The first managerial firing of the baseball season has happened at game number 25. The Milwaukee Brewers fired Ron Roenicke, as the team’s record was only 7-18 under his leadership. This probably had more to do with last season’s collapse in the final 56 games, which he lost 40 of those. Yes, the team has had injuries and other issues, but the team had just renewed his contract through 2016.
As the Rangers are quickly facing elimination and on pace for a historic worst losing season in franchise history, and GM Jon Daniels begins feeling pressure of what to do, this firing begins some serious soul-searching for the team. Several sports writers are speculating that Roughned Odor is due to be sent down, that .148 batting average being one reason. Others are calling for benching Elvis Andrus, while his hitting has improved, his 7 glaring errors for the guy who is supposed to be all defense is huge. His WAR, the newest judgment of players is the worst in the league for starters. Then there is Shin-Soo Choo, and his millions of dollars who looks completely lost in the outfield and cannot hit his weight.
Combine those with a bullpen that is a complete failure and pushing starters longer than necessary and everything is snowballing all wrong right now. There are calls for the batting coach to be fired too.
Considering the salary being paid for some guys and how much of that salary is not playing, or not playing to potential it is clear something besides returning Josh Hamilton is needed to shake things up. I do not think Daniels will wait very long to do something either, but there is caution that must be exercised. One of the knocks on Odor is that they just do not feel he got enough seasoning in the minors. If the franchise moves up some of their young talent now, that could prove to be equally disastrous in the long-term. Since, everyone is bound to have an opinion on this I thought I would share mine.
I agree sending Odor down makes sense, so that would be step one. I would fire the hitting coach and go find Rudy Jaramillo wherever he is these days and bring him back. I would consider trading Elvis for whatever I could get for him between now and the All-Star break. The problem with Elvis is that he is a fan favorite, and I really like him, but if he can’t turn it around he has to go. I would trade Shin-Soo Choo and his .141 average, for a few bats and a pair of sneakers if I thought I could get rid of him. For all of the trading I would be looking for relief pitchers, because clearly what is there is not working. Then again, the hitting is just terrible too, just take a look at these batting averages, Robinson Chirinos .163, Adam Rosales .167, Carlos Peguero .171, and Carlos Corporan .194, Delino Deshields .133, and Jake Smolinski .133, while Adrian Beltre is starting to finally come around and is now up to a .194. You would think that somebody has to be able to hit for more than they weigh in the organization.
Clearly, the Rangers have trouble in the middle of the infield, and they still have too many left-handed hitters. Some of these things on my wish list cannot happen, but without it, things are not going to get any better. The other option is to do what everyone else thinks and that is a new hitting coach, send down Odor, and hope for the best. If the team does not begin to turn things around, look for a fire sale, because as attendance and revenue drop the team will be forced to do things that they do not want to do or lose millions this season. I don’t think ownership is going to be happy about that and, if they are not happy, then Jon Daniels job is in jeopardy.
Things on the farm are not all sunshine and roses either as some of the franchise top prospects are not exactly tearing it up early either. This situation with the Rangers has the feel of an organizational issue, but maybe I am wrong. Whatever “it” is, the return of Josh Hamilton is not going to fix all of it.
If you are wearing your Rose Colored glasses, on paper a lineup that has Moreland, Choo, Fielder, Beltre, Hamilton in it looks really good. However, no matter how hard I look through those glasses, I cannot get past 0-10 with RISP. I also cannot get past the fact that no reliever coming out of the pen has prevented a run from scoring with RISP. This begs the question: are drastic changes needed, just a few tweaks, or is this an organizational issue that is going to require a complete change in leadership? The pressure is all on Jon Daniels; it will be interesting to see how he responds.
