This has been one of the slowest uneventful offseasons in recent memory. However the Dodgers have been quite busy over the last couple of weeks though. They made a huge trade with the Atlanta Braves dumping several huge contracts which included parting ways with Adrian Gonzalez, Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir. Then they also made another trade with the Royals and White Sox picking up ground ball sinkerballer Scott Alexander and minor league infielder Jake Peter in exchange for Minor league pitcher Trevor Oaks and left hander Luis Avilan. Now we have some more news to discuss as the club has announced the minor league coaching staffs for the 2018 season.
Bill Haselman will return as manager of the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Meanwhile Scott Hennessey will take over the reins of the Tulsa Drillers for his first full season as skipper of the Dodger’s double-A affiliate. Drew Saylor will begin his third season as manager of the Rancho Quakes. Long time coach and minor league skipper John Shoemaker will take over as manager of the single-A Great Lake Loons. He’s been with the organization for 42 seasons. Check out the rest of the coaching staff assignments (with press release) below.
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced the coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates for the 2018 season:
Triple-A Oklahoma City Season with Dodger Organization (as coach)
Manager – Bill Haselman 5th
Pitching Coach – Bill Simas 8th
Hitting Coach – Adam Melhuse 1st
Coach – Luis Matos 4th
Double-A Tulsa
Manager – Scott Hennessey 2nd
Pitching Coach – Dave Borkowski 1st
Hitting Coach – Terrmel Sledge 3rd
Coach – Leo Garcia 10th
Single-A Rancho Cucamonga
Manager – Drew Saylor 3rd
Pitching Coach – Connor McGuinness 2nd
Hitting Coach – Justin Viele 2nd
Coach – Petie Montero 2nd
Single-A Great Lakes
Manager – John Shoemaker 42nd
Pitching Coach – Bobby Cuellar 4th
Hitting Coach – Jair Fernandez 3rd
Coach – Seth Conner 1st
Rookie-advanced Ogden
Manager – Jeremy Rodriguez 2nd
Pitching Coach – Dean Stiles 1st
Hitting Coach – Dustin Kelly 1st
Coach – Fumimasa Ishibashi 8th
Rookie-level AZL Dodgers
Manager – Mark Kertenian 2nd
Pitching Coach – Luis Meza 3rd
Hitting Coach – Jarek Cunningham 2nd
Coach- Tony Cappuccilli 2nd
Coach- Jairo Pacheco 1st
Coach- Chris Gutierrez 1st
Dominican Summer League Dodgers
Managers – Keyter Collado and Austin Chubb 7th/3rd
Pitching Coaches – Roberto Giron and Ramon Troncoso 5th/1st
Hitting Coach – Sergio Mendez 3rd
CLP Defensive Coordinator – Pedro Mega 18th
Coach- Antonio Bautista 12th
CLP Coach – Dunior Zerpa 1st
CLP Coach – Eduardo Calzado 1st
The managers of the Dodgers’ top three affiliates remain intact, while new skippers are in place for Single-A Great Lakes, Rookie-advanced Ogden and Rookie-level AZL. John Shoemaker will manage the Great Lakes Loons after spending 2017 with the AZL Dodgers, Jeremy Rodriguez will become the skipper for the Ogden Raptors after spending last season with Great Lakes, and Mark Kertenian will become the manager for the AZL Dodgers after managing the Raptors last year to its first ever Pioneer League championship. Keyter Collado and Austin Chubb will return as the managers for the Dodgers’ Dominican Summer League teams.
Haselman, 51, will return for his third season as the manager for Triple-A Oklahoma City and for his fifth season with the Dodger organization. Bill Simas will join the OKC Dodgers staff as the pitching coach after serving last season in the same position with Double-A Tulsa, while coach Luis Matos enters his third season with Oklahoma City. Adam Melhuse will round out the staff as he joins the club as the newest hitting coach. Melhuse spent the past two seasons as the manager for the Los Angeles Angels’ Single-A Burlington Bees (2016-17) and prior to joining the Angels organization in 2016, he was with the Chicago Cubs as an advanced scout. The Santa Clara, California, native and former UCLA Bruin played eight Major League seasons (2000-08) with the Dodgers, Rockies, Athletics and Rangers, appearing in 311 games and hitting .234 with 24 home runs and 98 RBI.
Hennessey, 47, enters his first full-season with the Drillers after inheriting the manager position on July 24, 2017. After taking over a .500 team, he led the Drillers to a 32-18 record and navigated the club to the Texas League Championship Series last year. Prior to being named the skipper, Hennessey had served as an amateur scout in the Dodger organization since 2007. Hitting Coach Terrmel Sledge will return for his third season with the Drillers, while coach Leo Garcia enters his fourth year with Tulsa.
