Almaraz Returns As Cardinals Manager

The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that Joe Almaraz will return for his second season as manager of the Johnson City Cardinals. Almaraz, 54, begins his fourth season in Johnson City serving as manager last season and as the hitting coach during the 2005 and 2006 campaign. He brings a wealth of experience to the Cardinals organization, coaching high school teams for 12 years before moving on to the college and professional level. Almaraz had a previous stint as a manger in the Appalachian League as he led the Bluefield Orioles to the league championship in 2001. That was his first of 3 years coaching in the Orioles system, with a 2-year stop in Aberdeen managing the Iron Birds in 2002 and 2003. Almaraz also served as a scout covering west Texas for the Orioles while also coordinating the Orioles' scouting in Mexico. Prior to joining Baltimore, Almaraz managed for three years in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. In addition to his coaching duties, he also serves as an area scouting supervisor for the Cardinals organization. "I am pleased to be back to manage the Johnson City Cardinals", said Almaraz. "I think we will be competitive; we will have a good mixture of drafted players and some players that will return for a second year in the Appy league. Our goal is to put a club out every night that will look and be sound fundamentally and have fun doing it. I know my family and myself are delighted to live and see our friends in Johnson City this summer."

Almaraz's coaching staff will have a new look as Tim Leveque will replace Sid Monge as pitching coach and Mike Schildt joins the club as hitting coach. Leveque begins his first season as pitching coach in Johnson City. He was hired by the Cardinals in March of 2006 as a pitching specialist that coordinated and studied video of draft-eligible pitchers. He will continue these tasks prior to the start of the Johnson City season. Leveque attended and played baseball at Crespi High School in Encino, Calif., the same school that produced former Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan. He was drafted out of high school by the Detroit Tigers but did not sign, instead choosing to attend and play college baseball at the University of Michigan.

Mike Shildt will serve as hitting coach at Johnson City in 2008 and also act as spring training coordinator. Last season, he was the position coach for the Cardinals Single-A Club in Batavia, New York. Mike served as an area scout for four seasons from 2004-07 prior to fulfilling player development duties toward the end of each of those seasons. Officially, this is his third season as a coach within the Cardinals organization, though he did consult and provide instruction for the New Jersey Cardinals in 2004 and 2005. Prior to joining the Cardinals organization, Shildt worked three years as an associate scout for the Major League Scouting Bureau. Shildt, 39, has five years of collegiate coaching under his belt split between stops at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and University of North Carolina at Asheville. He also owned & operated On Deck, Baseball Academy in Pineville, NC, training many major and minor league players for four years.

Almaraz commented on his new coaches by saying, "We have a new staff with Tim Leveque working with the pitchers. He is a young person with lots of energy and able to communicate and coordinate the young pitchers throughout the season. Mike Shildt is coordinating our extended program at this time. He was our Carolinas scout last year who also worked in Batavia with our New York Penn Club. Both are now in Florida working diligently with our young players in extended spring training. I know Tim and Mike well and look forward to working with them and our entire Johnson City Cardinals team."

The Johnson City Cardinals will open the 2008 Appalachian League season on the road in Bristol on June 17th, before returning home on June 20th to face the Kingsport Mets in the home opener at 7pm. Season tickets for the 2008 season are currently on sale. For additional information please contact the Cardinals business office at (423) 461-4866 or visit the website www.jccardinals.com.