Chicago Cubs
Greg Brown was hired as the MLB Hitting Coach of the Chicago Cubs in November 2021 after a two-year stint as the Minor League Hitting Coordinator with the Tampa Bay Rays. Brown is now charged to oversee the development of the Major League roster and infrastructure in coordination with the Director of Hitting.
Tampa Bay Rays
Greg Brown completed his second season as Hitting Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays. Overseeing the lower levels of the top-rated minor league system in professional baseball, Brown was charged with implementing the infrastructure of hitting development that includes philosophy, approach, technology, development plans, and research. In 2021, the organization has unprecedented success as their minor league organization won championships at 4 levels (AAA, A+, A-, R) and lost in the winner take all championship game in AA. The offense exploded in 2021 with the organization going from 20th in Damage to 2nd in all of minor league baseball while scoring the most runs in all of the minor leagues. In his first year in 2020, Brown was charged with leading helping lead the newly formed hitting department through a challenging pandemic year through staff development and player development in remote learning. In 2020, the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant and finished two games shy of winning the World Series.
Career at Nova Southeastern University
2016 National Champions
2016 South Region Champions
2015 Sunshine State Conference Champions
Regional Appearances in 2011, ’12, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18 and ’19 (7-of-9 years)
Coach of the Year Honors
2015 – Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year
2015 – NCBWA South Region Coach of the Year
2016 – ABCA Division II National Coach of the Year
2016 – Skip Bertman Award Finalist
Greg Brown completed his ninth season career as the head coach at Nova Southeastern in 2019, producing a career record of 316-149 (.680), including a 147-80 (.648) mark in SSC play. Brown has guided the Sharks to seven NCAA South Region Tournament appearances in his nine years, including the program’s first-ever berth back in 2011, as well as one of just two teams to reach the tournament in each of the past five seasons. Brown led the 2016 club to the program’s first-ever NCAA Division II South Region Championship with a win over Delta State in Tampa, followed by the first-ever NCAA Division II National Championship by defeating Millersville in Cary, N.C, finishing with a program-record 44 wins. In 2015, Brown coached NSU to its first-ever Sunshine State Conference Championship, with a record of 18-6. Since taking over at NSU in 2011, Brown has averaged over 35 wins a year.
Named the 2016 Division II National Coach of the Year by the ABCA, the Sharks opened up the 2017 campaign as the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time in the program’s existence, and have now been ranked in the top 10 at some point during the season throughout each of Brown’s nine years. The 2017 season also saw the NSU offense rack up 97 home runs – a new program single-season best and tops in all of Division II during the year.
Since 2011, Brown has had 18 players drafted in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft during his time at NSU and has seen a total 35 of his players sign professional contracts, including a program-record 10 following the 2017 season. On September 21, 2016, Carlos Asuaje became the first Major Leaguer coached by Brown, an honor very few NCAA Division II coaches have experienced, and in 2017, Asuaje became an everyday starter for the San Diego Padres. Since taking over the reins at NSU, Brown has coached nine All-Americans, three Rawlings Gold Glove recipients (Carlos Asuaje, 2B, 2012; Jake Anchia, C, 2018; and Garrett Wolforth, C, 2019), as well as four more regional Gold Glove honors (Asuaje, 2B, 2012; Javi Sujo, 1B, 2012; Asuaje, SS, 2013; and Brett Clements, C, 2013), the 2015 NCAA South Region Player of the Year (Justin Garcia), 23 All-South Region selections, the 2012 and 2015 SSC Players of the Year (Asuaje and Garcia), the 2016 SSC Pitcher of the Year (Alex Mateo), the 2011 and 2019 SSC Freshmen of the Year (Asuaje and Duncan Pastore) and 45 All-SSC selections.
Off The Field
While Brown has accomplished a great deal on the field at NSU, his vision is bigger than wins and losses. Brown’s off-the-field efforts are a testament to his core values of building a community and developing his players into the young men that are going to make a difference in the world through the values instilled in them during their time at NSU. The NSU baseball program has committed itself to building relationships within the community through volunteer events such as the Miracle League, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Toy Drive, youth and coaching clinics to local optimist clubs, canned food drives, Make-A-Wish, Career Day at local schools and players reading to children at the NSU Library.
Brown has committed to continuing to build the relationship between the baseball program and its alumni with the annual NSU Baseball Alumni Golf Tournament, just completing its eighth iteration, as well as launching the NSU Baseball Alumni Newsletter. In recent years, Brown has worked with the Pacific Institute and developed the Shark Leadership Academy within the team, giving opportunities to players to further develop their leadership skills. Brown has always encouraged his student-athletes to be involved, and there is no bigger example than 2015 graduate Roberto “Bubba” Baroniel, who was part of Brown’s second recruiting class. Bubba grew to become student-athlete representative of NSU Athletics, the Sunshine State Conference and NCAA Division II through his work with the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Bubba was named the NSU and SSC SAAC President and as a junior and the chairman of the NCAA Division II SAAC Board his senior year.
