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Pirates Fill Out Coaching Staff for 2017

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The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Saturday morning that they have made wholesale coaching changes for 2017. We already heard about Joey Cora taking over as the third base coach and they confirmed that report. Cora will also handle the infield coaching duties, which was the job of Nick Leyva this season. Leyva and Rick Sofield were relieved of their coaching duties last week, though Leyva will remain on with the Pirates as a Senior Advisor of Baseball Operations.

Kimera Bartee has been named the new first base coach. He will also handle the base running coaching and working with the outfielders on defense. Bartee has been the minor league base running and outfield coordinator for the Pirates for the last nine seasons. He also managed one season back in 2011 at State College. As a player, he spent parts of six seasons in the majors and was known for his base running and outfield defense.

A familiar face has taken over the bench coach job. Tom Prince will take that role over from Dave Jauss, who will remain on the Major League staff as a coach. Prince has spent 33 years in baseball, including 23 seasons in some capacity with the Pirates. In 2016, he served as the minor league field coordinator. He has also managed for 11 seasons with the Pirates in the minors. Prince played for the Pirates from 1987 until 1993, seeing action on all three NL East pennant winners during the 1990-92 seasons.

Brad Fischer, who served as a Major League coach in 2016, has been offered a job on the player development side. As of right now, he has not accepted a role, but he has time to consider his options.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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