Dave Borkowski will join Double-A Tulsa as the pitching coach, after serving the same position with Houston’s Double-A Corpus Christi for the past two seasons. The former Major Leaguer had spent the past eight years as a pitching coach in the Astros’ system (2010-17) and was also the pitching coach for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League in 2013. Borkowski appeared in 181 big league games (21 starts) over seven seasons, going 13-20 with a 5.87 ERA with the Tigers (1999-2001), the Orioles (2004) and the Astros (2006-08).
Saylor, 33, enters his third season as the Quakes manager after leading the club to its third straight postseason last year. Pitching coach Connor McGuinness (28), hitting coach Justin Viele (27) and fourth coach Petie Montero (32) all enter their second season with the Dodger organization and will enter their first year with Rancho Cucamonga. McGuinness served as the pitching coach with Single-A Great Lakes last season and Viele was the hitting coach for Rookie-advanced Ogden in 2017. Montero served as a coach for the Rookie-level AZL Dodgers and DSL Dodgers 1 last year.
Shoemaker, 61, will embark on his 42nd season in the Los Angeles organization and 25th season as minor league manager as he becomes the Great Lakes skipper after spending last season with the Rookie-level AZL Dodgers. Drafted by the Dodgers in the 35th round of the 1977 draft, Shoemaker has been with the club ever since, as a player (1977-80), manager, coach and coordinator and, in 2015, he was appointed as the Dodgers’ “Captain” of Player Development.
Cuellar enters his fourth season with the Dodgers organization and returns for his second stint with Great Lakes as pitching coach (2016) after spending the past season with Ogden. Fernandez is entering his third season with the Dodgers organization, and his second with Single-A Great Lakes as the hitting coach. Conner begins his first year coaching with the Dodgers this season. The 25-year-old Missouri native played five minor league seasons in the Blue Jays organization (2011-14, 16) and posted a .244 batting average with six home runs and 76 RBI in 187 career games.
Rodriguez, 28, enters his second season with the Dodgers and his first year as the manager for the Ogden Raptors after spending last season as the Great Lakes skipper. The Southern California native played in parts of five minor league seasons (2011-15) in the San Diego organization after being selected by the Padres in the 16th round of the 2011 Draft out of California State University, Bakersfield. Newcomers Stiles and Kelly will become the Raptors pitching and hitting coach, respectively, as they both enter their first year with the Dodgers.
Stiles joins the club after spending time at San José State as an assistant coach, Florida International University as a pitching coach and three seasons as the University of Oregon’s volunteer assistant coach in charge of pitching. Following the 2015 season, Stiles served as the bullpen coach for the Eugene Emeralds, a Class-A affiliate for the Chicago Cubs. Kelly spent three years as an assistant coach at California Polytechnic State University- San Luis Obispo. He played three seasons in the minor leagues as a second and third baseman, and shortstop for the Boston Red Sox. Ishibashi, returns to Ogden for his second stint with the Raptors after being with Great Lakes for two seasons as the fourth coach and his eighth season overall with the Dodger organization as a coach.
Kertenian, 37, will manage Rookie-level AZL Dodgers after spending his first season with the organization as the skipper for the Ogden Raptors. Meza enters his third season with the Dodger organization as a pitching coach and his first year with the AZL Dodgers after spending 2017 with the DSL Dodgers in the same position. Cunningham will enter his second season as the AZL Dodgers hitting coach. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 18th round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of high school and played eight seasons as second and third baseman. Cappuccilli also returns to the Dodgers for his second season with the AZL Dodgers after joining the organization mid-season last year.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, Cappuccilli spent the previous three seasons with the University of New Mexico Lobos as an assistant coach. He played one year in the Frontier League for the Florence Freedom before turning to coaching, beginning at his alma mater Edison HS. From 2010-13 he was an assistant coach at Irvine Valley College, and spent the 2014 season as a volunteer assistant at UNLV. In 2010 he was also an assistant coach for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod League, and from 2011-14 he was the head coach of the Anchorage Bucs in the Alaska Baseball League.
