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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2009 > October > 02
Friday, October 2, 2009
Pitching coach Dick Pole won’t return
Pitching coach Dick Pole was told today that his contract would not be renewed for 2010 and he chose to leave the team immediately.
The rest of the coaching staff will return next season, all in their same capacities: bench coach Chris Speier, batting instructor Brook Jacoby, first base coach Billy Hatcher, third base coach Mark Berry and bullpen coach Juan Lopez.
General Manager Walt jocketty said the team has not put together a list of potential replacements, “But we have some people in mind, including people in our own organization (Louisville pitching coach Ted Power and roving pitching instructor Mack Jenkins would be on that list).
Neither Jocketty nor manager Dusty Baker would cite reasons for Pole’s dismissal.
“As an organization, we felt Dick has done a good job to this point, but we felt that going forward we needed to make a change,” said Jocketty. “We’ll leave it at that and there are no real specific reasons.”
Statistically, Reds pitchers are seventh in the National League with a 4.21 earned run average. They’ve given up the third most home runs in the league (186) and have the fifth fewest strikeouts.
“We don’t have clear candidate and we are going to formulate a list,” said Jocketty. “We’ll try to find a guy who can be with his organization a long time because we have some good young pitchers who have come along and we want to make sure we find the right guy to help develop them.”
It was a difficult decision for Baker because Pole was his pitching coach in San Francisco and Chicago, although Pole already was in place when Baker came to the Reds last year.
“I told Dick when I got here today and he left,” said Baker. “Naturally, he was hurt. It was difficult for me to tell him because everybody knows how close we are. My relationship with Dick and the respect I have for him made a tough decision. It was an organizational decision and we don’t want to get into specifics because it will serve no point. I thought deeply about this and it is just a move forward and it is not fair to air anything publicly.”
INSIDE THE clubhouse, many pitchers had lost faith in Pole and were turning elsewhere for helpful tips and information, never a good sign for a coach. And for those who might immediately drop the name Jeff Brantley into the prospective replacement list, that isn’t going to happen.
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TweetPitching coach Dick Pole won’t return
Pitching coach Dick Pole was told today that his contract would not be renewed for 2010 and he chose to leave the team immediately.
The rest of the coaching staff will return, all in their same capacities: bench coach Chris Speier, batting instructor Brook Jacoby, first base coach Billy Hatcher, third base coach Mark Berry and bullpen coach Juan Lopez.
Manager Walt jocketty said the team has not put together a list of potential replacements, “But we have some people in mind, including people in our own organization (Louisville pitching coach Ted Power and roving pitching instructor Mack Jenkins would be on that list).
Neither Jocketty nor manager Dusty Baker would cite reasons for Pole’s dismissal.
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