Pitching coach Mike Maddux squandered no time in impressing the importance of throwing strikes and averting free passes upon his pupils, but emphasis is not tantamount to execution, and both the positive mid-March vibes emanating from Surprise, Arizona and the apparent ?comfort zone that some Rangers hurlers had settled into have dissipated. Texas has actually produced a lower strike percentage (59.6 percent) than any other American League team thus far in 2009, which runs counterintuitive to Madduxs philosophy and is also indicative of the reality that talent will always trump instruction, regardless of the quality of the latter. Maddux is a good coach, but the one thing he is not is a miracle-worker, and whenever silly remarks in the vein of ?He can fix [insert mediocre pitcher here]! are made I feel it necessary to play the role of contrarian.

Interestingly, he more worried that the front office will over-react to the problems, when the right move might be to allow the season to play out more to see if this is real. The whole post is well worth the read.

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