Royals Minor League Coaches (Part 1)

Well, since we are once again relegated to looking toward the depths of our Farm System for hope, I thought I would take a 'not to serious, hopefully informative, maybe even sometimes funny' look at the men in charge of the players that will some day break our hearts by not being the group of guys that miraculously comes up all at once, hit the ground running & win the division 4 straight years finally put an end to our losing ways, sometime around the year 2014 (assuming the Mayan's were wrong). I'll start with the Arizona Royals of the Rookie League & work my way up as I get time (but i promise I'll finish this series before we find out who the top 25 Royals of all time are...)

The Arizona Royals of the Rookie League

Manager

Darryl Kennedy

Kennedy is a real life Crash Davis...without the massive amounts of HR's or K's. He started his career in the Texas Rangers organization in 1991. A career .251/.321/.334 line was not good enough for him to ever get a cup of coffee as Pudge's backup in the show though. After a 7 year MiLB career (the majority of which was spent at AAA) he retired after the 1997 season after one year in the San Francisco Giants organization. He began his managerial career the next season with the organization he started his playing career with, the Rangers.

As you can see from his MiLB managerial record, he knows how to win games (which is CRUCIAL for all MiLB managers). Some of the players he tutored while managing in the Rangers organization include Carlos Pena, Tanyon Sturtze, Hank Blalock, Scott Podsednik, Edwin Encarnacion, Laynce Nix, Mark Teixeira, CJ Wilson, Ian Kinsler & John Danks.This list of players proves nothing except that he at least didn't do anything to screw up some really talented youngsters.

Hitting Coach

Andre David

Andre David, as portrayed by Sascha Baron Cohen? via bp2.blogger.com

Andre actually achieved his dreams of playing in the Show after a stellar career at Cal State Fullerton where he actually was part of a CWS Champion squad. Davis was originally drafted in the 14th round of the 1979 Draft by the Minnesota Twins, but he did not sign. Proving they always get their man, they drafted him again in the 8th round of the 1980 draft and he signed. He made his Major League debut on June 29, 1984, and immediately announced his presence with authority by homering in his first MLB at bat. Over parts of the 1984 & 1986 seasons, he would play in 38 games, doing something we would all love to do once...he hit one HR in his career. His Minor League career lasted until 1989. Like Kennedy, the vast majority of his MiLB experience was at the AAA level.

Now, the name Andre David is probably familiar to you all. He was The Royals hitting coach from May 30, 2005 all the way through May 2nd 2006 when he was replaced by the infinitely more successful Mike Barnett. I am unable to find a complete resume for Mr. David, this is the closest thing I can come up with...

Pitching Coaches

Mark Davis

Right now there are 4 Mark Davis Autographed cards on eBay!!!! via www.baseball-almanac.com

Now we are getting some real star power! Mark Davis is a symbol of all the things that are wrong with the Royals over the last 20 odd years for a lot of you I am sure. He parlayed a newspaper stat (Saves) into a bunk NL Cy Young award in 1989, which of course was parlayed into (arguably) the worst Free Agent signing in Royals history. When he signed the 4 year, $13M deal, it was for the largest annual salary IN BASEBALL HISTORY  (This article is awesome). Well, we all know how that signing turned out.

Maybe, just maybe, his coaching career wont be as big of a bust. He was the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach for the '04 & '05 season guiding them to a staff ERA (I know, I know) of 4.98 & 4.84 in his 2 seasons. He is entering his 5th season as the AZL Royals pitching coach, so his fingerprints will be all over the Montgomery's of the organization...it remains to be seen if this is a good of bad development.

Carlos Reyes

via www.checkoutmycards.com

Reyes was signed by the Atlanta Braves as an amateur free agent in 1991. The Oakland Athletics drafted him from the Braves in the 1993 Rule V Draft, and he managed to stick with the A's for 4 seasons and ended up putting together a non-descript 8 year MLB career that ended after the 2003 season. He spent the '04 season in the Yankees minor leagues and retired after that season. in 2005, his coaching career began, again, with the New York Yankees, where he was  MiLB Pitching coach for 3 seasons.

As a pitching coach, he has decided to take his stuff to the private sector as well, as he has a company that is called Changing Speeds LLC which, on his home page has testimonials from the afore mentioned Mark Davis and former Royals great Neil Musser. From his website, I also learned that he was the 1996 A's Opening Day starter, which is pretty friggin cool I guess. He also lists himself as the Kansas City Royals "Rehab Coach" so he'll surely be working with Gil Meche real soon.

Coach

Jon Williams

Not much is known about the elusive Jon Williams. Through my crack use of google & baseball-reference, I was able to ascertain that he was a catcher in the San Francisco Giants & the (GASP!) Atlanta Braves organization  between 2001 & 2006, and he never played above AA. A random Royals press release proclaimed Williams as coach and scout and identifies him as the hitting coach with Idaho Falls in 2009.