While the White Sox initially promised that new manager Robin Venturas coaching staff would be unveiled along with him on Tuesday, that wasnt the case.
Were still going through that as far as the personalities and the people and who Im comfortable with, Ventura said. Its still in the process.
GM Ken Williams did confirm a sort of amoebic coaching staff, where roles and duties arent so clearly defined. That begins with Harold Baines, one of the only other holdovers from Guillens staff, who will again man first base but see his duties expand.
With the staff were putting together, Harolds role will remain first base coach and working with outfielders, the GM said. But with the names were talking about internally, it will fit together such that Harold will be putting more time into the mental side of some of our hitters approaches. He was pretty good at hitting, and remains a valuable asset in that area. But he will take a greater role along those linesas will Robin. Thats what I mean by a coaching staff that will work together. Its all intertwined, not just on one guy to solve the problems of our hitters for example.
As for concrete names beyond Don Cooper as pitching coach Baines at first base, and Juan Nieves and Mark Salas in the bullpen, the rumor mill has Philadelphia Phillies Double-A manager Mark Parent as having the inside track for bench coach and White Sox Triple-A manager Joe McEwing taking over as third-base coach.
The main area of contention is as hitting coach, with two candidates, Jeff Manto and Tim Laker, as frontrunners.
Its up in the air as to who the hitting coach is, Ventura said. Obviously we want to start narrowing it down. I need guys that can work with players and make them confident, when they go to the plate and know what hes talking about. All those things sound clich. Were trying to win games, so it should be a guy who knows what hes doing and guys trust him.
MLB
Brett Ballantini is CSNChicago.com's White Sox Insider. Follow him @CSNChi_Beatnik on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Sox information. CSNChicago staff contributed to this report.