According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas Rangers hitting instructor, Rudy Jaramillo, is moving on to greener pastures.
Dallas-raised Rudy Jaramillo, the Rangers hitting instructor for the last 15 seasons, has turned down the club’s one-year contract offer and is preparing to explore the free agent market after his contract expires October 31.
Jaramillo, who turned 59 on September 20, has been a player, coach or manager in the Rangers’ organization for 26 of his 31 years in baseball.
Rangers officials met with Jaramillo shortly after the season to extend the one-year offer but to also stipulate that the offense needed to improve. The Rangers ranked seventh in runs scored in the AL in 2009, but ranked 11th of 14 teams in batting average (.260) and 12th in on-base percentage (.320). There were concerns about the team’s approach, particularly how often the Rangers swung at first pitches and put themselves in unfavorable hitting counts. Though the Rangers ranked in the middle of the pack in pitches per plate appearance (7th at 3.86), they had the highest percentage of first-pitch swings in the AL (31.1) last season.
You may remember that Jeff Francoeur got himself into hot water when he seeked out the services of Jaramillo last winter to help improve his swing. It led to a firestorm with Atlanta Braves management that ultimately led to his trade to the Mets.
During his tenure, Jaramillo has produced four MVPs (Juan Gonzalez twice, Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez), a batting champ (Michael Young) and three home run champions (Alex Rodriguez 2001-03).
Number of Mets that have won an MVP… Zero.
Number of Mets Batting Champs… Zero.
Number of Mets Homerun Champs… 3 (Kingman, Strawberry, Johnson)
Adding Rudy Jaramillo… PRICELESS.
Right because Jaramillo is responsible for Alex Rodriguez’s 3 HR crowns. Come on.
steriods are responsible for that.
Really big piece of information you forgot to mention.
Jaramillo interviewed to be the new Mets manager during the same off-season that Willie Randolph did. A lot of people say Jaramillo finished 2nd in that race you know.
Are you seriously knocking Jaramillo? Wow, you need to get a clue.
Neer:
Tell me where “Jaramillo interviewed to be the new Mets manager during the same off-season that Willie Randolph did. A lot of people say Jaramillo finished 2nd in that race you know.”
Says I am knocking him? The fact I added the statement regarding the fact the Mets actually almost hired him to be their manager in 04 is knocking him?
I you’re referring to me above statement “Right because Jaramillo is responsible for Alex Rodriguez’s 3 HR crowns. Come on.”
I stand by that 100%. Jaramillo is a great coach. But he’s not responsible for free agent Alex Rodriguez winning 3 HR crowns in his prime. There are plenty of other things to establish Jaramillo as a great hitting coach, using ARod to me is not one of them.
Jaramillo? I don’t think so.we got Hojo. Duncan? No thanks,we got Warthen. LaRussa? He’s good.but we got Manuel.
i hope your being sarcastic, because Manuel and Warthen suck, and Jaramillio is 10x better than Hojo.
hitting coaches are overrated. probably only because most major league hitters don’t even listen to them. just like they do not look at third base coaches 80% of the time. it is actually kind of depressing, when you think about it. I think you have to have a pitching coach, baseline coaches, and a BP coach. But hitting coaches and bench coaches-welll, that is just featherbedding.
you must understand that this guy must have some form of influence given his track record with the Texas teams. Great hitters, no pitching. year after year they have some great offensive numbers but recently they have been pitching a lot better. Im all for this guy becoming the Mets hitting coach. put hojo as the 3rd base coach. not really sure if they hojo idea is a good one, just said it to please the hojo fans.
anyways besides jaramillo, i believe you go out and get Dr. Mike Marshall to become your pitching coach. the guy knows what he is doing and his track record will tell u everything. he won a cy young in 1974 as a reliever and is a doctor in exercise physiology. he knows what to do and he can injury proof pitchers. he can fix motions and this is another one of those guys that players go to for help outside of their organization.
You said “seeked out” – You meant “sought”.
I would hire three batting coaches – Jaramillo to work with right-handed hitters, Keith Hernandez to work with left-handed hitters and Hojo to work with switch hitters.
Each hitting coach would have additional duties: Keith as a bench coach, HoJo as a baserunning coach and Jaramillo as a cooler coach in charge of the Corona’s (more ice and limes, porfavor).
Dan Warthead must go.
I’m a big fan of good grammar so I applaud your “sought” correction. Now you may continue on.
Pops
Sure. I’ll do it.
It seems to be a logical move.
I agree with Jessep/Metsrock128 on the above posts, though. Steroids got A-rod his best seasons in Texas, so that’s not a valid part of the argument. I think one of the most valid arguments for Jaramillo is Micheal Young.
“During his tenure, Jaramillo has produced four MVPs (Juan Gonzalez twice, Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez)”
Let’s see…Juan Gonzalez – STEROIDS, Ivan Rodriguez – STEROIDS, Alex Rodriguez – STEROIDS.
I wonder how much “influence” he really had on their hitting.