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Leadership and Instructional staff

Mike Freire

Mike Freire

Owner/Director of Baseball Development
617-594-1046
Send a message

Mike’s expertise in the mechanics and biomechanics of baseball stems from a lifelong passion for the game and a strong desire to learn and understand all of its intricacies from a very young age. When he was growing up, however, baseball instruction was extremely underdeveloped in the northeast. As he grew older, he became insistent upon developing it.

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Mike’s expertise in the mechanics and biomechanics of baseball stems from a lifelong passion for the game and a strong desire to learn and understand all of its intricacies from a very young age. When he was growing up, however, baseball instruction was extremely underdeveloped in the northeast. As he grew older, he became insistent upon developing it.

 

In 1992, in his junior year in high school, Mike witnessed three players from his high school team suffer arm injuries in one season. Two of the players missed the rest of the baseball season that summer. The third, who, like Mike, was a top collegiate recruit, never played a competitive game again. Mike knew that none of these players threw anymore or any less than he did. He also knew that “bad luck” did not seem like a plausible answer as to how and why these players were injured. And so began his pursuit of learning to fully understand the proper and healthy body mechanics of throwing.

 

Later that summer, while playing for an elite-level summer team, he heard another puzzling baseball phrase; “natural power hitter”. In this particular instance, his coach was referring to a smaller framed shortstop that would consistently drive the baseball farther and harder than most of his bigger teammates. Mike didn’t understand how this could be. He wondered, “could it really be natural?” Did this small hitter possess some sort of magical, indescribable ability to allow him to hit a baseball as far as he does? It did not seem either reasonable or rational. Years later, by studying Big League hitters and their hitting mechanics, he realized just how a hitter of smaller stature could out hit and out-drive a hitter almost twice his size. And “nature” had nothing to do with it.

Mike soon realized that the vast majority of hitters did not apply proper hitting mechanics. Even the good hitters were leaving bat speed, power and distance on the table. In his eyes, they were not hitting to their potential. They were not applying body force.
 

Today, Mike is applying his knowledge to the development of young baseball players and helping them healthily reach the highest levels of baseball, through his expertise. Now in his 12th year of baseball instruction, Mike has been able to witness several of his student-players play and perform at the high-school, collegiate and professional levels through his philosophies on body force and energy transfer. Not one of his students has suffered injury due to mechanical collapse.

 

As a Coach:

Mike was the Manager and Head Coach of the Brighton Brewers (2004-2009) and the West Roxbury Bluefish (2010) in the Yawkey Baseball League of Boston, reaching the playoffs all but 1 season, semi-finals 5 of those seasons and championship finals 3 times.

In 2009, Mike was the head coach of the Northeast Bulldogs 13U AAU team for its inaugural season. In 2010, he moved to coach the 14U team for Team Nokona USA Baseball-AAU, where he also served as the program's roving hitting instructor for all age levels. He was also selected to sit on the advisory board for Team Nokona USA.

 

In 2011, Mike founded the Minutemen Baseball Elite Development Program, a travel team-based program that was to be centrally focused on player skill development above all else. In addition to training all of the program’s teams (there were 3 at the time), Mike managed the 14U Minutemen in their inaugural season. That same year, he was asked to manage the Newton, Ma. 14U Babe Ruth All-Star team - a team that was made up almost entirely of his Minutemen players, and went on to win the district, state and New England region championships. He and his team impressively finished in 3rd place overall, in the nation.

 

The very next year, in 2012, Mike led his 15U Minutemen team to the New England Elite Baseball League 15U Division II championship.

 

Most recently, Mike was the Head Coach of the Minutemen’s 18U College Prospect team, which has been largely regarded as one of the very best in the northeast region.   

 

As a Player:

Mike played highly-competitive baseball for 12 years in the Yawkey Baseball League of Boston. A league comprised almost entirely of collegiate and both former and soon-to-be professional players, making 6 All-Star appearances and winning two league championships.

 

Business:

In 2004, Mike was the General Manager at Extra Innings in Watertown, MA (one of the most successful Extra Innings franchisees in the nation), overseeing the day-to-day operations and implementing new programs, incentives and sales plans.  In addition, Mike worked with both young and adult baseball players, teaching the proper mechanics of the “rotate and extend TNT” professional swing and the “tall and drive” pitching philosophy, before moving on to the Nokona Baseball Glove Company in 2007.

 

In 2007, Mike took on the role of Sales Director for the northeastern (United States) territory for Nokona, growing the sales in that territory by nearly 200 percent in one year’s time. He also introduced a new glove idea to Nokona, named “Bloodline” that he saw come to fruition in 2008.

