Greensboro Grasshoppers update: Andy Haines visits NewBridge Bank Park today

HAINES STOPS IN GREENSBORO BEFORE HEADING TO SPRING TRAINING
Andy Haines
The Greensboro Grasshoppers have announced Andy Haines, the Grasshoppers field manager for the 2011 season, and he be made a pre-season visit to NewBridge Bank Park this morning. Haines held a press conference at 10am, just inside The Hoppers Yard.

This was the first opportunity for the local media and the public to meet and greet Andy Haines, before the Grasshoppers return to town to start the 2011 South Atlantic League baseball season, in April.

Andy said the team will be looking at many different ways to show improvement on the field in 2011, but they will have to do it with almost an entirely new group of kids, which is the case on regular basis at the developmental levels, of minor league baseball….

Haines did say that there is a very good chance that we will see outfielder Christian Yelich here with the team in 2011….Yelich was a high draft pick by the Florida Malins in last year’s MLB draft and he spent maybe two weeks with the Hoppers at the end of last season, in 2010…Dallas Poulk is another young man that we might see in Greensboro in 2011….Poulk, from N.C. State, was also with the Hoppers briefly in 2010, at second base and Poulk played here with the Wolfpack in in the 2010 ACC Baseball Tournament held at NewBridge Bank Park….

The team is looking to put a winner on the field for the home fans in 2011 and it all starts tomorrow for Andy Haines, as he reports to Spring Training in Florida…..Haines will be working with the Marlins during portions of the Spring Training sessions and he will spend time with the parent team’s Double A guys and the Single A guys, in floating coaching/teaching segments and he will be getting most of his players ready to report to Greensboro in early April….(The spring training games down in Florida are right around the corner…..)

ABOUT ANDY HAINES

Haines will be returning to the Grasshoppers for his second season, after a 66 ­ 74 2010 campaign. Prior to the 2010 season Haines spent the 2009 season as the skipper for the Jamestown Jammers and the season prior as the hitting coach for the Marlins Gulf Coast team. Andy is no stranger to coaching; prior to joining the Marlins, he spent seven years coaching in independent baseball and college baseball. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Eastern Illinois University and a master¹s degree from Middle Tennessee State.

Season tickets, Hoppers Hot Passes and advertising packages are now on sale for the 2011 season. For more information, please contact the Grasshoppers office at 336.268.2255 or visit www.gsohoppers.com.