Mitchell – Where Do We Go From Here?

What a season for the Columbus Clippers! The team won its 2nd consecutive Triple-A National Championship, capping another great year and now the Major League Play-offs begin. We talked a lot in 2010 about the Clippers collapse down the stretch that kept them from winning the division, but how about the Braves and RedSox both getting depantsed in front of the whole world?

The Indians have lost their Bench Coach (Tim Tolman) and Pitching Coach (Tim Belcher) and Sandy Alomar (1B Coach) is interested in the White Sox Job. It sounds like Bruce Fields will be retained as hitting coach. This could mean big changes for the Columbus staff next year. Mike Sarbaugh has to be on several team’s radar as a managerial prospect and Ruben Niebla got rave reviews from the Indians front office for his work with the Clippers this season. Ruben was also on the big league staff in 2010 until he went on the DL with a knee injury. The Clippers offense had the highest OBP and scored the most runs in the IL, so Lee May Jr. was doing something right as well.

Change in field staff is almost as constant in minor league baseball as turnover in player personnel from one season to the next, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see new faces steering the ship in 2012, but the Clippers have been very fortunate to have this coaching staff. Like everybody else, getting to the Major Leagues is the goal and you wish them luck, but it would be a shame from the Clippers perspective to lose any of those guys.

Keep checking back to the blog over the off-season. We will have plenty to talk about, some of it baseball related.

By the way, it’s short noitce, but check this out and give a helping hand to Clippers fan Tim Wisecup as he tries to live his baseball dream.