Restoring Josh Hamilton

I heard once that Jesus can’t hit a curveball.

For the life of me, I have no idea why anyone would ever throw the Rangers a fastball for a strike. They swing at everything. In the dirt, outside, high, inside, who cares. It’s as if they are taught to swing at the first pitch, because the pitcher wants to get ahead. Swing when you’re ahead in the count, because the pitcher doesn’t want to walk you. Swing when you’re behind in the count, because you never want to fall behind by taking a pitch. It’s disgusting and painful to watch.

The irony is that this approach works for some guys. Young is a good enough hitter (and isn’t upper-cutting to hit home runs) that he can put up a .310 BA by being aggressive. And guys like Pudge in years past had the contact skills to foul pitches anywhere near the strike zone away until the pitcher got frustrated and threw one where he could hit it.

But this style obviously doesn’t work with the current crop of hitters (Blalock, Kinsler, Hamilton). And it is very nearly a time for a change.

I think the lack of a team approach…make that the lack of a positive team approach…at the plate begins with Rudy. I have no doubt that Rudy is a genius with swing mechanics. I do have doubts as to whether or not Rudy is an approach coach or a scouting coach to go along with his bonafides as a mechanics coach. When the only guys who regularly take balls and make pitchers work are not your everyday players and when the heart of your everyday lineup generates more wind power than T. Boone Pickens, that’s got to be something the hitting coach gets involved in.

My understanding on Rudy is that he’s a very hands off kind of guy. He lets the players come to him for help but he doesn’t do the hands on stuff. This is exactly the wrong kind of coaching for this situation. This team looks like it is crying out for a team approach at the plate instead of an everyone do what they will approach. Rudy strikes me as too laid back for this situation.

What I am having a hard time reconciling is what is the big difference between this year and last year? Milton Bradley? I have a really hard time believing that. What gives?

I have lots of questions and no answers. All I know is that watching a team of grown men who are professional hitters flail away at breaking balls and cricket pitches that bounce in the dirt is amazingly frustrating. It is most frustrating with Hamilton because he looks painfully lost at the plate right now and because he looks as bad or worse than Chris Davis did at his worst while doing it.

Is this year’s hitting woes going to be last year’s pitching woes? Do we send Hamilton down to OKC to get him away from Rudy to fix his approach? Hell, do we just start a revolving circuit of guys going up to OKC for a week or two to fix what the major league coaching staff can’t seem to fix?

I don’t understand the rush to extend, unless you get significant years of FA bought out. I never understood the Teixeira deal where they basicly bought out all his pre-FA years.

i said they shouldn’t but several people were like, “longer you wait, more expensive he gets” . maybe it’s more like, “longer you wait the cheaper he gets”

But obviously it isn’t. As a group these guys just do not know how to hit. They can hit mistakes hard, but against good (or bad) pitches they are clueless.

It’s the same with Hammy. Add to that the possibility that he may have come back too early, and it’s not exactly a recipe for success.

They say a pitcher who doesn’t quite “get it” is a thrower instead of a pitcher, and this team’s offense is analagous to that. With very few exceptions, we have a team of guys who don’t get it.

Throughout this season, I’ve been firmly in the “slumps come and go” camp, but this is no slump. This is an approach issue. Game after game, I wait for them to break out of it, but they never do. I don’t know if it’s Rudy’s fault, or if the players on this team just do not have the aptitude to be smart hitters.

If it is Rudy’s approach that is the root of the problem, to me that means that the league finally figured us out, because prior to this year we hit the ball so well.

Sounds like maybe he’s trying to tough out not being healthy. I admire the toughness for the team, but he’s only making things worse if that’s the case. I hope that if this is the case, he can get the medical help and time off he needs to get back to 100%. He doesn’t need to be out there otherwise.