What’s Eating Max Ramirez?
Winning a big league job this year was well within Max Ramirez’s reach, despite the fact that he found himself behind Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden on the Rangers’ depth chart. He looked to be even more prepared for a big league gig after smacking 15 homers in the Venezuelan Winter League before the season. No, he’s not the defensive catcher Teagarden is, in fact far from it. And no, he’s never been the centerpiece of a headline trade as Salty has, not unless you consider being traded for Bob Wickman or a 40-year old Kenny Lofton a blockbuster deal. What Ramirez is, or was supposed to be, was the best pure-hitter out of the three and that was his stake on the Rangers’ catching job.
Well, at least that as his claim. I fully realize that it is only mid-June, but since getting the call up to AAA Oklahoma City, Ramirez’s plate discipline has gone completely kerflooey.
While it’s not unusual to see Ramirez strike out, he’s really found himself in dangerous territory as of late, striking out in a third of his plate appearances. What really sticks out like a sore thumb is the big decrease in his walk rate. Ramirez hasn’t had a wOBA under .400 over a full season in his minor league career, but currently is among the bottom of the Pacific Coast League pack with a wOBA of just .282.
With the Salty/Teagarden platoon equaling just .6 WAR to this point, and Chris Davis melting like a Popsicle in the hot Texas sun, Ramirez picked a real bad time to hit the skids. Tools don’t just evaporate for a 24-year old hitter, but Ramirez needs to find his bearings soon. For someone whose bat was supposed to give him an opportunity to play, and now with surprisingly ample opportunity in Arlington, Ramirez finds himself on the outside looking in.
Erik Manning is the founder of Future Redbirds and covers the Cardinals for Heater Magazine. You can get more of his analysis and rantings in bite-sized bits by following him on twitter.
He has been battling a hurt wrist since winter ball thats just now getting better.
What is hurting Max Ramierez? Easy enough to figure out… He has had a sprained wrist since the begining of the year….
From MILB.com
“Because of the sore catching wrist, Ramirez has been at DH instead of catcher in 25 of the 49 games he’s played this season.
“Sometimes,” he said. “it hurt just to catch the ball.”
At the plate, the biggest change in Ramirez has been how he’s cut his strikeout rate in half.
Before going on the DL, Ramirez had struck out in 51 of his 143 at bats, or once every 2.8 at bats. Since returning, he’s cut his strikeouts to nine in 50 at bats, or exactly half the previous rate.
“It’s all about my wrist,” Ramirez said. “When the pain’s gone I can swing hard, and now the pain’s gone, so I can hit the fastball and everything. I don’t strike out so much.”
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090623&content_id=5494450&vkey=news_t238&fext=.jsp&sid=t238
If Teagarden is primarily a defensive catcher, using his WAR value isn’t very accurate in gauging his true value.
That and he’s getting extremely sporadic playing time which limits his ability actually make adjustments and improve against major league pitching. Texas needs to make a trade simply to avoid stunting the development of all three simultaneously and getting nothing out of this trio.
Considering how highly regarded Teagarden’s defense is compared to Salty’s, I’m really confused at how he’s being handled. It’s not like Salty’s hitting so far (in significantly more regular playing time) has been all that great… he’s still behind Elvis Andrus in terms of offensive production.
Lack of plate discipline is a disease going through the entire Rangers organization, and it is worst with the MLB team itself.
Surely Max realizes the organization places no value on getting on base, so he feels the only way to get noticed is to hack his way in.
I think he’s just lost it overnight. Clearly we can write him off as being over the hill and truly washed up.
Just like David Ortiz!
Stop burying the living! He’s been injured, he’ll be fine.
A minor quibble, but Frisco is AA. The Rangers’ AAA affiliate is in Oklahoma City.
I agree that the wrist is a big factor. Anyone think he could be pressing in order to try and leapfrog Saltalamacchia and Teagarden in the depth chart? Maybe he thinks his ticket to the bigs is to swing for the fences and hit his way up.