First, congrats to Phil Warren and Randy Martz on their new positions.

I think this move bears witness to what I have been saying for some time now, that the Frontier League has matured to the point that having an ex-big leaguer is not a prerequisite for a successful program. Look at what's happened in the offseason:

Evasnville let go of Greg Jelks and replaced him with Jeff Pohl. Jeff has been the Otters pitching coach for years and in the last couple of seasons was in charge of player personnel. So the Otters dumped an ex-MLB player for a guy with considerable FL experience.

Gateway let go of Danny Cox and hired Phil Warren. Warren is one of the best players ever to play in the FL.

River CIty let go of Randy Martz and hired Toby Rumfield. Toby has no FL experience but was a player and manager in other independent leagues.

The only teams to win a FL title with an ex-MLB player as manager were Gateway (2003) and Evasnville this year. Look at the list of the FL's most successful managers- Greg Tagert, Mal Fichman, Jamie Keefe, Roger Hanners, Fran Riordan- and none of them played in the majors.

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