Eischen well known by members of Rockies organization

Former relief pitcher Joe Eishen, hired by the Rockies as the pitching coach at short-season Class A Tri-City, has ample history with several members of his new organization.

Eischen played for Rockies manager Jim Tracy at Triple-A Ottawa in 1994 and at Double-A Harrisburg for most of 1993 when Tracy managed those Montreal Expos affiliates. When Eischen, 39, was coming up in the Expos system, Bill Geivett, the Rockies assistant general manager, was Montreal’s director.

Chuck Kniffin, who resigned as the Triple-A Colorado Springs pitching coach to be with his ailing father, was a pitching coach in the Montreal system and worked with Eischen. Indeed, Rockies player development director Marc Gustafson said Kniffin was “a big sponsor” of Eischen’s and said he would “be fantastic” in his first coaching job with a major league organization.

The opening in the Rockies system for a pitching coach arose because of Kniffin’s resignation. Gustafson said the Rockies were well aware of Eischen after the 2008 season and had spoken to him at the winter meetings when he was pursuing a player development job. But at that time, they had no openings once Darryl Scott (Tri-City) and Craig Bjornson (Rookie Casper) were added to the organization.

Gustafson said he ran into David Schwartz, who is Eischen’s agent, at the winter meetings last month, which rekindled discussions with Eischen, whose playing career ended after he was let go by the Tigers in 2007 spring training. Eischen appeared in 324 games in the big leagues, all in relief, from 1994-2006 and went 11-9 with a 3.67 ERA.

In addition to Tracy, Geivett and Kniffin, Bo McLaughlin, the Rockies roving pitching coordinator, had a history with Eischen. McLaughlin was a pitching coach in the Montreal system in 1995, when Eischen was traded in late May of that year from the Montreal to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Also, Eischen was managed in winter ball by Marv Foley, the Rockies roving catching coordinator.

“He’s a guy we have a very good history with as far as people that vouch for his character, his work ethic, what type of person he is,” Gustafson said. “All those things that you look for.”