Mike Martin, Jr. Position: Assistant Coach - Third Base/Catchers Experience: 12th Season Alma Mater: Florida State '95

Since joining the Florida State coaching staff in 1998, Mike Martin Jr.'s numbers speak for themselves. Under his direction the Seminoles have batted .317, slugged .497 and are averaging 8.28 runs per game. On top of the impressive offensive statistics, FSU baseball has played in four College World Series, eight Super Regionals, 11 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and won over 75% of its games with Martin, Jr. on staff. He has also coached three of the last four national players of the year.

Now in his 12th season as an assistant coach, Martin continues to carve out his own identity as one of the college game's top young coaches. Martin serves as the squad's third base coach and continues to work with Florida State's hitters. A former Seminole All-American behind the plate, Martin has worked with the catchers since 2003 while continuing to assist associate head coach Jamey Shouppe in the recruiting process. As the academic liaison, the Seminoles have captured the Golden Torch Award in back-to-back seasons, posting the highest GPA among all men's teams at Florida State.

Martin has coached six Major Leaguers, 10 freshman All-Americans, 12 first team All-Americans and 21 student-athletes who either earned first, second or third team All-American accolades, 40 All-ACC selections and have seen 34 hitters drafted in his tenure at Florida State. With Martin Jr., on staff, the Seminoles are the winningest team in the nation since 1998.

Martin's biggest influence has come through his work with the FSU offense. He has served as FSU's hitting coach over the last 11 years and since then nine of FSU's teams have batted .300 or better. Of the top 11 hitting teams of all-time at FSU, five have come since Martin became the squad's hitting coach.

In 2007 and then again in 2008, Florida State set the school record for the highest team batting average in school history. In 2007, the Seminoles hit .350 in 62 games shattering the previous record of .337 set in 63 games back in 1980. FSU's .350 average ranked second nationally while setting the ACC record breaking the previous mark of .347 set in 2001 by Georgia Tech. But the record would stand for just one season as the 2008 squad crushed both the FSU and ACC record for batting average in a single-season by hitting .355 over a 68-game schedule en route to a trip to the College World Series. The mark would also stand as the highest team batting average in the nation.

FSU collected 869 hits last year good for second all-time, while the 12.8 hits per game were the highest per game average in school history. As a team, the Garnet and Gold belted 103 home runs, the most since hitting 111 in 1999, while posting the second highest slugging percentage in school history at .565. The Seminoles also scored 663 runs, recorded 603 RBI and notched 45 sacrifice flies, all marks that rank in the top three all-time at Florida State. On top of the impressive offensive numbers, the Seminoles showed great patience at the plate in 2008 drawing an ACC-high 435 walks. The Seminoles were the only team in the league to not finish with more strikeouts than walks. In 2007, FSU struck out just 330 times in over 2,200 official at-bats. It was the fewest strikeouts recorded in a season since 1983 (320) and the fourth fewest since Mike Martin took over as head coach in 1980. Overall, the Garnet and Gold finished the 2008 season as the national leader in hits, runs and walks, while ranking in the top 10 in doubles (2nd), sacrifice flies (2nd), scoring (3rd), slugging percentage (3rd) and home runs (5th). Since 2000, Florida State leads the nation in wins.

Even more impressive is what the Seminoles have done at the most important time of the year. Since Martin took over as the Seminoles' hitting coach, Florida State has hit over the .318 mark in postseason play. FSU team's under Martin, Jr. are averaging 8.2 runs per game in the postseason, which is just slightly below the team's average for all games despite playing the toughest competition of the year in those tournaments.

Having learned from two great hitting minds, Mike Martin and Duane Espy, Martin, Jr.'s philosophy combines their theories and has produced impressive results. FSU's hitters are taught an offensive approach that utilizes the entire field. Martin has also implemented the use of wood bats in practice since taking over as hitting coach.

Martin also took over the additional duty of handling the Seminole catchers in 2003. He learned the art of catching from former FSU assistant Chip Baker and Roger Hanson of the Seattle Mariners, a highly regarded former Major League catching instructor.

In 2007, the Seminoles were in search of an everyday catcher and Martin convinced his father to take a look at Buster Posey from behind the plate despite just a season removed from being named a freshman All-American at shortstop. The experiment paid off as Posey was named two-time All-American at catcher. A year after becoming the youngest finalist for the Johnny Bench Award, which is presented to the nation's top collegiate catcher, Posey captured the Bench Award as a junior in 2008. The Leesburg, Ga., native also was awarded the 2008 Rawlings Gold Glove Award for his outstanding play from behind the plate. Posey posted a .989 career fielding percentage as a catcher, registered 12 pickoffs and held opposing runners at bay throwing out 40.8 percent of attempted base stealers.

Offensively, Martin Jr., has helped Shane Robinson and Tony Thomas, Jr. with one of the biggest turn-arounds in their collegiate career. In 2005, Robinson put together a school-record 40-game hit streak en route to posting a .427 batting average. He became the only FSU player to ever record more than 100 hits and 40 stolen bases in one season. In 2007, Thomas hit a career-high .430 while leading the nation in doubles per game (0.53). He became the first Seminole in FSU history to record 30 doubles, 100 hits and 30 stolen bases in a single-season. Both players were named Collegiate Baseball's National Player of the Year and were honored as consensus first team All-Americans. Martin helped Robinson raise his average 147 points, while guiding Thomas to an average of 165 points above his career mark. Just last year, Posey set the FSU single-season record by hitting .463. He finished the 2008 season as the national leader in six offensive categories, while becoming just the fourth student-athlete in ACC history to win the triple crown. With Martin, Jr., leading the charge as the Seminole hitting coach, FSU has received national players of the year in three of the last four years from Collegiate Baseball, a feat not matched by any other program in the history of the publication.

As a player, Martin was the Seminoles' starting catcher from 1993-95 and earned NCAA All-Tournament Team honors in each of his three years at Florida State. He was the Most Valuable Player of the NCAA Atlantic II Regional in 1994 as he led the Seminoles to the College World Series and garnered second team NCBWA All-America honors. He was selected to the 1995 NCAA Atlantic I Regional All-Tournament Team as the Seminoles returned to Omaha for the second straight year. In 1993, Martin was a member of Team USA.

Martin was selected by the San Diego Padres in the ninth round of the 1995 MLB Draft following his senior season. After playing for the Padres' organization for two years, he signed with the Seattle Mariners as a free agent in 1996 before retiring from professional baseball in 1997.

In 1992, Martin was an All-Conference selection at Manatee Community College in his only year of junior college. The Tallahassee native attended Maclay High School where his #10 jersey is retired. He captained the 1991 team that won the state championship his senior season. He was drafted as a shortstop out of high school by the Seattle Mariners in the 31st round.

Along with his coaching duties, the 1995 Florida State graduate speaks to booster clubs as well as high school and college coaching clinics on a regular basis. On November 27, 1999, Martin married the former Litzie Andrade. They have two sons Tyler (7) and T.J. (5). Martin, Jr. also has the honor of coming to work everyday with his Hall of Fame father and FSU Head Baseball Coach Mike Martin.

MARTIN, JR. BY THE NUMBERS
Team's batting average since 1998 - .317
Team's slugging pct since 1998 - .497
Team's on base percentage since 1998 - .418
Average home runs per game - 1.15
All-Americans (first, second, third team) - 21
Players drafted - 34
All-ACC Selections - 40