Patrick Jones Baseball

Donegal Fergus has been coaching baseball for over 20 years. He has coached at the collegiate and professional level for numerous teams including the University of Washington, UC Santa Barbra, and most recently, the Minnesota Twins. Donegal is currently working with hitter's in the private sector back home in California. In this episode we talk about challenging players in the practice setting, th...

Dr. Gervais is one of the most sought-after high-performance coaches on the planet. He has worked with Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks, Olympic medalists, UFC fighters, MLB players, and coaches from every major sport. He is also the host of the Finding Mastery podcast and the founder of Compete to Create, a business he founded with Pete Caroll.  Dr. Gevais has been featured in NBC, ABC,...

Currently the Director of Player Development for GoWags a travel baseball organization, author of two books, "GreenLight Hitting" and "How the Rivercats Won", Kyle Wagner stops by the show to talk about a better way to develop amateur hitters, through aggression. In this episode Kyle explains why "aggression should precede discipline", the age when plate discipline should start to be emphasized, a...

Jim Rickon is currently a scout for the Cleveland Indians. He has been with the Indians organization for over 20 years as a player and coach. He has served as a hitting coach, coordinator, and now scout. In this episode he talks about some of the things that he's learned over the years, the differences between scouting and coaching, and why labeling players by their body language and work ethic my...

Normally on the show we have coaches at various level who come on and talk about their current coaching situation, how they go about developing players, and give advice to everyone listening. However, I think it's just as important to have current and former players on the show to balance that out. I know I have learned a ton from just listening to players talk, they will tell you what pieces of i...

Can you develop pitchers without actually seeing them in person? Ben Brewster and Tread Athletics have been doing that for several years, and have been doing it extremely well. Ben is the Co-Founder of Tread Athletics, a company that specializes in remote training for pitchers. They provide extensive educational resources for their clients along with formalizing an in depth plan for each pitcher....

What makes high school baseball beneficial? To me it's actually closer to what college is like. Same teammates everyday, competing against teams in your league, and winning is relevant. It's important for the game that high school baseball is still held in high regard. No better way to find out what it's like to be in high school sports than to bring on a current high school Athletic Director and...

Experience. Wisdom. Those are the first two words I think of when I think of Jeff Banister. Jeff has been coaching in professional baseball for over 35 years. He has been a MiLB manager, Field Coordinator, and MLB Manager. He was the Pittsburgh Pirates manager from 2010-2014 and then was the Texas Rangers manager from 2015-2018. Jeff is currently the Director of Player Development at the Universit...

Former college coach and current director of coaching development at USA Baseball, Andrew Bartman, stops by to share some wisdom this week. Andrew has been at several colleges at the NAIA and JUCO level. He shares some stories of why coaching at that level can be such a challenge and at the same time a great learning experience. In this episode Andrew talks about giving back to the community, stay...

"Defense wins Championships" We've all heard it a thousand times. However, it can take a back seat to hitting because it's not as much fun to talk about (My opinion). Defense is one of the things that allows hitters to stay in the lineup when they're struggling. It allows players to not feel as much pressure at the plate because they know they provide value on the other side of the ball. In this e...

Currently in his 7th season as Volunteer Assistant and the University of Louisville, Adam Vrable loves what he gets to do, coach. His passion for baseball sticks out like a sore thumb when you listen to him talk. Adam played College Baseball at Coastal Carolina where get graduated with a degree in History. After graduating he began his coaching journey, with stops at The Citadel and Charleston Sou...

For over twenty years Jim Wagner has been working with pitchers of all ages. He currently runs his own pitching facility, Throwzone Academy in Los Angeles, California. Jim's very first client was a 10-year-old named Trevor Bauer, who just this past year won the Cy Young award. In this episode Jim talks about the age kids should start throwing curveballs, educating parents on pitch counts, and util...

