General Grasshoppers 2012 Discussion

[tjfla]

In the SAL Championship Series

[emkayseven]

GREENSBORO — Jorge Hernandez never got to play pro baseball. A knee injury in college saw to that.

But Hernandez, 46, never left the game he loves. He turned to coaching.

Hernandez, the hitting coach for the slugging Greensboro Grasshoppers in 2008, will manage the team this summer.

He replaces David Berg, who managed the Hoppers to the South Atlantic League championship series in his only season in Greensboro. The Hoppers lost in the finals to the Asheville Tourists.

Last year’s pitching coach Blake McGinley and hitting coach Frank Moore will return in those same roles. Ben Cates will move up from Jamestown of the short-season New York-Penn League to serve as the Hoppers athletic trainer.

Hernandez has managed the Gulf Coast Marlins for the last four seasons, compiling a 142-82 record and leading the Rookie League team to the Gulf Coast League playoffs three times.

“We made two championship games in my time there,” Hernandez said. “And I want to continue the winning tradition we’ve had there in Greensboro. … I’ve been fortunate enough to have quality players. Our organization has drafted great players. That’s the difference. Now moving up (two levels) to a full-season club, it’s just a great opportunity.”

Hernandez knows Greensboro. His season as manager Edwin Rodriguez’s hitting coach was an eventful one. The Hoppers led the league with 161 home runs in 2008 and batted .261 as a team — third-best in the 16-team league.

Hernandez tutored four players that season who have gone on to play in the major leagues: Giancarlo Stanton, Matt Dominguez, Bryan Petersen and Osvaldo Martinez.

Stanton, then just 18 years old, batted .293 with a franchise-record 39 home runs and 97 RBIs. Six players that season hit at least 10 home runs.

“Any time you work with a special, talented kid, it’s rewarding and satisfying,” Hernandez said. “You look at the kids from that team who have already been in the big leagues. It was a special group: the top prospects in our organization. I’ll always believe the only reason we came up short and didn’t win a championship was injuries.”

Hernandez’s first pro coaching job was as the hitting coach for the Pensacola Pelicans in 2004. He coached collegiately at Mobile, Texas A&M and West Florida.

A middle infielder who grew up in Puerto Rico, Hernandez was a ninth-round pick of the Houston Astros in 1986, Hernandez didn’t sign.

“I blew out my knee the year I was drafted,” Hernandez said, “and I never got a chance to sign again.”

Even so, he went on to be an all-conference shortstop for Troy State and was with the Trojans team that won the 1987 NCAA Division II World Series. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in kinesiology before getting into coaching.

This summer, he’ll work with successful assistants.

McGinley coached a pitching staff last year that posted a 3.70 ERA and 1.31 WHIP – both third-best in the league. Moore coached a group of hitters the struck out the fewest times in the league and batted .272 – second-best in the league.

http://www.news-record.com/home/6732...o-lead-hoppers
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wonder where berg went

[HUGG]

Jorge Hernandez, who spent the last three seasons managing the organization's Gulf Coast League rookie team, takes over for Dave Berg at low-A Greensboro. Berg is now the minor league infield coordinator.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...hler-ryan-webb

[emkayseven]

Oh cool thanks

I'd imagine he's not that far away from a MLB coaching gig with the Marlins after the next housecleaning. 1B or 3B or something. They seem to have been promoting him pretty steadily.