Jason Beverlin will be named pitching coach for Tennessee’s baseball team in the next few days, a source confirmed to the News Sentinel.
Beverlin comes from Georgia Southern, but has ties to UT head coach Todd Raleigh from Western Carolina.
Beverlin was a star pitcher for the Catamounts from 1992-94, when Raleigh was beginning his assistant-coaching career at his alma mater.
The 35-year-old Ohio native grew up in Michigan and played professional baseball from 1994-2007, when he retired and joined the Georgia Southern staff.
He replaces Fred Corral, who was let go by Raleigh earlier this month. Corral served as Raleigh’s pitching coach in his first two seasons at Tennessee.
At Western Carolina, Beverlin was twice a first-team All-Southern Conference pick and was the league pitcher of the year as a junior.
After being drafted by Oakland, he played six years in the New York Yankees’ farm system.
He made the major leagues in 2002, appearing in four games with the Cleveland Indians and three with the Detroit Tigers.
Beverlin finished his career playing three seasons in Japan.
He briefly returned to the U.S. at the AAA level but retired to coach at Georgia Southern.
Georgia Southern won the Southern Conference title in 2009 and finished 42-17, losing in the Fullerton Regional of the NCAA tournament.
Hernandez Signs: Left-handed pitcher Nick Hernandez became the first UT player to sign a pro contract since the major-league draft.
Hernandez signed with Philadelphia. The Phillies picked him in the 12th round.
Vanderbilt 93, Tennessee 79, Feb. 9…
Signing day celebration at Neyland…
Tennessee 69, South Carolina 57 men's…
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Comments » 32
panties4tebow writes:
GO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
easttnvol21 writes:
makes about as much sense as hiring Coach "you know what I mean"----traded a Mercedes for a Hyundai-----yee haw
John_Galt writes:
wow...going big time with a coach with all of one year experience....Pace yourself Toddy!
Intheknow30 writes:
Yay! Upgrade!
Corral was garbage. This guy has proven himself as a great coach by playing in Japan! Yay!
nyyvol21#669431 writes:
Hope this guy enjoys his one year stay.
Thermopyle writes:
Is UT baseball joining the Southern Conference? I think Hamilton's experiment with the baseball program is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
UTVolAlum writes:
Coach Raleigh's days are numbered!!!
Fire one of the best pitching coaches in the entire country and hire one of your buddies with zero experience!!!
Kids will continue to commit to Vandy and even elect to play JUCO ball and be draft eligible before the sign on the dotted line at Tennessee.
"Raleigh is a joke." (That is what a couple of current starting players tell me on a daily basis)
Vol4ever_1 writes:
Spoke with someone close to CFC. FC told him he liked the new guy that he was a good guy. FC didn't even give dirt on CTR, Corral would go down with the Titanic. Fired the wrong guy!!!
RoadTrip writes:
I agree with you 100%. He has proven to be totally inept to this point. He gets very little respect from his players.
As a former college level player that played many years ago in another conference under a college baseball hall of fame coach, I see second tier written all over the Vols until MH admits to the mistake and gets it corrected.
If your program is not located in an area of sun and fun that can provide a climate where kids can hone their skills 365 days a year, you have got to own the state and local top recruits. Not only do we not get them with any regularity, we do not even give a good effort. Does Brentz, Cannon, Koeneman, etc. come to mind? Most of them were living and playing within 30 minutes of the Hill.
stayingorange writes:
geeeeeeeez!!!!!!!!!!
volhammer#634294 writes:
One loser hiring another from WCU. This team may never see
the SEC title again!!!
volbeast33 writes:
I guess I am one of the few that actually likes the job coach Raleigh is doing so far. I totally understand why Corral was let go. I think it takes time to completely change how we played baseball especially with the talent level as low as it was when he got here.I like the recruiting classes he has brought in and I feel he will have us turned around within the next two seasons.
Vol4ever_1 writes:
Please explain how you understand totally why CFC was let go.
This would be a big help for me. "Philosophical differences" means squat. It is something CTR threw out there so that we can all speculate on.
