The Tampa Bay Rays announced a series of promotions on Friday, October 13 as part of the franchise’s player development program.
Among these, the most important concerns Blake Butera, bench
coach dell’Italia al World Baseball Classic and the cornerstone of Mike Piazza’s technical project for the Azzurri.
Butera was appointed ‘Senior Director of Player Development’ and therefore put in charge of the entire analysis and development system for the Rays’ athletes after just one season as ‘Assistant Field Coordinator’.
The thirty-one year old from Metairie, New Orleans, Louisiana, therefore continues his record-breaking career, all carried out so far in the Florida club, which saw him, after two years as a player, become, in 2018, the youngest manager of all the Minors League, and then winning the Single A title consecutively in 2021 and 2022 with his Charleston RiverDogs and the category manager of the year recognition.
Blake was Piazza’s right-hand man and the soul of the staff that led the Italian national team to fifth place in the 2023 Classic and, together with his father Barryformer Red Sox and principal, as well as head baseball coach of the 12-14 year category at Lake Castle Madisonville School in New Orleans, former speaker at CON-X 2023, represents one of those technical resources on which the Italian movement can count for the development of present and future talent.
“We are obviously delighted with this extraordinary promotion – stated the President of FIBS Andrea Marcon – and I think I can express the warmest congratulations to him from our entire world. I hope and trust that this great new responsibility will allow him to continue to find the time to dedicate to the project of developing our baseball. The Butera family is an example of how love for our country and pride for the blue shirt can be translated into concrete actions that we must treasure. In the meantime, we look forward to Barry and Blake as speakers at CON-X 2024.”
In the photo, Blake Butera throws batting practice at the Tokyo Dome before the Japan-Italy quarterfinal of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (RL-IABF)
Marco Landi
2023-10-15 11:39:49
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