List of Nashville Sounds coaches

Pitching coach Stan Kyles meets with his pitcher and catcher on the mound.

The Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team has employed 43 coaches since its establishment in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1978 season. Of these, 22 have been pitching coaches and 21 have been hitting coaches. As of the 2016 season, the Sounds' coaches are Eric Martins (hitting) and Rick Rodriguez (pitching).^[1]

A pitching coach is responsible for mentoring and training a teams' pitchers. He advises the manager on the condition of pitchers and their arms, and serves as an in-game coach for the pitcher currently on the mound. When a manager makes a visit to the mound, he typically is doing so to make a pitching change or to discuss situational defense. However, the pitching coach is the one who will typically visit the mound to talk about mechanics or how to pitch to a particular batter.^[2] As the name suggests, the pitching coach is generally a former pitcher. A hitting coach works with a team's players to improve their hitting techniques and form. He monitors players' swings during the game and over the course of the season, advising them when necessary between at-bats on adjustments to make. He also oversees their performance during practices, cage sessions, and pre-game batting practice.^[3]

Three former Sounds players later served as a coach for the team. Wayne Garland, who played in 1982, returned as pitching coach from 1987 to 1988.^[4] Don Cooper, a pitcher in 1980, served as pitching coach from 1994 to 1996.^[5] Fred Dabney, who pitched in 1993, returned as pitching coach from 2012 to 2014.^[6] Gene Roof (1986) and Buddy Pryor (1987) were player coaches who coached hitting while playing on the team. Two coaches also managed the Nashville club. Pitching coach Wayne Garland filled in as interim manager for three games in 1988 when manager Jack Lind left the team due to health problems.^[7] Richie Hebner, who was the pitching coach from 1998 to 2000, became the team's manager for the second half of the 2000 season when Trent Jewett became the Pittsburgh Pirates' third base coach.^[8]

Pat Dobson's 1980 to 1981 pitching staff had a 3.18 earned run average, the lowest recorded among all pitching coaches. Darold Knowles (2001–04) and Stan Kyles (2005–08) are the longest tenured pitching coaches, having served for four full seasons. In 1993, co-hitting coaches Roger LaFrancois and Mark Haley guided their batters to .281 batting averages, the highest among all hitting coaches. Among solo hitting coaches, Jeff Livesey (2001) and Sandy Guerrero (2009–11) led their batters to .276 batting averages. LaFrancois (1993–96), who coached hitting for four full seasons, is the longest serving hitting coach.

Table key

#	A running total of the number of Sounds' coaches. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms is only counted once.
W%	Team winning percentage: number of wins divided by number of games coached in the regular season
ERA	Team earned run average: earned runs divided by innings pitched times nine
SO	Team strikeouts
BA	Team batting average: hits divided by at bats
HR	Team home runs
RBI	Team runs batted in
Ref	Reference
Stat Ref	Statistical reference
*	Indicates a player-coach
	Indicates a former Sounds player
	Indicates a later Sounds manager

Pitching coaches

Hoyt Wilhelm, who led his 1982–84 pitching staff to a 3.73 ERA with 2,357 strikeouts, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.^[9]

Don Cooper pitched for the Sounds in 1980 before serving as pitching coach from 1994 to 1996.

#	Coach	Years	Wins	Losses	W%	ERA	SO	Ref	Stat Ref
0 !—	None !None	1978–79	147	138	.516	3.32	1,630	—	[10][11]
01 !1	Dobson, PatPat Dobson	1980–81	178	108	.622	3.18	1,804	[12][13]	[14][15]
02 !2	Wilhelm, HoytHoyt Wilhelm	1982–84	239	198	.547	3.73	2,357	[16]	[17][18][19]
03 !3	Craig, RogerRoger Craig	1985	71	70	.504	3.84	783	[20]	[21]
04 !4	Hiller, JohnJohn Hiller	1986	68	74	.479	4.25	755	[22]	[23][24]
05 !5	Garland, WayneWayne Garland	1987–88	137	145	.486	3.89	1,833	[25]	[26][27]
06 !6	Rippelmeyer, RayRay Rippelmeyer	1989–90	160	133	.546	3.52	1,784	[28]	[29][30]
07 !7	Gullett, DonDon Gullett	1991	65	78	.455	3.77	886	[31]	[32]
08 !8	Funk, FrankFrank Funk	1992	67	77	.465	3.82	1,033	[33]	[34]
09 !9	Peterson, RickRick Peterson[a]	1993–94	164	123	.571	3.70	1,951	[35]	[36][37]
10	Cooper, DonDon Cooper[a]	1994–96	228	204	.528	3.78	2,852	[38]	[37][39][40]
11	Champion, Kirk !Kirk Champion	1997	74	69	.517	4.64	881	[41]	[42]
12	Tanner, BruceBruce Tanner	1998–99	147	136	.519	4.73	1,894	[43]	[44][45]
13	Bibby, JimJim Bibby	2000	63	79	.444	4.80	854	[46]	[47]
14	Knowles, DaroldDarold Knowles	2001–04	280	289	.492	4.32	3,961	[48][49]	[50][51][52][53]
15	Kyles, StanStan Kyles	2005–08	299	273	.523	4.13	4,327	[54]	[55][56][57][58]
16	Bosio, ChrisChris Bosio[b]	2009.1 !2009	75	69	.521	4.25	882	[59]	[60]
17	Rooney, Jim !Jim Rooney[b]	2009.2 !2009	75	69	.521	4.25	882	[61]	[60]
18	Gale, RichRich Gale[c]	2010.1 !2010	77	67	.535	4.27	938	[62][63][64]	[65]
19	Castro, BillBill Castro[c]	2010.2 !2010	77	67	.535	4.27	938	[63]	[65]
19.1 !—	Bosio, ChrisChris Bosio	2011	71	73	.493	4.27	1,003	[66]	[67]
20	Dabney, Fred !Fred Dabney	2012–14	201	231	.465	4.22	3,353	[68]	[69][70][71]
21	Schulze, DonDon Schulze	2015	66	78	.458	3.95	1,037	[72]	[73]
22	Rodriguez, RickRick Rodriguez	2016–present	83	59	.585	3.42	1,113	[1]	[74]

