John Russell was the manager for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2006, winning the IL ‘Manager of the Year’ award after racking up 84 wins and a winning percentage of .592 (finishing 5.5 games ahead of Rochester in the IL North division).
In 2002 he led the Edmonton Trappers (of the PCL) to the PCL Championship “and was named Baseball America’s Minor League Manager-of-the-Year. He spent the past three seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates coaching staff.” (ed: Sorry, I’ve lost the link for the reference quoted). Rochester went on to beat SWB in the playoffs, 3 games to 1 - but the Phillies stripped the Red Barons when September came, so Russell wasn’t playing with his front-liners when Rochester beat them.
Mr. Russell was called up by the Phillies after SWB’s season ended, helping the parent club until the end of the MLB season.
Will Ottawa see Mr. Russell in a Lynx uniform? Hard to say; the Phillies just let go three coaches last week and “Gillick did say that candidates in the organization would be considered, such as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager John Russell, a former Phillies player who was the Triple A International League’s manager of the year this season and will manage the club’s Venezuelan affiliate this winter.” (ref:Philadelphia Daily News)
And then there’s this - “Phillies Triple A manager John Russell will interview Thursday for the Rangers’ managing job. Russell, a former Phillies and Rangers catcher, was the International League Manager of the Year after he led an overachieving Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team to the playoffs.” (ref:Philly.com)
I’m going to go out on a limb and bet that we’ll have a ‘new’ new manager next season.
