Patrick Dennis Combs (born October 29, 1966) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

between 1989 and 1992. Combs, who statistically has drawn comparisons to pitcher John Keefe, attended Hastings High School in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, before enrolling in

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

Baseball career

Combs was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round (11th overall) of the 1988 Major League Baseball draft. He had one "golden" season — that being his first professional year. In 1989, Combs had reached every level of professional baseball, from A-ball to the big leagues. For the Class A

Clearwater Phillies Clearwater or Clear Water may refer to: Places Canada * Clear Water Academy, a private Catholic school located in Calgary, Alberta * Clearwater (provincial electoral district), a former provincial electoral district in Alberta * Clearwater, Britis ...

, he went 2–1 with a 1.30

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) in 6 games. For the Double-A

Reading Phillies Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word re ...

, Combs went 8–7 with a very respectable 3.38 ERA in 19 games. For the Triple-A

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, often abbreviated to SWB RailRiders, are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located in Moosic, Pennsylvania, in the S ...

, he went 3–0 with a 0.37 ERA. Continuing with the Phillies, Combs went 4–0 with a 2.09 ERA in 6 games. Taking his success into consideration, the next year the Phillies placed Combs in the starting rotation. However, he was not able to maintain his streak. Combs went 10–10 with 4.07 ERA, with 86 walks and only 108

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out, unless the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter reaches first base safe ...

. His performance continued to deteriorate, as Combs‘ ERA jumped to 7.71, in his final MLB season. Two times in Combs‘ major league career, his walks yielded exceeded his strikeouts posted: In 1991, Combs walked 43 and struck out 41; in 1992 he walked 12 and struck out 11.

After baseball

Currently, Combs resides in

Southlake, Texas Southlake is a city located predominantly in Tarrant County with minor areas extending into Denton County in the U.S. state of Texas. Southlake is a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 31,265. History ...

, and is the founder and chairman of Combs Capital Partners. He is also a leadership development consultant for Teamalytics. Combs has worked with various professional sports teams, as a player development consultant and in draft analysis. He and

Tom House Thomas Ross House (born April 29, 1947) is an American former left-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball, as well as an author and a pitching coach. Baseball career Player House pitched at Nogales High School (La Puente, California ...

worked together for many years developing and growing MLB pitchers and NFL quarterbacks. Combs is also the author of ''More Than The Score: How Parents and Coaches Can Cultivate Virtue in Youth Athletes'', published in 2020. Combs' youngest son, Casey, was a catcher in the Miami Marlins organization, and is currently a free agent.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Pat Major League Baseball pitchers Philadelphia Phillies players Sportspeople from Newport, Rhode Island Baylor Bears baseball players Baseball players from Rhode Island Baseball players from Houston Baylor University alumni Rice University alumni 1966 births Living people American financial businesspeople Financial advisors Sportspeople from Richmond, Texas Baseball players from Fort Bend County, Texas 20th-century American sportsmen