Monday Q&A: New Nuts’ manager Fred Ocasio ready to get ‘aggressive’

The moment Fred Ocasio was named manager of the Modesto Nuts, his managerial career officially exceeded his playing career.

He’s entirely OK with that idea.

Despite being a four-year starter at Oklahoma State University, Ocasio was not taken in the major-league baseball draft following his senior season. He accepted the free-agent offer of the Colorado Rockies, knowing his role would be that of a bit player, simply to get his foot in the door of professional baseball.

Now, all these years later, the shortstop who never advanced past the Low-A level is a High-A manager.

It would be one tall order if Ocasio, 44, were inheriting the Modesto Nuts’ team that was an all-time franchise-worst (43-97) in 2014, but that’s not the case. Modesto’s 25-man opening-day roster included only three players with California League experience. In addition, Ocasio’s staff – pitching coach Brandon Emanuel and hitting coach Drew Saylor – is new to the Nuts.

The Nuts’ 2015 roster features 17 players off the 2014 Asheville (N.C.) Tourists roster – one that under Ocasio surged to the South Atlantic League title.

And in the middle of all this, Ocasio and his wife, Alba, have made some roster adjustments on the home front. Oldest son Leo has made room for little brothers Lucas, 20 months, and Liam, 1 month.

Meet the new Nuts manager.

Q: Making it to Modesto means you’ve progressed farther as a manager as you did as a player. What are your thoughts about that?

A: I played and started for four years at Oklahoma State and signed with the Rockies after not being drafted. I took the offer just to get experience. I knew I didn’t have the tools and I knew I wanted to coach and be in the professional game. The reality was that the tools I had were not going to get me to the big leagues. So far, it’s worked out pretty good because this is my 19th year in the pro game.

Q: What are your first impressions of the Modesto ballpark?

A: I like it. It’s really nice, and I like my office. The ballpark looks nice and the grass is very nice. It looks big, and everyone has told me it plays big.

Q: You’ve led me right to my next question, because year after year, I’ve seen teams come in here and get immediately intimidated by the size of the ballpark. Guys want to get off to a good start, so they try to lift the ball, which you can’t do here – especially in April and May. How do you address that?

A: I was in Tri-City and the ballpark there is big – something like the second- or third-toughest hitters park in all of minor-league baseball. We have to get it into the guys’ heads that they need to be line-drive hitters here. As a manager, I’m very aggressive. I like to steal and hit-and-run and move guys over, and we need to be good at those things in this ballpark.

Q: Last year in Asheville, you were quoted during the title run that you had been thinking about a championship with that group since spring training. Going into this year with almost the same group, is the talk the same?

A: Definitely, but it wasn’t me thinking and talking about it last year. When we broke spring training last year and the guys were looking at the roster, they saw that we were going to be a good team. They were excited and that was the talk. They believed it from Day One, and to their credit, they went out and did it. And it’s the same this year. It’s pretty much the same team. The starters will be good, the bullpen is outstanding, and offensively it’s the same guys, minus one or two. For me, it’s all about the belief of the players, and this team has a bond that is very special. We had a good spring training, and hopefully that feeling continues into our start.

Q: A couple of tough philosophical questions here: First, in your mind, what is the role of winning in the developmental process?

A: First off, we’re here to develop players. At the end of the year, the guys here need to be ready to make the next move – whether to Double A, Triple A or even the big leagues. They have to be better at the end of the year. The championship and the winning was great, but it’s about development. I’m very competitive, and at the same time we’re developing players, we have to develop winners. The goal is for the Colorado Rockies to win a World Series, and if these guys are to be the next wave of players that will help the Rockies do that, then they need to be ready. They need to develop their skills, they need the fundamentals, and they need to know how to win.

Q: Here’s the second tough question: This is the third season the Rockies have put a developmental supervisor in the clubhouse alongside the manager. This year, Modesto has Jerry Weinstein in that role, and he knows more about this ballpark than anyone. As a manager, what are your feelings about that position and how do you work with the supervisor?

A: I’ve been lucky. My first two years as a manager, I had Marv Foley as the supervisor, and all he’s done is win 1,000 games in the minors as a manager. I learned a lot from him. Now I have Jerry, so both my guys have had tremendous experience in the game. I want to learn as much as possible. In baseball, you learn something every day, and if I can learn as much from Jerry as I was able to learn from Marv, then by the end of the year I’ll be a better manager and a better coach.

Q: There was more roster turnover in this off-season than I’ve ever seen in Modesto, with only three guys off of last year’s team coming back. Normally, that number is closer to eight or nine. Historically, no matter how many players come back, Modesto is a team that struggles to hit in April and May as they adjust to the ballpark and adjust to California League pitching. Since this team is coming in sky-high off a championship, how do you keep them levelheaded, especially if they get off to a slow start?

A: I understand what the history is, but we had a good spring training. This level will be different, and what people have told me is that the big difference is that the pitching in the California League is much better than what we see in Asheville. Hopefully, the guys will be able to adjust quickly and not take a month and a half. The talent here is so good that I don’t have any doubt that the guys will go out there and perform. My thing is that as long as they give their best effort every day and play the game hard, the rest will take care of itself.

Q: A good manager always manages according to the talent he has at the moment, but is there a stamp or a style the fans will see from a team managed by Fred Ocasio?

A: It’s all about being aggressive and executing the fundamentals. We like to take advantage of mistakes, and play well enough so that the other team doesn’t do the same to us. We want to establish that identity so that when we take the field, the other team knows they have to play heads-up at all times.

This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Monday Q&A: New Nuts’ manager Fred Ocasio ready to get ‘aggressive’."