Walt Weiss is the new Colorado Rockies’ Manager - MLB News
The Colorado Rockies has named Walt Weiss as their new manager. The 48-year-old played for the Rockies between 1994 and 1997 and was associated with the organisation as an advisor to the front office and an instructor between 2002 and 2008. The announcement
was made after the news was first broken via email to the season ticket holders.
The Rockies had plenty of searching for the manager. They held formal interviews with Tom Runnells, the team’s bench coach, first baseman Jason Giambi and Matt Williams, the Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach. There were several other names that were
also considered for the job before the final decision.
Weiss had a 14 year long Major League career as a shortstop and was a part of the Rockies in their earlier days. He represented four different ball clubs during his career. In 1988, Walt was named American League Rookie of the Year. He was a part of the
1989 World Series Champions the Oakland Athletics. He was part of the All-Stars line-up in 1998.
He himself was a fairly accomplished hitter with a career batting average of .258 and a .351 on-base percentage and had over a 1000 career hits. He had a pretty strong start to his career but his numbers slowly went down. Injuries in the later part of his
career also took their toll on the batter’s performance. He eventually retired in 2000.
The switch hitter is currently coaching the Regis Jesuit High School team. He will be taking over a team that had a 68-94 season in 2012, the worst in the team’s relatively brief history. His predecessor was Jim Tracy, who took over in 2009, had a 294-308
record.
Walt certainly has his work cut out. He will have to form his coaching staff, though most current coaches are still in favour with the club management, he will be looking to improve their fitness of his players so that they do not get injured at crucial
junctures of the season.
Weiss will also be looking to quickly understand his players and figure out how to best utilise each player for the team’s benefit. This would certainly not be an easy task but for now, it will be his most important one, after all the next season is only
a few months away.
Tags: