Brewers finalize MLB Coaching Staff; Hire Haines, Hook, Karsay, and Barringer

[JDBrewCrew]

Milwaukee Brewers

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@Brewers

26s27 seconds ago

The Brewers have named Andy Haines hitting coach, Chris Hook pitching coach, Steve Karsay bullpen coach and Scott Barringer head athletic trainer.

 

Tom

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@Haudricourt

55s56 seconds ago

More Tom Retweeted Milwaukee Brewers

#Brewers complete their coaching and athletic training staffs. News of Haines' hiring already had come out. Hook is a longtime pitching coach in the organization and very well thought of. Karsay was a pitching coach in Cleveland's system.

 

Adam McCalvy

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2m2 minutes ago

Brewers complete their coaching staff with hitting coach Andy Haines, pitching coach Chris Hook and bullpen coach Steve Karsay. Jason Lane will return as asst. hitting coach. Haines comes from the Cubs, as previously reported. Hook is a longtime Brewers Minor League coach.

[JDBrewCrew]

Barringer comes to Milwaukee from Houston.

[brewmann04]

I must be old I remember Karsay as major league pitcher.

[JDBrewCrew]

The Brewer Nation

@BrewerNation

1m1 minute ago

Steve Karsay, 46, was most recently the Triple-A pitching coach for the Columbus Clippers in Cleveland's system. Karsay is a former 1st round draft pick (1990, Toronto) and pitched for five MLB teams for parts of 11 seasons between 1993-2006.

[sveumrules]

I must be old I remember Karsay as major league pitcher.

 

Same here. Remember pulling his #1 Draft Pick card.

 

Cool to see that they kept it in house with Hook.

[trwi7]

Saw Karsay and thought it said Kotsay.

[StearnsFTW]

Man, Steve Karsay was supposed to be the next big thing. Takes me back.

 

I seem to recall massive arm problems.

[KeithStone53151]

That Chris Hook promotion on it's own is a bit surprising. First thing I see is, he's been in the organization for 11 years. Makes me wonder how many new ideas he'll be able to bring to the table. Then I looked back at timber rattlers from 2009-2011 and AA players during his tenure there. I feel like quite a few major leaguers made some serious improvements at the specific levels he was at. The seasons in 2015 from Hader, Tyler Wagner, Jorge Lopez, Suter, and even Jed Bradley. Freddy Peralta also seemed to turn a corner at AA in 2017. I know we have a fairly pitcher friendly park in AA, but the peripherals on all these guys was very good. It will certainly help the transition that he's so familiar with a majority of the arms. Chacin might be the only guy he hasn't worked with extensively, but Chacin doesn't really need coaching at this stage of his career. Overall, I like it.

 

As for the others, stealing a guy on the pitching side from Cleveland seems smart. Stealing anybody from Houston also seems smart. So overall, I like the moves as much as I could...though it's tough to really have a strong opinion on these types of moves.

[MadThinker88]

I think Karsay was a good hire for the Brewers.

I recall meeting him and talking about a few things in 2013 when I took in the Lake County/ Wisconsin Timber Rattlers series. Karsay was PC for the Captains at that time & 1 of the LC pitchers had just completed a bullpen session an hour or so before the 1st pitch on Sunday. There are some great observation points at Fox Stadium for watching the bullpens.

 

I must admit I was surprised and disappointed the Tribe hadn't elevated Steve to the big league club for the 2018 season. After the '17 season, Callaway left to become Manager for the Mets and then bullpen coach Jason Bere left when he was told he was not in the running for the open pitching coach position. I though Karsay would get 1 of the 2 slots on Francona's staff but instead the Tribe brought back Carl Willis (again, 3rd run with the organization) and shifted Scott Atchison from a pitching support role (organizing the scouting reports and some of the analytics) into a defined coach for the bullpen.

 

I have to suspect that Karsay was disappointed getting passed over for both roles and he likely felt it was time to move onto greener fields. Cleveland's loss is Milwaukee's gain in this case..

[Jimbo]

I must be old I remember Karsay as major league pitcher.

 

He was a key reserve on my Rotisserie team back in 1993.

[clancyphile]

That Chris Hook promotion on it's own is a bit surprising. First thing I see is, he's been in the organization for 11 years. Makes me wonder how many new ideas he'll be able to bring to the table. Then I looked back at timber rattlers from 2009-2011 and AA players during his tenure there. I feel like quite a few major leaguers made some serious improvements at the specific levels he was at. The seasons in 2015 from Hader, Tyler Wagner, Jorge Lopez, Suter, and even Jed Bradley. Freddy Peralta also seemed to turn a corner at AA in 2017. I know we have a fairly pitcher friendly park in AA, but the peripherals on all these guys was very good. It will certainly help the transition that he's so familiar with a majority of the arms. Chacin might be the only guy he hasn't worked with extensively, but Chacin doesn't really need coaching at this stage of his career. Overall, I like it.

 

As for the others, stealing a guy on the pitching side from Cleveland seems smart. Stealing anybody from Houston also seems smart. So overall, I like the moves as much as I could...though it's tough to really have a strong opinion on these types of moves.

 

Hook is pitching coach because the Brewers are gonna primarily ride with their young guns. Suter, Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta, Brown, Supak, Roegner, and others are the future of this team.