Results tagged ‘ clint hurlde ’
Pirates to name Searage, Ritchie, Banister and Leyva as coaching staff
According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, The Pirates are set to make the following four moves to Clint Hurdle’s coaching staff: Ray Searage as pitching coach, Gregg Ritchie as hitting coach, Jeff Banister as third base coach and Nick Leyva as bench coach.
Searage took over as the Bucs pitching coach when Joe Kerrigan was fired. Since then, players have made improvements and spoken out on how they enjoy his “old school technique” where he focuses on things one pitch at a time. (Brad Lincoln and Charlie Morton made huge strides while working with Searage)
Ritchie has spent the past three years as the Pirates minor league hitting coordinator. He has worked with the teams young players and according to sources was important to management. This will be Ritchies first job in the major leagues.
Banister has spent the past 25 years in the Pirates system and took over as bench coach after Gary Varsho was fired. Banister was also the other finalist for the Manager position.
Leyva served under Cito Gaston in Toronto since 2008. He is a former minor league player and has spent over a decade as a major league baseball coach.
The Pirates still need to fill positions for first base coach and bullpen coach, as well as the titles for infield and outfield instructors.
President Frank Coonelly thanks fans for patience
I got an email from Pirates.com written by President Frank Coonelly on Tuesday afternoon:
Dear Pirates Fan,
As I hope you have heard, yesterday we announced the hiring of Clint Hurdle as our manager. I would like to thank you for your patience as we worked through an exhaustive search process. Once you have a chance to get to know Clint, I am confident that you will agree that the opportunity to hire an experienced and dynamic leader like Clint Hurdle justified the decision to wait until the World Series concluded and Clint was available to meet with us.
We had identified Clint as a strong candidate early in the process but respected the fact that he had a job to do preparing the Texas Rangers to face the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees and, ultimately, the San Francisco Giants in the post-season. Once we had a chance to speak with Clint, however, we knew that he was the right person to lead our young players to the next level.
Clint is an experienced Major League manager with a proven track record of molding young talent into winners. As he said yesterday at his introductory press conference, his sights are clearly set on being part of the team that will return the Pirates to a championship. Clint has fully embraced this challenge and has made it very clear that losing is simply not an acceptable option.
Clint was excited by the opportunity to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates for a number of reasons. First, Clint likes the young talent that has joined our Major League roster over the last three years, players like Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata and others. Second, Clint was energized by our commitment to building through aggressive scouting and development. Clint’s experiences in Colorado and Texas have shaped his view that winning organizations must be committed to developing their core from within and was impressed not only by our commitment to that plan illustrated by the signings of players like Jameson Taillon, Stetson Allie and Luis Heredia, but also by the people and systems in place here building that talent pipeline. Third, Clint appreciates the rich history of this storied franchise and is thrilled by the opportunity to help return winning baseball to Pittsburgh. Finally, Clint loves the energy and passion of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers and looks forward to becoming, along with his wife and children, a part of our community.
Neal Huntington and his staff have been working hard this off-season to improve our Major League roster. We will keep you updated on our progress as we move through a busy off-season and look forward to giving you an opportunity in the near future to welcome Clint to Pittsburgh. Thank you again for your support and your passion.
Sincerely,
Frank Coonelly
Kristy Robinson
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