Coaching Decisions

The Brewers are not wasting much time in filling out their coaching vacancies. In a couple of unexpected (at least to me) moves, the Brewers have filled their Pitching Coach and Bench Coach positions. First up, Bill Castro is your (not-so)new Pitching Coach. After becoming a certainty like death and taxes, Bill Castro is back for another season in the Brewers organization, but he's getting a well-deserved promotion. Castro had become a mainstay in the Brewers bullpen, having served there for the past 17 seasons. As I mentioned in a previous posting, he has a great rapport with the Brewers pitchers, especially the latin-american players. It will be interesting to see his approach with the starters, having mainly coached players who would only see batters once per appearance. Obviously our rotation is far from being set, but I wonder if this decision moves Villanueva back into the mix for a rotation spot. Carlos struggled early on last season and it cost him his spot as a starter, but after moving to the bullpen, he became our most reliable reliever. How much of that was Maddux and how much was Castro remains to be seen, but the Brewers still seem to be pretty high on Villanueva as a starter. Castro is also the pitching coach for the Dominican Republic squad for the World Baseball Classic.

And now the Bench coach, Willie Randolph. The reason this move comes as a surprise is not because he's under-qualified or an unknown, far from it. It is surprising to me because he had already turned down a bench coach position in Washington, and there is still a managerial opening in Seattle. If you ask me which position of the three is most desirable, I don't blame Willie for choosing the Brewers, a young team that shows a lot of promise and has the greatest potential for success in the 2009 campaign. I feel very confident now with the coaching staff Doug has assembled, essentially having three managers in the dugout each with their own style and level of familiarity with the team and the league. So far I give Doug Melvin an A for preparing this team for the 2009 season. Let's see what he can do with the players.

Keeping Tabs on Jack Z

Word out of Seattle is that there is a manager position available and the process is going to begin shortly. Zdurencik says he has a list of 23 candidates, a bit of overkill, but a few favorites have floated to the surface. The obvious choice is Ned Yost. Besides being a manager for the past 5 years in Milwaukee, Ned also has experience working with young talent... Jack's young talent. While he wasn't the most popular figure around Milwaukee but Ned seems destined to get a second shot as a manger. Another name floated out there was Willie Randolph. Randolph had a similar experience as Yost this last year, but has no real connection to Zdurencik. The reason I'm mentioning Randolph is that Zdurencik was still with the Brewers at the time Randolph interviewed and he was able to sit in on the interview. Jack said he was very impressed by Randolph's professionalism. One last name is Lloyd McLendon. Brewers fans may remember him from his days with the Pirates and Jack Z and Lloyd go back to their days in Pittsburgh. Zdurencik has been quoted as using the word "proud" to describe how he felt about McLendon's work in the Pirates organization. I have now dedicated WAY too much time to a non-Brewers related topic, but I plan on keeping tabs on Jack to see how he develops as a GM.