Bottomline is only CTR and CFC know why and we only hear CTR version. Let the kids or parents talk without the fear of being screwed Know that there is a lot of truth to all these responses.
Please shed some light to it for all of us. CFC should have been able to coach, Why wasn't he?
volbeast33 writes:
The way I understand it and granted I am not an assistant coach or anything but the team was horrible to start the season. CTR overlooking the team did not agree totally with the way FC was handling the pitching staff since that was the part of the team that was not performing well at all. CTR took over calling the pitches and things of that nature and the team improved and even made a small run towards the SEC tourney. Any coach in America would have blamed the coach whose unit was so badly underperforming whether it is truly CFC fault or not especially when their is improvement when you take over some of the pos coaches responsibility.
brmvol#231732 writes:
Just a thought here, but for the doubters, is it not possible that Beverlin learned a lot about pitching during his long career in pro ball? Beverlin was a tremendous talent who knew how to pitch. Will he be able to translate that knowledge on to SEC pitchers? We'll find out soon enough.
thewalloffame#333843 writes:
Hope he enjoys his one year here. He must be as stupid as Raleigh to take this job.
thewalloffame#333843 writes:
Good comment Hamilton or is this Raleigh. I'm guessing you have never seen a baseball game just trying to stir response.
Intheknow30 writes:
Well the problem is you must not know either coach personally, or any players willing to talk. Not only does corral know more about baseball, but he also is one of the greatest people I know.
Baseball in particular is a sport where its almost impossible to play with tension. Its like umpire Bill McGowan said to Ted Williams the last game of the season, “Well, Kid, you got to be loose to hit .400,”
Most coaches in D1 baseball would have realized that, as far as pitching is concerned, Corral is his superior and would have let him coach.
silvertr6 writes:
Need to get a good head coach. Nothing changes with this change.
Intheknow30 writes:
... I meant to explain that raleigh's constant berating of players makes everyone tense up. It essentially chokes the atheleticism out of the players. Even our best two hitters have been told they are worthless etc. Raleigh publicly explained why Blake was the worst hitter in america, and was worth nothing and wouldnt be anything without raleigh, before the MTSU game at the end of the season during BP. It was an unnecessary show that illustrated how insecure this man is.
Corral has the the aproach of LTFF(let the f-er fly)which later became LIFE (let it fly everytime)because he wanted to stop swearing. These were to encourage the natural atheleticism of the pitchers to come out. You cant pitch scared. When raleigh started calling pitches it was not allowed to shake off signs. Anyone who knows pitching knows that the wrong pitch with confidence is better than the right pitch without. also for those who didnt know, Corral did call pitches at vanderbilt. And it was probably Nick's best outing of the year. And Ramsey was unhittable.
RoadTrip writes:
The fact that CTR took over pitch calling tells you that he is job scared and a micro manager. Why have an experienced, proven pitching coach on staff if you micro manage? Fire the guy and go hire an inexperienced pitching coach that will follow orders exactly as you want them to be followed with no deviations. Oh, you just did that. I guess it was CFCs fault they red shirted two starting pitchers as well.
As football and basketball have clearly shown, it is all about recruiting players that have the fire to get better and to make the bigs. As a coach you show them the ropes, get 'em in shape, coach 'em up, make the calls during the games ... then let 'em play and have fun. Does this Vol team resemble anything like that?! Not.
beavbullvol writes:
I played for Freddy when he used to scream out from the dugout at me, "LTFF, let's go, compete!!" There was nothing more motivating than to hear him slam the clipboard and scream out, "That was not a competitive pitch." Todd Raleigh is in so over his head it's painful to watch. Myself and every other member of that pitching staff improved by leaps and bounds and we did it because he called pitches and gave us license to throw the wrong pitch with conviction rather than the right pitch with no heart behind it.
Those of us in the know, know...