Currently the recruiting coordinator at the University of Charleston, Ian Macdonald takes us behind the curtain to see what it's like to be solely focused on recruiting high school baseball players. We talk about recruits using social media, some of the red flags that coaches are looking for and doing extensive background work before offering them a roster spot. Ian also explains how they take adv...

We sit down with the hitting coach for the Duke University softball team, Josh Bloomer. Josh started his career as a high school math teacher for 15 years. During that time he was the Head Softball coach at Louisville Male High School, where in his last year as head coach they finished #1 in the country. After that season he was offered the position as hitting coach at Duke University. He talks ab...

Brent Walker is the Associate Athletic Director of Championship Performance at Columbia University. He has spent several years working with all sports including baseball. He has several professional baseball clients whose performance on the field has benefitted from working with him.  In this episode Dr. Brent Walker discusses the role parents should play in sports, techniques to help your pl...

If you love pitching, you're going to love this episode with Bill Hezel. Bill's coaching journey is unique. He coached college baseball for seven years, while working a full-time job, oftentimes having to sleep in his car in-between practice and work. He eventually took a job at Driveline Baseball where he is now the Director of Pitching, as well as being a pitching consultant to the Philadelphia...

Data..It seems that people love it or hate it in baseball. However, I'm here to re-assure you that it's okay to use data. In this episode we have Dave Hyland, currently a Professor of Finance at Xavier University. Dave teaches a Sabermetrics course at Xavier and explains what he teaches his students, and how he got the idea to start the class. If you're someone who is interested in data in basebal...

Head Coach at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore - County), Liam Bowen, drops by to talk about what it's like taking over a program a D1 program. Liam explains why you need more evidence to convince players to make changes, and why he wants recruits to be curious from a developmental standpoint. Liam took over as head coach at UMBC in late 2019 during the season. He explains how he's transitio...

Currently bench coach for the Minnesota twins. Mike actually went to the same high school that I went to, Moeller High School, and now his son, Luke, is playing at Xavier University, where I graduated from as well. Small world. Mike started out as a Manager in the minor leagues for the Diamondback. He also served  as a field coordinator, and was the director of player development fo...

After graduating from college Matt didn’t immediately get into coaching. He started as a car salesman. After doing that for a year he became an assistant coach at East Georgia College. After one year he was promoted to Head Coach, a title he retained for the next three. Matt then made the decision to become the volunteer at Miami, Oh. After one season he was promoted to Pitching Coach.  In th...

Loved talking shop with one of the best hitting minds in the game, Darin Everson, Hitting Coordinator of the Colorado Rockies. In this episode we talk about how we as coaches can help players become their own hitting coach, home schooling his son, Jared, while he was managing for the Rockies in 2016, and the importance of teaching players to “be where your feet are at”.  Marv Training Bands m...

Current hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs stops by the podcast to discuss a variety of topics. Anthony has coached in the minor leagues, was a coordinator, and now a coach at the big league level. In this episode he gives advice on how help players during a season, working with players from different countries, and what he noticed watching players in the Dominican Republic train. If you're interes...

Mechanics, lifting, defense, and hitting are all fun things to talk about. However, one of the most overlooked things in player development is nutrition. On this episode we have Brandon Guyer, former MLB player who is now a certified nutritionist. Brandon gives example of some things that he would do to help with nutrition on the road during his career. We also talk about the mental game, and how...

Imagine getting cut from 3 different teams within 10 days?! That's what happened to Adam Rosales, former big leaguer, who is currently coaching in the Oakland Athletics organization. In this episode Adam gives tips on what helped him mentally stay in the moment throughout his career, why he sprinted around the bases after a HR, and tips for up and coming hitters who want to continue to play at a h...

Another route to get to the big leagues is through Independent Baseball. In this episode we have the hitting coach for the Fargo - Moorhead Redhawks, Anthony Renz. Anthony explains his experience in Independent Baseball and talks about some of the similarities and differences between it and MiLB. I personally played Independent Baseball and realized just how good the competition is. For some of th...