Around the Bases

Anthony Silkwood is the current Coordinator of Baseball Operations and Director of Player Development at Jacksonville State. He's a former collegiate pitcher at Louisville, Parkland College and John Wood Community College.

Prior to his playing and coaching career, Silkwood was in the Marines for five years and was stationed in Camp Lejeune, NC.

He's an Alton, Illinois native and an alumnus of Marquette Catholic HS.

Silkwood has had an incredible journey thus far, and he takes us through a ton of great information for the next generation of players to learn.

Brett Huber is the owner of Maximized Pitching Lab in Southern Illinois, and he consistently trains some of Illinois' top pitching prospects, most notably Zander Mueth, a 2nd round draft pick in 2023 by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

A Belleville, IL native, Brett attended Althoff Catholic High School before playing at Ole Miss. He was eventually drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 2013 MLB Draft and played a few years professionally before heading back home and opening MPL.

In this podcast we talked with Brett about his baseball career, how he started Maximized Pitching Lab, some of the top arms he trains, and advice he gives to his athletes.

Cam McDonald currently serves in a Player Development role for the University of Illinois baseball team. A graduate of Hall High School in Spring Valley, IL, Cam was apart of a historic Red Devils baseball team that won the Class 2A State Championship in 2018. At Illinois, Cam was consistently in the starting lineup throughout his five-year career with the team, and he currently sits eighth in hits at the University of Illinois.

Jack Payton is graduate of Brother Rice high school in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of the top high school baseball players in the state of Illinois during his prep career, and he eventually committed and signed to play baseball at Louisville. He found a lot of success throughout his career with the Cardinals, as he was a finalist his junior season for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award which is awarded to the best catcher in college baseball. After Louisville, Jack was drafted by the San Francisco Giants with the 330th pick in the 11th round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

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Braedon Blackford in a native of Peoria, Illinois and attended Peoria Notre Dame High School. He committed to Carl Sandburg College, a junior college in Galesburg, Illinois, and was one of the top hitters in the country his sophomore season. Following Sandburg he played at Illinois State and Purdue Fort Wayne where he found further college success, and he now finds himself in PFW's record books in numerous statistical categories. Post-college, Braedon played in the MLB Draft League and is now trying to continue his baseball career with the hopes of getting picked up by a professional organization.