Kirk Craig Saarloos (born May 23, 1979) is an American baseball coach and former pitcher, who is the current head baseball coach of the TCU Horned Frogs. He played college baseball at Cal State Fullerton for coach George Horton from 1999 to 2001 and played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seven seasons from 2002 to 2008. The Houston Astros selected Saarloos in the third round of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft. He played 7 years a pitcher in the MLB, with Houston from 2002 to 2003, the Oakland Athletics 2004 to 2006, Cincinnati Reds in 2007 before returning to Oakland in 2008. High school and college Saarloos graduated from Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California, where he was a three-sport (baseball, football and soccer) athlete. He attended California State University, Fullerton, where he established himself as one of the best closers in college baseball during his sophomore and junior seasons. In 1999, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. In , his senior year, Saarloos became a starting pitcher (the new closer was former Washington Nationals closer Chad Cordero) and established himself as the ace of the staff, winning 15 games with a 2.18 earned run average (ERA). He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft in the third round as the 86th overall pick. Professional career Saarloos quickly rose in the Astros organization, making brief stops at Double-A Round Rock and Triple-A New Orleans before being called up to the major leagues in his second year as a professional. In , he went 6–7 with a 6.01 ERA with Houston and was sent down to New Orleans for the next season. In , he again pitched very well in the minors but posted a 4.93 ERA in 36 games for the big club. He also contributed to the Astros' six-pitcher no-hitter of the New York Yankees on June 11, throwing the last out of the third inning and all of the fourth. It was around this time he caught the eye of Oakland Athletics assistant general manager Paul DePodesta. A few weeks into the season, after appearing in only two games for New Orleans, he was traded to the Athletics for Chad Harville. They sent him to Triple-A Sacramento, where he pitched well enough to receive a call-up and start five games