Kirk Saarloos

Kirk Craig Saarloos (born May 23, 1979) is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the TCU Horned Frogs. He played college baseball at Cal State Fullerton for coach George Horton from 1999 to 2001 and played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seven seasons from 2002 to 2008. The Houston Astros selected Saarloos in the third round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft. He played 7 years a pitcher in MLB, with Houston from 2002 to 2003, the Oakland Athletics 2004 to 2006, Cincinnati Reds in 2007 before returning to Oakland in 2008. High school and college Saarloos graduated from Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California, where he was a three-sport (baseball, football and soccer) athlete. He attended California State University, Fullerton, where he established himself as one of the best closers in college baseball during his sophomore and junior seasons. In 1999, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In , his senior year, Saarloos became a starting pitcher (the new closer was Chad Cordero) and established himself as the ace of the staff, winning 15 games with a 2.18 earned run average (ERA). On April 9, 2001, he threw a no-hitter against Pacific as he struck out 11 and retired 22 consecutive batters before a two-out infield error in the ninth inning, but he got the next batter to end the game. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft in the third round as the 86th overall pick.