TrouserCough writes:
CFC is supposed to be a great guy and a great coach. The pitching was unbelievably bad this year. Walks and hit batters were off the charts. Was it CFC or lack of talent?
beavbullvol writes:
Morgado, Hernandez, Ramsey, and Harris were all serviceable SEC pitchers. It begs the question, if CTR wouldn't allow pitchers to shake off EVER, then it has to say something about the pitch selection as well. CFC called pitches for us. We did quite well with far less talent. Oh, and neither CFC or Coach Delmonico ever went to the media and did what Raleigh did. "I called a FB away and he threw it down the middle." I believe the old southern colloquialism about ASSUME sums up CTR's pitch calling capability ability. He assumes to know something about pitching thus, well you know the rest... A 6+ ERA would back that up, Todd.
beavbullvol writes:
*disregard additional ability. Sorry, I was on a rant :)
Vol4ever_1 writes:
You are definitely "in the know".
For VolBeast,
You are not even close. I appreciate your attempt but it is quite obvious you are only repeating the things you read. I thought you were going to say something like CFC and CTR had some square off.
CTR called pitches and we went on a roll against Ohio and radford and then went on a,1-11 run in the SEC. Ohio and radford were not in the top 200 schools.
Funny how the team finished off after the tourney wasn't an option. Nothing to lose, nothing to get yelled at, CTR not being in the dugout 2 of the 4.
We should wave toilet paper at the games and call them "Raleigh towels" (instead of "Rally") cause this is going down the toilet.
volbeast33 writes:
I guess I am not in the know. I have been going to Tennessee baseball games since the eighties and I never realized that CFC was such an absolute stud that UT baseball was going to die without him. After watching all of these seasons I never realized that we were watching greatness in the making. I think CFC is a decent coach and man but I think the new coach can and will get the job done. Of course CTR brought in someone he knows he is putting his stamp on the team the same way Kiffin is the football team. He has increased discipline and trying to make the players do things the right way. It takes time to add to the talent level and to switch to a more powerful team and away from the small ball played during Delmonicos years. I am not happy with the results so far but you have to look at the program as a whole and so far CTR has had highly rated recruiting classes so I am willing to wait to judge him when he has his own players in here. I cant wait to see what the big guys can do this year if our pitching can improve.
us43137415#376444 writes:
You're not by any chance, a public relations person, are you?
Everything you've said, puts the kind of spin on CTR and his troubles that PR people put on things..
"The Titanic didn't HIT that iceberg.. the iceberg JUMPED up against the ship."
Vol4ever_1 writes:
Volbeast,
I not for calling CFC the greatest thing to happen to UT baseball. Compared to CTR, that could go to about anybody that ever dawned the uniform.
Who do you think brings in those recruiting classes? CTR? Ha! The pitchers come for development, as do the position players. CBL and CFC have to drop some lines.
I got one for you, last time CFC wasn't here we went to Omaha in 05. I hope history repeats itself!!!! Omaha 2010!! Where's my "Raleigh towel"?
Swoooosh!
Sorry I crossed the line Volbeast.
TNdectective writes:
I happen to have met and know both coaches. I have my doubts about CTR getting along with high profile players. In fact I would say the he will run quite a few off. I didn't know CFC, or how he handles a pitching staff. Beverlin will be a very good pitching coach with a wealth of knowlege of the game. Will he be given the pitching staff to turn around, or will he be CTR puppet is the question. Beverlin has a lot to offer top high school pitchers. I would say that the Vols go themself a great pitching coach, just not sure how the head job will turn out.
olevole writes:
You know we should be really excited by a pitching coach--
--Who pitched at WCU in the Southern Conference
--Whose major league ERA was 8.69 with zero wins and 3 losses in 7 appearances
--Who has 1 year of coaching experience--only because Georgia Southern's coach was his roomate at WCU
--Who only coached in the Southern conference
--Whose pitchers went 0 for 2 with an ERA of 15.00 in his only NCAA tournament
--Whose best drafted player went in the 25th round
This is obviously someone who will develop and attract lots of elite talent.
TNdectective writes:
I agree with a lot of things writtin, but agree with none of this. What does playing at WCU and Coaching one year at GSU have to do with his ability to coach pitchers, nothing. Or his MLB era. Just how much MLB experience do most college coaches have? GSU made it to the NCAA Tourny, did the Vols? Before you write anything, make sure it make since.
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