Pirates add Shelby, Cuellar to Tracy's Staff

[realmofotalk]

November 11, 2005
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- John Shelby was hired by the Pirates as a first base and outfield coach on Friday, the third member of Jim Tracy's staff with the Los Angeles Dodgers to join him in Pittsburgh.

Shelby, a former outfielder with Baltimore, Los Angeles and Detroit, was a Dodgers coach for eight seasons, six of them as first base coach. He had been on the Dodgers' coaching staff since 1998 after previously managing four seasons in the organization's farm system.

Previously, bench coach Jim Lett and pitching coach Jim Colborn also decided to make the move from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.

Also joining Tracy's staff is bullpen coach Bobby Cuellar, a former pitching coach with the Mariners, Expos and Rangers. He was the pitching coach at Triple-A Rochester in the Twins' farm system the last two seasons.

Tracy still needs to hire a third base coach and a hitting coach.



Updated on Friday, Nov 11, 2005 5:46 pm E

I didn't know that Lett and Colborn also decided to join Tracy in Pittsburgh. Colborn helped pitchers like Omar Daal, Hideo Nomo, and Jose Lima become 1 or 2 year wonders for the Dodgers. The one pitcher Colborn couldn't get through was Ishii, but the Mets' Rick Peterson hasn't made a difference for Ishii, either.

[Witlon]

Yeah, I saw this a little while ago, I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. I like the idea that Tracy is surrounding himself with people he's familar with, but I don't like the fact that I don't know much about these guys.

I'll give Tracy the benefit of the doubt for now.

[realmofotalk]

Tracy was Felipe Alou's bench coach in Montreal, so you hope he had learned much about managing a losing team from Alou.