Pirates Shakeup Minor League Managers, Coaches

The Pirates minor league affliates

will have new leadership at the helm for five of their six teams in 2011.

At Indianapolis, Dean Treanor has been named the Indianapolis Indians manager for the 2011 season. Frank Kremblas, who was the skipper of AAA Indy last season is the Pirates’ new minor-league field coordinator. Kremblas will replace Jeff Banister who is now the bench coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates under new skipper Clint Hurdle.

Jeff Branson will remain as the hitting coach, it will be his third-year with the job. Another new face in Indy will also be from the AA Altoona Curve and that is new pitching coach Tom Filer.

While at Altoona, Treanor was the pitching coach. Take a look at that photoshop above one more time to see the impressive work Treanor accomplished in the Eastern League.

Many of the Pirates prospect pitchers are expected to join AAA Indy this season which will be a key to the Pirates future. How well Treanor and Filer work on improving that youth will be the measuring stick. We trust the young talent will be all over the diamond and not some of the AAAA players the organization is hording. How Treanor and Filer get these youngsters prepared mentally for the big league club, one that has lost for as long as the Bucs have, will be monumental.

Buckle up. There is a pile of talent heading into Indianapolis very soon. When it’s ready is the intriguing part of the equation for the future of Pirates baseball.

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At AA Altoona, P.J. Forbes will be the manager of the Curve. He replaces Matt Walbeck who led the Curve to the EL Championship last season. Forbes is also a recent winner having led the Lynchburg Hillcats to the Carolina League championship in 2009. Last season, he led the Bradenton Marauders to the playoffs.

Forbes will be joined in Altoona by pitching coach Wally Whitehurst who was successful in Bradenton doing nice work with Bryan Morris, Jeff Locke, Aaron Pribanic, and Nate Adcock. Hitting coach Brandon Moore returns to Altoona from the State College Spikes. Moore has been with the Buccos for seven seasons and worked with Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, and Jose Tabata.

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Carlos Garcia will be the manager at Bradenton. Lucky guy. He gets to rock the best batting practice hat in the game. Mike Steele will be the pitching coach for Bradenton. Here is a story we did on Mike Steele. We like this guy.

Justin Meccage will serve as the pitching coach for State College. Meccage was the Pitching Coach at Arkansas State in 2010.

All of the moves seem to have rewarded coaches for doing good work. Especially Treanor who got the big gig at Indy. Wonder how Walbeck feels about that?