Nationals Announce 2009 Field Staff for Triple-A Syracuse
The Washington Nationals today announced that manager Tim Foli, pitching coach Steve McCatty, hitting coach Darnell Coles and head athletic trainer Mike Quinn will comprise the 2009 field staff for their Triple-A affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Nationals Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Player Development Bob Boone and Director of Player Development Bobby Williams made the joint announcement.
"The entire Washington Nationals organization is excited about our new affiliation with the Syracuse Chiefs," Williams said. "We are confident that Tim Foli and his staff will foster an exciting brand of baseball, while furthering the development of our young prospects."
For the second consecutive season, Foli will manage the Nationals' Triple-A affiliate. He has managed Washington's top affiliate in three of the past four seasons, serving with Columbus (2008) of the International League and New Orleans (2005-06) of the Pacific Coast League. Foli was the Nationals' minor league field coordinator during the 2007 campaign.
His coaching resume includes 16 seasons as a manager or coach, including nine seasons as a big league coach and seven campaigns as a manager or roving instructor at the minor league level. He served three seasons on Cincinnati's big league coaching staff (bench coach in 2003, third base coach from 2001-02), after time as a base coach/infield coach with Milwaukee (1992-95) and Texas (1986-87). Foli was the New York Mets' minor league infield/baserunning coordinator from 1998-2000 and moonlighted in 1998 as manager with Kingsport of the Rookie-level Appalachian League. The first-overall selection in the 1968 Draft, he hit .251 with 25 home runs and 501 RBI in 16 major league seasons with New York-NL (1970-71, '78-79), Montreal (1972-77), San Francisco (1977), Pittsburgh (1979-81, '85), California (1982-83) and New York-AL (1984). Foli, 57, won a World Series Championship with the 1979 Pirates.
McCatty returns for his fourth consecutive season as pitching coach with the Nationals' Triple-A affiliate, where he will mentor the organization's vast stable of high-level pitching prospects. During his tenure with the organization, his list of past pupils includes John Lannan, Joel Hanrahan, Collin Balester, Mike Hinckley, Garrett Mock and Steven Shell. His staff last season in Columbus compiled a 4.21 ERA and finished third in the league with 1,089 strikeouts. The upcoming season will be McCatty's 14th as a pitching coach. He spent three seasons coaching in Baltimore's organization (2003-05), after seven campaigns in Detroit's system (1996-02). He served as Detroit's big league pitching coach in 2002. The 54-year-old pitched nine seasons (1977-83) in the big leagues with the Oakland A's and amassed a 63-63 record with a 3.99 ERA, 45 complete games and seven shutouts in 221 games/161 starts. He led the AL with 14 wins (tied), four shutouts and a 2.33 ERA in 1981, and finished second to Rollie Fingers in Cy Young voting.
Coles joins the Triple-A staff after two seasons as a manager in the Nationals' system with Single-A Hagerstown in 2008 and short-season Vermont in 2007. The 46-year-old began his tenure as Washington's roving hitting instructor during the 2006 campaign. Coles batted .245 with 75 home runs and 368 RBI during his 14-year career in the majors, which pinnacled with a 1993 World Series Championship as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. He played in 957 big league games with Seattle (1983-85, '88-90), Detroit (1986-87, '90), Pittsburgh (1988), San Francisco (1991), Cincinnati (1992), Toronto (1993-94), St. Louis (1995) and Colorado (1997). After being selected by Seattle in the first round of the 1980 Draft, he went on to become one of only eight players, including Babe Ruth, to hit three home runs in a single game in both the AL and NL.
Quinn, 40, returns for his eighth season as the head athletic trainer at Triple-A for the Nationals. His career in professional baseball commenced in 1995 and has included stints in the Marlins and Rangers organizations, as well as with the Arizona Fall League (Mesa Solar Sox in 1999, '01) and Maryland Fall League. The Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society cited him as its 1999 Athletic Trainer of the Year. Quinn graduated from Western Kentucky in 1991, earned a master's degree from Jacksonville University in 1993, and is certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association.
