My worry is that since they promoted from within with Hawkins that he’ll have a similar mindset.

...but this organization needs top flight pitching instruction..

We’ve talked about this before on this board where when your team is playing so poorly, it would be nice to be able to point to a clear problem so that you have a hope of fixing it in the future. It would be nice to be able to say, “The Rangers just need X (good pitching coach) to solve their problems.” I think people try to look for these easy fixes when solving any complicated situation (like why hasn’t Rangers pitching been good the last 20 years) and I’m wondering if that isn’t going on a bit here.

Hard to argue with the proof (Young, Volquez, etc.) but you could counter that the Rangers might have had decent pitching coaches here already (Acosta, Hersheiser) and nothing really worked out too well.

Still, Connor definitely needed to go. Too many stories of guys having success elsewhere and guys figuring things out on AAA rehab assignments. I guess my issue is that it might be really really difficult to find a good pitching coach. Personally, I don’t think Peterson is it.

First – great write-up Z.

I have always been skeptical of pitching coaches that try to change the mechanics of already successful pitchers. For every success story you hear, there are always 3 or 4 utter failures to go along with it. I can see doing it in A-ball; take a low A guy with a good arm and so-so stuff and try to turn it around. And I can see the benefit of having a guy like that in a system with no young talent, so the goal is to take guys who failed when they hit the majors and try to fix their problems. But right now, with the coming stream of young guys who have been successful in lower levels, we need a pitching coach who will be there to help these guys with the mental aspects of the game – something that I think the Texas heat and ballpark mandates more than anything else.

We’ve all seen it – young pitching gets to Arlington and suddenly they start picking at corners, walking a bunch of guys and then get frustrated, ultimately grooving one down the middle and suddenly see themselves behind 3-0 in the first. Its happened more times than I’d like to remember with this club. The problem seems to be psychological as much as mechanical, and Texas is not a forgiving place for someone who is rattled.

My problem with Connor and Chiti is that our guys don’t seem prepared to deal with problems out there. They are so scared of making a bad pitch, they can’t pitch at all. And that should be addressed by good coaching.

I agree with folks that say that this just seems to be a simple answer to a complicated question, but you can’t ignore the history of pitchers brought up, those that were traded and those that were brought in from other organizations. I still believe that the fielding will be addressed by Wash, Rudy’s reputation for hitting is Mazzone-like, now they just need some decent pitching coaches. Perhaps no one can totally solve this issue, but sitting on your hands won’t help either.

Seems like so many young pitchers come up, get shelled, then reports of some type of injury surface and guys that have had clean bills of health coming up through the minors invariably end up spending time on the DL.

As an example of what I’m talking about, think through every freshly promoted pitcher (especially starters) over the last couple years. Nearly every one of them went to the DL soon after promotion. No idea what is causing this, maybe just bad luck, but it is very troubling that young healthy pitchers come to Arlington and end up unable to pitch in such short order.

...inexcusible.

but since connor has left, we’ve had pretty good pitching

Wish I had something meaningful to add, heh. Well put.

...but I don’t really buy the heat argument. You know where else the summer weather sucks? Cincy. And Arizona. And Florida. Yeah, it’s hot here, but almost all games are at night. I can see how pitching in San Diego may have helped Chris Young’s “arm fatigue” but it didn’t turn him into an all star, that would have just allowed him to pitch more innings in a season.

this statement “At any rate, if this change had not been made, my growing fear was what would happen to the next Volquezes and McCarthys.”

I as well as others have been saying that for about 2 months…nothing new.

By the way, I may just be imagining this, but wasn’t there some sort of flap last spring about McCarthy’s mechanics and how he ended up straightening himself out by watching video tapes on his own rather than seeking the tutelage of Connor?