The A's recently hired Rene Lachemann to be the bench coach next year. He had recently been the bench coach for the Mariners, but was presumably not going to be welcome what with the firing of Bob Melvin and all. The A's had not renewed the contract of their bench coach, Chris Speier, so there was an opening.

The non-renewal of Speier's contract is a little weird to me. He had only been in that position for one year, and the A's really don't seem to be big on firing people. Who's the last A's coach to be fired? Thad Bosley was let go in the middle of 2003, replaced as hitting coach by Dave Hudgens (who was already with the team in a front-office capacity), but I'm pretty sure the only reason Ken Macha isn't still the bench coach is because Art Howe got mega-bucks from the Mets, and we can say the same about Curt Young as pitching coach.

Maybe it's just my perception, but it really seems that the A's understand the concept of the players winning and losing the games. Except in extreme cases (Earl Weaver on one end (who, ironically, was so good precisely because he recognized that the players won and lost the games), Larry Bowa on the other), all managers, base coaches, etc., are basically alike. Why waste your time with a lot of movement, hiring and firing guys, if you can get someone who's not incompetent and let them do their job comfortably until they're ready to move on?