Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Pirates’ new coaches mostly familiar names
Neal Huntington announced Tuesday that the Pirates had hired Luis Dorante as bullpen coach, Gary Varsho as bench coach, and Tony Beasley as third base coach. All three are names that have been associated with the Pirates in the past. It is believed that Jeff Andrews, another one of these people with a complete lack of major league experience but extensive minor league experience, will be hired as pitching coach.
Andrews is known for being AA Altoona’s pitching coach while the current core of the Pirates’ rotation was passing through, including Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, and Tom Gorzelanny. The hope is obviously that he will have the same effect on them now 
that he did when they were minor leaguers, with management probably hoping that he can somehow turn Zach Duke around. The issue with Andrews, however, as with much of the Pirates’ current staff is that he has no experience at a major league level. Dealing with a kid trying to save his career in Altoona is different than dealing with a guy who is satisfied with his paycheck. If Andrews can deal with this and help improve the pitching staff, he will be an excellent hire. I simply question if they are making him walk out onto the proverbial plank before he is ready (of course, Detroit considered him for its pitching coach position two years ago when Jim Leyland was hired, so he may be more than ready).
I honestly know nothing about Dorante besides what press reports are saying, which is that he managed in the minor leagues for 11 years and that he was Florida’s bullpen coach in 2005. Judging by that (and this is purely speculative), he probably has significant experience with young pitchers and will be a solid sounding board for Andrews who will be dealing with a new set of challenges that Dorante has already sort of encountered.
Varsho is apparently the headline member of these changes, as he is an ex-Pirate and served as Larry Bowa’s bench coach for five years and worked with the Indians last season. He, therefore, had ties to both Huntington and Russell before being 
hired to this position. Unlike, well, most of the other coaches (and management) on the new Pirate staff, he has experience with his position at a major league level. By being Larry Bowa’s bench coach for five years, he demonstrated that he is probably a patient coach, as a Bowa clubhouse more than likely needs a calming influence simply because he is liable to explode at any time. This is an ok trait for a bench coach to have, as his job is basically to manage the four or five games a year that the manager is thrown out of and sit there in a warmup jacket and pretend to hear the manager the rest of the time. I think I approve of this hiring, but I do not think that it will actually affect the team one way or the other.
The most intriguing (and important, alongside of Andrews) hire is Tony Beasley as third base coach. Beasley left the organization in 2006 to take the third base coach’s job with Frank Robinson’s Washington Nationals, but returned to the Pirates last season. He was particularly effective as a manager in the Pirates’ system between 2001 and 2005 and
may have seen moving to Washington as a step towards eventually achieving a major league managerial job. If Russell is the transition manager that many seem to think he is, Beasley may be one of the leading candidates to take his position when that time comes. Until then (if it ever happens), Beasley could be an invaluable asset to Russell due to his knowledge of players such as Zach Duke, Matt Capps, Tom Gorzelanny, Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, Jose Bautista, Jose Castillo, Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit, Ronny Paulino, and (potentially) Bryan Bullington. Beasley obviously knows the Pirates, which should ease Russell’s transition onto his new team (of course, if Beasley does not know them, Russell probably does due to his time as bench coach between 2002 and 2005).
All in all, Huntington appears to have made decent hires of coaches, including Andrews and Beasley who both deserved greater opportunity in the Pirates’ organization two or three years ago.
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