USA Baseball
During the summers of 2013 and 2014, Brown served as a Tournament of Stars staff member for the USA Baseball 18U world championship teams that won two world championships. In 2013, he served as assistant coach for the Stars team and in 2014, Brown was the manager of the Stripes team working under the leadership of 18U managers Rob Cooper (Penn State) and Andy Stankiewicz (Grand Canyon University), respectively. Brown rejoined USA Baseball in 2019 as Field Coordinator for the 16U National Team Development Program.
Prior To NSU
Prior to NSU, Brown served as the South Florida and Puerto Rico Area Scout for the Houston Astros for the 2009 and 2010 MLB First-Year Player Drafts, where he signed two-time American League All-Star, three-time AL Silver Slugger, 2018 World Series Champion and NSU Class of 2014 Hall of Famer J.D. Martinez (2009 – 20th Round) and Los Angeles Dodgers’ infielder Kike Hernandez (2009 – 6th Round), as well as drafting the Atlanta Braves’ Paco Rodriguez (2009 – 48th Round).
Before his two-year run with the Astros, Brown served as an assistant coach for one season at Broward Community College, where he worked primarily with the hitters and catchers. He was also the Director of Baseball Operations and Partner with Perfect Competition, Inc. from 2005-2007.
After Brown’s collegiate career, he signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2003 with the Florida Marlins as a catcher, and played the majority of his professional career in the Florida State League (High A) with the Jupiter Hammerheads in addition to three stints in Double-A. He also played one season of independent ball for the York Revolution of the Atlantic League in 2007, where he set career-highs in games played and several offensive categories.
Brown played his collegiate ball at fellow Sunshine State Conference member Lynn University from 1999-2003. During his time with the Fighting Knights, Brown helped lead the team to a .563 winning percentage. He still ranks second in career games played, third in career games started and ranks among team leaders in single-game hits and putouts.
While a student-athlete at Lynn, Brown was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, serving as President of the organization from 2002-2003. In 2003, he was also named Lynn’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year. Brown earned a degree in Business Administration in 2002 and finished his MBA with a concentration in Sports Administration during his final season as a Fighting Knight in 2003. He attended high school at nearby Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School in Hollywood, where he played for former NSU head coach and current Athletic Director Mike Mominey.
Family
Brown and his wife Shairin reside in Davie, Fla., with their daughters Kennadi (12) and Kooper (9) and son Kruz (6), along with their dog, Sophie.
Sharks in the Pros
As mentioned, 35 players have signed professional contracts in the last seven years under Brown. Those players are:
MLB DRAFT PICKS
- Sean Albury (Milwaukee Brewers – 31st Round, 2011)
- Nick Avila (Detroit Tigers – 37th Round, 2011)
- Andrew Durden (Kansas City Royals – 38th Round, 2011)
- Carlos Asuaje (Boston Red Sox – 11th Round, 2013)
- Justin Garcia (Houston Astros – 17th Round, 2015)
- Alexander Fernandez (Miami Marlins – 25th Round, 2015)
- Ryan Castellanos (Detroit Tigers – 25th Round, 2015)
- Danny Zardon (Philadelphia Phillies – 17th Round, 2016)
- Alex Mateo (Miami Marlins – 22nd Round, 2016)
- Alex Kline (Philadelphia Phillies – 29th Round, 2016)
- Jancarlos Cintron (Arizona Diamondbacks – 24th Round, 2017)
- Jeremy Vasquez (New York Mets – 28th Round, 2017)
- Joe DiBenedetto (Toronto Blue Jays – 29th Round, 2017)
- Jake Anchia (Seattle Mariners – 7th Round, 2018)
- Devin Conn (Houston Astros – 19th Round, 2018)
- Joe Strzelecki (Miami Marlins – 34th Round, 2018)
- Garrett Wolforth (Cincinnati Reds – 14th Round, 2019)
- Brock Minich (Seattle Mariners –27th Round, 2019)
MLB UNDRAFTED FREE AGENTS
- Chris Roman (Toronto Blue Jays, 2011)
- Brett Clements (Houston Astros, 2013)
- Devin Raftery (Houston Astros, 2016)
- Matt Hardy (Milwaukee Brewers, 2017)
- Michael Hernandez (Miami Marlins, 2017)
- Dylan Woods (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 2017)
- Dylan Harris (Cincinnati Reds, 2018)
- Michael Gizzi (Detroit Tigers, 2018)
INDEPENDENT LEAGUE FREE AGENTS
- Areo Regoli (Joliet Slammers, 2012)
- Anthony Nalepa (Las Vegas Train Robbers, 2013)
- Zachary Westcott (Lincoln Saltdogs, 2015)
- Roberto Baroniel (Normal Cornbelters, 2015)
- Roche Woodard (Roswell Invaders, 2015)
- Josh Glick (Windy City Thunderbolts, 2017)
- Jonny Ortiz (River City Rascals, 2017)
- Kevin Suarez (River City Rascals, 2017)
- Sebastian Diaz (Ottawa Champions, 2017)