The Tigers have added former outfielder Jose Cruz Jr. to their major league coaching staff, the team announced. He’ll “focus on hitting instruction,” according to the Tigers. While the Tigers didn’t name an exact role for Cruz, it appears he will be their assistant hitting coach to Scott Coolbaugh, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com observes. Cruz spent 1997-2008 with a handful of different major league teams and clubbed 204 home runs. He has since worked for the MLBPA and as an ESPN analyst. He’s now part of the same organization as his son, infielder Trei Cruz, whom the Tigers drafted in the third round last summer.
- The Pirates announced a number of additions to their baseball operations staff via a press release. Pittsburgh hired Rafael Freitas as their new Major League Head Athletic Trainer, Terence Brannic as Head Major League Strength & Conditioning Coach, Adam Vish as a Strength & Conditioning Coach, and Seth Steinhauer joins the Major League staff as Physical Therapist after sour seasons as the Pirates’ minor league rehab coordinator. Josh Hopper heads to Pittsburgh from the college ranks as the Coordinator of Pitching Development. Hopper spent the last three seasons as pitching coach at Dallas Baptist University after nine seasons in the same role with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
- The Royals don’t have any staff additions to announce, but they are adding a new video board that will cover the Hall of Fame wall in left field, writes Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star (via Twitter). The team has released a series of tweets here, and here, showing the construction project getting underway. The new board will be the tallest HDR video board in baseball with 5.1 million total pixels.
Makes sense to see a complete revamp of the stength and conditioing staff after having so many injuries the last two seasons.
Great the Pirates hire a physical therapist who is coming off sour seasons. Typical Pirates move!!
Lol
Too bad about the **sour** seasons.
You can say that again!
It did pass spil chek, though.
Yes, there have been many “sour” seasons for the Pirates since 1979 World Season. That’s 41 years since the last World Series. That make my stomach sour.
Too bad about the **sour** seasons.
most every team in MLB is crying poor and the KC Royals are like “new board will be the tallest HDR video board in baseball with 5.1 million total pixels”.
Atza hole lotta pixels dawg
Gotta have a good board to watch in to give fans a reason to come to the game.
and planting some potatoes in the garden too.
Daze – so you are saying KC should spend more on players and not in the “video board”…..
No fans, no ticket revenue, no consessions, no shirts, no hats, no parking fees, translates into less money to spend. If the Royals want to spend on the stadium instead of players….o well, but less revenue is a fact.
Royals don’t own the stadium, the taxpayers of Jackson County Missouri do.
Royals have already been the early movers in FA — signing Santana, Minor, and Taylor. No one should complain about the stadium upgrades (which they committed a certain amount of money to do with jointly funded stadium renovations in 2007-09).
And there will be fans in the stands by June 2021 at the latest, I suspect.
Never been there but their stadium looks awesome on TV. My White Sox usually play pretty well over there.
What are you talking about? The Royals have been the most aggressive team in FA so far this off-season and were one of only a few teams to pay all their minor leaguers in 2020 when they didn’t have to.
Good lord, this is the slowest off-season for Tiger fans. Make a trade, put Greiner on waivers, sign a FA, fire Avila, do something- anything already
Hey, they took a .231 hitter in the Rule 5 draft. What else do you want? After all that work, Al needs to take a nap!
Also, they did hire a new manager and coaching staff in case you hadn’t heard. At least they didn’t give the job to McClendon!
You’re right about the coaching staff. That has been a pleasant surprise! But, as far roster adjustments, it has been lifeless thus far. There are many non-tender candidates that can vastly improve this team, at the same cost as the last 2 years.
There is no hurry. The Tigers have money to spend when the time is right or there is good value.
I disagree. They need to complete the tear down, and still compile as many quality prospects as possible. If someone is willing to overpay for Turnbull, Norris, Farmer, or Cisnero..do it. Their value has never been higher. DET needs a catcher. Hernandez (recently traded) from the Rangers would’ve been an ideal candidate.
Bob, while I don’t disagree that the value of those four has never been higher, I’m not sure you could get one very good player for all four together. I’m sure they’re being dangled out there in case someone wants to overpay, but there isn’t as much value in them as you’d like to think.
Unfortunately, you are probably right. The two pinnacle JV & JDM trades were an absolute blunder. However, holding onto Boyd and Fulmer, might have been the costliest for this rebuild. I have yet to see a solid (positional) core group of players to build around. They seem so far away. Wsox are only getting better and they’re farm is still very sharp, Minny is in decent shape, and CLE will always linger. I would gladly hold onto whatever money they intend on spending in FA, and hire a top tier Front Office. Starting with Erik Neander or Chris Antonetti. Al Avila’s extension made zero sense to me.
