Joel Mangrum Joins Baseball Staff as Newest Assistant Coach; Will Handle Pitching Duties
OXFORD, Miss. – (Release) Ole Miss Baseball and head coach Mike Bianco announced the hiring of Joel Mangrum as the Rebels’ newest assistant coach Wednesday evening. Mangrum will serve as the team’s pitching coach and handle the day-to-day management of the pitching staff.
“We are super excited to bring Joel to Oxford and Ole Miss Baseball,” Bianco said. “He has a unique and dynamic way of developing pitchers and has proven his success at both the professional and collegiate levels.”
A native of Brandon, Mississippi, Mangrum comes to Oxford after professional and college coaching stints with the Cleveland Guardians, ULM, New Mexico State, Austin Peay, Milligan College, and Hinds Community College.
“I’m really excited to be joining the Ole Miss Baseball family. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity that Coach Bianco has provided me and my family,” Mangrum said. “This is a dream come true. We look forward to making Oxford home and helping continue the tradition of Ole Miss Baseball being a national power in college baseball.”
Mangrum has spent the last six seasons with the Guardians, four of them as Minor League Pitching Coordinator. He was promoted to Pitching Coordinator in 2020 after serving as a Minor League Pitching Coach in 2018 and 2019. As a Minor League Pitching Coordinator, Mangrum has been responsible for building and integrating Minor League pitcher development plans, helping pitchers transition from the minors to the majors, coordinating pitcher/catcher plan of attack meetings at all levels of the minors, coordinating offseason development programs, and more.
During his time as Minor League Pitching Coordinator, Cleveland’s Double-A team has posted the second-best ERA and batting average against in the Eastern League three of the four seasons. High-A Lake County has also been top-three in ERA and top-five in BAA in three of the last four seasons. Mangrum has worked with and helped develop former Rebels Doug Nikhazy and Dylan DeLucia as pitchers in the Guardians organization.
During the 2017 offseason, ULM head coach Michael Federico hired Mangrum to be the Warhawks’ Recruiting Coordinator and Pitching Coach where he did a short stint before joining the Guardians.
Before ULM, Mangrum served as the recruiting coordinator and pitching coach for three seasons at New Mexico State (2015-17). During his time in Las Cruces, Mangrum helped guide the Aggies to back-to-back 30+ win seasons for the first time in five years (2016 & 2017).
After finishing with a record of 11-38-1 in 2015, Mangrum and the Aggies finished 2016 with a record of 34-23, the best win improvement in the country. Mangrum and the staff were recognized for having the 33rd-best recruiting class in the country in 2017 and the 37th-best class in 2016.
Mangrum coached five players from the 2016 roster that earned all-conference honors at the conclusion of the regular season, including Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Daniel Johnson. He also helped engineer a near 3-run improvement in team ERA from 2015 to 2016. NM State compiled a 4.61 team ERA in 2016, which was the second best in program history. Individually, closer Joe Galindo’s ERA of 2.48 was the best by an Aggie since 1972.
Mangrum recruited and coached current Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish. Bradish was a two-time All-American at New Mexico State who set the single-season strikeout record in 2018 and the freshman single-season strikeout record in 2016. In 2018, Bradish was drafted in the fourth round by the Los Angeles Angels, becoming the highest draft pick for the Aggies at the time.
Before joining the Aggies, Mangrum was the recruiting coordinator and pitching/catching coach at Austin Peay from 2009-14. During his time with the Govs, they averaged 40.3 wins per year from 2011 to 2013, won back-to-back OVC Regular Season titles, won back-to-back-to-back OVC Tournament titles, and participated in three-straight NCAA Regionals.
In 2013, closer Tyler Rogers became the first pitcher to win the league’s Pitcher of the Year honor without starting a game during the season. Rogers would hold the Division I record for saves during a three-week span that season, on the way shattering both the APSU and OVC single-season save marks.
While Rogers highlighted the 2013 season, the pitching staff under Mangrum’s presence combined to throw a program-record 466 strikeouts, the third-straight season a Govs pitching staff broke the record. Additionally, the Govs pitchers combined for a 4.41 ERA – the 11th best team ERA since 1970 and a marked improvement from the team’s 6.68 ERA in Mangrum’s first season.
Mangrum’s 2012 pitching staff reached new heights, recording program-highs for innings pitched (581.1) and strikeouts (433) while tying the program record for saves (14). Back-to-back shutouts of Eastern Illinois clinched the 2012 OVC Tournament title and catapulted the Govs into the NCAA Tournament where they again posted back-to-back shutouts – of Indiana State and Cal State Fullerton – to help the team reach its first-ever regional final.
Prior to joining the Govs, Mangrum spent three seasons at Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee, where he was the program’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. During his tenure with the Buffaloes, the pitching staff’s ERA was ranked among the NAIA’s top 20 nationally each season and led the nation in 2007, posting a 2.64 ERA. Mangrum also worked with two all-conference pitchers and had a pitcher lead the league in earned run average each of his two seasons.
Mangrum graduated from Mississippi College in 2005 where he was an All-American Southwest Conference honorable mention selection in 2005 as a designated hitter after batting .351. Prior to that he was a pitcher and infielder at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Miss., where he was an All-Region 23 selection.
Mangrum graduated from Northwest Rankin High School in 2001.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
