Looking for a hitting coach

[IFallsRon]

Rudy Jaramillo, the Rangers hitting instructor for the last 15 seasons, has turned down the club's one-year contract offer and is preparing to explore the free agent market after his contract expires October 31.

Jaramillo, who turned 59 on September 20, has been a player, coach or manager in the Rangers' organization for 26 of his 31 years in baseball.

Rangers officials met with Jaramillo shortly after the season to extend the one-year offer but to also stipulate that the offense needed to improve. The Rangers ranked seventh in runs scored in the AL in 2009, but ranked 11th of 14 teams in batting average (.260) and 12th in on-base percentage (.320). There were concerns about the team's approach, particularly how often the Rangers swung at first pitches and put themselves in unfavorable hitting counts. Though the Rangers ranked in the middle of the pack in pitches per plate appearance (7th at 3.86), they had the highest percentage of first-pitch swings in the AL (31.1) last season.

During his tenure, Jaramillo has produced four MVPs (Juan Gonzalez twice, Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez), a batting champ (Michael Young) and three home run champions (Alex Rodriguez 2001-03).

[DHanson]

Twins already have a great hitting coach.

[TR21]

The only thing that produced all those home runs for 3 of the 4 was not the hitting coach, if you get my drift.

[mrklean]

haha i was thing the same thing, funny of the names listed there were a few names on that list that used steroids

[zamboni]

Yeah, Vavra is fine by me.