Manager Duffy Dyer, pitching coach Mike Caldwell, and hitting coach Pete Incaviglia were all fired following yesterday’s game (which ended the season).
Erie had an awful season, and they really had no offense to speak of. Clevlen had come off a good season the year before, and a great spring training, and yet struggled in AA before having success in a very small sample in Detroit.
On the pitching side, it was surprising to see Caldwell let go. Humberto Sanchez took the next step forward in his development under Caldwell this year. Eulogio De La Cruz also finally started to put things together this year after being touted as a prospect for the last several years. Last year Joel Zumaya, who had shown glimpses in prior seasons, became a dominant force under Caldwell. Going farther back Wil Ledezma had an excellent season under Caldwell in 2004.
I honestly don’t know how much Caldwell contributed to those players successes, or if they were just talented enough to do it no matter who the pitching coach was. But he certainly didn’t seem to hurt any of those guys development.
I felt this was a pretty harsh way to go about making a change, and making sure Matt Walbeck stays in the system. It is obvious that AA has under acheived, yet how many great hitting prospects were really there? Granderson in 2004 and that is about it. Clevlen had to repeat A ball already, so I can’t blame the staff there. It just seems that Detroit really wants to keep Walbeck coaching in the system. He had stated he wanted to be promoted, so I guess he will go to Lakeland or Erie now. We’ll see what happens.
Pete Incaviglia was hitting coach? The same Pete Incaviglia who played for the Tigs a couple times, posted a career BA of .246, and struck out once every 3 and a half at bats was hitting coach???
I really don’t know much of anything about the Erie team, but thats not the type of guy who would strike me as a good hitting coach.
I always thought the same thing, Nate.
Who does he call for advice, Rob Deer?
Holy cow, Incaviglia was the hitting coach. What happened? Why was the whole staff canned anyone know?