Tommy Phelps
Earlier in this space, I talked about the New York Yankees gutted their minor league pitching coaching. Their lone holdover was Phelps, who is currently the pitching coach for in AAA. If you look at the numbers for Scranton last season, they aren’t the best, however, so many pitchers rode the Scranton shuttle between there and the Bronx, that he should get a little bit of a pass. It’s hard to get consistency when you don’t know who is going to be there from day to day. In his other three seasons as pitching coach, the club finished first in ERA twice.
Phelps was a major part of getting Chad Green back on track this season. The New York Yankees may not have made the ALCS without getting him right out of their bullpen, especially with all of the injuries leading up to the postseason.
The New York Yankees have had some success in developing pitching in recent years, especially in the bullpen, and Phelps has certainly played a part in that. That success could certainly translate at the big league level, with Phelps at the helm of the pitching staff.