Jason William Simontacchi (born November 13, 1973) is a pitching coordinator in the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

organization. He was the pitching coach for the

Springfield Cardinals The Springfield Cardinals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springfield, Missouri. They compete as a member of the Texas League's North Division. The Cardinals began play in 2005. The team is owned by the 11-time Major League Baseball ...

, the Double-A

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

affiliate of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

from 2014–2018. He was

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

for four years in

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 – and . He pitched in the minors from – and from –2004, in the organizations of the

(1996-),

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

(1999),

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

(2001), and St. Louis Cardinals (2002–2004), where he made his major league debut. He finished his pitching career in the independent leagues in 2008 and 2010.

College

After transferring from

De Anza College De Anza College is a public community college in Cupertino, California. It is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which also administers Foothill College in nearby Los Altos Hills, California. The college is named after the ...

, Simontacchi attended

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in the 1994–95 school year and pledged the Cal Iota chapter of the

Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...

fraternity as a member of the Alpha Theta pledge class. Simontacchi completed his collegiate baseball career at the

College of Idaho The College of Idaho (C of I) is a private liberal arts college in Caldwell, Idaho. Founded in 1891, it is the state's oldest private liberal arts college and has an enrollment of over 1,000 students. The college's alumni include eight Rh ...

Minor league career

He was Pitcher of the Year in for the independent

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

champions, the Springfield Capitals, going 10–2 with an

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

of 2.95. He also played in the Italian Professional League for

Rimini Baseball Club The Rimini Baseball Club is a team that played in Serie A1 Italian Baseball League. The team is based in the city of Rimini and plays its home games at the Stadio dei Pirati since 1973. Rimini has won 13 national championships and three European ...

and went 12–1 with a 1.17 ERA in , where he played well enough to make the roster for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, where he was the winning pitcher against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, pitched in relief versus USA and was the losing pitcher against

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, finishing the Olympics with a 1.17 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 15.1

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

Major league career

He had an ERA of 2.34 and a record of 5-1 in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

for the Triple-A

Memphis Redbirds The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbir ...

, a year in which he played mostly with the

as a 28-year-old rookie. Through his first 13 starts with the Cardinals, he went 7-1 with a 2.82 ERA. He finished the season with an 11-5 record in 24 starts, and ninth in Rookie of the Year voting. In , he was 9–5 as a part-time starter with 16 starts and an ERA of 5.56.

2004-2006

Simontacchi suffered right shoulder problems from a torn labrum in 2004, and was released by the Cardinals at the end of the year. He subsequently missed the entirety of the season. Simontacchi considered playing for Italy at the 2006 World Baseball Classic, but ultimately decided not to. He signed a minor-league deal with the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

for the season, but his contract was voided. However, he pitched 10 games in the independent Atlantic League for the

Bridgeport Bluefish The Bridgeport Bluefish were an American minor league baseball team based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The team was a member of the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which was not affiliated with Major League Baseba ...

with an ERA of 0.84. He then pitched for the

Estrellas Orientales Estrellas Orientales (English: Eastern Stars), also known as Estrellas de Oriente, is a baseball team in the Dominican Winter League. Based in San Pedro de Macorís, the team has historically struggled, winning championships only in 1936, 1954, 19 ...

in the

Dominican Winter Baseball League Dominican may refer to: * Someone or something from or related to the Dominican Republic ( , stress on the "mi"), on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles, in the Caribbean ** People of the Dominican Republic ** Demographics of the Domi ...

and in his five starts went 3-1 with a 2.02 ERA over 27 innings.

2007

In 2007, he was a non-roster invitee to the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

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, and was projected to be in the Nationals starting rotation until a groin injury sidelined him. He rehabbed in Triple-A, and when starters Jerome Williams and John Patterson both went on the 15-day

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

in the span of 10 days, he was called up and started against the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

on May 8. He pitched well until giving up a three-run

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in the sixth inning and then receiving the

loss Loss may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Loss'' (Bass Communion album) (2006) * ''Loss'' (Mull Historical Society album) (2001) *"Loss", a song by God Is an Astronaut from their self-titled album (2008) * Losses "(Lil Tjay son ...

. In his second start, on May 13, 2007, he pitched innings, and collected his first major league win since 2003. By mid-July, he was 6–7 with an ERA of 6.37. He experienced elbow soreness after a start on July 15, and five days later landed on the disabled list due to right elbow

tendinitis Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder (rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow (tennis elb ...

. Simontacchi became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

at the end of the season.

2008

Simontacchi pitched in the Independent Atlantic League in 2008 with the

Long Island Ducks The Long Island Ducks are an American professional minor-league baseball team based on Long Island in Central Islip, New York. The Ducks compete in the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), an independent "partne ...

2010

Simontacchi was a starting pitcher for the

Lancaster Barnstormers The Lancaster Barnstormers (colloquially known as the Stormers) are an American professional baseball team based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They are a member of the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a "partner league ...

of the Atlantic League during the 2010 season.

Coaching career

In 2013, Simontacchi became the pitching coach with the Single-A St. Louis Cardinals-affiliated

Peoria Chiefs The Peoria Chiefs are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The team was established in 1983 as the Peoria Suns. They are located in Peoria, Illinois, and are named for the Peori ...

. In 2014, he was promoted to the

, the Double-A affiliate of the

Cardinals Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

. As of 2019, Simontacchi is now a pitching coordinator in the

organization.Royals announce 2022 minor league staff
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simontacchi, Jason 1973 births Living people American sportspeople of Italian descent American expatriate baseball players in Canada Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Baseball players from California Bridgeport Bluefish players Cardenales de Lara players College of Idaho Coyotes baseball players Columbus Clippers players De Anza Dons baseball players Edmonton Trappers players Estrellas Orientales players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Hickory Crawdads players Lancaster Barnstormers players Lansing Lugnuts players Long Island Ducks players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Redbirds players Minor league baseball coaches Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Olympic baseball players of Italy People from Mountain View, California Rimini Baseball Club players San Jose State Spartans baseball players Spokane Indians players Springfield Capitals players St. Louis Cardinals players Tiburones de La Guaira players Washington Nationals players