Former Phils Assistant To Manage In Alaska

The Anchorage Bucs of the Alaska Baseball League have announced that Thom Dreier has been selected as the team's field manager for the 2009 summer baseball season. Dreier was an assistant coach for the 2008 Saratoga Phillies and worked under manager Kevin Graber.

Dreier is in his first season at Arizona State University as a recruiting and operations assistant working under 15th-year head coach Pat Murphy. The St. Louis, Mo., native joined the ASU staff after serving as the director of baseball operations at Marshall University. Last year, Marshall won a school-record 30 games and reached the championship game of the Conference-USA postseason tournament. Dreier's boss, Thundering Herd head coach Jeff Waggoner (Schenectady '99, '00 asst.), was named the national Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

Dreier played collegiately at Oklahoma State University from 1996 through 1999 and was part of OSU's 1999 College World Series squad. He was tabbed by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 20th round (613th overall) of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft a year after being taken as an underclassman by the San Diego Padres in the 13th round (382nd overall) of the 1998 draft. Dreier pitched in the Toronto Blue Jays organization for the St. Catherines Stompers and Hagerstown Suns in 1999.

The Anchorage Bucs compiled a 21-24 overall record last summer and a 15-20 mark in the Alaska Baseball League.