UAlbany Baseball Coaches

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	Head Coach Jon Mueller
	Eighth Season
	jmueller@uamail.albany.edu

Jon Mueller recently completed his seventh season as the head coach of the UAlbany baseball program. The Great Danes recorded their fifth straight 20-win season in 2006 and earned the program's second America East Conference tournament berth. Mueller also saw seven of of his players, earn All-America East Conference accolades, more than any other team in the league this season. In seven years, Mueller has led his squad to a single-season program-record 37 victories, sits second on the all-time win list with 151, has had 17 all-conference standouts and three players selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

In 2004, UAlbany went 37-14, including 14-7 in America East play, setting records for wins and winning percentage (.725). The Great Danes finished tied for second in the conference and advanced to the America East Championship for the first time, earning Mueller A-East coach of the year honors.

Mueller coached 2004 America East player of the year Dan Schoonmaker, who set the school’s single-season standard in RBI that season with 51. In addition, shortstop Joe Lamb and infielder Derek DeGrazio earned All-America East first-team honors, while relief pitcher Shawn Ryan, who was third in the country with 14 saves, joined DeGrazio on the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Northeast Region First Team. DeGrazio was also named to the ECAC second-team and Ryan was selected a collegebaseballinsider.com honorable mention All-American.

In addition to mentoring all-conference standouts, Mueller has had three player selected in the Major League Baseball draft. Starting pitcher Adam Kroft, who went 8-3 with a 4.08 ERA as a senior, was chosen in the 30th round of the 2004 draft by the San Diego Padres. Kroft followed Mike Grasso, who was chosen in the 11th round by the Atlanta Braves in 2002 and Steve Checksfield, the school’s all-time leader in several categories including homeruns and RBI, who was selected in the 26th round by the Houston Astros in 2001. Checksfield was the first UAlbany player since 1974 to be drafted into the majors. Mueller has also coached other players that have signed free agent professional contracts, including Mark Suchowiecki, who signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2006 and currently pitches for their Class A affiliate..

A volunteer baseball assistant at UAlbany prior to his current appointment, Mueller played professionally in the minor leagues from 1994-2000 in the Northeast and Northern Leagues with the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs, Adirondack Lumberjacks and Marshall (Minn.) Mallards. A 6-foot-5, 245-pound infielder and designated hitter, Mueller holds a career .286 batting average with 74 home runs and 318 RBI in seven professional seasons. He led the Northeastern League in homeruns in 1996 and 1997 with 18 and 20, respectively. In 1999, Mueller hit .290 with 13 homeruns and 43 RBI, despite missing 30 games due to injury, and helped his team go 20-8 down the stretch to qualify for Northern League playoffs. He earned most valuable player honors of the league’s East Championship series as he had the game-winning two-run single in the fifth and deciding game.

In the Northeast League Championship series against Winnipeg, Mueller went 5-15 with two homers and seven RBI, including the game-winning grand slam with his team trailing 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 3 of the Best-of-5 series. The Diamond Dogs went on to win the series in four games and Mueller was named series MVP. Mueller was also a member of the Albany-Colonie squad that won the 1997 Northeast League Championship and was selected MVP of the 2000 Northern League all-star game.

A native of Stillwater, N.Y., Mueller coached at the College of St. Rose in 1993-94 and has been a teacher/instructor with Mechanicville City Schools, Saratoga BOCES and the Duanesburg School District. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Eckerd College (Fla.) in 1992 and has a master’s degree in secondary education from St. Rose. Mueller and his wife, Patricia, reside in The Capital Region with their daughter Marley (3) and Jaxson (newborn).

	Pitching Coach Tim Christman
	First Season

Tim Christman joins the UAlbany coaching staff for the 2007 season. The Oneonta, N.Y., native is a veteran of nine professional seasons, including a stint in the major leagues with the Colorado Rockies.
Christman was an 11th-round draft pick of Colorado in the 1996 draft after playing at Siena during his college career. There, he pitched the program’s first-ever no-hitter and set the school record for fewest hits per nine innings in a season with 4.50 in 1996. He is also third on Siena’s career strikeouts list with 174.

Christman spent the 1996 and 1997 seasons at the Single-A level before sitting out 1998 with an injury. At Salem of the Carolina League in 1999, Christman had a 2.42 ERA in 38 appearances out of the bullpen, limiting opposing hitters to a .222 batting average. After playing at AA Carolina in 2000, he reached the majors in 2001, giving up one run in two innings pitched with Colorado.
Hampered by shoulder problems, Christman pitched just 22 games during the 2002 season in the Florida Marlins’ organization before joining the independent St. Paul Saints of the Northern League in 2003, where he went 5-2 with a 2.70 ERA. He also played for St. Paul at the beginning of the 2004 season before his contract was sold to the Seattle Mariners’ organization. Christman spent the rest of the season at AAA Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League, going 2-0 and striking out 45 hitters in 39 innings. In 2005, he played with the Saints and with the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. For the past several years, he has also given baseball lessons at the Hayner Brothers’ Sports Barn in Clifton Park, N.Y.

	Assistant Coach Garett Baron
	Fourth Season
	gjbaron@uamail.albany.edu

Garett Baron was promoted to assistant coach on a full-time basis on August 10, 2006. He spent the previous three seasons as a part-time assistant with the Great Danes and worked primarily with the team’s infielders.

A graduate of Ithaca College, Baron served as an assistant coach for the Bombers in 2003. He has also coached in various summer leagues and led the Saratoga Phillies of the New York Collegiate Baseball League to their first-ever league title in 2006. In 2005, he coached the Spartansburg (S.C.) Stingers of the Coastal Plains League to their first playoff appearance.

Baron, a native of East Greenbush, N.Y., graduated from Columbia High School in 1997, where he was a three-sport letterwinner and an all-state second baseman. Upon graduation, Baron attended Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y., where he was selected as an all-conference player in consecutive years. Baron then transferred to Ithaca College, where he helped lead the Bombers to back-to-back Empire 8 championships and consecutive NCAA Regional Finals, starting at both third and first base. In 57 career games at Ithaca, Baron batted .321 with 30 RBI.

Baron earned a bachelor’s degree in health and exercise science from Ithaca in May 2002 and a master’s degree in sport and exercise science in 2003. He and his wife, Megan, live in East Greenbush.

	Assistant Coach Matt Quatraro
	Fourth Season

Matt Quatraro enters his third year as a member of Jon Mueller’s coaching staff after spending seven years in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization.

In 2002, he was a catcher for the Durham Bulls, Tampa’s Triple-A affiliate. His best season came in 2001 with Orlando, as he hit .325 with six home runs and 35 RBI. Quatraro also had a career-high 88 hits, including 24 doubles.

Originally an eighth-round pick of the Devil Rays in the 1996 MLB Draft, Quatraro earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Old Dominion University. He helped lead ODU to three straight CAA conference titles and three consecutive NCAA tournament appearences. One of only two Monarchs to bat .400 for his career, Quatraro earned second-team All-American honors in 1996. He was inducted into ODU’s sports hall of fame on April 24, 2004.

Quatraro, who earned the Devil Rays’ Community Service Award in 2002 for his work with children, has served as a bullpen catcher and instructor in the Tampa organization since 2003. After spending the second half of last season as a coach with the Hudson Valley Renegades, Tampa’s Single-A affiliate, Quatraro was named field manager for the 2006 season on Jan. 24. Quatraro and his wife, Christine, reside in the Capital Region.

UAlbany Athletics • 1400 Washington Avenue • Albany, NY 12222 • Phone: (518) 442-2562