Willie Randolph gets a reunion of sorts as he has rounded out the Baltimore Coaching Staff as the Orioles bench coach, according to the Baltimore Sun. The Sun is quick to point out that Showalter (the Orioles Manager) was the first person to give Randolph a coaching job in 1994 and was looking for a bench coach with a lot of experience.
From what I know about Showalter, living in the Baltimore/DC area, I think this was a good move for the Orioles, if you like coaching staffs with little disagreement among the ranks. Willie Is a no bull type, but can also be passive during games. This is fine for him because Showalter is also a no bull manager, but as a manager, Buck has some fire. So the two not only balance each other out but fill the roles quite nicely.
If you noticed I slipped that “with little disagreement” phrase in my above analysis. The weakness I see here is that Randolph and Buck are pretty similar so while this makes a uniform managerial staff, the drawback could be a stale slate of ideas when it comes to what to do for a given situation. Given Buck's record though, he really doesn't need that much help with ideas.
All in all, congrats Randolph and I hope you enjoy Baltimore. It's a nice city.
