Of Pitching coaches, Pilgrims Progress and a new direction
The simplistic view is always the easy one. The Rangers are last in the league in pitching so those who are in charge of the pitching need to go.
That would be pitching coach Mark Connor and bullpen coach Dom Chiti. The reasons never change. New direction. New message.
This is the high stakes world of Major League Baseball. Results are everything and change is inevitable, especially with the Rangers where continuous change is the one constant within the organization through the decade.
To be fair, there is little doubt that the decision to dismiss both deeply pained general manager Jon Daniels and Ron Washington. You would hope so.
Understand, there aren't two better people in the game, two harder workers, two guys more dedicated to their craft and profession that Connor and Chiti. Washington pretty much said same at the end of last year.
But who knows who was whispering what as decisions were made. The Rangers front office had much time to discuss matters the past few days while mustered for a Trade Deadline that ultimately passed oh so quietly.
Fans really don't care. They only see the pitching isn't good and something has to be done. Connor knows that better than anybody. He was fired three different times by George Steinbrenner, then ended up in Arizona where he was one of the prime architects of a pitching staff that won a World Series. That hardly matters now.
Rick Peterson was a genius in Oakland as their pitching coach but summarily dismissed by the Mets earlier this season too. He's unemployed but knows Washington well from their many years together in Oakland so you wonder...
Look, one of the things learned in 20 years is that different pitching coaches reach different people. Nolan Ryan thought Tom House was the greatest pitching coach extant but many others regarded him as a quack. Kenny Rogers thrived more under Claude Osteen than almost any other pitching coach. Dick Bosman was the Rangers pitching coach through three division championship seasons, then fired after one last place finish.
Six pitching coaches later, Andy Hawkins has the job with Jim Colborn in the bullpen.
It was suggested that the Rangers haven't seen enough progress with their pilgrim pitchers. No kidding. Those seven rookie starting pitchers - most in club history - just quite haven't had the impact that, say, Chris Young had when he was a rookie.
There was some progress. Frank Francisco, Josh Rupe, Jamey Wright. Hey, Warner "Mad Dog" Madrigal, a converted outfielder in his second full year as a pitcher, has a 3.27 ERA in his last eight games since that painful debut in Yankee Stadium. Scott Feldman hasn't done badly since somebody made the decision to move him to the rotation. Vicente Padilla has done all right
All right, yes, there is C.J. Wilson, the Rangers enigmatic closer. Connor was a big backer, at least publicly but then Connor never ripped or badmouthed a pitcher publicly or privately, although who really knows who gave the ultimate thumbs down on Armando Galarraga.
Wilson hasn't been the closer that Rangers fans have hoped for and, don't worry, all those mailbag questions have reached the in-basket. The question about trading him for a bag of balls was read but not selected. But if Wilson's erratic performance is the fault of Connor or Chiti, then so be it. Sorry the gyro hasn't been quite that effective but pretty sure that wasn't Connor's idea.
We all know that starting pitching is the ultimate issue, always has and always will be. Eight of the Rangers 13 starting pitchers have been on the disabled list, whether it's Jason Jennings (a shrewd signing it seemed at the time) having the same flexor tendon operation two years running, Kason Gabbard having another surgery (not sure the count) or Brandon McCarthy missing four months because of a bad elbow.
Hey, obviously a ton of pitchers have moved in and out of here over the past few years and who knows what pitching coach could have done what with Robinson Tejeda, Kameron Loe, Mike Wood or A.J. Murray or whomever.
The simple version though is the ERA is 5.27, there are visions of a wild card chase dancing in people's head and it's time for the inevitable change to a different direction. This is Major League Baseball.
I hear ya TR...if it weren't for Nolan Ryan giving the front office some respectability so that we could say "Nolan thinks they ought to go too!" maybe I'd feel the same way. I've been on Connor myself though. I hope the new direction gives us a boost. We really do have a small chance of getting to the playoffs but you can't get there giving up 6.6 runs a game (our average in July)...and as much as CJ "is" our closer his Zen calmness hasn't insulated us from runs in the 9th...maybe.....
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This is major league baseball, and also the real world. There's no "A" for effort, being a nice guy, part credit for working hard, etc. You have to produce and be accountable for your product. My feeling is that there have been too many instances where Rangers pitchers were not handled and/or evaluated particularly well at the big league level. The organization has been upgraded in almost all areas in the last few years, and these two positions were due.
