Steinmann named manager of the AquaSox

Scott Steinmann started his pro baseball career as a 22-year-old catcher with the Everett AquaSox in 1996, and Monday the parent Seattle Mariners named him manager of the short-season Class A team.
When he makes out his first lineup card for Everett’s 2011 opener June 17 at Tri City, Steinmann will become the first person to manage the AquaSox after playing for them earlier in his career.

Jim Horner, who played for the AquaSox in 1996, was announced as their manager for 2006 but was re-assigned to manage Class A Wisconsin before the season began. Dave Myers managed the AquaSox in 2006 after having played for the Bellingham Mariners early in his career.

The Mariners also announced that Andrew Lorraine, who pitched 59 major-league games over seven seasons (including four with the Mariners in 1998), will be Everett’s pitching coach in 2011.

Mike Kinkade, a former Washington State University star who played with the Mets, Orioles and Dodgers from 1998-2003, will be on the AquaSox staff in his first pro coaching job. Kinkade played for the Tacoma Rainiers in 2008.

Spyder Webb will return to Everett for his 33rd season as trainer for the Mariners’ Northwest League affiliate.

Steinmann, a native of Cincinnati, signed with the Mariners as an undrafted free agent in 1995 and played 30 games with the AquaSox in 1996, batting .140 with four doubles, a triple and four RBI. After his final year as a player in 1998 with Class AA Orlando, he worked with the Mariners as a roving minor-league catching instructor in 1999 before joining the AquaSox coaching staff in June that year.

Steinmann has managed at nearly every level of the Mariners’ organization — the rookie-level Peoria Mariners in 2003 and 2004, Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2005, Class A High Desert Mavericks in 2007, Class AA West Tennessee DiamondJaxx in 2008 and Class A Clinton in 2009.
Under Steinmann, Wisconsin won its division championship in 2005 and West Tennessee tied for first place in the first-half standings of its division in 2008.

Among other minor-league assignments announced by the Mariners on Monday:

• Manager Daren Brown and hitting coach Alonzo Powell will return to the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers in 2011. They were promoted to the Mariners in 2010 and finished the season in Seattle but weren’t retained on the big-league staff when Eric Wedge was hired as manager.



• Roger Hansen, a Stanwood resident and former AquaSox manager who was Brown’s bench coach at the end of the season with the Mariners, will return to his longtime role as catching coordinator.



• Jose Moreno, who managed the AquaSox to the NWL title in 2010, will manage Class A High Desert in 2011.



• Rich Dorman, the AquaSox pitching coach the past two years, will have that job at Class A Clinton. Former AquaSox manager Terry Pollreisz will return as Clinton’s hitting coach.



• Camano Island resident Andy Bottin will return as coach at rookie-level Peoria.



• John Tamargo, who managed the AquaSox in 2009, will be the Mariners’ Latin America field coordinator.



• Jim Pankovits, who has worked the past 16 years in the Houston Astros minor-league system, will manage the Class AA Jackson Generals (known last year as the West Tennessee DiamondJaxx). Among his coaches will be Cory Snyder, who played five seasons with the Cleveland Indians and hit 33 home runs with the Indians in 1987. Snyder has managed three years in the independent leagues.