Weekend BP: Giants fill out player development staff

The San Francisco Giants have dramatically restructured their coaching and development trees over the last 16 or so months. When Farhan Zaidi took over as president of baseball operations, the shift began modestly at the minor league level.

Once Bruce Bochy retired, it offered Zaidi, general manager Scott Harris, and new manager Gabe Kapler the freedom to go all out reshaping their developmental staff. Which they have no done.

We have names. My goodness do we have names.

On Friday, the Giants released their player development staff for this year. There are, for starters, a lot of names. That’s standard, but it’s also a sign of how thorough and detailed this regime is, as we saw displayed with their major league coaching staff.

There are some pretty notable names here, particularly the roving pitching and catching instructors: Ryan Vogelsong and Eli Whiteside, respectively. Yes. We like this.

Also of note are Shawon Dunston and Dave Righetti, familiar faces during the Bochy era, who are staying on as special assistants (along with Joe Amalfitano and Gene Clines).

The Giants also revealed some minor league coaching developments, so let’s just cut to the fun stuff: Pat the Bat. Oh yes. Pat Burrell will be the hitting coach for the San Jose Giants.

Furthermore, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Travis Ishikawa will be the hitting coach in the Arizona rookie league. Literally.

Happy weekend, friends. Be nice, wash your hands, and have a good weekend.