After a couple of weeks sorting through applicants and going through the interview process, we are excited to announce the 2021 spring interns!
Content Interns
Anthony Franco (Twitter: @affranco10)
Anthony Franco gave up his dream of being an MLB player when he went hitless all season his final year of youth baseball. A Cubs fan growing up, Anthony lost track of baseball for a few years once he stopped playing, but rediscovered his passion for the sport in college at the University of Buffalo. Here he got his first opportunity to write about baseball for Fantrax, a fantasy sports site. Currently, Anthony works for MLB Trade Rumors, aggregating local and national reports and analyzing MLB transactions. He also writes for Prospects Live, contributing to the site's draft coverage and farm system rankings. Anthony graduated from UB with a history degree in 2017 and graduated from Boston College Law School last May.
Garrett Lloyd (Twitter: @G_L1oyd)
Garrett is currently serving as the Director of Pitching at DST San Antonio where he leads pitching training, data analysis and helps coordinate the floor schedule. Previously in 2020 he served as the Pitching Analytics Coordinator at DST San Antonio helping translate data and implement data fluent systems. From 2019 to 2020 Garrett had the privilege to serve as a Minor League Development Coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He even had the unique opportunity to briefly substitute as a Major League Bullpen Catcher for the Dodgers during a series in 2019. Prior to his role with the Dodgers, Garrett served as a Minor League Video Associate in 2018 for the San Diego Padres as well as a Bullpen Catcher from 2015 to 2017 for parts of three seasons.
During the 2018 and 2019 off-season he had the privilege to serve at TRPD Baseball in Austin, Texas as a Development Coordinator and Pitching Instructor.
His college playing experience encompassed five seasons spanning three years (2013-2016) at The University of Texas Permian Basin earning a B.S. in Communications and two years (2016-2018) at Hardin-Simmons University earning a Master of Business Administration.
Josh Finkelstein (Twitter: @JoshFink313)
Josh Finkelstein graduated from SUNY Cortland in 2019 with a degree in sport management and a concentration in sport media and technology. Josh was also an editor for MetsMerized Online for the last three years and an intern for Anton Media Group in 2020. From 2016-2018, Josh was part of the New York City Marathon event staff.
Mason McRae (Twitter: @mason_mcrae)
Mason's 19 years old, and currently a freshman at VCU. He's also interning with PBR Virginia, and has done work in the past for True Gravity; a Canadian baseball agency. He played baseball his entire life and is a big fan of vertical approach angle. He also loves covering college baseball and the MLB Draft.
Mathew Katz
Mathew Katz is a 22 year old from Long Island, New York. He graduated from CUNY Queens College with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in May of 2020. After graduating he took an online data science immersive bootcamp with General Assembly. He wanted to get better at being able to analyze data (specifically sabermetrics) with the hopes of becoming a baseball statistician. With BaseballCloud, Mathew is looking forward to researching new ways to benefit baseball players and allow teams to effectively interweave analytics and player development. He firmly believes that baseball analytics is the future of baseball and wants to be apart of it.
Data Science Intern
Chris Classie (Twitter: @stay_classie8)
Chris Classie is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering and a minor in Business Foundations. While not on the D1 team, Chris was the President and a player for the Texas Club Baseball Team. This coming summer Chris will be starting a Baseball Operations and Analytics position with USA Baseball. He considers himself a jack-of-all-trades with coding experience in R, Python, Java, C++, and HTML/CSS/JavaScript. He considers himself proficient in data science, front-end web development, and back-end development.
Chris is interested in all facets of baseball analytics but likes to use his machine learning knowledge, algorithms, and predictive models along with technology to help the player development departments find and create more value in their players. He is very excited to have access to the data and technology that BaseballCloud has to offer. Throughout this Spring he will be assisting Will Stern in the Data Science department specifically working on the new AnalyzR software.
