14 American League teams in runs scored.

“What can he do?” Ricciardi asked reporters. “He can’t swing the bat for them. He has tried a lot of things. He has shaken the lineup up, he has hit-and-run in a couple spots. He has hit-and-run with Vernon (Wells), which is a guy that traditionally you don’t do that with.

“It’s not any one person’s fault. Really, if you want to blame anybody, I put the team together, so blame me. I’ll assume all the responsibility.”

Ricciardi, however, has the luxury of a contract through 2010.