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Herr knows what it takes to win in the Atlantic League, and the 'Stormers want to tap into that expertise for the 2010 season. Lancaster's manager during the club's first two years, including their championship season of 2006, he signed a multiyear deal to once again lead the team.
"We're excited to have him back," Barnstormers president Jon Danos said of the Lancaster native and Hempfield grad. "He's an experienced baseball guy, and he has credibility because he played in the major leagues. Obviously we've had great success with him as the manager in the past, so he's done it before. And we think he can do it again."
Under Herr, the 2006 Barnstormers went 75-51 and became the first (and to date the only Atlantic League team) to win titles in both halves of the season and then sweep through both rounds of the playoffs without a loss. Now, the Barnstormers are banking on Herr to return them to that caliber of play.
"I feel like I know what I'm doing in this league," Herr said. "I know the types of players that are successful here, the types of personalities that are successful here. It's going to be a lot of fun for me to spearhead that effort to bring those kinds of players back here. I'm looking forward to that."
Following Lancaster's championship season, Herr managed the Washington Nationals Class A team in Hagerstown, Md. After sitting out the 2008 season, Herr returned to the Barnstormers as a coach under manager Von Hayes in 2009.
Herr took over as manager when Hayes stepped down in July and steered the team to a 28-27 record during the final two months of the season.
"I think at the end of the year, we were very competitive," Herr said. "We were as good a team at the end of the year maybe as anybody. Maybe not as good as Somerset top to bottom. But we were one of the top two or three teams in the second half, at least from the time I took over."
The Barnstormers are hopeful that their late-season success will carry over to next year, so they can end their streak of three straight losing seasons under Herr successor Frank Klebe, interim manager and former pitching coach Rick Wise and Hayes. Herr said the key is getting off to a good start.
"You can't make the same type of mistakes personnel-wise that have been made the last three years," Herr said. "It's as simple as that. You need to be able to compete from day one because it's tough when you play two halves.
"When you play 140 games, it seems like an awful lot of games. But when you cut it in half, that limits you. Because if you fall too far behind, you can't make it up. You run out of calendar days.
" … So my goal is to really be strong at the start of the season and be able to compete right out of the gate and not make personnel mistakes at key positions."
And more than in the past, Herr will be involved in those personnel decisions, because this season he will play a larger role in the procurement of the baseball talent.
"It's kind of a three-pronged process," he said. "The first order of business is sitting down and evaluating your roster. … The second part is once you've identified those players that you want to bring back and want to keep in the program. Then you have to communicate with them, see what they're thinking, see if they want to keep playing.
" … And then, the third part of the process is identifying those holes you need to fill from (players) you're not going to bring back, and go out and procure those guys.
"That might be the most difficult thing because everyone's beating the bushes trying to sign players."
Herr's biggest priority in building the roster will be a strong bullpen.
"I've always preached that you build the pitching staff from the ninth inning backwards," he said. "I want to find the guys who can get those nine or 10 outs at the end of the game and then take care of in front of that.
"Because the number one thing I really want to examine is to make sure that we can protect leads late in the game. I think it was disheartening to go through and lose as many leads as we did (in 2009). It just devastates a club to outplay a team the whole game and lose it late."
Herr will be at Clipper Magazine Stadium starting at 6:30 p.m. today to mingle with fans, meet with the media and watch Game 6 of the World Series.
