Jon Stone Back to Modesto as Hitting Coach

Central Valley native Jon Stone has been named the hitting coach for the Modesto Nuts for the 2012 baseball season. Stone, who spent the last three seasons with the Casper Ghosts, has been a member of the Rockies organization for the past 6 seasons. He spent the 2007 and 2008 seasons as an assistant to Nuts manager Jerry Weinstein.

Stone was a 39th round selection of the San Diego Padres in the 1998 June amateur draft. He spent six years in the minor leagues before joining the Rockies organization as a coach. Stone played baseball at Sacramento City College under Weinstein where he was the starting catcher on consecutive California State Junior College Championship teams.

Stone will be replacing Kevin Riggs who has been promoted to the same position with the Double A Tulsa Drillers. The Drillers position became available when Dave Hajek (Nuts hitting coach in 2007 and 2008) was promoted to roving infield coordinator in the Rockies player development system.