With the the Super Bowl over with, baseball season is inching closer and closer. Along with the freshly cut grass and ripe prospects that come with Staten Island Yankees baseball, you have the coaches that guide them.
Manager Pat Osborn is the new manager of the team after overseeing a 35-25 record and division title for the Gulf Coast Yankees. Osborn, only 33 years old, bounced around the minor leagues for eight seasons before playing independent baseball and ultimately becoming the Bay Street Bombers manager last season. The Staten Island Yankees finished under .500 for two consecutive seasons now but improved last year by four games and will try and bring the team back to its championship ways from last decade.
Former Major Leaguer Butch Henry takes over as the pitching coach. A member of the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager. Henry will be tasked with helping mold the young talent previously chronicled here on thiswayonbay.com and get them to the next level. Henry posted a 3.83 ERA in seven seasons in the big leagues, including a 2.43 ERA for the famed 1994 Montreal Expos. The Staten Island Yankees posted a 3.47 team ERA last season and excelled in numerous other statistical categories so Henry has an awful lot to work with in 2015.
The veteran of the coaching staff, Ty Hawksins, reprises his role as the hitting coach for what is now his tenth straight season on Bay Street. The Baby Bombers had a .248/.322/.364 line last season. While that’s not a world beating line, Hawkins has given the team stability and acted as a good mentor for the hitters.
Eric Duncan will help get the Yankees to flash some leather as their defensive coach. He has never been a professional coach before but volunteered as a coach at Seton Hall while attending the school as a student. Duncan bounced around numerous minor league systems, making it as far as AAA.
With the coaches announced, the team is one step closer to beginning the season. With bright stars and high hopes, the Staten Island Yankees will aim to make 2015 another step towards a championship.
