Who IS Rudy Jaramillo?

The New York Post has an article up about Rudy Jaramillo's interview on Friday. In it, they talk about Jaramillo's past work (where he worked, what he's done) and mention his reputation as one of the better hitting coaches in Major League Baseball. But they gloss over an important topic, what kind of manager would Rudy Jaramillo be? What skills does he bring to the table? Is he relaxed or is he fiery? Who is he?

For help with this, I went to my friend, who has followed the Texas Rangers since their inception and knows a lot about Rudy, or at least as much as one can know about their team's hitting coach.

Apparently, Rudy's a real confident guy (you can see traces of that in the Post article) and would likely lean more towards the Piniella way of coaching. In fact, Jaramillo was suspended along with Frank Francisco and Doug Brocail during the chair-throwing escapade, because he was seen on tape having to be restrained by some players and MLB thought his actions were "unbecoming of a coach" So, at the very least we know the guy will throw down if any of us fans get rowdy.

My friend told me a lot of people in the Dallas area (including some of the media) thinks Jaramillo gets too much credit as hitting coach, as he's been hitting coach in the bandbox known as Arlington Stadium and the guys that are claimed he's helped mold (Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Bagwell, and the now departed Ken Caminiti) all went on to have success while not being under his tutelage. Whether or not this is true is arguable, as you never know how much a coach changes in a player. I do feel, however, that Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock's hitting successes certainly can't count against him.

I searched Google a lot for Jaramillo, trying to figure out what kind of managerial skills this guy brings to the table, and didn't find much. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News claimed in an article about Showalter this September that: he listened when batting coach Rudy Jaramillo suggested juggling the batting order as the Rangers tried to sort their way through a second-half slump. Jaramillo’s suggestions always accentuated the positive, like keeping struggling players in the lineup but in less stressful spots. It paid off as the offense got back on track in mid-September to vault back into the race. If anything, it would appear the guy knows how to setup a lineup, a plus for anybody looking to take a managerial position.

The fact remains I don't really know much about Jaramillo except he's aggressive, confident, has a track record of success and is friends with Omar Minaya. Sounds like another guy the Mets should be courting.

But, hey, with Dallas Green, Jeff Torborg and now Art Howe as former Mets managers, at least we can sleep well at night knowing that the Mets can't do much worse at the position.