Goldschmidt takes over as Mariners' GM

CELINA - The Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League baseball season doesn't start for another six months, but the Grand Lake Mariners have been busy recently.

Mike Goldschmidt had been the Mariners' manager for the last two seasons but will now be the president and general manager for Grand Lake.

"Managing the Mariners takes a lot of time and it was getting to the point where I couldn't give the time that I wanted to make this into what we want the Mariners to be," said Goldschmidt, who had a record of 26-52 during the last two summers. "I was looking for more of an administrative role than a coaching role and I'm excited for this opportunity."

Goldschmidt's first order of business was to find a new manager and that job will go to Marietta College's pitching coach Cody Castle.

"It's takes a lot of energy and I wanted to get some younger blood in here and that will be good... Someone that will be a good college coach down the road," said Goldschmidt. "I was looking for a candidate with a lot of energy and passion, and Cody certainly fits that criteria."

Castle is a 2008 graduate of Ashland University and has been the pitching coach at Marietta the last two years. During the last two seasons Marietta has won the Division III national championship and the Pioneers led the nation with a 1.74 ERA (earned run average).

Castle played professionally for four seasons (2007-2010), three with the Florence Freedom of the Frontier League and one season with the Quebec Capitales. He also spent the summer of 2010 as the pitching coach for the Elmira Pioneers of the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL).

"He has a history of success, both as a player and as an assistant coach," said Goldschmidt of Castle. "He's a quality guy and someone I've known for 15-plus years. He has won wherever he's been and has been a big part of it. He's a good person that will fit in well with our community here."

Now that Goldschmidt has a manager in place, his focus is to now rebuild a strong relationship between the Grand Lake Mariners' organization and the Mercer and Auglaize County communities.

"My number-one goal now is to create a positive working relationship between ourselves and the surrounding communities. I want the Mariners to be a viable entertainment product for the Grand Lake region," said Goldschmidt. "We have people that are passionate about baseball in this area and I want the people to be looking forward to Mariners' baseball every summer. We used to have hundreds of people out to watch games during the season and we want to get back to that point."

Goldschmidt wants the Mariners to be more of a fixture in the surrounding communities.

"We want our players and organization to work with high school baseball, Wright-State University-Lake Campus baseball and the recreational youth leagues," said Goldschmidt. "We want to be like their big brother and be there for support. We want the community to be proud of us and embrace us. Our guys will be here for eight weeks during the summer and we need to get our players out more contributing to the community."

Goldschmidt is also in charge of building the Mariners' roster and stresses that pitching will be the top priority.

"Pitching is number one in this league and we need front-line pitching to be competitive," said Goldschmidt. "We are going after guys that will be valuable players at the collegiate level with some collegiate experience already under their belts. We want to hit the midwest hard and bring in the top talent that we can so we can have a strong product on the field."