Dallas News/Sherrington: Texas Rangers can’t afford a win-at-all-costs approach

If I’d promised you from Surprise that, on June 22, Rangers’ pitching would rank in baseball’s top 10 in complete games, shutouts and saves and sit a respectable 17th in ERA; or that in his fifth start, Derek Holland would throw seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball; or that Elvis Andrus would lead all shortstops in a key defensive rating and hit .266, you’d have accepted with a smirk.

But here it is, 68 games in, and the only development more shocking than the above is that the Rangers are hanging onto first place.

Question: Premature contention changes everything, right? Or does it?

Better question: Should it?

On one hand, Jon Daniels still sports a self-confessed 2010 timetable. On the other, Tom Hicks might have sold off the furniture by then.

Conventional wisdom teaches us that tomorrow may never come, so win while you can. But not at any cost. And make sure it isn’t fool’s gold.

All of which makes for a very fine line to walk, and the Rangers aren’t exactly the Flying Wallendas.