Darren Balsley (born October 27, 1964) is a baseball coach. He was the pitching coach of the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

from 2003 to 2019. Balsley was a minor-league pitcher before he decided to go into coaching. He went to Mount Carmel High School in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

and attended

Palomar College Palomar College is a public community college in San Diego County, California. The main campus is in San Marcos and three centers and four education sites are located elsewhere throughout north San Diego County. The largest of these by student p ...

. He had been in this role since May 17, 2003. Under his tutelage, the Padres pitching has greatly improved, with the team ERA going from 4.87 in 2003 to a Major-League best 3.70 in 2007 and again Major-League leading best 3.07 ERA in 2010. Many pitchers have gone on to have some of the best years of their careers under his coaching. These players include

Heath Bell Heath Justin Bell (born September 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. As a closer with the San Diego Padres from 2009 to 2011, Bell was a three-time All-Star and twice won the Rolaids Relief Man Award. He was ...

Jake Peavy Jacob Edward Peavy (born May 31, 1981) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, and San Francisco Giants. He batted and threw right- ...

Cla Meredith Olise Cla Meredith III (; born June 4, 1983), nicknamed "The Claw," is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles. Collegiate career Meredith attended Virginia Commonw ...

, Chris Young,

Akinori Otsuka (born January 13, 1972) is a retired Japanese baseball pitcher who coaches for the Chunichi Dragons in Nippon Professional Baseball. He was formerly the set-up man for the San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers. He was also the closer for Jap ...

, and Kevin Cameron.

References

External links

1964 births Living people Baseball players from California Dunedin Blue Jays players Idaho Falls Chukars players Knoxville Blue Jays players Major League Baseball pitching coaches Modesto Nuts players Pocatello Gems players San Diego Padres coaches Sportspeople from Newport Beach, California {{Baseball-manager-stub