Meet the Diamondbacks' Impressive minor league Coaching Staff

Let's get started with the Diamondbacks impressive crop of minor league coaches. Each slide will have an individual team on it. Let's get started with the Hillsboro Hops!

Recently, the Arizona Diamondbacks' High-A minor league team, the Hillsboro Hops, announced their coaching staff for the upcoming 2022 MILB season. It's an exciting for the Hops, based out of Oregon, as they have started to really prove themselves as a solid minor league franchise.

The Hops last year developed many of the Diamondbacks' top prospects, including Matt Tabor, Bryce Jarvis, Buddy Kennedy, Ryne Nelson, Brandon Pfaadt, Drey Jameson, and Luis Frias. Buddy Kennedy was a star in the Arizona Fall League while the rest of those names all grew a ton in their baseball development.

Returning as manager of the Hops is Vince Harrison. He is in his 2nd season with Hillsboro. The first was widely successful due to those players developing. It's his 7th year coaching in the Dbacks organization and had a 5 year playing career in the minors.

Jeff Bajenaru is the team's pitching coach. He's entering his 12th year with Arizona's coaching staff. The last two years, he has spent with the Aces. Twice, Jeff was named Coach of the Year in the organization, 2017/18. He played in 3 seasons in the MLB, all with the Chicago White Sox where he won the 2005 World Series.

The hitting coach for the Hops is K.C. Judge. This will be his 3rd year with the organization and 2nd with the Hops. Judge is a noted swing master and swing scientist. He's written about the spine and how to manipulate it to improve your swing. Additionally, he created a t-shirt that he sold on YouTube about launch angles.

Ronald Ramirez is the Hops' coach. He's basically the bench coach. He'll be responsible for all the little things. This will be his 5th year on the Dbacks MILB coaching staff but his first year with the Hops. Jake Waldron and David Robertson are the trainer/strength & conditioning coaches respectively. It's their first season with the Hops. Last year, they worked at the Salt River Fields complex for the Arizona League team.

The Amarillo Sod Poodles Double-AA coaching staff

The Amarillo Sod Poodles are entering their 2nd year as the Double-AA affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They didn't do great last year, but they really helped our prospects grow as players. It's no secret that many of our prospects ended up in Double-AA or advanced to Reno like Alek Thomas.

Entering his 2nd straight year as manager of the Sod Poodles is Shawn Roof. It's his 7th year in the Dbacks organization. He's a 2-time minor league manager of the year and is only 37 years old. In his managerial career, he's 234-174. Those are pretty good numbers.

Shawn is a former minor league player himself. He played 6 years in the minors with the Detroit Tigers, reaching Double-AA before retiring in 2012.

The Sod Poodles' pitching coach is Shane Loux. This will be Loux's 6th year in the Diamondbacks system. However, this will be his first year out at Amarillo. Last year, he was the pitching coach for the Hillsboro Hops. He was given a large amount of credit for helping pitchers Matt Tabor, Bryce Jarvis, Ryne Nelson, Brandon Pfaadt, Drey Jameson, and Luis Frias excel last year. Now, the majority of those pitchers will be in Double-AA where he can continue to work with them.

Shane is a former MLB pitcher with the Giants. He won the 2012 World Series with the Giants. Additionally, he's from Gilbert. Keep up the good work Shane!

Travis Denker is Amarillo's hitting coach. This is his 2nd year with Amarillo after helping hitters like Buddy Kennedy and Alek Thomas grow a ton last year. Denker has been with the Diamondbacks organization for 4 years and this will be his 5th. He's a former Diamondbacks' minor league player as well.

Javier Colina is the team's coach. it's his 9th year in the organization. In 2019, he led Hillsboro Hops to the High-A championship. Logan Jones is the team's strength and conditioning coach. Damon Reed is the team's trainer.

The Reno Aces great Coaching Staff

The Reno Aces are loaded with talent this year, or at least they should be if the players we expect to go there after Spring Training end up going there. Some of the names are Buddy Kennedy, Bryce Jarvis, Alek Thomas, and more. The Aces have been Arizona's Triple-AAA team since 2012 or so. In that time, I can think of at least three players from the Aces that have won the Triple-AAA MVP (Christian Walker, Chris Owings, Kevin Cron). Hopefully, this season is another great one in The Biggest Little City in the World.

As for who is the manager of the Aces this year? That would be none other than Gil Velazquez, who 2021 as the Infield Coordinator with the Dbacks. He had been the team's infield coordinator since 2017 when Manager Torey Lovullo hired him. He's the 2nd youngest manager in Aces' history at only 42 years old. Additionally, he's an experienced shortstop after playing in parts of 5 seasons in the MLB with the Red Sox, Marlins, and Angels. He hit .233, .250, .247 with 4 RBIs and 1 double.

For the Aces' pitching coach, that's Doug Drabek. The former Cy Young award winner has been a pitching coach in the Diamondbacks' organization for 10 years. Last year, he led Amarillo. Additionally, he's the father of former MLB player Kyle Drabek who became known as a player for the Blue Jays.

Nick Evans and Mark Reed are both hitting coaches for the Aces. Nick Evans grew up in Phoenix attending St. Mary's High School. He played in the MLB with the Mets and Diamondbacks. In addition to that, he even played for the Aces at one point in time. Last year, he was the hitting coach for the AZ Complex League. As for Mark Reed, this will be his 9th season in the Diamondbacks organization. He's a former Aces' player as well. Coinciding with his hitting duties will be his role as catcher's coach. After all, he was the bullpen catcher for the Diamondbacks for the past few years. Perhaps you've seen him in the bullpen once or twice. Last year, he served in the same role that he will be with the Aces in the Arizona Complex League.

That's all of the coaches, so far, for the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Hopefully, they lead our prospects to many wins, but more importantly many skills. After all, while the wins are nice in the minors, we want them to develop our prospects to the best ability they can be. We need our prospects to reach their potential so that Arizona can become a good team for not just a couple of years, but long-lasting.

May the Force be with You Minor League coaches!