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Matt Ford (baseball)

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Matt Ford
Pitcher
Born: (1981-04-08) April 8, 1981 (age 43)
Plantation, Florida, U.S.
Batted: Left
Threw: Left
MLB debut
April 2, 2003, for the Milwaukee Brewers
Last MLB appearance
July 20, 2003, for the Milwaukee Brewers
MLB statistics
Win–loss record0–3
Earned run average4.33
Strikeouts26
Teams

Matthew Lee Ford (born April 8, 1981) is an American former left-handed professional baseball pitcher. He played part of one season for the Milwaukee Brewers, and currently works as a coach in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

Baseball career

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Ford was born in Plantation, Florida, and is Jewish.[1]

High school

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Ford attended J. P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs, Florida. Ford was named Broward County High School player of the year in 1998–99.[2] He was USA Today All-USA honorable mention in 1999.[3]

Professional career

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In June 1999 he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 3rd round of the draft. In his first season in the minor leagues in 1999, he was 4–0 with a 2.05 ERA at Medicine Hat, averaging 6 hits and 13 strikeouts per 9 innings. In 2002, he was 9–5 with a 2.37 ERA at Dunedin, winning the Florida State League's ERA title.

In December 2002, Ford was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers from the Blue Jays in the Rule 5 draft. In 2003, he pitched in 25 games for the Brewers, with a 0–3 win–loss record and a 4.33 ERA. Ford appeared in the 2004 Baseball America Prospect Handbook as the # 2 left-handed reliever on Milwaukee's minor league depth chart. He had bone spurs removed from his pitching elbow before the 2004 season. In May 2005, he was released by the Brewers.

In June 2005 he signed as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals, but they released him the next month. In 2006, he played for Rochester, the AAA team of the Minnesota Twins, and in 33 games was 1–2 with a 4.50 ERA, while throwing a 93 mph (150 km/h) fastball. In 2007, he signed with the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, then joined the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League to start 2008. He finished the season with the Schaumburg Flyers of the Northern League. After not playing from 2009–2013, including a stint as the assistant baseball coach at the University of Akron,[4] he signed a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates in January 2014 in an attempt to make a comeback, although he never pitched a game in their system.

Ford was hired as a pitching coach for the Greensboro Grasshoppers in 2021.[5]

Miscellaneous

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Ford is proud of his Jewish heritage. "I got the (major league Jewish baseball players) card set when I was in the majors in 2003, and I was on a card set with Sandy Koufax, so I thought that was pretty neat and there weren’t too many of us, so it was pretty special that way," Ford said.[6]

His agent is Matt Sosnick.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Big League Jews". Jewish Sports Review. 12 (137): 18. January–February 2020.
  2. ^ "JS Online: Coach suffers dizzy spell again". Archived from the original on June 19, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  3. ^ "Baseball". USA Today. June 29, 1999. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  4. ^ "Matt Ford >> Jobs in Baseball". The Baseball Cube. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  5. ^ "Grasshoppers 2021 Coaching Staff Announced". Minor League Baseball. February 19, 2021.
  6. ^ Ostrowsky, David (June 5, 2008). "Ford Aims for Show". Archived from the original on June 6, 2008. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  7. ^ http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/25358/edition_id/494/format/html/displaystory.html
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