Pirates announce Minor League managers and coaches

12/19/2008 10:10 AM ET

MLB.com

The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced their Minor League managerial and coaching assignments for the 2009 season. The announcement was made by Kyle Stark, Pittsburgh's Director of Player Development.

The Triple-A Indianapolis Indians will be managed by Frank Kremblas, who spent the last four seasons as the manager at Nashville (Brewers' AAA). He led the Sounds to three straight division titles (2005-07) and was named the Pacific Coast League Manager-of-the-Year in 2007. In 11 seasons as a Minor League manager, Kremblas owns a 647-613 (.513) record.

Matt Walbeck, who served the Texas Rangers as their Third Base Coach in 2008, will manage the Altoona Curve in 2009. He has managed four seasons in the Minor Leagues, most recently in 2007 with Erie (Tigers' AA), where he was named Eastern League Manager-of-the-Year after guiding the club to an 81-59 record.

PJ Forbes will manage Lynchburg in 2009. He spent the last five seasons managing in the Philadelphia farm system with Class-A Lakewood (2004-05) and Double-A Reading (2006-08).

Gary Green will take over the managerial duties at West Virginia after spending the past two seasons with Hickory. He joined the Pirates organization as a manager with Lynchburg in 2006.

Gary Robinson will manage the State College Spikes in 2009. Robinson was the head baseball coach at UNC Charlotte for 10 years (1981-1990) and also served the Montreal Expos as a coach in the Gulf Coast League in 1998. He is currently employed by the Union County school system outside Charlotte and has worked the last 10 years as an umpire supervisor/evaluator at the Triple-A level for Major League Baseball.

Tom Prince, who was named the Gulf Coast League Manager-of-the-Year in 2008, will manage the GCL Pirates for the third straight season in 2009, his fifth overall season as a manager in Pittsburgh's system.

INDIANAPOLIS (AAA)
Manager: Frank Kremblas
Coach: Jeff Branson
Pitching Coach: Ray Searage
Trainer: Jose Ministral

ALTOONA (AA)
Manager: Matt Walbeck
Coach: Ryan Long
Pitching Coach: Dean Treanor
Trainer: Thomas Pribyl

LYNCHBURG (A)
Manager: PJ Forbes
Coach: Dave Howard
Pitching Coach: Wally Whitehurst
Trainer: Bryan Housand

WEST VIRGINIA (A)
Manager: Gary Green
Coach: Edgar Varela
Pitching Coach: Jeff Johnson
Trainer: TBA

STATE COLLEGE (A)
Manager: Gary Robinson
Coach: Brandon Moore
Pitching Coach: Mike Steele
Trainer: Mike Zalno

BRADENTON (Rookie)
Manager: Tom Prince
Coach: Rudy Pena
Pitching Coach: Miguel Bonilla
Trainer: Keito Homma

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Pirates Homepage | MLB.com