Last Updated on August 1, 2008 11:28 pm by admin
EDS: UPDATES with details.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -The Texas Rangers fired pitching coach Mark Connor and bullpen coach Dom Chiti after Friday night’s 9-8 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Andy Hawkins, who had been the pitching coach at Triple-A Oklahoma since 2006, will replace Connor. Jim Colborn, formerly the director of Pacific Rim operations, is the new bullpen coach.
The move was announced about 45 minutes after the Rangers won.
Connor was in his second season as pitching coach after spending three seasons as the team’s bullpen coach. Chiti was in his second season as bullpen coach.
The Rangers came into Friday’s game with a 5.24 ERA, the worst in the American League.
“This is not about scapegoating either guy,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “These are two excellent baseball men, class acts. But we thought we needed a change. We feel Andy Hawkins has been in the organization a long time, knows our young pitchers. That’s clearly the direction we’re headed.
“We felt we needed to try a different direction with the pitching staff, a different voice, a different message. Not that anything they were saying was wrong. But sometimes players respond to different voices and we’re going to take that chance.”
Daniels said Hawkins and Colborn would fill the positions for the rest of the season and would receive consideration to retain the jobs in 2009.
Rangers manager Ron Washington called the firings “the toughest thing I’ve ever had to be a part of. But sometimes you’ve got to go in a different direction.”