Brown ready to take over expansion Titans
Veteran minor league manager and coach Bobby Brown has been hired as the Ottawa Titans’ manager for the 2022 season.
December 13, 2021
By Ryan Eakin
Canadian Baseball Network
When the Ottawa Titans joined the Frontier League as an expansion team in the fall of 2020, there was a great sense of hope that this would be the team that could cement themselves as a staple in the Ottawa baseball scene.
Unfortunately for the Titans, they took the 2021 season off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But now, with the 2022 Frontier League season five months away, there is once again a great deal of buzz around the Titans.
And it’s not hard to figure out why.
Bobby Brown, who has managed, coached, scouted, and played in professional baseball for over 20 years, is the new man in charge of the Titans after their inaugural manager, Steve Brook, left the organization for the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in October.
Brown, in a recent interview, said joining the Titans was a no-brainer.
“I was driving back from the season in Missoula (where he was the hitting coach for the 2021 Pioneer League champions Missoula PaddleHeads) and Sam Katz (Titans co-owner) called me, told me he was looking for a manager and asked me if I was interested.
“I said ‘yeah.’ I played a lot of years for the Winnipeg Goldeyes, so I knew Sam well (Katz is also the owner of the Goldeyes) and it just seemed like a unique opportunity to join the Frontier League and work for Sam again.”
Brown said being able to work with Katz again is a significant reason as to why he accepted the job with the Titans.
“It’s always nice to know who you are going to work for when you are taking a job,” said Brown, who played for both the Goldeyes (American Association) and Saskatoon Legends (Canadian Baseball League) during his playing days.
“It’s always important to know what they stand for, how important winning is to them, and how they operate.
“In my opinion, the Goldeyes are the gold standard of organizations in independent baseball and that is why it didn’t take me long to say yes to Sam.”
For as intriguing as the job is for many different reasons, it is also just as challenging, starting an expansion team from scratch.
Brown, 47, said he believes he is up for the challenge.
“In this day and age, in independent baseball, a lot of what you do in terms of building a club is based on what pieces to the puzzle you already have in place.
“Here with Ottawa, it’s a unique situation because I think there were only six or eight players already in place and a few of them retired or wanted to play closer to home, so I had to trade some guys and pretty much build this team from scratch.
“I have experience doing this before, though, with [the] Amarillo [Sox of the American Association]. I had done this before with them when I got hired in 2013, so it’s not foreign to me, but it does provide some challenges as you just don’t have as many pieces to try and build the team around.”
Katz said Brown’s history is why he was someone he wanted to bring into the Titans.
“I have seen Bobby as a player and every day he gave 100 plus percent,” said Katz, who was the 42nd mayor of Winnipeg from 2004 to 2014.
“As a player, he does the same stuff as a manager. I remember competing against him in Lincoln and he put together some awesome seasons in Lincoln with some great records and winning percentages.
“Maybe it was karma in the end, I’m not sure, but the reality is it was a perfect time for us to come together.”
Brown has wasted little time in building the Titans’ roster.
First, he signed Rodrigo Orozco, who played in both the Toronto Blue Jays’ and San Diego Padres’ systems from 2013 to 2019, and he then signed local native Marcel Lacasse, who played for the Barrie Baycats of the Intercounty Baseball League this past summer.
Brown said both players can be key parts of the Titans’ 2022 squad.
“I know some people in the Padres’ organization and they all gave Orozco a glowing recommendation.
“He can be a table-setter as a one or two-hitter in the lineup, can play left or centre field, and can run, so he’s going to be an exciting guy to see.
“And with Marcel, I don’t know a lot about him, but from talking to him on the phone, he has a background in catching, can play third base, is a left-handed hitter, and is a rookie, so there’s a lot of positives with him.
“I will have to see where his game is compared to some of these other guys once we get to camp but there are some things in his advantage right away in terms of being left-handed and being willing to catch, so I am excited to see him.”
Brown said players such as Orozco are the type of players he is going after given Ottawa Stadium is not exactly a hitter friendly park.
For context, the dimensions at Ottawa Stadium are 325-404-325.
“I’m a believer in pitching, defence, and a three-run homer, but with what everyone has told me about how this ballpark plays, I have kind of had to change my philosophy a bit.
“When it comes to recruiting players, I want guys who can spray the ball all over the field and who can have high walks compared to high strikeouts, as I don’t think it would be beneficial to build a club that would have a lot of strikeouts all for the occasional home run, more so when some of those home runs in other ballparks would be outs in ours, so the trade-off isn’t worth it.
“It is an adjustment and so we are looking for certain types of players like an Orozco.”
Brown concluded by saying that coaching in Canada, in a city such as Ottawa, is something that intrigued him greatly.
“I played a several of years in Canada, with Winnipeg, and enjoyed it,” said Brown, who played for the University of Oklahoma in college.
“I just remember the passion that the fans had in Winnipeg, so coming to Ottawa, it’s a unique situation because it’s the capital of the country. I know in Ottawa, they have a large stadium, so I’m not sure if they are going to be able to fill the place, but I have always enjoyed Canada and have always considered Winnipeg like a second home to me, so I’m hoping I will be able to say the same in Ottawa.”