Kranitz officially gone

By Roch Kubatko

Orioles

November 01, 2010, 4:28pm

Comments

It's been rumored and speculated for weeks that Mark Connor would replace Rick Kranitz as pitching coach. The Orioles haven't made any announcements, but Kranitz today was hired as the Houston Astros' minor league pitching coordinator. You can check out an article about Kranitz's new job right here. Kranitz appeared to be a candidate to join Joe Girardi's staff in New York, but it's not going to happen. "Rick adds a wealth of knowledge and experience to our development system," Astros director of player development Fred Nelson said in a statement. "He has a reputation for developing young pitchers and the understanding of what it takes to pitch in the Major Leagues. We are fortunate to have someone of Rick's caliber join our organization." Perhaps we'll be told later this week that Connor is the Orioles' newest pitching coach. As for Kranitz, I wish him the best and will always appreciate his patience and good humor as he fielded a ridiculous amount of questions about Rich Hill and Koji Uehara. I just got off the phone with Kranitz. He'll probably issue a statement after talking to the Orioles. As he said, this hiring just went down and he's still processing everything.