Chicago Cubs: Does Price make sense alongside Maddon?
Most Cubs fans know Bryan Price as the skipper of the Cincinnati Reds. Not just that, but the manager who got the boot after Cincinnati got off to a dreadful 3-15 start this year. Knowing that – and only that – proposing him as a pitching coach probably catches people off-guard.
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But there’s a lot more to Price than his time at the helm of the Reds, during which he amassed a 279-387 record. After winning 76 games in 2014, his first year as manager, the club failed to break the 70-win plateau again during his tenure. But before his run in Cincinnati, he held the pitching coach role for several teams, as well.
Prior to managing the Reds, he served as the pitching coach from 2010 to 2013. From 2007 to 2009, he guided Arizona’s hurlers as the pitching coach in Phoenix and going even further back, he held that role with the Seattle Mariners from 2001 to 2006. In short, we’re talking about a guy with a decade-and-a-half of experience in this role.
Safe to say there’s probably a good reason he kept getting hired as a pitching coach. Undoubtedly, Epstein will want to hear Price (and every other candidate) talk about potential fixes for guys like Tyler Chatwood in the interview. Given his lengthy experience, it stands to reason Price probably has a few ideas when it comes to addressing the right-hander erratic tendencies should he land the gig.