The club also welcomes two new coaches to the organization that will assist the Rookie-level AZL Dodgers in multiple areas. Pacheco, 21, is making his coaching debut after finishing the 2017 season with the Ogden Raptors where he pitched in seven games and finished with a 4.63 ERA. He spent five seasons in the minor leagues and was awarded as a Pioneer League post-season All- Star in 2015. Pacheco was originally signed by the Dodgers as a non-drafted free agent on January 26, 2013 from Venezuela. Gutierrez joins the Dodger organization after serving as an assistant hitting coach in the Chicago Cubs organization from 2014-2016. Gutierrez played in 872 career minor league games and hit .252 with 16 homers and 289 RBI over nine seasons with the Blue Jays (2005-09), the Angels (2009), the Dodgers (2010) and the Marlins (2011-13) organizations.
Chubb, 28, enters his third season with the Dodger organization and his second year at the helm of the DSL Dodgers 2 after winning the Dominican Summer League title in his first season as manager over the DSL Dodgers 1 club. In 2017, Chubb became the first American manager in the history of Campo Las Palmas and prior to becoming the skipper, he entered the coaching ranks as Rookie-advanced Ogden’s hitting coach. Collado, 31, enters his seventh season in the Dodger organization and his third as the manager of the DSL Dodgers 1 after leading the club to a 47-24 record in the DSL Northwest division.
Giron enters his fifth season as the pitching coach for the DSL Dodgers, while former big leaguer Ramon Troncoso joins the organization for his first coaching stint as the other pitching coach. Troncoso spent five years in the Majors (2008-11, 2013), including four seasons with the Dodgers (2008-11), going 8-8 with six saves and posting a 3.92 ERA in 175 relief appearances. Mendez will return for his third season as the hitting coach, while Mega (defensive coordinator) and Bautista (coach) will also return to the Campo Las Palmas staff in 2018. Zerpa and Calzado will round out the Campo Las Palmas staff next season and will assist the DSL clubs in multiple areas.
If you, like I, am still stung by the Stanton situation, do yourself a favor and listen to the Baseball America podcast about the Dodgers system.
It’s a big pick-me-up.
Their comments on Santana, on Verdugo (I didn’t know about his arm or fielding skill), on the Dodgers new International Scouting team and on the overall finding and development scheme is really heartening.
It made me feel good.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/dodgers-prospects-podcast-2018/#ty7rRECQE1PWzAMG.97
Bluto
Do you see the frustration of some, because it looks like not only did the Yankees turn their team around, to a nice young line up very quickly, they also still get in play, for free agents, and a player like Stanton.
And I think most Dodger fans, don’t see the Dodgers, doing the later.
And financially as you know, the Dodgers are right below the Yankees.
MJ,
Both the Yankees and the Dodgers are hyper focused on getting under the tax threshold.
But
Shouldn’t we be celebrating that the Dodgers didn’t need to tank/turn the team around?
Once again, I am unsure what you are saying?
Fans should be frustrated to have made the World Series and successive playoffs while still building a great minors?
The Yankees had lean years, signed a domestic abuser and failed to make the playoffs repeatedly.
Their fans should be frustrated, IMO
Bluto
I know that the shape of the Dodger minor league can be a pick me up for some but for me it is hard to get past knowing what type of player the Dodgers passed on. I wonder how hard it is to obtain a MVP at any time let alone in his prime. Unfortunately the Dodger Front office thinks that at no time should they upgrade a team through a proven track record of a player. There will come a time when Stanton’s contract will be considered cheap. I hate Tampa baseball period.
It’s much better than that package, but i hear you
Thanks Bluto. That was fun to listen to
Like I really care about the minor league coaching carousel. But it is Dodger news when there is little else to write about. What a lousy off season. Good news is that the Dodgers announced their bobble heads for the first half of the season. Cody’s ROY bobble is first up, then Seager and Taylor. Manny Mota gets his first bobble head. A tribute to his longevity with the team and 5th on the list, MJ will love this, Kike Hernandez. I think it is a travesty that Hernandez gets one and Jr Gilliam never has. Shows it is a popularity thing and not based on what you did for the organization.
Michael
Kike is not my favorite player.
I just give him credit, when credit is due.
And Gilliam already got something much bigger then a bobble head, when he had his number retired at Dodger Stadium, without making the Hall of Fame.
And some may not think that Gilliam’s number should have been retired, since he isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
I get that….I totally disagree with people who think that. Gilliam died in season, was a beloved coach, and probably the best utility player who ever pulled on a Dodger uni. He spent his entire major league career as a Dodger and after he retired he was a coach for close to 14 years. So he deserved something and got it by having his number retired. The Angels retired a number for Gene Autry and he never won a game. I did not say Kike was your favorite. I also think that credit where it is due thing is way over rated in his case. He is more famous for wearing that stupid banana suit than he is for anything he has done on a ball field. It took the Dodgers until last year to recognize probably the best 1st baseman they ever had in Gil Hodges. I believe you honor your history. There is nothing historic about Kike. Gilliam was a major contributor on 4 Championship teams, coming out of retirement to help win one in 65. Kike has no such distinction in his career. My point is that the fans who saw Gilliam play and those of us who collect such items would much rather have Jr.’s bobble head than one where the guys biggest claim to fame is a banana suit.
