James Michael Slaton (born June 19, 1950 in Long Beach, California) was a pitcher with a 16 year career from 1971-1986. He played in the American League with the Milwaukee Brewers from 1971–1977 and 1979–1983, the Detroit Tigers in 1978 and 1986, and the California Angels from 1984-1986.
Slaton played high school baseball at Antelope Valley High School and then played college baseball at Antelope Valley College.
He is the Brewers all-time leader in Wins (117), Innings Pitched (2025.3), Games Started (268), and Shutouts (19), and he is third in Strikeouts, trailing Teddy Higuera and Ben Sheets, and Complete Games, trailing Mike Caldwell.
He represented the Brewers and the American League in the 1977 All-Star game and was the winning pitcher for the Brewers in the 4th game of the 1982 World Series against St. Louis.
After his playing career ended, he started coaching in the minor leagues. He coached in the Oakland Athletics organization from 1992–1994 and then became the pitching coach for the Class A Daytona Cubs (1995–1996), Lancaster Jethawks (1997–98) and the Tacoma Rainiers (1999–2003). In 2004 he was a special assignment coach for the Seattle Mariners and from 2005-2007 he was the Mariners bullpen coach.
He was the pitching coach for the Las Vegas 51s in 2008, also serving briefly as the bullpen coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers when Ken Howell temporarily left the team for medical reasons. After the season, the Dodgers announced that Slaton would be the pitching coach in 2009 for their new Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes, a position he held through 2010. In 2011, he was named the pitching coach at Camelback Ranch.
Famous quotes containing the word jim:
“Just kids! That’s about the craziest argument I’ve ever heard. Every criminal in the world was a kid once. What does it prove?”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Jim Bird, The Blob, responding to the suggestion that they not lock up the teens pulling the alien “prank,” (1958)