The Rangers announced the hiring of Dave Bush as director of pitching strategy. Texas also announced various promotions on both the business and baseball operations sides of the organization.
Bush is a new hire for Texas GM Chris Young. The 44-year-old has spent the last four seasons as pitching coach of the Red Sox. Boston fired him shortly after the conclusion of the 2023 campaign. (They hired Andrew Bailey to fill the position six weeks later.) Prior to his stint on the MLB staff, Bush had operated as a pitching development analyst and coordinator with Boston.
While he won’t directly return to a big league coaching staff, the Rangers’ press release said Bush “will be involved in all aspects of the organization’s pitching operation with emphasis on the Major League club.” He’ll work with veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux, who is entering his second season on Bruce Bochy’s staff in Arlington.
Bush pitched in 17 games for the Rangers in 2011, part of a nine-year big league playing career. He spent the majority of his time as a player with the Brewers, including a few seasons where Maddux was the pitching coach in Milwaukee.
The bureaucratization of MLB continues.
Does the Director of Pitching Strategy have an Associate Director? An Assistant to the Associate Director? And they’ll need a Director of Pitching Strategy Implementation as well.
rct – As long as MLB teams continue to create all these new positions, the national unemployment rate will always be low!
And so much for diversity; just hire your friends…
There is such a thing as diversity in thought, having everyone look differently but think the same really accomplishes nothing.
only unity as a general species
I almost cried… thank you for sharing this masterpiece
Probably busy with that late night talk show.
I would rather see them sign him as a reliever (or Matt Bush) than see this. It’s sad how slow the offseason is that even minor personnel hirings get posts on MLBTR. Last offseason was much quicker, no? Only Chafin, Britton, and Will Smith were notable free agents left towards the end of last offseason if I remember accurately.
this is an annoyingly corporate job title. could they at least define what they mean by strategy? wonder how maddux feels about this
dasit – Did you know the Rangers also have a Director of Pitching Analysis and an Assistant of Pitching Analysis.
Sounds like the Assistant gives info to the Director, who then gives the info to Bush, who then gives the info to Maddux, who then gives the info to Bochy.
So basically they operate like the US government, except instead of taxpayers covering all their salaries it’s the Rangers fans who are paying up to $375 a ticket (plus fees) for spring training games.
I hear Bugs Bunny saying stratedgedy in my head for some reason…
Good luck, Rangers fans, good luck.
grnmt – I was thinking the same thing!
Bush once gave up four consecutive dingerz. There’s a strategy for you.
Always Right – I’m a bit disappointed you chose a Dave Bush article to post this under, hardly nobody will see it. Couldn’t you have posted it at the top of the Chris Sale comments? Or wait for the Shota or Snell signing articles?
Anyhow, I’m impressed with how much time you’ve devoted to me. There’s a fantastic Red Sox movie you really should see, it’s called Fear Strikes Out. I think you’ll greatly enjoy it.
Woman: So what do you do for a living?
Bush: I’m a director of pitching strategy.
Woman: Oooh! Let’s have coffee sometime.
Pitching strategy: “Okay, okay, so you see this ball? Throw it, REALLY fast, over the plate. And try to make that guy with the bat swing and miss,”
Chris Young has made a lot of moves in his short tenure with Texas and I questioned many of them. But for the most part they’ve panned out. So for now I’ll put my money on his judgment and let it ride and remain thankful for the marvelous championship he helped bring. As a long time season ticket holder, I watched and waited too many years to question him now.