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As reported yesterday evening by Yahoo! Rivals’ Kendall Rogers<\/a>, Long Beach State has lost its pitching coach, Jon Strauss, to Pepperdine. <\/span>Strauss’ move could be seen as surprising since he’s what seemed to be a lifetime LB guy, the bread and butter of the university’s assistant ranks\u2014ex-player, lives in the community, passionate about the school. <\/span><\/p>\nStrauss is a former Dirtbag who played on the 1993 CWS team, then worked for the ‘Bags from 1995-2000, before leaving to coach Glendale Community College (he attended Glendale High), and to serve from 2003-2005 as the pitching and recruiting coordinator for Loyola-Marymount. <\/span>After that he returned to Long Beach, and was promoted to pitching coach this January after Troy Buckley left for the Pirates’ minor league pitching coordinator job.<\/p>\n Rogers expressed confusion, saying, “[The move] is a little surprising to me. <\/span>Strauss is a Long Beach State guy and it’s always tough to leave the school you love so much\u2026He currently lives in Long Beach and will make the commute to Malibu each day.”<\/p>\n So it raises the question: Why did Strauss leave? <\/span>The most obvious culprit is the recent budget cuts suffered state-wide by the CSU system. <\/span>When you’ve read about those cuts, their sports impact may have escaped you, but remember: Assistants and coaches are CSU employees too, and those furloughs are going to hit their ranks hard. <\/span>Coaches perhaps are making enough to absorb the pay cut (furloughs will be for two days a month, or up to 10% of an employee’s salary), but if you’re an assistant coach, that could be a ton of money. <\/span>All of a sudden, loyalty might have to take a backseat to a well-funded private school with more stability, and a brighter economic outlook than it unfortunately seems the CSU system is facing.<\/p>\n