Yahoo Finance TCU baseball’s Kirk Saarloos went with familiar route to build first coaching staff
Familiarity.
That’s what TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos wanted when building his first coaching staff.
“I wanted people I knew,” Saarloos said. “I wasn’t going to go and find someone that somebody else told me about. I wanted people that I knew and trusted.”
That’s evident in how Saarloos has built his staff in the days since being named head coach. As Saarloos said during his introductory news conference, Bill Mosiello is remaining on as associate head coach. Another in-house hire is John DiLaura, who is being promoted from volunteer assistant to recruiting coordinator.
Saarloos is also expected to bring back former TCU pitcher Kyle Winkler as a volunteer assistant. Winkler had been a pitching coach at Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Along with Winkler, another standout pitcher from the 2010 College World Series team — Matthew Purke — is also returning for a second season as an undergraduate assistant coach.
Saarloos’ first goal was retaining Mosiello, who also interviewed for the head coaching position. Mosiello, who was being courted by former coach Jim Schlossnagle to join him at Texas A&M as well as Oklahoma State, agreed to stay on Saarloos’ staff as the primary hitting coach and third base coach during games.
Mosiello has been with TCU since the summer of 2013. He’s coached more than 80 major league players over his entire career, including 28 All-Stars, two batting title winners, two AL MVPs and one AL Rookie of the Year.
“Everything Coach Mo stands for is exactly what this program and I stand for,” Saarloos said. “We see eye to eye on pretty much everything. Making sure he felt valued was important because he is as big of a part of this program as I am and Coach DiLaura are.
“TCU is in his heart and he thinks about this place just like I do. That was absolutely huge to get him to stay. We’ve always told each other that I can’t do this unless you’re here. So if you take another job, I’m going to have to leave too. We’re doing this together.”
DiLaura, meanwhile, has been with TCU since the fall of 2018, serving as a volunteer assistant coach. His primary responsibility is coaching catchers and serving as the first base coach during games.
DiLaura also will help with outfielders in his new role.
“I told my wife, the two things I was sure about was marrying her and hiring John,” Saarloos said. “His people skills are off the charts. His work ethic is off the charts. He’s super organized. Those are three things as a recruiting coordinator that you need to be. That was a no-brainer to me. He’s going to be a superstar in this profession and I’m excited we have him.”
Finally, Winkler returns to TCU. He had a standout college career at the school from 2009-11, being named a 2011 All-American and an All-Mountain West Conference performer of the year twice.
For his career, Winkler was 27-6 in 50 appearances. He tossed five complete games and amassed 239 strikeouts in 281 innings of work. Winkler had a career ERA of 2.95.
He went on to pitch seven seasons in professional baseball playing in the Arizona D’Backs, Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays’ organizations. He made 20 starts as part of 215 career appearances on the mound. In 352 innings pitched, Winkler fanned 345 batters and boasted an ERA of 4.50.
Winkler spent the last two seasons as the pitching coach at Incarnate Word in San Antonio.
And Purke may be one of the most recognizable names in TCU baseball history following his sensational freshman season in which he went 16-0 in 2010 and earned consensus National Freshman of the Year honors. He went on to reach the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox in 2016.
“If I’m a recruit, you have a chance to learn from two All-American Horned Frogs in Matthew and Kyle and the head coach is a pitching guy, so that’s kind of cool,” said Saarloos, who pitched seven seasons in the majors. “That was my goal. I’m going to get pulled in a couple different directions, so making sure I had a couple of guys I trusted down there was important.”
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