LA Angels import former Braves coach in wild new role

In what felt like a package deal, Sal Fasano and Travis d'Arnaud are now members of the Los Angeles Angels. News broke on Nov. 12th that d'Arnaud inked a contract with the Angels in free agency, and moments after it was reported that Fasano was coming as well. Despite playing catcher, and predominantly coaching catchers his whole career, Fasano was hired as an assistant pitching coach.

Fasano once said, "my job is to educate" when talking about how there are catchers who are great throwers but do not know why they are great throwers. He knows throwing, and the Angels have really underlined the importance of coaches tweaking their players' throwing mechanics in the past few years. Furthermore, he is just a highly educated baseball mind with ample experience in many different avenues of the game. Fasano was drafted in 1993, played in the big leagues for 11 years, and coached in several different roles since 2009 (overlapping with Perry Minasian, Ron Washington, and Eric Young Sr., much like d'Arnaud).

The details of Fasano's role will be fascinating to learn as the season goes along. Will the majority of his work be with Logan O'Hoppe and Travis d'Arnaud on the game planning side? On the surface, the d'Arnaud and Fasano acquisitions feel more like moves to assist O'Hoppe's development than anything else. Pitching coaches and coordinators work more with catchers than fans might think, and Fasano could be the most hands-on with his new team's catcher than any pitching coach ever has given his background. O'Hoppe will get intense lessons from his new backup catcher and assistant pitching coach in how to manage a pitching staff.

With the pitchers, Fasano could really emphasize the importance of a catcher's glove and how their stuff plays when they really try to drive their pitches through a given target. The Angels, like the Rays and Dodgers, have really drawn attention to middle-middle catcher targets and letting pitchers with big velo and movement aiming down-the-middle to get into high-leverage counts make competitive pitches.

This is all speculation given Fasano's playing and coaching expertise. By all accounts, Fasano is a jack-of-all-trades coach who knows the ins and outs of hitting, infield defense, outfield defense, base running, and, of course, pitching, and catching. He has a mastery of mechanics, and perhaps biomechanics as well. Will he get in the lab and help pitchers new pitches? Yes! Barry Enright and Fasano are coaches who are the perfect blend of new-school and old-school and will make a great combo.

Perry Minasian adding every available Brave is getting more hilarious for some, more infuriating for others. What's next? Will he trade for Druw Jones, Andruw's son? Make Chipper his assistant general manager? Construct a shrine for Bobby Cox on top of the rock pile? For as long as Minasian remains the Angels' general manager, he will utilize his Braves connections over, and over, and over, and over.

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