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ARLINGTON — Texas Rangers third baseman Michael Young spoke briefly Monday with new hitting coach Clint Hurdle.
But whether it is Hurdle or Rudy Jaramillo who is the hitting coach for the Rangers doesn’t really matter to Young. What matters is the approach the hitters take at the plate in certain situations.That has to improve if the Rangers are to compete for a playoff spot in 2010.“For our team it comes down to execution,” Young said. “I’ve heard a lot about a team-first approach. I don’t necessarily buy that because I do think we had a team-first approach last year. That’s all we think about is team. It comes down to executing better.”Young and several Rangers were at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Tuesday for a Sunshine Kids Play Day hosted by Ian Kinsler. About 50 children with cancer and their families on hand for the event, which included running the bases, hitting in the batting cages and getting autographs.The function also gave the Rangers a chance to workout and prepare for 2010. The biggest off-season change so far has been the hiring of Hurdle, who was fired as manager of the Colorado Rockies during the 2009 season. His task is to replace Jaramillo, who had been with the Rangers since 1995 and is now with the Chicago Cubs.“Any decision they made was going to be the right decision,” Kinsler said. “It’s tough to replace Rudy, but at the same time things come to an end. We need to get better and I think everybody understands that. Regardless of who the hitting coach is I think we know we need to get better.”Young believes the team will benefit from having so many young players who now have another year of big-league experience under their belt. Texas ranked 10th in the American League in batting average and 12th in on-base percentage.“The biggest thing is to know the difference between being an aggressive team and being a hacking team,” he said. “We don’t want to be a hacking team. We also have to have an understanding of picking our spots and knowing when to work the count and when not too.”Chris Davis, who hit just .238 and was sent to Triple A after early season struggles, agreed with Young.“As well as our pitching staff pitched last year and for us not to hit in situations just killed our team,” Davis said. “We’ve always had the threat to go deep and we’ve always had the big home-run hitters. We’ve got to get better in situational hitting. We missed a lot of opportunities to push runs across.”Young feels goodYoung said his left hamstring, which limited him to 135 games last season, feels good. Young said his exercise routine this off-season is the same as before, but that he’s taking extra care of his hamstrings. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure my legs are ready to go before spring training starts and I’m sure I’ll be fine.”Feldman honoredRight-hander Scott Feldman was named the Texas Rangers pitcher of the year for 2009. He went 17-8 with a 4.08 ERA in 34 games this season. “I’m trying to get in the best shape as possible for next year,” Feldman said. “I have to build on this year and the best way is to work hard in the off-season. It’s good to have high expectations for yourself. Even when I was bouncing around from Triple A, I had high expectations for myself. It just took a hole for it to happen.”Operational changesThe Rangers made several changes in their baseball operations department, most notably naming former San Diego national crosschecker the special assistant for scouting. Texas also tabbed Richard Price to be the equipment and home clubhouse manager. Price, who has been with the organization for 34 years, has spent the last 22 as the umpire room manager.Anthony Andro, 817-390-7760
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