Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs announced their minor league managers, coaches, and coordinators. On the whole, there is very little turnover, which makes sense, given what a successful development year it was for the Cubs’ minor league system.
First, the coordinators, where you will notice a whole lot of “second season” mentions – the front office got its footing in 2012, surveying what they had, and then made a huge number of changes last year. Here are the names, with info on Mike Mason, who gets an important new role, from the press release:
Tim Cossins returns for his second season as the organization’s minor league field/catching coordinator.
Derek Johnson returns for his second season as the Cubs minor league pitching coordinator.
Anthony Iapoce returns for his second season as the organization’s Special Assistant to the GM and Player Development, overseeing the minor league hitting program while contributing to additional projects within the organization.
Jose Flores returns for his second season as minor league infield coordinator.
Carmelo Martinez enters his 17th season in the Cubs organization, beginning his second stint as the organization’s Latin American Field Coordinator.
Mike Mason begins his first season as assistant pitching coordinator after spending the previous six years as Triple-A Iowa’s pitching coach. He has 22 years of coaching experience following a seven-year big league playing career with Texas (1982-87), the Cubs (1987) and Minnesota (1988). Prior to joining the Cubs, he served as Kansas City’s minor league pitching coordinator (2004-07), while also handling interim pitching coach duties at the Major League level in 2004. Mason served as pitching coach for Philadelphia’s Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre club in 2002-03 after serving as Kansas City’s minor league pitching instructor the previous two seasons (2000-01). He began his coaching career in Kansas City’s minor league system from 1991-99.
Doug Jarrow begins his seventh season as Chicago’s minor league strength and conditioning coordinator.
Nick Frangella begins his 11th season with the organization and his first as head minor league athletic training and performance coordinator.
Chuck Baughman enters his 15th year with the Cubs organization, his first season as assistant athletic training coordinator.
Rick Tronerud returns for his 19th year with the Cubs and his first as minor league rehab pitching coordinator.
Rey Fuentes begins his second season as Coordinator of Cultural Education, overseeing all educational classes for the Cubs Latin American players.
And the managers and coaches (new positions are in bold, new people are in bold and italics):
Iowa (AAA)
Manager – Marty Pevey
Pitching Coach – Bruce Walton
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Brian Harper
Athletic Trainer – Scott Barringer
Tennessee (AA)
Manager – Buddy Bailey
Pitching Coach – Storm Davis
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Desi Wilson / Leo Perez
Athletic Trainer – Shane Nelson
Daytona (High A)
Manager – Dave Keller
Pitching Coach – Ron Villone
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Mariano Duncan
Athletic Trainer – Peter Fagan
Kane County (Low A)
Manager – Mark Johnson
Pitching Coach – David Rosario
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Tom Beyers
Athletic Trainer – Jonathan Fiero
Boise (Short A)
Manager – Gary Van Tol
Pitching Coach – Brian Lawrence
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Bill Buckner
Athletic Trainer – Toby Williams
Mesa (Rookie)
Manager – Jimmy Gonzalez
Pitching Coach – Anderson Tavares
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Ricardo Medina
Athletic Trainer – Mike McNulty
Dominican (Rookie)
Manager – Juan Cabreja
Pitching Coach – Leo Hernandez
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Oscar Bernard / Yudith Ozorio
Athletic Trainer – Jose Alvarez
Venezuelan (Rookie)
Manager – Pedro Gonzalez
Pitching Coach – Angel Guzman
Hitting Coach/Assistant – Tom Beyers
Athletic Trainer – Arnoldo Goite
Notable things: the pitching coaches at Kane County (David Rosario), Daytona (Ron Villone), and Tennessee (Storm Davis) were each promoted one level from last year. Not only is that nice advancement for them, but it keeps them working, generally, with the pitchers they handled quite well last year. I really like that.
Angel Guzman sighting! Yes, that is former Cubs pitcher/prospect Angel Guzman taking over as the pitching coach for the Cubs’ VRL team.
Bruce Walton joins the organization as the new pitching coach at AAA Iowa, after spending 2010 through 2012 as the pitching coach for the Blue Jays.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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NEWSLETTER
Yesterday, the Chicago Cubs announced their minor league managers, coaches, and coordinators. On the whole, there is very little turnover, which makes sense, given what a successful development year it was for the Cubs’ minor league system.
