9-News: 37.089 – Walker Gets the Axe

[RonCo]

Coaching Carousel Begins Early
The news is apparently final, Yellow Springs Pitching coach Dan Walker has been fired, long live the new king, whoever the hell he’ll wind up being. The embattled pitching coach was given his walking papers despite having a season left on his contract after the team crashed and burned on the mound, allowing 884 runs, 13th best of 15 Frick League teams, despite striking out 1,260 hitters (third best in the league).

It all added up to the fact that the team was constantly struggling up hill, needing to outscore opponents in any particular game.

“It’s not Dan’s fault,” said starter Carlos Valle earlier this year. “He stepped into a tough situation. I mean, it’s hard to follow Bob (ex-pitching coach Robert LaLoosh) and be down a couple superstars and still get the numbers.” All of that is fair, and to be sure Walker had a respectable pedigree with the organization in the minors. But clearly fans didn’t see it that way, and the front office needed a fall-guy. Walker was the obvious candidate.

“We’ll be looking at several candidates to replace Dan,” said GM Ron Collins, “including people from within.”

That “people from within” is likely Kyle Beard, who has been in the Nine organization for over a decade and has seen pretty much all of the team’s prospects. He seems well-liked and has generally had some degree of success in generating pitching prospects, including helping mold both Valle and Ernesto Ramos. How he would fare at the next level, however, is uncertain.

The club feels no great pressure to name a replacement at this point, though, so the position may go unfilled for some time.

“Things change,” Valle said in summing up how he felt about the move. “I feel bad for Coach Dan, but we all understand this is a business from an early age, so I get it. You have to perform our you’re out.”