Mike Gallego is back! After four years as third-base coach in Colorado, the A's have lured him back to the organization where he began his career to serve in the same position. Don't ask me why this makes me excited, but I kind of love Gallego.

Apparently the attraction is that he's well-regarded as an infield coach. This could be important in coming years as the A's will likely be breaking in some new infielders: Daric Barton is still a work in progress at first, Mark Ellis will likely be replaced by either Jemile Weeks or Adrian Cardenas in 2011, Bobby Crosby will be gone after 2009, and Eric Chavez ... who knows. Maybe it'll be Jeff Baisley over there for the next five years. Weeks, Cardenas, and Eric Patterson are also all better known for their bats than their gloves, the same way Chavez and Crosby were before Ron Washington turned them into excellent defenders.

And in case you were interested, Gallego was drafted in the second round of the 1981 draft out of UCLA. Some notable names were drafted in that round: Mark Gubicza and Mark Langston were drafted in the spots immediately following Gallego, and Frank Viola, Sid Bream, and John Elway were all picked later in the round. The A's didn't have a great draft in 1981, getting four players of note (and only six who played in the bigs): Gallego, Curt Young (now the pitching coach), Mickey Tettleton, and Alvin Davis. Tettleton ended up having a nice late peak from ages 28-34, but this was unfortunately well after he was released by the A's in the aftermath of a 194/292/322 season at age 26.