│ MLB NEWS Grace relishing new career as Major League coach November 6, 2014 • MLB.com Former player and broadcaster proved himself in Minors http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_ind By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com ex.jsp http://m.dbacks.mlb.com/news/article/100657692/arizona- diamondbacks-mark-grace-excited-about-new-role-as-assistant- ASSOCIATED PRESS hitting-coach November 6, 2014 • Sports.yahoo.com http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/morenews Finally healthy, Fleck thrives in relief By Jack Magruder / FOX Sports Arizona MLB TRANSACTIONS http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/finally-healthy- November 6, 2014 • MLB.com diamondbacks-kaleb-fleck-thrives-in-relief-110514 http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/transactions Diamondbacks notebook: No Gold Glove winner, charity golf event planned By Mark Brown / Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/diamondbacks-notebook-no- gold-glove-winner-charity-golf-event-planned Yasmany Tomas Rumors: Latest Buzz and Speculation on Cuban Star By Mike Chiari / Bleacher Report http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2257064-yasmany-tomas- rumors-latest-buzz-and-speculation-on-cuban-star Former MLB pitcher Brad Halsey, 33, dies in fall from cliff By Matt Wilhalme / Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-brad- halsey-dies-20141106-story.html 1 │ New D-backs manager Chip Hale, who spent time in the Minors working his way up the managing ranks, asked Grace to be his Grace relishing new career as Major League coach assistant hitting coach earlier this month, under hitting coach Former player and broadcaster proved himself in Minors Turner Ward. By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com http://m.dbacks.mlb.com/news/article/100657692/arizona- "We've given him a second shot here and he's taken it and ran diamondbacks-mark-grace-excited-about-new-role-as-assistant- with it," Hale said. "He worked his tail off in the Minor Leagues. hitting-coach It's not easy, especially for a guy who has done things like he has. And obviously being an announcer like he was and traveling like PHOENIX -- As recently as a couple of years ago Mark Grace he was and now you're riding buses again. never would have guessed that as he turned 50 in the summer of 2014 he would be riding on a bus between Hillsboro, Oregon, "He didn't have to do that. He did. He wants this. I can tell you and Boise, Idaho. from talking on the phone with him, he's as excited as anybody is. He's ready to get this thing turned this around. He wants the Back in 2012, Grace was a well-paid analyst on D-backs Diamondbacks to be successful. We're going to draw on him a broadcasts, but a second DUI arrest in a two-year span caused lot this year." him to lose his job and he served a four-month jail term, which ended in June 2013. Grace had spent time around Hale when Hale was a coach in Arizona and Grace was still broadcasting and the pair would During his time in jail, Grace was able to participate in a work- spend a week together each January at the team's Fantasy Camp. release program when the D-backs hired him to work with their Minor League players at the team's Salt River Fields complex. Still, Grace said he was surprised when Hale offered him a spot on his staff. "I wouldn't have realized without doing that just how much I love coaching," Grace said. "I wouldn't have realized just how "I'm thankful to Chip and the front office guys that are giving much I love trying to turn young men into better baseball me this opportunity," Grace said. "It was unexpected, but I'm players. I absolutely love it." excited as I can possibly be. I'm ready. I'm ready to get after it." Finally healthy, Fleck thrives in relief Grace will get to continue doing what he loves as the D-backs' By Jack Magruder / FOX Sports Arizona new assistant hitting coach. He worked with the big league team http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/finally-healthy- during Spring Training this past season and would have been the diamondbacks-kaleb-fleck-thrives-in-relief-110514 assistant hitting coach, but when catcher Henry Blanco did not make the Opening Day roster, he took that role and Grace was SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Diamondbacks minor leaguer Kaleb assigned to be the hitting coach for the Class A Short-Season Fleck has not done it the easy way, but that has not kept him team, the Hillsboro Hops. from becoming a top bullpen prospect. The Hops captured the Northwest League championship and Tommy John surgery after his junior year at Pittsburgh- Grace said he will cherish the ring he got as a result. Johnstown started a detour that forced Fleck from a likely selection in the first 10 rounds of the 2010 draft into the free "I remember the butterflies in my stomach when I was playing agent pool. and I had the same butterflies up there in Hillsboro during every game," Grace said. "Any player or coach that tells you they're The Diamondbacks never lost sight of Fleck and his prime stuff, not nervous, they're lying. The difference is, as a player you have however, and signed him as a free agent late in 2011. Their some control, as a coach you just prepare them the best way you diligence soon could be rewarded. Fleck's high-90 mph fastball can prepare them and hope they go out and play well. That's why has returned, his command is improving and his future appears you put every ounce of your heart and soul into this because you limitless. want them to be better." "He's a legitimate big-league option moving forward," D-backs That Grace was willing to go back to the lowest levels of the director of player development Mike Bell said of the right- Minors to gain coaching experience impressed the D-backs. hander reliever. After all, this was a guy that was used to big league travel -- flying charter airplanes and staying in luxury hotels. Now he was Fleck, 25, is putting the finishing touches the best of his three back to riding buses, sometimes for as long as eight hours at a minor league seasons in the Arizona Fall League, and he has time and staying at motels instead of hotels. thrown well. He has 10 strikeouts in 7-2/3 innings and opened the season with five consecutive scoreless appearances before his "Bus rides are a little bit different now than when I was a Minor ERA jumped to 3.52 after he gave up a two-run home run in his Leaguer in the 1980s," he said. "Buses are a little nicer, you've most recent outing. got iPads and iPhones and DVDs that you can watch. Back in the day, I had a Sony Walkman that played cassette tapes. There His 2014 season earned him the extra time in the Fall League. were no movies, no iPads, so you listened to cassette tapes or Fleck was 7-3 with 17 saves and a 2.56 ERA in 56 appearances at you slept." Double-A Mobile, where he had the best peripherals of his career -- 11.2 strikeouts and 7.8 hits per nine innings. When 2 │ Mobile's postseason run ended, Fleck was promoted to Triple-A progress he made this season, even if his walk rate (4.0 per nine Reno for its playoffs. innings) was more than he wanted. "Once we turned him loose, he hit the ground running," Bell "I had a lot more confidence in my slider this year, and I was said. able to put guys away a little easier, whereas in past years I had to rely only on my fastball. This year I was throwing a little bit Getting back on the ground was the only time-consuming part in harder, and to have secondary stuff to go with it made things a Fleck's return. His fastball was clocked in the mid-90s at in lot easier," Fleck said. college in 2010 but he said he felt elbow pain most of the season and it finally got to a point where he needed medical attention. "It was strictly a confidence thing. Coming out of rehab, I was almost afraid to throw it, thinking I was going to hurt myself Doctors initially believed Fleck had a muscle tear and prescribed again. It was in the back of my mind. This year, it was like, 'You rehab rather than surgery, but the injury scared potential draft know what I'm healthy. I can do it.' I just had to trust my stuff day suitors away. After trying rehab, Fleck opted to undergo and throw it with more conviction, and I think it really paid off. Tommy John surgery in July and missed the 2011 college season. Every year I've felt stronger. I'm kind of getting my body back in the swing of things. My confidence has gone up each year. I'm He pitched in the summer Cape Cod League in 2009 and he really starting to believe I belong here. I can see myself as a big returned late in the summer of 2011, 11-1/2 months after his leaguer." surgery. Fleck said he felt good enough to get back on the mound, although the results were not always what he wanted. As Bell said, the D-backs can see that, too, even if took a more circuitous path.