Jaramillo could top Cubs' wish list
Word out of Dallas this evening is that hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo has turned down a one-year offer to return to the Texas Rangers. He's under contract until Oct. 31, and it's believed the Cubs have some interest in hiring Jaramillo to fill their vacancy at hitting coach. GM Jim Hendry fired Gerald Perry in June and replaced him with Von Joshua, who was informed on the last day of the season that he would not be asked back in that capacity but that he could return to the minor leagues with the Cubs.
Jaramillo, who enjoyed a good working relationship with, of all people, Milton Bradley, was with the Rangers since 1995.
"It goes without saying that Rudy has given 15 years of outstanding sevice," Rangers GM Jon Daniels told the local media. "He definitely wil be missed. We wish him the best wherever he lands."
Jaramillo had this to say to reporters: "The Rangers did what they felt they had to do in offering me a one-year deal. That's understandable with the sale of the club and the situation the club is in. I just felt that I wanted some security, and the way to get security is to go out and find out where you stand on the market."
Here are some of the key stats for the Rangers this year:
Runs: 7th in the American league at 784
OBP: .320 (12th)
Walks: 472 (12th)
Strikeouts by batters: 1,253, most in the AL
Slugging: .445 (3rd)
OPS: .764 (7th)
Home runs: 224 (second to the Yankees)
Team president Nolan Ryan was quoted by local reporters as expressing dismay in the walks and strikeouts: "We were all disappointed in the number of strikeouts and the lack of walks," Ryan said.
The Cubs went from atop the NL in several key offensive categories in 2008 to middle of the pack in 2009.
Even though Jaramillo worked well with Bradley, Cubs GM Jim Hendry is working furiously to trade Bradley, whom Hendry suspended for the final two weeks of the season for bad behavior, so a reconciliation still seems all but impossible.
The end of this month should be a busy time for the Cubs, who could have both a new owner and a new hitting coach within a few days either side of Halloween.
Stay tuned.
Would be an interesting addition although I wonder how his ego would fit on the coaching staff since his salary would have to be fairly high.
Who are some other candidates for the hitting coach position? Any young, internal guys who has worked with these 'upcoming and young' kids previously in the minors?
Dave has been the Cubs' minor league hitting coordinator for six years. He spent time with the big club in September. Richie Zisk has been in the system for many years, but he always has expressed a desire to stay near his home in Florida.
You know how Hendry zeroes in on one guy (Bradley comes to mind) and gets him.
Randy Wells reminds me of Greg Maddux way of pitching, let's hope he ends up half as
good.
Why does that possible timing not surprise me?
Don't know anything about Jaramillo, but if he can improve their two out hitting with men in scoring position, he ought to get a key to the city. North side, at least.
I think Wells is probably the exception to this rule. It is not like he has not thrown several innings before. The main reason he threw many fewer innings in 2008 was that Toronto had him (rule 5 draft) and was trying to hide him on the roster(like we did with Patton), but eventually returned him to us. Wells is 27. He has thrown lots of innings in the minors and his arm should be prepared.
Generally when people are talking about injuries and workloads, they talk about number of pitches and amount of stressful innings. Wells had very few of these innings relative to most pitchers. He also had low pitches per inning in comparison with many pitchers. He actually threw about 195 innings this year between Iowa and the Cubs. In his 165 Cubs innings, he averaged 15 pitches per inning. That is fewer pitches per inning than Dempster, Zambrano, and Harden, and basically the same as Lilly. There were 19 starting pitchers in all of baseball that threw fewer pitches per inning pitched (160 innings minimum). And only 4 in all of baseball who threw less than 15 pitches per inning. Wells was 15.4. Joel Pineiro was the best, BTW. Uhhh, paging Jim Hendry, paging Jim Hendry!!!!
Well, I guess we are going to find out, one way or another.
Looking at innings pitched and that alone is like looking at batting average to find out if a player is productive. It doesn't tell the whole story.
There is no question that it is a large increase innings, but basically what I am telling you is that Wells threw somewhere around 300 - 400 less pitches than lots of other guys who threw the same number of innings.
Anybody know if Wells threw any winter ball/AFL or anything like that in the any of those other years?
This may just be my perception as well, but it seems as if Wells has a free and easy, non stressful motion. He is definitely NOT a maximum effort guy.