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Hey Washington or Daniels should have fired those guys from the get go. I like Connor and Chiti as human beings, **** sapiens, whatever you want to call them, but, but, but. The bottom line is Connor and Chiti weren't getting the results that are needed. Now you could say that they haven't had much to work with being as Young, Danks, Galarraga and Volquez are starting pitchers on other teams. That falls at the feet of DANIELS in my book. But somewhere along the line these pitchers have to learn to throw strikes and don't walk anyone. Make the hitters hit your pitch if they do and the butcher at second base misses it then so be it. I am just glad that the cinco won out and we are getting a look at this young pitching. Young pitchers are going to struggle we are going to have to bite the bullet, throw them to the wolves and see who comes out on the other side. IF we would have had the patience to do this in the past, stuck to our guns then we would be reaping the benefits of Duchserer, Demptster, Danks, Young, Davis, Volquez and Galarraga. I love Hamilton and he is a special player. If he weren't then DANIELS would be out of a job by now as Volquez is going to win 20 freaking games all from a guy who is just the back end of a rotation guy. What i don't understand is who decided to dump Galarraga and Tejada. It is my belief that you can never have enough pitching. Could Tejada be a starter on this team? Could Galarraga? Yes, yes and yes. We are going to have to develop our own pitching so for us to do anything other than draft pitching well is ridiculous. IF we had decent pitching we would be unstoppable. Common denominator youth...The cinco have been clamoring for it, we got it and look what has transpired everything we said. Smells like hope people something we haven't had around here in a long time. So bring on the utes whether it be on the coaching staff and or the players. Connor must be Irish to get the sendoff that TR gave him.
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Let Wilson start and put Francisco as the closer. Wilson is a flake and is easily distracted.
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Isnt ******* Sapiens Latin for human being? IF so it boggles the mind that it deleted ******* above. Ha ha, how funny.
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It's about time!!! Connor was not the man for the job to turn this miserable excuss for pitching around. 1. Hire Leo Mazzone 2. Pull C.J. from closer role (start him or send him to the minors, this guy sucks this year) 3. Hire Leo Mazzone 4. Sign Lackey and K-Rod in the offseason 5. Hire Leo Mazzone 6. Get rid of Millwood
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If I could Deputy Dawg I'd delete every rant you make. How many times are we going to go over pitchers who are long gone? Why not hitters long gone? You know Thames, Ludwig,Hafner, Gonzalez...who not? Why not concentrate on the here and now.....and oh surprise...you were for this firing all along. More revisionist history at work for d'god.
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Lets call a truce Fredr_ussr. I am not a bad person nor am i a ego manical person. It is all about the pitching. Yes i rant about us trading pitching because, i want them to learn. So far Daniels seems to have learned not to trade the pitching after several horrendous trades involving pitchers. At this point i don't understand why we haven't made a run for Adam Eaton. How about Cruz for Eaton? Trading Gonzalez and Young for him and Otsuka was worth doing once why not go get him again. I believe he was placed on waivers.
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Deputy Dawg you get a truce (1) when you apologize to the board for your stupid "Who's a Texan remarks" (2) When you stop your continual rants about who we traded and concentrate on the team we have and when (3) you start rooting for this team rather than rant rant rant. Other than that...
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Not to jump on D'god's side completely....but....if the Rangers would stockpile pitchers the way they have catchers, we might get lucky and actually wind up with a 5 man rotation instead of the 18 man and counting one we see now. Not to beat the dead horse, but JD should not get a free pass for saying Volquez was a back of the rotation guy and McCarthy had a greater "up-side" than Danks. Especially when the Rangers play in a ballpark built for left-handed pitching. Here's hoping that we will someday see a rotation of Feliz, Hurley, McCarthy, Gabbard, and Harrison. Or, just give us something to make us forget. Then comes Beavan and Maine. There is hope, but can they develop it? D'God are you kidding? Adam freakin' Eaton? No thanks, I'll pass!!!! I'd rather watch the struggles of hope than the struggles of hopelessness and past ills. Just when I'm trying to view your posts in a more reasonable manner, you throw that one out there!! There's no need to be desparate. What will Adam Eaton contribute to your 2010 prognostication?
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"I hope they lose another ten straight" Remember making that remark earlier this season, d'god? And you want a truce? Your pathalogical need to vent your spleen on everything to do with the Rangers organisation puts you way, way beyond the pale. Please don't pretend that you're a Rangers fan.
