What exactly does Jaramillo preach? I'm being serious about this. Last season, the only thing that could keep the Rangers from scoring was injuries and the end of 9 innings. This season, aside from Young, none of the starters is hitting .300, and Kinsler, generally the lead off guy, is batting .250!

What changed from last season to this season? It was essentially the same batters, the same stadium, the same batting coach.

I want some answers.

Blalock without a doubt.

Ya know, why is Rudy never ever critisized? Ron Washington is always critisized when a hitter gets in a slump but never Rudy. Rudy is always praised when guys like Marlon Byrd, Gary Matthews, Mark DeRosa etc... "find their swing" ..... but when JH or Blalock slump he never gets critiqued.

It seems that to the media Rudy Jaramillo can do no wrong? Why is that?

the only answer you will get is that Rudy teaches nothing but swing for the fences, which is absurd. He's sure ruined Byrd hasn't he?

I don't think I really understand the position of batting coach. Most A+ caliber hitters move through high school, American Legion, college having hired a hitting coach. If you've been so successful in the past using your own personal batting instructor, why would suddenly start listening to the team batting coach?

And what is the criteria for hiring or firing one? The Dodgers have Don Mattingly. He may have been a great singles hitter for the Yankees, but I don't know that he can help other major league batters improve their batting. James Looney has all of seven homeruns this years. Did Mattingly turn him into . . . Mattingly?

And I've followed the Reds for many seasons and their batting coach, who has surprisingly survived changes and managers AND general managers is Brook Jacoby. Now I'm happy for him, because I know about a half dozen people who are friends of his, but the Reds aren't exactly lighting up Great American Ballpark anymore, are they?

As far as I know, there were two great batting coaches since the 60s, Walt Hriniak (who Ted Williams felt stressed singles over power) and Charly Lau.

As a aside, Charly Lau was great. I read his book, with the flip pages of George Brett hitting, and followed his advice, and dang, it worked! My stance from the right side looked, and looks, real stupid, but I can hit everything . . . right up the middle . . . with no power. I'd end up batting like .100 'cuz all you'd need to do would be stick the second baseman behind second, but boy, it looks pretty coming off the bat.

Byrd would be a better hitter if he showed more patience especially in key situations. How many times has there been RISP and Byrd goes after that first pitch and makes an out.

sometimes the first pitch is the pitch to hit. Depends on the pitch. If you let a good pitch go by, you find yourself in an 0-1 count and advantage to the pitcher.

Except most of them aren't good pitches to hit and that is why they weakly ground out or pop it up.

agreed, it's not the swinging at the first pitch, it's swinging at a bad pitch. And that falls on the hitter.

Brook Jacoby? He became the Reds hitting coach on November 3rd 2006. As a matter of fact, Brook was in the Rangers organization before that and took over the Rangers hitting coach job when Jaramillo has cancer surgery in 2006.

How many years have you followed the Reds?

Overall this season Marlon Byrd has a .281 batting average. Yet he has a .289 average when first pitch swinging. He has a .336 BA with RISP. His bane is the 0-2 count where he's hitting .128.

not so much, it does fall on the hitter's pitch recognition (which CAN be improved with tutelage... but it's mostly natural based) AND it can be a product of his swing mechanics. When Hank came up he COULD have been a poor man's Vlad Guerrero/ Rapheal Soriano. BUT He developed that uppercut that made bloopers hit off of bad pitches into pop flys and other unnecisarry bad habbits like NOT hitting to the opposite field.

And that's another thing, it's not just what Rudy teaches, it's what he DOESN'T teach. IE what he ignores such as Blalock's EXAGGERATED (SO EXAGGERATED to the point even VISITING broadcasters pointed it out) problems and lack of patience amongst 95% of the lineup.

You can't blame it ALL on Rudy, but he's VERY likely the root of these problems.

Those numbers could be higher if he practiced more patience. Look at the Angels this year, they took a much more patient approach at the plate and their averages have never been higher.

If pitchers know they have to throw you a strike, you are going to get more hits. Any pitcher that throws Ranger hitters strikes should retire becuase they will swing at anything.

I am sure that there are baseball geeks, SABRE whatever it's called, who can tell us the percentage of first pitch swinging each player - and each team, for that matter - made. It'd be interesting to see - would a lower first pitch swing percentage lead to a higher team batting average? In balls put in play, what is each player's (and team's) first pitch swinging batting average?

Unfortunately, our memory only gives us anecdotal examples. I'm convinced that Josh Hamilton is a notorious first pitch swinger (and way too often, whiffer), but maybe he's not, maybe it's just my impression.

My impression also is that the Angels and Yankees are very patient batters, but maybe they're not. I'd like to see the statistics.

You are not wrong about Hamilton. Now that pitchers have figured out that he will swing at that first pitch, they are not going to throw him a strike and that makes him start off 0-1 very often.

Yeah, sure. I don't think you know what you're talking about. Your insatiable hate for Rudy Jaramillo is a joke.

Maybe if you actaully watched the games instead of just following them on gameday, you would know what I'm talking about.

Look at what Oakland did against the Ranger's this month. They had great offense because they made the pitcher throw them strikes and would take a walk if the pitcher wouldn't throw them strikes. The Ranger hitter will swing at anything and that is why they strike out way too often.

If Rudy ruined Blalock and Kinsler this year does that mean he was a genius hitting coach with those two last year? Im not buying into the "blame Rudy" game here. I think losing a true veteran hitting threat at cleanup, one named Milton Bradley (and not replacing him, which wouldve been the preference), and losing JHam and his 130 RBIs to injury for a large part of the season, set the tone for a down year with the bats. But the Rangers were competetive, which is more than most predicted. That, a somewhat improved rotation, and a new owner, puts excitement on the table for next year. So why throw mud?

Blalock hasn't been the same since his first season after Rudy made him try to pull everything.

speakign of Bradley, there's been rumors of him coming back here in a trade where I assume Chicago eats a lot of his contract....anyone up for replacing Andruw with Milton?

Only if the Cubs release him and the Rangers only have to pay the minimum.