Statistics current through the end of the 2016 season

Hitting coaches

Gary Pettis' 2005–06 batters hit for a .269 batting average with 272 home runs and 1,279 runs batted in.

Bob Skube (2013–14) guided his hitters to a .260 batting average with 249 home runs and 1,145 runs batted in.

#	Coach	Years	BA	HR	RBI	Ref	Stat Ref
0 !—	None !None	1978–79	.256	108	977	—	[10][11]
01 !1	Napoleon, EdEd Napoleon[d]	1980–82	.270	273	1,922	[75]	[14][15][17]
02 !2	Sisler, DickDick Sisler[d][e]	1982–83	.268	218	1,254	[76][77]	[17][18]
03 !3	Saul, JimJim Saul[e]	1983–84	.268	199	1,244	[78]	[18][19]
03.1 !—	None !None	1985	.252	96	521	—	[21]
04 !4	Roof, GeneGene Roof*	1986	.274	85	600	[79]	[23]
05 !5	Lett, JimJim Lett[f]	1987.1 !1987	.257	75	535	[80]	[26]
06 !6	Pryor, Buddy !Buddy Pryor*[f]	1987.2 !1987	.257	75	535	[81]	[26]
06.1 !—	None !None	1988–90	.253	246	1,594	—	[27][29][30]
06.2 !—	Lett, JimJim Lett	1991–92	.255	199	1,086	[82]	[32]
07 !7	Haley, Mark !Mark Haley[g]	1993	.281	141	683	[83]	[36]
08 !8	LaFrancois, RogerRoger LaFrancois[g]	1993–96	.264	527	2,482	[84]	[36][37][39][40]
09 !9	Joshua, VonVon Joshua	1997	.269	153	659	[85]	[42]
10	Hebner, RichieRichie Hebner[h]	1998–2000	.273	482	2,049	[86]	[44][45][47]
11	Clark, DaveDave Clark[h]	2000	.258	138	639	[87]	[47]
12	Livesey, JeffJeff Livesey	2001	.276	130	616	[88]	[50]
13	Wilkerson, CurtisCurtis Wilkerson	2002	.262	110	608	[89]	[51]
14	Loviglio, JayJay Loviglio	2003	.266	116	585	[48]	[52]
14.1 !—	Livesey, JeffJeff Livesey	2004	.272	180	642	[88]	[53]
15	Pettis, GaryGary Pettis	2005–06	.269	272	1,279	[90]	[55][56]
16	Spilman, HarryHarry Spilman	2007–08	.267	278	1,267	[91][92]	[57][58]
17	Guerrero, SandySandy Guerrero	2009–11	.276	394	1,978	[93]	[60][65][67]
18	LeBoeuf, Al !Al LeBoeuf	2012	.259	119	507	[94]	[69]
19	Skube, BobBob Skube	2013–14	.260	249	1,145	[95][96]	[70][71]
20	Garrison, WebsterWebster Garrison	2015	.265	84	548	[72]	[73]
21	Martins, Eric !Eric Martins	2016–present	.262	148	664	[1]	[74]

Statistics current through the end of the 2016 season

See also

• List of Nashville Sounds managers and owners

Notes

Pitching

• ^a Rick Peterson was promoted to a coaching position with the Chicago White Sox on June 21, 1994. Don Cooper filled in for the rest of the season.
• ^b Chris Bosio was promoted to pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers on August 12, 2009.^[59] He was replaced by Jim Rooney, a Brewers roving crosschecker.^[61]
• ^c Rich Gale temporarily left the team in 2010 and was replaced by Bill Castro.^[62][63] Gale returned to the team later in the season.^[64]

Hitting

• ^d Ed Napoleon was replaced by Dick Sisler during the 1982 season.
• ^e Dick Sisler was replaced by Jim Saul during the 1983 season.
• ^f Jim Lett was promoted to bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds and replaced by Buddy Pryor during the 1987 season.
• ^g Mark Haley and Roger LaFrancois both served as coaches, simultaneously, during the 1993 season.
• ^h Richie Hebner was promoted to manager of the Sounds after Trent Jewett became the Pittsburgh Pirates' third base coach on June 6, 2000. Dave Clark became the new pitching coach.^[8]

References