Orioles name Mark Quinn as assistant major league hitting coach

The Orioles today announced that they have named Mark Quinn as Assistant Major League Hitting Coach. Quinn will replace Einar Diaz, who has assumed the role as Major League Coach and will assist in all aspects of Orioles coaching. Additionally, Dom Chiti (Bullpen Coach), Scott Coolbaugh (Hitting Coach), Bobby Dickerson (Third Base Coach), Wayne Kirby (First Base Coach), John Russell (Bench Coach), and Dave Wallace (Pitching Coach) will return to the Orioles Major League coaching staff. Quinn, 41, played four seasons with the Kansas City Royals from 1999-2002, batting .282/.324/.481 with 45 home runs and 167 RBI in 293 career Major League games. On September 14, 1999, he became the third player to hit two home runs in his Major League debut, and is currently one of four players to accomplish the feat. In 2000, Quinn earned The Sporting News American League Rookie Player of the Year honors as well as a spot on the 2000 Topps All-Star Rookie Team after batting .294/.342/.488 with 20 home runs and 78 RBI. Over 11 minor league seasons, he batted .306/.376/.505 with 101 homers and 469 RBI in 675 games. He led the Double-A Texas League with a .349 batting average in 1998 as a member of the Wichita Wranglers, won the Triple-A Pacific Coast League batting crown in 1999 after hitting .360 with the Omaha Golden Spikes, and was also named the PCL Rookie of the Year in 1999. Originally selected by the Royals in the 11th round of the 1995 First-Year Player Draft out of Rice University, Quinn last played for Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte in the Chicago White Sox organization in 2006. In 2007, Quinn was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame after earning two All-SWC (Southwest Conference) accolades in 1994 and 1995, as well as All-America honors and the Rice University Dell Morgan MVP award in 1995 after leading the Owls in batting average (.380), home runs (18), hits (95), and RBI (89) that season. Quinn is the founder of the Houston Royals, a "Select Team" organization, and owner of The Baseball School in Houston, Texas, an elite instruction program which provides baseball players of all ages with a foundation of proper fundamentals.