Coaching changes ahead for Rangers?

The Texas Rangers have played 121 games thus far and stand with a record of 47-74, compared to the 70-51 record from just a year ago. To say this season was a failure would be an understatement, but who should take most of the blame for the failure? Now there have been a rash of injuries like never before seen on this club but injuries aside, there are two coaches who have had a negative impact on this team, Hitting Coach Dave Magadan, and First Base Coach Benjie Molina. Neither of these coaches has lived up to the expectations set by General Manager Jon Daniels and can only be viewed as failures.

 Dave Magadan was hired away from the Boston Red Sox because he preaches patience to hitters. Make the pitcher throw more pitches and be more selective as a hitter, thus leading to better pitches to hit. Magadan has to go for the simple fact that three of the Rangers major players are having career low seasons in Batting Average (AVG.), On Base Percentage (OBP.) or Home Runs, and I’m not including injured players such as Mitch Moreland and Prince Fielder. Elvis Andrus has a career low OBP and the second lowest AVG. in his 6 year career. Alex Rios has forgotten how to drive the ball having hit a career low 4 HR’s this season. The final nail in the coffin for Magadan is Shin-Soo Choo who was brought in to get on base and score runs. He has responded by posting career lows in both AVG. and OBP. And leads the Major Leagues in caught looking strikeouts with 49. Not good when you are the prototype of what the Hitting Coach supposedly preaches.

Benjie Molina was hired to help with the catchers and coach first base so Gary Pettis could go coach third base, where Dave Anderson had struggled the previous few years. While Benjie has made Robinson Chirinos one of the better defensive catchers in baseball, he was not in the plans to be the everyday backstop, that was supposed to be Geovany Soto, backed up by J.P.Arencibia. The reason I have to let Molina go is the decline in stolen bases and the huge increase in caught stealing. The Rangers have the Top 3 players in caught stealing; Elvis Andrus leads the league with 12 followed closely by teammates Leonys Martin and Alex Rios, each with 9. The Rangers has run themselves out of many scoring chances this season and much of the blame must fall on a player who has 3 stolen bases in 10 career attempts.

Maybe Bench Coach Tim Bogar can coach 3^rd Base next year and move Gary Pettis back to 1^st where he excelled. As for a hitting Coach, maybe they need to bring back their most successful Hitting Coach, Rudy Jaramillo.

The most prominent offenses in team history were under Rudy. He wanted the hitters to be aggressive and if they saw a good pitch to go hit it, not just sit and wait.

These are just suggestions from a life-long Rangers fan. If you feel the same as I do or disagree with these suggestions, give me your feedback. Leave a comment on this page or send me a message on Twitter.

Geoffrey Craig

@geoffrey_craig