A Texas Rangers hitting coach is only as good as his players

Posted Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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By GIL LeBRETON

glebreton@star-telegram.com

lebreton What makes a good major league hitting coach?

A three-year, $2.42-million contract, it seems, as the Chicago Cubs showed us this week.

Less than a week after Rudy Jaramillo announced that he was ending his 15-year relationship with the Texas Rangers, the Cubs offered him the security and greener pastures he was seeking.

A loyal cadre of fatalistic Rangers fans will anguish over Rudy’s departure, no doubt. But let’s review the arithmetic.

The Rangers’ team batting average dropped 23 points this past season from its 2008 average. Run production dropped by 117 runs.

What makes a good hitting coach? Good players. And some of Jaramillo’s best ones let him down this season.

The Rangers are expected to begin interviewing candidates to replace Jaramillo next week. In the meantime, general manager Jon Daniels is saying that the lineups he has seen in the postseason are good examples of the kind of hitting philosophy that the Rangers want.

"If you watch the playoffs," Daniels said Thursday, "regardless of the managerial style or the talent level of the personnel, all these teams have something in common — they make the pitchers earn every out.

"Situational hitting is part of it. But for the most part, they don’t get themselves out. It’s things like not swinging at a bad pitch on a 2-0 count. They grind out their at-bats."

Conversely, the free-swinging Rangers gave away at-bats by the dozens this past season. They swung at too many first pitches. They swung and missed a MLB-worst 24 percent of the time.

That wasn’t a failed philosophy. That was a lineup that didn’t work. There were too many hitters working on too many personal agendas.

Can a hitting coach fix that?

Most baseball fans see the team’s hitting coach as a batting doctor. When a player goes into a slump, the hitting coach is expected to diagnose the problem and provide a prescription.

It’s not rocket science. There is no advanced degree required to enter the pregame batting cage.

One of the best hitters in baseball admitted as much last week, when he told the Chicago Tribune, "I hate to say it, but a hitting coach is overrated. It’s more of a mental thing."

The hitter is Derrek Lee.

Derrek, meet Rudy Jaramillo, your $2.45 million coach.

If the Rangers are compiling names, let me add two of my own — Rusty Greer and Will Clark, both former Rangers. Both were highly accomplished major league hitters, and both played with a passion that was all their own.

Clark was a special assistant with the San Francisco Giants this past season, and though he has said publicly that he doesn’t want to spend more time away from his family, Arlington would be a lot closer to his Prairieville, La., home than California has been.

Greer spent the last three seasons working with college players, including a year at Texas Wesleyan. Next to Nolan Ryan, there may not be a more popular Ranger.

Can a hitting coach fix what ailed the Rangers this past season?

If the answer is in the post-season playoffs, as Daniels suggested, his nameplate is probably quietly tucked away in the clubhouse. Ask the guy at the next desk if he can name the hitting coach of the New York Yankees (Kevin Long) or the Philadelphia Phillies (Milt Thompson). Ask him who tutors the hitters on the Boston Red Sox (Dave Magadan) or Los Angeles Angels (Mickey Hatcher).

Ask anyone if they can name who was the Rangers’ hitting coach before Jaramillo.

It was Willie Upshaw, circa 1994, if memory serves.

But that’s the point. There is no industry job description for the men who unlock the keys to successful major league hitting.

Jaramillo had a knack for being able to watch a hitter and visually pick out the problem. Each hitter is different, Rudy used to say.

One of the greatest hitters ever once worked for the Rangers. But even Ted Williams couldn’t find another Ted Williams.

"We’re not looking to take the individuality away from hitters," Daniels said.

A quality at-bat, he noted, can take many forms, as long as it helps the team.

An overrated job, as Derrek Lee said?

Maybe. But who are the Cubs to make such a claim?

At least there’s a certain mantra, a philosophy, which Daniels and Ryan can look for next week.

Good help doesn’t come cheap.

GIL LeBRETON, 817-390-7760

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