When you have a GM like Avila believing that a Boyd for Torres trade would be fair then don’t expect any excellent trades anytime soon.
I own and manage a business, and Avila’s extension was ridiculous. You don’t give someone a promotion or big raise until they’ve earned it. Avila’s signature moves were his draft choices. They were still in the minors when he got his extension. He got a promotion/raise without having to earn it! That is all on ownership. Say what you want about Avila, but my worry is that Chris Illitch doesn’t know how to actually run a business
Extending Al Avila says one thing to me as a fan, Chris Illitch is content with how the team is being ran & he wants to keep it that way.
Nonsense. Al took a team with a bloated payroll of aged players and a minor league that was one of the worst in all of baseball.
The have shed the payroll and have built one of MLB’s strongest farm.
What the hell did you expect him to do? Win a WS with the garbage that he took over?
Anyone can slash payroll! Anyone can trade a HOF pitcher for prospects that will be in the league less than & have achieved less than JV’s remaining years. Anyone can trade an absolute stud (at the time)JDM, for underwhelming prospects. Anyone can do a Google search and figure out the overwhelming favorite #1 draft pick. What good does a “strong farm” do if you can’t develop the players.. Stewart..Hill..Burrows..Rogers..Funkhouser..Machado..Gerber..Moya.Gerber. It’s not like he came in with a clean slate he drafted, scouted, and recommended signing most of this team since 2002.
I’m not asking to win a WS, but after 5 years if your not close to .500… see ya
I’m sorry, but .500 is a pretty fair expectation for any GM after 5 years.
You weren’t getting offers for JV, no one wanted to give you anything for JD. Stop pretending that they were these high value trading chips.
Their team has money to spend and prospects coming along with the #3 pick next year.
The signing when Mike Illitch was alive was from the owner himself.
What does this have to do with the return Avila retained from those trades?? DET paid Houston to take JV setting them up for the WS title, for 3 mid tier prospects. Avila traded JDM setting BoSox up for the WS title, for 1 mid level and 2 low level prospects. Without these 2 players the outcomes could’ve been vastly different for those 2 teams. These two trades are arguably the worst trades this decade has seen yet. The fact the market value “wasn’t there” does not justify the return value. How about holding onto Matthew Boyd or Michael Fulmer? The market value at the time was there.
JV is not a high value trade chip? Are you kidding me??
No, JV was not. If he was considered a high value trade chip then the Dodgers would have traded for him and WON that world series. The value to the Tigers in moving JV was in shedding $$$ and nothing more.
Other teams weren’t giving you anything better for Fulmer or Boyd which is why they didn’t get traded. No amount of speculation will change that fact.
Avila didn’t trade JD to Boston… not sure what your point was there.
Yupp, sorry you’re absolutely correct about JDM!! But, I completely disagree w/ you on the others. The Astros offered Bregman for Fulmer and J Wilson, the Cubs offered Baez for Fulmer.. How about holding onto Boyd?? Literally, whatever value he had, is now gone. Whose DET’s catcher for the future? Whose DET’s OF for the future? Big, big question marks.. How did these top tier pitching prospects work out last year? Some of these players are years away. And, it’s already been 5 years of rebuild. This team cannot even smell a .500 record. CHW has a better team, and very arguably a better (vastly more rounded) farm system.
Grew up watching Jose Cruz SR playing for the Astros back in the 70’s/80’s. Man I’m getting old.
and his brother Heiti Cruz for the Cards
Reporting on the video board at Kauffman Stadium is wrong.
Royals are upgrading the main scoreboard (the Crown) which is already the largest videoboard in MLB. Also upgrading the video boards on the outfield walls.
They are adding an additional video board on the Royals Hall of Fame in left field.
“The tigers…” YES YES IM LISTENING!! “…hire a bench coach”
Interested to see what he can do with the Phillies! They need to upgrade C, CF, 2nd, and add 2 reilief pitchers, and maybe a starter. I would go all out for either Springer or Realmuto first and foremost. I would add either Hernandez, Wong, or La Stella which should be easy. Adding the relief pitching is the key to the season, I like Treinen, Yates, and Kela.. I would try and trade for a young starter.
TC, the refurbished tall board is in center field. The new board is on the left field wall. You make it sound as if there is one board…..
Cruz will be the Spanish language hitting coach for the Tigers, because Coolbaugh can’t speak Spanish.