Michael
We are talking about the Dodgers.
And there policy is, they only retire players numbers, who are in the Hall of Fame.
And apparently Gilliam does not have Hall of Fame, numbers.
And he played in a different time, when players stayed on the same team, more often then not.
I don’t see any real comparison, between the two.
Bobble heads are more for promotions.
Bobble heads are also about history. Did you ever see Junior play? Doubt it. As for the HOF reference, there is no policy that the Dodgers have ever issued in writing that says a player has to be in the HOF to have his uni number retired. There is no comparison between the two because Kike could not carry Juniors Jock strap. He is no where near the player Gilliam was. Gilliam’s number was retired by management due to the great respect ownership had for the man. He was still on the team because he had value. Aging stars such as Duke Snider and Gil Hodges were let go. Roseboro, Podres, Labine, a lot of players from those great teams got released or traded. Even Jackie Robinson was traded. He retired to keep that from happening. Only Reese and Campanella and Gilliam were position players who spent their entire careers with the Dodgers from those Boys of Summer teams. Newcombe was traded. There are Dodgers in the HOF who have not had a number retired and are not even honored in the ring of honor. Gilliam was a .265 career hitter. His career WAR is 40.1 Please, Kike will never approach that. Gilliam played in parts of 14 seasons and coached in 13. You revere your history, these bozo’s ignore it.
And actually MJ, most players did not stay with their teams their entire careers. There were exceptions like Williams in Boston, Musial in St Louis and Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. But Aaron, Mays and McCovey were all traded. Stargell and Clemente were always Pirates, but Pete Rose and Tony Perez both were traded out of the Reds system. So for a utility player to spend his entire career in ONE organization is not common at all. I suggest you read up on Dodger history before you jump into a discussion where you have no clue what you are talking about especially since you never saw Junior play.
Right on Mr. Norris. Junior was one heckeva of a ballplayer and deserves his number to be retired. Kike will be forgotten a week after he leaves. I can remember the smooth voice of Vinny describing Junior’s playing and wish he was still playing. He was a Dodger through and through.
And there are now more millennials, then Baby Boomers, in our country today.
And I am at the end of the Baby Boomers, and I was not old enough to see Gilliam play.
I will forget Kike a lot faster than that.
Do we really care about bobble Heads? Aren’t they simply not incentives to drive ticket sales?
If it helps drive revenue, I won’t care if there’s a Colletti or Brian a Wilson one…
Just like I said, there is no comparison!
There is no comparison MJ, you are right. Jim Gilliam was a solid ballplayer who could play multiple positions and actually hit the ball.
I care about the history. And bobble heads are part of that otherwise why in the hell would they issue a Babe Ruth in a Dodger uni bobble head? Yeah, they are promotions, but it usually takes a pretty good player to get one. Not some scrub who’s only claim to fame is a dumb ass banana suit. Gilliam may not be remembered by the Millenial’s, but he is remembered by those of us who saw him play. His play in the 65 series saved the Dodgers bacon more than once. There is a Brian Wilson as a Dodger bobble. You can get it for about a dollar. Gilliam deserves to have one. Much more than Hernandez.
Wait, did they have/release/give out a Babe Ruth bobblehead in Dodger blue?
I love that there is a Brian Wilson one! Is there a Casey Blake one? Jason Schmidt?
Yes there is a Babe Ruth as a Brooklyn coach from 1938. I forget which year they passed one out. It is available on EBAY. My sister actually gave me the Brian Wilson. His beard is tied with a rubber band…there is a Casey Blake, but no Jason Schmidt. Brian Wilson front row second from the right…..Babe Ruth, front row second from the left…The little 2 man one is Drysdale and Wills. The small 4 player one is the 4 players who hit 30 homers in 78..Baker Cey Garvey and Smith, and the one in the blue uni next to Wilson is Rick Monday as a Cub saving the flag at Dodger Stadium……
Fangraphs has a great article out be Kiley McDaniel: Stats vs Scouts. It goes into scouting more than stats.
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-status-of-the-scouts-vs-stats-debate/
When did Kiley return to FG?
Kiley back from the Braves in Dec.
Dave Cameron just announced he’s leaving Fangraphs for the Padres.
Play hard dodger for everyone especially with people with a tbi injury