Astros Hire Brent Strom As Pitching Coach
By Yoni Pollak
After announcing several coaching changes last week, the Astros made their first hire since letting go of a few coaches. Yesterday, the Astros hired Brent Strom from the St. Louis Cardinals in an effort to hopefully mimic the success of the Cardinals pitching staff that Brent Strom coached up from the minor leagues. Brent Strom will be replacing Doug Brocail who will be taking an assistant job under Jeff Luhnow.
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This is actually Brent Strom’s second time being the pitching coach for the Houston Astros. Strom was with the team in 1996 under Terry Collins. Strom also served as pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals in 2000 and 2001. After a stint with the Royals, Strom was a minor league pitching coordinator for the Washington Nationals from 2002-2006, and has been with the St. Louis Cardinals organization since 2007.
Why should Astros fans be excited about this hire? Look no further than the Cardinals current pitching staff. Strom is responsible for the success of pitchers such as Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez, Shelby Miller, Joe Kelly, Lance Lynn, and Trevor Rosenthal among many others over the years.
Strome believes in “classic mechanics.” In a 2008 Post-Dispatch article, he explained;
"“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Before coaches came along, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, all the greats, did what they did because they had to. The body found a way to do what it needed – to throw hard, with velocity, and get hitters out.“It’s a very natural approach to finding the best mechanics.”"
According to Derrick Goold (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), Strom and Dave Duncan (former Cardinals pitching coach) sometimes clashed in their pitching philosophies though they both worked well together in combining their pitching thoughts in “Cardinal Way,” a manual that is presented all Cardinals minor leaguers.
Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
There is no doubt that Jeff Luhnow wanted the Astros to carry on with the “Cardinal Way” of pitching. Strom is partially responsible for the success of the Cardinals young pitchers and the Astros have many young pitchers that Strom will be able to work with and improve their mechanics. The Astros-Cardinals connection continues for now and will likely continue for some time as long as Jeff Luhnow is around.
Reactions around the Twitterverse:
Great hire by Astros to add Brent Strom as pitching coach. He and Cardinals' minor lg coaches have done great work with Cards' pitchers.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) October 7, 2013
Congrats to an old friend Brent Strom, named pitching coach..again..with the Astros..solid baseball man..deserved to be back in big leagues
— beeple (@vincebaseball) October 7, 2013
In Brent Strom's first stint at Astro P coach team ERA was 10th in NL. One of his hurlers was... Doug Brocail! 1996
— Greg Lucas (@GREGCLUCAS) October 8, 2013
Cannot tell you how excited I am with the hiring of Strom as pitching coach. Puts emphasis on things that I've been talking about for while
— Brooks Parker DPT (@Subber10) October 7, 2013
He's real big on momentum and mechanics. I'm already excited to watch Astros pitching staff next season.
— Brooks Parker DPT (@Subber10) October 7, 2013
I’m excited as well. Strom’s success with the Cardinals makes me dream about what he could do with the young pitching talent both in the major leagues and in the minor league system.