River Bandits Announce 2018 Coaching Staff

 DAVENPORT -The 2017 Midwest League Champions Quad Cities River Bandits have announced its coaching staff for the 2018 season.
At the helm for the River Bandits this season will be first-year manager Mickey Storey . Graham Johnson joins as the teams pitching coach and Dillon Lawson will serve as the clubs hitting coach while Rafael Pena serves as the team's developmental coach. 
Storey enters his first season as the Quad Cities manager and his first-ever managerial position. A former right-handed pitcher, Storey joined the professional coaching ranks last season as a development coach at Buies Creek. In 2012, he made his Major League debut with the Astros, posting a 3.86 ERA (13ER/30.1IP) and 34 strikeouts in 26 relief appearances.
Johnson joins the Astros for his first season as pitching coach at Quad Cities after spending the last six years as a coach at Morehead State University.
Lawson will be the River Bandits hitting coach after spending 2017 as hitting coach at the University of Missouri. Lawson was the Astros hitting coach at Tri-City during the 2016 season.
Pena joins the Astros as the development coach at Quad Cities following a stint as an assistant coach at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. Pena played two years at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and two years at Western Oklahoma State.
ABOUT THE BANDITS: The 2018 season marks the River Bandits' sixth year as the Single-A affiliate of the World Series champion Houston Astros and the tenth anniversary season of regaining the River Bandits moniker, which was voted a top-8 nickname in all of Minor League Baseball in 2015. The River Bandits anchor the Quad Cities sports market, which the Sports Business Journal named the top minor league sports market in the country in 2015 and the second-best minor league market in its 2017 follow-up ranking. The River Bandits' charitable donations for 2016 reached nearly $600,000 in 2017, including a $100,000 cash donation to Genesis Health Systems, an all-time record. In 2017, the River Bandits earned Ballpark Digest's award for "Best Charitable Works" in Minor League Baseball. For more information on the Quad Cities River Bandits, visit www.riverbandits.com or contact Andrew Chesser at (563) 324-3000.