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Who's Your Dream Coaching Staff?

I think we all have our opinions on the current state of the A's coaching staff. Most of them, I would venture to guess, are negative. So here's the opportunity to play pretend-Billy-Beane in an area that doesn't get talked about as much. So how would you restructure the A's coaching staff? I have a couple of ideas.


Manager: Rickey Henderson

Third Base: Eric Chavez
Bullpen: Dennis Eckersley
Hitting: Mark McGwire
First Base: Carney Lansford
Bench: Dave Stewart
Pitching: Curt Young

This staff, as you might have already noticed, leans heavily on the 1989 World Series team. Six of the seven guys on the list were members of that squad. There's a reason for that: a coaching staff needs cohesion and camaraderie every bit as much as the players do. I'm not sure if a coaching staff has ever been assembled with an eye toward that so much as this one is, but I like the idea. In addition, I think these guys are all very smart. I think Rickey, McGwire, Carney, Eckersley, Chavez, and Stewart all proved that during their playing careers, and Young has proved it as a coach.

I could go on for hours about why Rickey should be managing a big-league ballclub, starting with my opinion that he's the greatest player of all time, and I could go on for almost as long about what a coup it was for the Cardinals to hire McGwire to be their hitting coach. I think Eckersley may be largely responsible, along with Tony LaRussa, for the shape of the modern bullpen, and would be an obvious choice for "assistant pitching coach." Carney was a great fundamentals player and has a lot to teach younger players, we've already seen Curt Young doing a great job, and I pick Stew for bench coach because of his close existing friendship with Rickey (who described Stew as his "best friend" at his HOF induction) and because I think he would be well-positioned to advise Rickey on pitching issues, the one area where Rickey's wisdom might be slightly less developed.


What are your thoughts?