Minnesota Twins
Hitting Coach, Joe Vavra attended the University Wisconsin-Stout
where he played baseball. He was drafted by the Los
Angeles Dodgers in 1982 in the eightvh round and worked
his way through the farm system before illness took
him off the playing field while playing AAA. Joe stayed
with the Dodgers for a total of 18 seasons as a coach,
manager, instructor, director and coordinator at various
levels in the Dodgers' system.
Joe Vavra will be remembered as the most dominant shortstop
in UW-Stout baseball history. He was the leading hitter
in 1980, 81 and 82 and the team MVP in 1981 and 82. He
was inducted into the UW-Stout Athletic Hall of Fame in
1995.
Joe coached teams at Great Falls, Mont.,
Yakima, Wash., Vero Beach, Fla., and San Bernardino,
Calif., he won three league championships and five divisional
titles. He was awarded five managers of the year titles.
In 1989 and 1994, he was named Baseball America magazine's
"Short-A Season manager of the year." In 1995,
he was named as the Dodgers' major league base running
and bunting coach, where he has had the opportunity
to coach the likes of Mike Piazza, Pedro Martinez, Eric
Young and Roger Cedeno.
Joe put aside the Dodger blue and was
named as the head coach of the UW-Stout baseball program
in 1999. Then in 2001, he joined the Twins minor league
organization as a field coordinator and manager. On
October 27, 2005, Joe was named the Twins hitting coach,
moving past hitting coach, Scott Ullger to third base
coach. Joe received some criticism in the nomination
because he has no formal major league hitting experience.
Joe has however, worked with both the Dodgers and the
Twins at the Major league level and has had some valuable
hitting experience as a field coordinator.
Joe will bring a different perspective
to the hitting team. He is still aggressive, but is
more concentrated on getting on base than getting the
ball over the wall.
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