Reds announce Minor League coaching staffs

CINCINNATI -- The Reds' Minor League affiliates announced their 2017 coaching staffs on Friday, with familiar faces returning to their posts.
Delino DeShields, the father of Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields, will be back for his third season as manager for Triple-A Louisville. DeShields, who has a 135-153 career record for Louisville, is entering his ninth season as a manager or coach in the Reds' organization.
The rest of the Louisville coaching staff will include three incumbents: pitching coach Jeff Fassero, hitting coach Jody Davis and trainer Steve Gober. Bench coach Darryl Brinkley and strength and conditioning coach Cole Durham will join the staff in 2017.
Pat Kelly will return as manager for his third season with Double-A Pensacola. Kelly is entering his 25th year as a Minor League manager. Dick Schofield, who served as the Class A Dayton manager in 2016, will be the Blue Wahoos' bench coach. Gookie Dawkins, formerly the hitting coach at Class A Advanced Daytona, was promoted to hitting coach at Pensacola. Danny Darwin will be return as the club's pitching coach.

For Daytona, manager Eli Marrero is returning for his third season with pitching coach Tom Brown, hitting coach Alex Pelaez and bench coach Ricky Gutierrez. Marrero is 159-125 in his two seasons with Daytona, and he is entering his seventh season with the Reds' organization.
The Reds added a fourth coaching role -- the bench coach -- at each of their affiliates for 2017.
"We did add a fourth coach to each staff with the intent of providing more individual defensive instruction as well as improving our ability to teach in-game situations," said Jeff Graupe, the Reds' senior director of player development. "We believe than an additional coach in the dugout will allow us to increase the overall baseball IQ of our players while allowing the managers and hitting coaches to focus on their specific duties. We have made an effort to hire staffs with diverse areas of expertise so that we could provide as much individual instruction as possible."