There’s something troubling going on with Josh Hamilton

Josh Hamilton batted just .177/.253/.354 in July, which would be reason enough to think that something’s not quite right with the MVP outfielder. Now add these cryptic comments, uttered by Hamilton late last week following a 1-for-14 homestand:

“When the time is right, I’ll be honest with you, you’ll be right in the loop. I’ve been shown a lot of things over the past week. There’s disobedience and there’s obedience to God. I’ve been being disobedient. It may be a small thing to you, but it’s a big thing to him. There’s consequences. It’s like a father and a kid. There are disciplines. You guys can chew on that and think about it.”

Then there’s the even more cryptic quote below, offered Wednesday morning on a Dallas radio program by Rangers manager Ron Washington:

“The issue is something that I think Josh would definitely have to be the one to expose. It’s certainly not physical. It has nothing to do with injuries. Josh is the one that made the statement and got all the inquiries going, and I think Josh is the one that has to put a rest to the inquiries, not Ron Washington. I can just tell you one thing: It is not because he’s hurt.”

Commenters on the Rangers-centric blog Baseball Time In Arlington have suggested that Hamilton might be going through a divorce with his wife Katie, through nobody has any facts to back that up. The drug and alcohol addict had a relapse in February at a bar in Fort Worth but has seemingly kept clean this summer.

Hamilton, 31, is currently scheduled to hit the open market five days after the conclusion of the 2012 World Series. He’ll be one of the most interesting cases in the history of free agency given all that’s taken place.