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I've been puzzling over you, d'god, as I ate my beakfast. (Sunday morning here, and I had poached egg on toast, with a side order of ham, if you're interested...). "The Rangers have done something that d'god approves of." I told myself, "So why isn't he happy?. Instead of looking joyfully forward to a new era of Ranger pitching, his rants reach fever pitch" (Pun intended...) Then came enlightenment. Simply firing Connor and Chiti isn't enough, is it? They must be made to pay for their crimes. Pay back all of the salary they've received? (You've made it very clear in recent posts that money is very important to you). Not enough!! Banish them from Texas forever? (Surely the ultimate in punishments...) Not enough!! Yes, yes, they must be ritually disembowelled by The Lone Ranger (or perhaps I should say The Lone Texan) himself!!! But where...? Of course! On the pitching mound, immediately before the bottom of the ninth , with CJ about to try and save a 56 run lead.(If nothing else, seing the blood dripping from your sasiated fangs should concentrate his mind perfectly.) But alas, you can only perform this act once. Not to worry! There's wash and JD to look forward to, and all the other coaches. And what hope does our offence have with the way that batboy hands them the bat......Go gettem, Cowboy!
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Were they invited to work in some other capacity within the organization? That's how you treat good loyal people whose particular role you question.... I think the low attendance has administration scrambling.
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JD said before the game today that he expected Conner to remain in the organization in some capacity.
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I was wondering if anyone could name a GM that has never made any bad deals.....Seems like a lot of people are still living in the past about trades that were made (Young & Gonzalez, Danks, Volquez) but dont give credit where it is due also.....The Young & Gonzalez trade didnt work out but where exactly would Gonzalez have played? Eaton was a decent pitcher before the trade that got hurt and Otsuka was a very serviceable RP for a few years. Danks trade looks bad right now but the story isnt over with that yet. I am very puzzled about this Volquez trade......Should we trade Josh back to the Reds to get Volquez back? The guy is on the way to being the AL MVP and is under contract through 2012......I am sure the Reds would be more than happy to do that. While we are at it, maybe we should trade all the guys we got from Atlanta back to them for Kotchman and the minor league pitcher......And also maybe see if Milwaukee would take Murphy, Gabbard, and the young OF that we got from Boston for Gagne. How about signing Milton Bradley? Guardado? As for Galarraga, I dont remember the outpouring of support to keep him on the roster after that fine performance last year.....7 BBs and 6 ER in 8 2/3 IP. His minor league stats arent anything great either......He got a change of scenery and he improved after he left.....happens to every club in the majors. Seems like there is a learning curve for every position in MLB, the GM included, and Daniels is getting better at it, not worse. The future looks a lot more promising than in years past and some of that credit has to go to JD.
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eightgleasons! Glad to see you are still around. Now about Michael Young ... Just kidding, I know you couldn't be persuaded otherwise.
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Well, I have been away from the blog for a while but have never been bashful about wanting this change. I support the decision but I also know it is not a silver bullet. Talent does play into it quite a bit but the coach also has accountability for the performance of his players as it is his job to coach, babysit, bribe, cajole, motivate, or whatever to extract their maximum potential. Just ask RW about how late April felt.
Hefe makes a good statistical point in the first post on this topic on some guys"success" after leaving the Rangers but the guys I think of are ones like Ducscherer, Davis, and Dempster. Not lamenting their departure and wondering "What if", just using the deltas in their success percieved or otherwise while here and post-Rangers as an evaluation metric. Guys like Young and Volquez are perceived to have great success after leaving but, perception is reality.
Yes, there is culpability on the front office's part for bringing guys in that seem to get hurt walking to the mound but as a coach you have to play the hand you're dealt
With the offense that the team currently has and has usually had in the past, the pitching only needs to be average or slightly above for this team to win, consistently. Obvioulsy, winning generally leads to more posteriors in the seats, begetting what would hopefully be a reinvestment of that revenue in the team. It will be interesting to watch the Rays over the next couple of years.
Bottom line: (no pun intended) The team pitching has been at or near the bottom of MLB in every statistical category since Hershiser left, something had to give.
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Wow! Folks on this forum really feed on each other.
I support the move. Too many pitchers were going down with arm troubles when they hadn't had them before (in most cases). Connor's constant tinkering with arm slots (although THAT seems to have really worked for Feldman) and release points could well be the reason our DL is almost the equal in population to our 40-man roster. And, there aren't many position players on it.
That's the main reason I'm glad to see Connor go. I don't like "change of voice" or "change of direction" as this franchise has seen way to much of that. But, when you keep getting jolted, stop putting your fork in the power outlet. THAT's when you need the change of direction and, this time, that change appears to be well thought out and is focused where it needs to be focused.
Many of the trades you rant about were (1) John Hart's idiocy (2) Buck Showalter's idiocy or (3) the last vestiges of John Hart's philosophy as it is steadily being eradicated by Jon Daniels and Nolan Ryan. Good Lord, John Hart was SUCH A DISASTER for this organization! If his stench EVER wears off, we'll finally be able to move forward.
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