Sox To Sign Three Coaches To Extensions

The White Sox are going to sign Greg Walker, Don Cooper, and Joey Cora to contract extensions according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Greg Walker has done a nice job as hitting coach. Most notably, he deserves a lot of credit for the devolopment of "Smokin'" Joe Crede. Crede had a long, looping swing when he came to the big leagues, and he tried to pull everything. Now, Crede has shortened his swing and takes a lot of balls up the middle and to right field.

As for Cooper, not much needs to be said. Last season, the White Sox tied with Cleveland for the lowest earned run average in the American League and became the first team since the 1920's to have four pitchers win consecutive post-season games. Under his watch, Esteban Loaiza, Jon Garland, and Jose Contreras have all had ace caliber seasons after having previously undistinguished careers. The guy is a master.

Joey Cora is every bit as aggressive as Wallace Johnson was, and he makes fewer mistakes as third base coach. He is good for probably 30 extra runs a year with his aggressiveness. Furthermore, he is one of Ozzie Guillen's best friends so his job security was never in question.

The future of the rest of the coaching staff is more in doubt. The Sun-Times article quoted Ozzie as saying, "I like all my coaches." However, he also said, "If [Baines, Raines, and Kusnyer] want to come back, they will be back. And then the bench with Raines, I don't know what we want to do there. That's why we'll probably wait on those guys.''