Marketing Interns
Kody Matthews
Kody has a long history with baseball. Just like most, he started as a youngin’ with a joy for gettin’ dirty and watching his mom try to get the stains out of his baseball pants. From JUCO bandit to competing at the Division I level, he was able to continue playing in Canada and Australia before shifting his focus to the other side of the game. He has a strong passion for learning ways to take baseball to the next level- and the competitive and fun drive to make it happen.
Kody grew up in Roseburg, OR with his older brother, Ryan and his parents, Jerry & Chrissy. He is a graduate of Marshall University and a self-proclaimed genius (jury still out according to Brooks Robinson).
Jaret Starnes (Twitter: @starnesjaret15)
Jaret is a recent graduate of Indiana University. He was a three year manager for the baseball team where he worked under Chris Lemonis and Jeff Mercer. Indiana was able to win a Big Ten Championship in his final full year with the team. He had a brief stint with the Philadelphia Phillies after leaving Indiana and now will be a marketing intern with BaseballCloud
Operations Interns
David Kotin (Twitter: @kotin_david)
David Kotin is a senior Economics major at Lewis & Clark College (in Portland, Oregon). He pitched through Junior College, and now works with his college baseball team’s analytical department and is a member of the Rowing team. Last year he started his own baseball website: https://pitch2stitch.wordpress.com to showcase his abilities. For his internship with BaseballCloud, he will fill a utility role moving from data ops to marketing to business projects. He will also contribute by writing blogs like this, which he wrote during the beginning of his internship.
David Zylka (Twitter: @dzylka98)
David Zylka is a senior Business major at the University of Michigan- Dearborn (NAIA). He is currently a left handed pitcher on the baseball team. He also works as a trainer at Prime Time Velocity in Waterford Michigan, a data driven development program for youth and HS athletes. He logs his own personal development journey on Instagram @dzthrow as well. He also interned for PBR Michigan in the past. Dave is looking forward to contributing to BaseballCloud behind the scenes and getting additional experience working with data and other player development tools to push the game forward.
John Vaughn
John Vaughn is a recent graduate of St. John's University where he completed his Masters in Sports Management. John has extensive work experience in baseball operations and data management. Prior to BaseballCloud, John worked as a data and video operations assistant with the St. John's baseball team and interned with the baseball agency Premier Talent Sports & Entertainment. He also previously worked at Major League Baseball, and was a clubhouse manager for the former Minnesota Twins AA affiliate. John grew up in New England however is a passionate fan of all Cleveland sport teams. He played D-III baseball at Anna Maria College and currently lives in New York City with his wife Alaina and their son Grady.
Katie Mooradian (Twitter: @katie_mooradian)
Katie is from Niagara, ON, Canada, and graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Management. She learned how to score games from a young age, and has even attended a game at all 30 major league stadiums. Katie attended her first Scout School in October of 2019 at the Arizona Fall League. She was then invited to attend MLBs Take The Field initiative at the 2019 Winter Meetings, where she took part in a 3-day seminar geared towards professional development for women pursuing careers in baseball operations.
Additionally, she took part in The Baseball Bureau’s Virtual Scout School in October of 2020, where she was able to further develop her player evaluation knowledge and skills. She also took part in MLBs Take The Field again in 2020, virtually. She was supposed to spend the 2020 season with the Houston Astros High-A affiliate as a Player Development Intern, but COVID derailed those plans.
Katie is most passionate about scouting, and is excited to be interning with BaseballCloud, where she will be able to advance her knowledge on the analytical side of the game.
Steven Cardona
Steven Cardona is a graduate from the University of South Florida. He has had roles in different departments with the New York Mets, Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays. His time with the Mets at the Dominican Republic academy shifted his focus to wanting to be fully immersed in International and Minor League Operations. He has always had an interest and appreciation for analytics to enhance the development of younger players. He hopes to take that passion into converting individual pitching and hitting metrics into a strategic plan to maximize results. He seeks to take a deeper dive into Player Development and break into the biomechanics for both hitters and pitchers. He is currently looking to attend graduate school and earn his Masters’ in Sports Analytics. He’s excited to get to work and be a contributing asset to the Scouting and Development team for BaseballCloud.