Senators announce new field staff

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The Harrisburg Senators and Washington Nationals have announced that Matt LeCroy will manage the Senators in 2012. He replaces Tony Beasley who is the new manager for the Syracuse Chiefs. LeCroy is the 17th different manager for the Senators since 1987. He leads a brand new coaching staff, though trainer Jeff Allred is returning for a second year in 2012. Joining LeCroy and Allred are pitching coach Paul Menhart and hitting coach Eric Fox.

Matt LeCroy
LeCroy comes to the Senators from Potomac, where he guided the P-Nats to a playoff spot in the Class A Advanced Carolina League in 2011. He spent 2009 and 2010 as the skipper of the Hagerstown Suns in the Class A South Atlantic League. He last played in 2008 for the independent Lancaster Barnstormers. He is 189-224 in his three seasons as a manager in the Nationals organization. In 2011, he managed the Carolina League squad in the Carolina League vs. California League All-Star game.

LeCroy was originally selected by the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the 1997 First-Year Player Draft by. His Major League debut came in the 2000 season with the Twins, starting an eight-year career in which he played in 476 games, primarily as a catcher. He batted .260 with 60 home runs in just 1,388 at bats -- hitting one home run every 23 at bats. During his career, he appeared in the postseason three times with the Twins including in the American League Championship Series in 2002 against Anaheim. He batted .269 in 26 postseason at bats with one RBI. His best season was 2003, when he hit .287 for the Twins with 17 home runs and 64 RBIs in 107 games. Matt played one season for the Nats in 2006, appearing in 39 games.

Paul Menhart
Menhart was originally selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth round of the 1990 Draft. He pitched in parts of three seasons with the Blue Jays, going 5-9 with a 5.47 ERA over 41 games, 23 of them starts. Paul made his Major League debut on April 27, 1995, when he came in during the ninth inning of a game against the Oakland Athletics. His battery mate was former Sens manager Randy Knorr. Menhart has spent the past three seasons in Potomac as the pitching coach. This is his seventh season as a pitching coach in the Nationals organization. He spent three years as a coach for his Alma Mater, the Western Carolina Catamounts, prior to joining the Nationals organization. He finished his playing career in 2001 with the independent Solano Steelheads.

Eric Fox
Fox was selected in the first round of the 1986 Draft (January Secondary) by the Seattle Mariners. This is his second stint as hitting coach with the Senators, having served in the same role in 2001. He made his Major League debut on July 7, 1992, for the Oakland Athletics. He played parts of four years in the Major Leagues, three with the Athletics and one with Texas. He played in the postseason with Oakland in 1992, going 1-for-4 against Toronto in the American League Championship Series. Fox comes to the Nationals organization after having worked in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. His last season of playing professionally was 1997, when he appeared in 92 games combined with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Rochester.

The Senators 2012 home opener is Thursday, April 12 at 7 p.m. against the Reading Phillies. Season tickets, mini-plans, and group tickets are available online at www.senatorsbaseball.com or by calling the Senators at 717-231-4444.