5/30/2024 baseball Edit

Rutgers Baseball Pitching Coach Hot Board 1.0

Hector Rodriguez • TheKnightReport

Baseball Analyst

With the news that Rutgers Baseball pitching coach Brendan Monaghan announced his resignation recently, there are a lot of questions as to who Steve Owens will hire to replace him.

Today on The Knight Report, we take a look at a list of potential names who could fill the void now that Monaghan is gone.

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KEVIN MCAVOY -- ATLANTA BRAVES REHAB PITCHING COACH

McAvoy is a former All-Conference player and is considered one of the top pitching in Bryant history. McAvoy was the ace pitcher for the Bulldogs while Steve Owens coached at Bryant.

During his playing career, McAvoy pitched in 45 games and started in 40. He posted a 21-5 record with a 3.11 ERA. McAvoy also had six complete games, 1.21 WHIP, and 192 strikeouts. McAvoy was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft.

After his playing career, McAvoy went into coaching and is currently the rehab pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves. McAvoy could be a great fit for Rutgers with his experience playing under Owens.

MIKE RUSSO -- MONMOUTH PITCHING COACH

Russo is currently the pitching coach for Monmouth University. As a player, Russo pitched at North Carolina State before transferring back home to Kean University. Following his college days, he turned to coaching.

Russo started his coaching career at his alma mater in the Hun School before moving on to Kean University and eventually was hired by Princeton after that. He would go on to coach six seasons at Princeton and helped two develop two very talented pitchers in 10th round pick Ben Gross and 2016 Ivy League Pitcher of the year Chad Powers. After that, Russo would join the Monmouth pitching staff in August of 2022.

Russo has a good track record of developing pitching and could be a good recruiter in the state of New Jersey due to all his ties to the region.

JOE HAUMACHER -- PRINCETON PITCHING COACH

Haumacher replaced Mike Russo as the Princeton pitching coach. He's a former DI college pitcher, but went into coaching after a short professional baseball career in the Atlantic League.

Haumacher spent four years working with world-renowned pitching guru Tom House and the National Pitching Association. After working with House, he spent time as a coach at Amherst College and Dixie State. He also worked as a pitching coach in the Baltimore Orioles organization, helping to develop some of the top prospects in all of baseball.

Since joining Princeton, Haumacher helped to develop some solid pitchers. In his first year, he helped the Tigers improve to 24 wins for the 2023 season, which was 17 more wins then the previous year, The Tigers also had pitchers Scott Bandura and Tom Chmielewski both earn All-Ivy League first team honors. Also relief pitcher Jacob Faulkner broke the single season program record for appearances with 26, while earning Honorable Mention All-Ivy League. He would be a welcomed addition to the Rutgers pitching staff, as he has a heavy emphasis on technology and his experience with brilliant pitching minds could help improve the Scarlet Knights pitching staff.

JABIN WEAVER -- VILLANOVA PITCHING COACH

Weaver is a Fort Plain, NY native and played his college ball for East Stroudsburg University (D-II) over in Pennsylvania.

Before heading to Villanova, he spent time down at Fairmont State as a pitching coach, was a grad assistant and director of player development for West Virginia for a couple years before taking over as head coach of Hudson Valley CC and is now the pitching coach / recruiting coordinator for the Wildcats.

Under Weaver’s guidance, the Wildcats have produced several MLB pitchers in Gordon Graceffo (2021 5th round), Jimmy Kingsbury (2021 17th round), Cole Patten (2022 17th round), and Danny Wilkinson (UDFA).

PETE KELICH -- RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE PITCHING COACH

Kelich might be a bit of a reach to be on this list as he doesn't have the experience that some of the other guys do, but he does have ties to the state as he's a Jackson, New Jersey native.

On top of that, he's also got some ties to Head Coach Steve Owens as he spent four years at Bryant and is one of the program top pitchers ever, posting a record of 30-11 over 55 appearances (50 starts) and is first all-time in career strikeouts and second all-time in career wins for the Bulldogs.

After Bryant, Kelich went on to be drafted in the 38th round of the 2013 MLB Draft and despite not getting past Single A ball, Kelich was named Arizona League Pitcher of the Year in 2013 after posting a 7-1 record (58 innings, 1.40 ERA, 0.759 WHIP, 69 SO, one BB).

Now how is he as a pitching coach? That's still kind of a question mark, but in his first season in 2023, the program went 30-13 and had five pitchers with 12+ appearances that posted a 4.50 ERA or lower. This past season, the staff struggled a bit as their win total was nearly cut in half and the pitching unit as a whole had it's fair share of struggles. So it's hard to get a clear read on how he is as a pitcher.