These four reasons contributing to Texas Rangers’ woes, hitting coach Luis Ortiz says
No one employed by the Texas Rangers is more qualified to answer to the offense’s early-season woes than hitting coach Luis Ortiz.
And he thought there might have been some tough questions coming his way Wednesday morning during a pregame Zoom call with Rangers media.
“Be nice,” he said, smiling.
The videoconference went off very amicably. The media have no ax to grind, though their readers, viewers and listeners do.
As such, only a few softballs were tossed. Ortiz’s responses might be a hit with critics of the offense’s performance in the first four games, but there were enlightening.
“As much as we would like it to be one cause, one thing is causing this, it’s a number of things,” Ortiz said.
Amid all the reasons, Ortiz insisted that the offense is close to clicking as the hitters narrow in on the adjustments they have had to make. He mentioned that before the finale of a two-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won the opener Tuesday 4-1 and pitched Madison Bumgarner on Wednesday.
More is at play than just putting the bat on the ball.
The Globe Life Field effect
Shin-Soo Choo was robbed of an opposite-field home run to lead off Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies, and he hit another ball to left-center field Tuesday that many in the dugout thought would clear the fence.
Choo appeared to be in disbelief after the ball was caught short of the warning track.
Globe Life Field saw four homers clear its fences in its first four regular-season games. Give credit to the pitchers, but the early evidence shows that the new $1.2 billion ballpark is not a hitter’s park.
The sooner the Rangers accept that, the better.
“Do we react or do we respond?” Ortiz said. “Do we just be emotional or do we actually adjust? Are we going to allow what we can’t control dictate how we are going to behave or we going to take advantage of it? There are more areas to get hits.”
The Santana effect
Danny Santana is the reigning Rangers Player of the Year after a season in which he obliterated his previous career-highs in most significant offensive categories.
The Rangers are counting on him to at least be in the same range he was in 2019, and as a result they have him in the middle of their lineup.
Santana has responded by going 1 for 17 (.059). He is 0 for 14 since with seven strikeouts since his double broke up German Marquez’s no-hit bid on Opening Day against the Rockies.
Santana was not in the starting lineup Wednesday.
Yet, Ortiz sees positives while everyone else is seeing non-competitive at-bats.
“He’s really close,” Ortiz said. “I think he’s a little in between as far as his timing, and he’s working on his posture. He’s a big feel guy. So that’s probably what has been the issue right now, where he feels a little in between and he’s just one foul ball, one take away to getting back on track.”
The COVID effect
This has nothing to do with wearing masks, but things are definitely different for all teams while playing in the coronavirus pandemic.
Routines have changed. Players can’t come the ballpark whenever they please. The video room is more limited to ensure social distancing.
That sounds like an easy excuse, but ballplayers are creatures of habit. Some of them haven’t found a new routine that works for them.
“It’s just a lot of the routines that they had before have been changed and they just have to adjust,” Ortiz said. “They have to learn to adjust and figure out, kind of like old school. Let’s go ahead and it’s you against me, let’s compete, let’s let our teammates help us out. So we’re learning that it’s a new world and we have to adjust to it.”
The 60-game effect
The pandemic has caused a shortened 60-game season, which puts a premium on starting quickly and also might not give a player who struggles early a chance to make his statistics look nice and shiny.
For players who are headed toward free agency, that could be a big deal.
But winning cures all of that, Ortiz said, and he pointed to the San Francisco Giants’ World Series teams in 2010, 2012 and 2014 as prime examples. Things worked out pretty well for the players who did their part to help the team win.
“We emphasize in winning at-bats,” Ortiz said. “It’s about winning. I was telling them the other day, if you look back at the rosters of the Giants when they won three World Series in five years, you may remember three or four guys. But the other guys that they won and they got taken care of because they were known as winning players.
“That’s the mindset. We know that it is a personal part of this game where you have to take care of your family, but if you care of the team that stuff is going to take care of itself.”
