As we head into the offseason, here’s the latest on MLB coaching and front office changes:
- Earlier today, it emerged that the Rockies could hire their next manager within the next couple of days. One former manager who won’t be getting the position is former Brewers skipper Ron Roenicke, who was interested in the job but who has not been interviewed and does not believe he is a candidate, according to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Roenicke currently serves as the Angels’ third base coach.
- With assistant Thad Levine departing to become GM of the Twins, Rangers GM Jon Daniels says his team could replace Levine with an outside hire but could also distribute his duties to other members of the front office, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets.
- The Cardinals have hired Bob Gebhard as a special assistant to GM John Mozeliak, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The 73-year-old Gebhard briefly pitched for the Twins and Expos in the early 1970s, and he was the Rockies’ first GM, serving in that capacity throughout most of the 1990s.
- It would appear the Cardinals have also created an entirely new coaching position. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that they’ve promoted Mike Shildt to the big leagues as a “quality control coach.” They’ve also promoted Oliver Marmol to be their new first base coach. Shildt has eight years of managerial experience in the Cardinals’ minor league system, spending the last two years with Triple-A Memphis. The 30-year-old Marmol spent several years in the Cards’ system as an infielder before transitioning to coaching. He managed at Class A+ Palm Beach last year.
Ron Roenicke deserves another shot at managing. He did a great job in Milwaukee.
Quality control coach? Making sure everyone’s shoes are properly tied?
A babysitter for Matheny. Basically
It’s the new trend. Henry Blanco is quality coach for the Cubs, Dave Jauss for the Pirates, Juan Castro for the Dodgers etc.
Just like assistant hitting coach..
You’ve hit the nail on the head!!!!
It almost seems like a “coach for a coach” position. Seems like Marmol will be in a pseudo-boss role, but considering other teams have used this role and haven’t had any issues (that we know of), the manager and coaches don’t seem to mind.
And just what is going on with the Cardinals coaching and front office staff????? Creating a new Assistant GM job to watch dog Mozelack’s moves and non moves. Creating a new Coaching position to guide Mathaney in game situations while retaining a bench coach. A new 3rd base coach to hopefully eliminate the base running blunders??? Oquendo WANTING to remain in the minor leagues????? They have an asst hitting coach, but the hitting has gone downhill since McGwire left. The current pitching coach is a far cry from Dave Duncan. He (Lilliquist) is not a resurrection pitching coach. There’s been more arm problems under Lilliquist that pitchers go on the disabled list than anytime with Dave Duncan. If there needs to be a change, the hitting and pitching coach’s should have been extremely examined. Surely that was done.
I would say there have been more arm problems under Matheny more so than blaming it on Lilliquist.
Is it the pitching that is the problem or the shaky defense? How much better were Card starters when they had a bunch of great defenders like Ozzie, Pendleton, Herr and Hernandez in the infield? It’s not like they had a rotation of future Hall of Fame pitchers. Even though Templeton and Simmons were great offensively, Herzog made the team better by getting good gloves—especially up the middle. They finished dead last in HR’s but won the world series vs a HR hitting power like Milwaukee. STL hit the MOST HR’s in the NL this year but missed the playoffs.
>>>>”They have an asst hitting coach, but the hitting has gone downhill since McGwire left.”
With the asst. hitting coach, the Cardinals were second in the majors in HRs (behind Baltimore), 5th in runs scored per game (with only the Cubs and Rockies ahead of them in the NL), 3rd in doubles, and 5th in OPS. The hitting was closer to league average (13th in hits, 3 ahead of the Cubs), but when they hit, they hit with power, and they generated a ton of offense. The hitting is fine, perhaps more than fine.
But as Lance suggested, it was the defense that hurt the pitching. Derrick Goold pointed out in his chat a couple of weeks ago that the Cardinals’ pitching staff ERA (4.08) was 12th in the league but jumped up to 7th when you measured their performance by FIP (fielding independent pitching–basically, how the pitchers did with things they completely control without their defense: preventing HRs, BB, and HBP, and inducing SO). The Cardinals’ team FIP was 3.88, or 0.31 off the top team in the league (the Mets). And that’s with Wainwright having a bad year.
And Oquendo had knee replacement surgery (according to Goold, his third knee surgery in 9 months). He can physically no longer be the third base coach or in the field at all, and had to make a decision about what he would do next. You can read more about it here (from a June 2016 chat): http://www.stltoday.com/was-there-some-friction-with-jose-oquendo/article_6aa2e655-2336-552e-8255-fd9e1dde6a60.html
My guess is that the “quality control” coach is to replace the extra fundamentals teaching and mentoring that Oquendo used to do as second nature. Sometimes, when you have someone who is so good at their job doing one thing, the only way you can replace that person’s work is by creating a custom made role.