Rockies Clean Out Coaching Staff
With the Rockies beginning to fade in the NL West pennant race, falling back 4 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado owner Charlie Monfort and GM Dan Stamey met with manager Walt Weiss today. After the meeting, Stamey addressed the media to announce that major changes had been made in the Rockies front office. Bench coach Tom Runnels was released while current manager Walt Weiss was demoted to bench coach. The big surprise was the announcement that Lou Piniella has been signed to a 3 year deal to manage the Rockies starting with tomorrow’s game which is the start of a key 3 game series that could go a long ways in determining if the Rockies can get back into the pennant race or not.
There were a couple of other coaching changes made as both the pitching coach and hitting coach were demoted to AAA Colorado Springs while new pitching and hitting coaches were hired. Rick Knapp was signed to a two year contract to be the new pitching coach and Gene Tenace signed a 4 year contract to be the Rockies new hitting coach. Knapp will have the monumental task of getting the pitching staff to be more consistent.
Weiss accepted his demotion gracefully and is excited to be remaining with the club as the bench coach. He finishes his short tenure as the Rockies manager with the Rockies sitting at 41-39.
