Sunday, November 28, 2010

Ex-Rays: Catching Up With John Mollicone

Mini Baseball Stump @ 2JM
It's always nice when we hear from former members of the Rays organization, so it was great to talk recently with John Mollicone. The Fordham University graduate came to the Rays in the 27th round of the 2007 draft. He played for the Princeton Rays in 2007, the Hudson Valley Renegades in 2008, and the Bowling Green Hot Rods in 2009, where he was named the South Atlantic League Player of the Week for June 29-July 5. He was released after Spring Training in 2010.

John split time between first base and catcher, and even pitched a scoreless inning for the P-Rays. As a catcher he worked with several of the Rays top pitching prospects, including Chris Andujar, Nick Barnese, Joseph Cruz, Frank De Los Santos, Shane Dyer, Marquis Fleming, Matt Gorgen, Jeremy Hall, Tyree Hayes, Michael Jarman, Matt Moore, Josh Satow, and Neil Schenk.

Following his release he began a career in the financial services sector, but also launched an apparel company named 2JM Apparel. "At 2JM our goal is to instill the values of hard work, dedication and confidence," John explained. "We want to do this by creating shirts that illustrate who we are and at the same time portray a certain attitude."

"Show 'Em Who's Boss is the line that my Dad said to me before baseball games when I was younger," John said of the company tag line. "It always stuck with me, and I want to spread that to everyone through our apparel. Our first line or rookie line is titled 'Sport Stumps.' We have our adult line and then our Mini Sport Stumps for the younger fans."

Baseball Stump @ 2JM
Since we're now officially in the holiday shopping season, I encourage you to check out the offerings at John's 2JM website.

Whenever I talk to current or former players I really enjoy speaking to the catchers. They are basically coaches on the field, as evidenced by the number of former catchers who have become managers. John has worked with many of the Rays top pitching prospects, some of whom are now the best in all of baseball. In light of that I thought he would be a great person to interview. John not only graciously agreed to answer my questions, but also questions submitted by our readers. So please take this opportunity to post your questions in the comments or send them to me in an email.

Again, thanks to John for doing this and make sure to check out his website.

3 comments:

  1. The email is dougmilhoan@raysprospects.com by the way.

    Trivia: The last guy to answer reader questions was Stephen Vogt last spring, and given the season he had afterwards, I expect great success for John in the future. Karma baby. /Jim Rome

    Also, my Top 30 goes up tomorrow morning, so gather up those rotten tomatoes! I haven't compared my list to Kevin's yet, but expect the top 3 to be the same and then lots of differences. I haven't seen Jake's at all, but he always has a different view. And Michael (mr. maniac) is working on a community list at DRB, so make sure the check that out. We'll be sure to post the results here as they come in.

    Thanks again to John for answering the questions, no limit on how many you can ask, so have fun.

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  2. Who is the best pitcher you hvae ever caught?

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  3. The deadline for questions is Friday sometime, probably around 5. Post them here or email me. I'll post a last call before I send them off to John to remind everyone.

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