Nationals Announce 2014 Farm Managers, Coaches
With the exhaustive search for a trading partner to move Corey Brown completed, the Washington Nationals announced the 2014 lineup for their affiliates’ coaching staffs today (new hires in red, returnees in blue):
SYRACUSE
Manager – Billy Gardner, Jr. (new hire)
Pitching Coach – Paul Menhart (promoted from Harrisburg)
Hitting Coach – Joe Dillon (new hire)
HARRISBURG
Manager – Brian Daubach (promoted from Potomac)
Pitching Coach – Chris Michalak (promoted from Potomac)
Hitting Coach – Mark Harris (promoted from Potomac)
POTOMAC
Manager – Tripp Keister (promoted from Hagerstown)
Pitching Coach – Franklin Bravo (promoted from Hagerstown)
Hitting Coach – Brian Rupp (promoted from Hagerstown)
HAGERSTOWN
Manager – Patrick Anderson (promoted from GCL)
Pitching Coach – Sam Narron (promoted from Auburn)
Hitting Coach – Luis Ordaz (promoted from Auburn)
AUBURN
Manager – Gary Cathcart (returning)
Pitching Coach – Tim Redding (new hire)
Hitting Coach – Amaury Garcia (promoted from GCL)
GCL
Manager – Michael Barrett (new hire)
Pitching coach – Michael Tejera (returning)
Hitting coach -Jorge Mejia (promoted from DSL)
DSL
Manager – Sandy Martinez (returning)
Pitching Coach – Pablo Frias (returning)
Hitting Coach – Jose Herrera (new hire)
Byron Kerr has the skinny on the new hires in his article today. Otherwise, it’s as surmised in the comments: with the reassignments of Matt LeCroy (Washington bullpen coach), Tony Beasley (co-field coordinator), and Troy Gingrich (hitting coordinator), the Nationals have promoted en masse — 12 of the coaches listed here, including the entire staffs of Hagerstown and Potomac to the next level.
It seems a terrible idea to have thir best pitching coach, Paul ‘Magic Man’ Menhart in AAA when he could be working with the younger guys in AA or High A. The original plan was best…. get to AA, learn the change up and become a much better pitcher.
I honestly don’t understand.
then again I think they have skipped AAA with too many of their prospects. this year he may have the chance to refine Karns and Jordan. Cole should be there by mid year at the latest. no reason they can’t adjust year to year.
A lot of organizations treat AAA as taxi squad and only put prospects there if they intend to bring them up as soon as they clear the Super Two “hurdle” — Wil Myers, for example.
So Luke, what’s your take on Menhart going to Syracuse?
I read somewhere 5-10 years ago a great article where the writer was talking about the great flaw in most organizations was they didn’t have their best pitching coaches at the Short season A or Low A level.
Or hitting coaches — especially for helping collegiate batters, though the popularity of summer wood-bat leagues combined with some of the modifications made to aluminum bats has to be mitigating the old “get the aluminum out of the swing.”
While I can see the merit in the counterargument that a great coach might help a marginal guy clear the last hurdle and therefore give the parent club an asset that can be used immediately, it seems to me that you can get more bang for your buck by establishing habits and making corrections earlier rather than later, if not raising a player’s ceiling.