New Baseball Manager - Raphael Cerrato

[RhowdyRam02]

I figured instead of clogging up the Coach Foster thread I'd start a new one focused on the search for a new manager. Here are 4 candidates I came up with:

URI assistant coach Raphael Cerrato. He's been an assistant on Foster's staff since 2012, before that he was the head coach at New Haven from 2007-11. He had a record of 131-97 with a NCAA tournament appearance in 2010. He was on the Rhody baseball team from 1989-93 named to the All-Conference team in 92 and team captain in 93.

Former URI manager Frank Leoni. He played for us from 1988-91 and was the manager from 1993-2005, leading us to our only NCAA tournament appearance in 2005. He struggled early with us, but really started the success that Foster continued. He had a record of 266-343-4 at URI, going 123-159 in the A10. His last year here was Foster's first year on the staff. He left to take over the program at William and Mary and was the manager there from 2006-12 going 196-178, 87-108 in the CAA. In 2014 he managed D3 Marymount located in Arlington County, VA.

Franklin Pierce manager Jayson King. This was the candidate mentioned by a couple of national college baseball writers. He's been the manager at D2 Franklin Pierce in Rindge, NH since 1999 with a record of 579-325-3 and 5 NCAA Regional titles in the last 9 years.

West Chester University manager Jad Prachniak. He a native of Lincoln he was a pitcher at URI from 2001-04 and co-captain of the 2004 team. He's been a manager at D2 WCU in Pennsylvania for 3 seasons, winning the D2 championship in his first year with a career record of 96-52-1. In between URI and WCU he spent six years on Frank Leoni's staff at W&M as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.

[TruePoint]

I'm probably biased because I volunteered doing some scouting and statistical work for coach Leoni when I was a student, but I'd sign up for bringing him back without thinking twice.

[SmartyBarrett]

Good list. I've seen people tweeting about #1 and #3. The question is - do they promote from within (Cerrato) or go outside the program?

[SmartyBarrett]

This could be over quickly. Koch just tweeted that Cerrato has been promoted to head coach, but the tweet is now deleted. Maybe he was just getting the tweet ready to go in his drafts...

[SmartyBarrett]

Tweet is back. Cerrato it is.

[URI96]

I'm probably biased because I volunteered doing some scouting and statistical work for coach Leoni when I was a student, but I'd sign up for bringing him back without thinking twice.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

[TruePoint]

Ha well he wouldn't have been MY boss this time....

But I'm fine with the hire of Cerrato. Would be more excited with the continuity if we were coming off a better season.

[RF1]

The Journal article indicated Cerrato was the interim manager. A search will be conducted in a year for a new permanent manager.

It sounds like the next year will be a probation period for Cerrato.

[adam914]

Yeah thats pretty much exactly what Koch tweeted yesterday according to his discussion with Thorr I believe

[Cameron_Dollar]

Ken Hopkins, current coach at CCRI, former head coach at RIC. He is a Rhode Islander through and through. Has developed strong ties and has served as a feeder system for larger programs. I'm sure he would jump at the opportunity and would hit the ground running.

[RhowdyRam02]

The posting for this position had been up, but seems to have expired. I'd imagine with our season we should be hearing about a longer term deal for Cerrato any day now.

[RhowdyRam02]

And any day now is today, he's had the interim tag removed and will be our manager.

http://www.gorhody.com/sports/m-basebl/ ... 0623bn88gn

[bressler3south]

Onward and upward!!!!!

http://www.providencejournal.com/articl ... aking_ajax

[ramster]

Onward and upward!!!!!

http://www.providencejournal.com/articl ... aking_ajax

Great news! Well deserved. Coach of the Year and nice acolades for Hess and Wilson - two outstanding Freshmen.
Many key players return next year.
One of our own former players as the Head Coach - great story.

Is it just me or does $65,000 Salary per year seem on the light side?

[adam914]

I was surprised to hear that salary number as well, but I have no idea what the average A10 level salary is for baseball coaches so maybe its not that far from the norm.

[Shaolin Swat]

Seems a little light to me, but with baseball not really generating much revenue, I can understand the salary being relatively low. I'm also assuming that he will do what most baseball coaches do and supplement the salary with pay from running camps and lessons.

I remember when I was a kid, I would take lessons from Jim Foster and Jim Mason (when they were both Leoni's pitching coaches), which I'm assuming they did simply to supplement their pay as assistants

[Hal Kopp]

I think URI pays all coaches and faculty near bottom of their peer group?