NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs today unveiled their full slate of minor league coordinators, managers, and staff. You can see the full slate of managers and staff here. You can see the full slate of coordinators here.
Of particular note, you may recall that the Cubs had to replace outgoing pitching coordinator Derek Johnson and hitting coordinator Anthony Iapoce, each of whom were extremely well regarded. The two new men on the job, per the press release:
Jim Brower enters his first year as the Cubs minor league pitching coordinator after spending the last three seasons as the pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals Double-A affiliate, Northwest Arkansas. He served in the same role for two seasons at Single-A Kane County prior to joining Northwest Arkansas. Brower appeared in nine big league seasons, going 33-32 with a 4.67 ERA (298 ER/574.0 IP) with 397 strikeouts in 354 major league games (28 starts). The righthander led the majors with 89 appearances in 2004 with San Francisco.
Andy Haines enters his first year as the Cubs minor league hitting coordinator after spending the last two years as manager of the Marlins Triple-A affiliate, New Orleans. In 2012, Haines led Single-A Jupiter to the Florida State League Championship Series, falling one game short of capturing the title. All told, Haines was a manager in the Marlins system for seven years, compiling a 449-467 (.490) record. Prior to joining the Marlins, he was the manager of the Windy City Thunderbolts of the independent Frontier League, going 68-28, in 2007.
[adinserter block=”1″]In time, I expect we’ll come to learn more about each man, though you can see from their resume that a large number of talented youngsters have worked with them on their way up the ladder. These roles are hugely important in the development infrastructure, so hopefully these two gentlemen are studs.
Among the other notable moves, Mark Johnson, who was the manager of the great Kane County Cougars team two years ago, and the great Myrtle Beach Pelicans team last year, is moving right on up to AA along with many of his players. He’ll flip-flop with Buddy Bailey, who moves from the Smokies to the Pelicans.
