Ishikawa gets minor-league coaching job
Travis Ishikawa, who hit the home run that clinched the Giants’ 2014 pennant, is joining the minor-league coaching staff as part of a significant expansion and overhaul of a system designed to boost the ability of minor-leaguers to feed more players to the majors.
Ishikawa, whose bigleague career ended in 2015, will be the hitting coach for one of two teams the organization will have in the Arizona Rookie League.
Ishikawa, plus all the new and returning coaches, will work for David Bell — a former infielder who oversaw the expansion after the Giants hired him in November as vice president of player development.
The Giants’ farm system played a big role stocking the three World Series teams but has struggled to develop bigleaguers since.
Hiring Bell and charging him with such a significant overhaul must be viewed partly as recognition that the old system was not working the way it should and lags other organizations.
General manager Bobby Evans would not frame it that way, saying the moves are meant to stay ahead of trends in developing players.
“We make such an investment in our players as far as signing bonuses,” Evans said, “but we also believe it’s important we invest heavily in our staff and our coaches to make sure we (prepare) our players with the best instruction and best coaching that they can get, day to day, on the field, off the field.”
The biggest change is a new hierarchy of five assistant directors.
Alan Zinter, the Padres’ hitting coach the past two seasons, will be the assistant director for offense. Eleven-year minor-league pitcher Matt Buschmann will oversee “run prevention.”
The new minor-league hitting coordinator is longtime Dodgers infielder Dave Hansen. Julio Rangelwill be pitching coordinator.
The Giants are adding fundamentals coaches at Triple-A Sacramento, their full-season Class A teams in San Jose and Augusta, Ga., and their short-season rookieleague team in Keizer, Ore. Special assistant Gene Clines will work often out of Double-A Richmond, Va., and be a de facto extra coach.
Former reliever and longtime Giants minorleague coach Steve Kline was promoted to pitching coach at Sacramento, where Dave Brundage will return as manager. Other managers will be Willie Harris (Richmond), Lipso Nava (San Jose), newcomer and former Dodger Jolbert Cabrera (Augusta) and Hector Borg (SalemKeizer).