Mark Brewer amassed coaching experience over long career
Asheville Tourists pitching coach Mark Brewer explained to The Asheville Citizen-Times in 2016 the impact injuries and call-ups have on a staff.
Every team dealt with them, Brewer told The Citizen-Times that July.
"If the guy who moves up is performing on a consistent basis, then, sure, (it’s tough on the staff)," Brewer told The Citizen-Times. "You have to wait to see if the guy replacing him has the same capabilities, and if he doesn't you have to work on putting him in a situation where he can succeed more often than not."
Brewer spoke with the experience of well over two decades in the game as a minor league coach, time that started in college ball and in independent work.
Brewer's time in baseball actually started growing up. His father Jim Brewer played and made the majors over 17 seasons, 16 of those with the Dodgers.
Mark Brewer is recorded as having been drafted by the Giants, taken in the 32nd round of the 1978 draft out of Coronado High School in Arizona, but he isn't recorded as playing. He later is recorded as going to Arizona State.
By 1988, he was coaching pitchers at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. He spent the summers of 1990 and 1991 in Salt Lake City as a coach for the independent Trappers.
In early June 1990, Brewer brought some players in early to get a better look at them, The Deseret News wrote.
"I'm here. They're here. We wanted to take a look," Brewer told The News. "I want to be a step ahead of anybody I can be a step ahead of."
Brewer joined the Dodgers system by 1993, serving as pitching coach at rookie Great Falls. He moved to single-A Savannah by 1997 and AA San Antonio in 1999.
He served as Dodgers minor league pitching instructor from 2001 to 2004, then with the Royals at AAA Omaha as pitching coach in 2005.
In 2010, with the Mets as pitching coach at AA Binghamton, Brewer spoke to The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin about future major leaguer Josh Stinson and lessons Stinson had learned.
"Instead of going out there, trying to punch everybody out, he's got to pitch to contact," Brewer told The Press and Sun-Bulletin. "Now he knows he needs to use his two-seam (fastball) and slider to get contact on the ground."
Brewer went on to serve as a pitching coach in the Rockies system at Asheville in 2014. He then continued with the Rockies through 2023, as pitching coach at single-A Fresno. For 2024, he served as pitching coach for independent Winnipeg.
- Deseret News, June 8, 1990: Trappers get an early start
- Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, July 14, 2010: B-Mets pitcher Stinson stays in blossoming mode
- Asheville Citizen-Times, July 9, 2016: Brewer leads Tourists' young, ever-changing pitching staff
Made the Majors:1,426-31.8%
Never Made Majors:3,064-68.2%-X