Mark Connor becomes the new pitching coach for Baltimore Orioles
There’s an off-season in Major League Baseball, right now and the waters run deep when a signing has to be made for a team’s roster. It particularly gets hard when a choice needs to be made on selecting the best flock of trainers and coaches from the list
of experienced veterans. Manager Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles has been working hard to get his team in shape for the next season and that was made quite apparent when, during the last season, the roster started performing at its peak, besting most
of the teams in the American League East.
However the change in form and improvement in play didn’t see the side get past the 5th ranking on the division table, at the end. Winning 66 and losing 97 was an all time low record for the ball club and that enforced the rule to change the officials
in staff list before the next year dawned. It seems now that the team has come through with a replacement for their exiting pitching coach, Rick Kranitz. The veteran’s contract wasn’t renewed when it expired recently and a replacement was sought after by the
management.
Kranitz was believed to be a replacement for the New York Yankees’ Dave Eiland, who was let go by the big giants back in October. However Rick, instead, made his way to the Houston Astros’ minor league. For Showalter, it meant that a man fitting the replacement
bill would have to be brought in quickly. That man is now believed to be Mark Connor. According to the Baltimore Sun, Connor signed a contract last week and is a good friend of Buck. The 61 year old worked alongside Showalter in the Texas Rangers’, Yankees’
and Arizona Diamondback’s staff offices.
Mark was recently a special assistant in the player development program at the Rangers’ stronghold. The continuous rebuilding in the Orioles staff quarters seems to be going well for now, as confident figures have been brought in to fix up the patches left
exposed in the structure. The O’s president, Andy MacPhail is one to state that openly in the media.
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