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The Colorado Rockies have hired former Royals special assistant and pitching coordinator Steve Foster to serve as their pitching coach, the team announced on Tuesday.
Foster, 48, has big league coaching experience with the Royals and Marlins, previously serving as the bullpen coach for each team. Largely under the tutelage of Foster, Kansas City built one of the best bullpens in baseball; fueled by the success of the three-headed monster of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, the Royals finished with a top-10 unit in the league and advanced to Game 7 of the World Series largely because of their pitching staff.
Foster pitched in the big leagues for three seasons, posting a 2.41 ERA with the Reds from 1991 through 1993 before shoulder injuries eventually ended his playing career.
The Rockies also announced the hiring of former big league reliever Darren Holmes as the new bullpen coach. Holmes has one year of professional coaching experience, serving as a minor league pitching instructor for the Braves in 2014. He specializes in the mechanics of pitching, with particular focus on injury prevention. Holmes pitched in the majors for 13 seasons, posting a 4.25 ERA/110 ERA+ for eight teams, including the Rockies. It was in Denver that Holmes fought through early elevation-related struggles to become a key cog in the Rockies' very successful-but-overworked bullpen in the mid-1990s.
In addition to the two pitching hires, the Rockies made several changes within the baseball operations wing of their front office:
In addition, the #Rockies have announced the following promotions within the Baseball Operations Department: pic.twitter.com/1vC1LiKZkd
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) November 4, 2014