 

In 2008, through the success of his glove concept, Mike became the director of Product Development for Nokona Baseball (which he still maintains on a contractual basis). Mike has witnessed success with three new glove designs in the last two years

Mike lives with his wife, Sara, and their children, Ella and Luke, in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

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Sara Freire

Sara Freire

Director, HR & Admin
617-704-1896
sarafreire@thefarmbpi.com

Bringing more than 20 years of client-facing experience, I am driven to grow The Farm BPI and its diamond sports programs into widely recognized leaders in skill development. My focus is on quality of service delivery and the client family experience. 

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Bringing more than 20 years of client-facing experience, I am driven to grow The Farm BPI and its diamond sports programs into widely recognized leaders in skill development. My focus is on quality of service delivery and the client family experience. 

Trained as a recreational therapist at Indiana University - Bloomington, my career started as a clinician in the healthcare setting, shifting to the corporate side of healthcare, then to other industries. Two corporate restructures enabled me to reevaluate priorities and start a network marketing business to maintain flexibility while establishing a new role in supporting The Farm.

When I was laid off for the second time in 2013, Mike invited me to apply my skills in support of the The Farm. I am here to supplement the skill set in the office with administrative responsibilities, marketing and communications, human resources, tournament coordination, and client relations.

  • My role as a licensed recreational therapist armed me with education and knowledge that recreational activities are therapeutic and offer specific physiological and emotional value
  • My role as a an account manager for a healthcare dot com sharpened my skills as a business-minded individual with an appreciation for procedure, collaboration, and customer service excellence
  • My role working for a college admissions consulting firm exposed me to the dynamics of the parent-child relationship, and what it means to be an active participant in a client relationship that has more than two parties
  • My role as a network marketing business owner has taught me to outline my personal goals and keep adjusting them, limit my distractions, and cope with objections and failure

A pillar of small business is "family." One of my coveted roles is in getting to know the families in our programs while on the sidelines at games. In return, they get to know the family behind The Farm. I love learning more about our player families, and sharing some of the stories that explain the growth of The Farm.

Sara grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago and moved to Boston in 1999. She and Mike have two children, Ella and Luke, and live in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

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Ben Bills

Ben Bills

Director of Operations
717-676-1408
BenBills@thefarmbpi.com

Home town: York PA

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Home town: York PA

Ben Bills was a four year starter of NAIA D1 school "Southwestern Assemblies of God University." In his time at SAGU Ben earned himself the all time hits record/ extra base hits record/ doubles record/ homerun record/ rbi record and runs scored record. Along with his performance at the plate, Ben has also notched himself as the all time wins leader on the mound. Two of his greatest accomplishments would be throwing a perfect game and no hitter in back to back seasons earning himself NAIA pitcher of the week on two separate occasions. Ben is the first player in program history to collect 200 strike outs on the mound and 200 hits at the plate. Earning himself three all conference selections in his four years of playing Ben credits coaches such as Glenn Ghallagher, Jason Aspito, Corey Thurman, Chris Seprum, Cliff Bartosh, and Matt Cornacchione. 

While playing Ben has had the pleasure to coach and teach baseball at Dbat of Waxahachie for three seasons. 

"Anything in life worth doing is worth over doing."

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Matt Cronin

Matt Cronin

Director of Pitching
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Matt is entering his second year as a member of The Farm BPI staff and we are excited to have him full-time as the Director of Pitching development. Matt is currently in his 4th season playing professional baseball, playing the 2022 season for the Lincoln Salt Dogs of the American Association of Professional baseball. The ’22 season marks Matt’s second season in the Independent League, classified as AA, where he regularly completes against former Major League players. 

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Matt is entering his second year as a member of The Farm BPI staff and we are excited to have him full-time as the Director of Pitching development. Matt is currently in his 4th season playing professional baseball, playing the 2022 season for the Lincoln Salt Dogs of the American Association of Professional baseball. The ’22 season marks Matt’s second season in the Independent League, classified as AA, where he regularly completes against former Major League players. 

Matt attended Framingham High School and received All Conference honors as the captain of both the baseball and football teams. After high school Matt took a gap year to better understand the recruiting process and find the right collegiate program. The gap year landed him the opportunity to play baseball and football for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as a two-sport athlete. 

In his freshman and sophomore seasons Matt was named the teams closer, racking up 19 saves and being named an All-Star in the Futures Collegiate Summer League. 

Matt missed the 2017 season after needing Tommy John surgery. “As unfortunate as it may have been, it was really a turning point in my career. The rehab process is long, and I was able to learn so much about proper mechanics and body preparation. Pitching is very taxing on the body and one of the keys to a long, healthy career is developing an individualized routine that prepares your body for the extremes of the pitching delivery” – Matt. 

In his first season back from injury, Matt earned honors as; 2x conference pitcher of the week, D3 national pitcher of the week, LEC Conference pitcher of the year, American Baseball Coaches Association New England Pitcher of the year, D3 Baseball New England Pitcher of the year, D3 Baseball National First team All-American. 

Following this 2018 season at Umass Dartmouth, Matt secured a temp contract with the Wareham Gateman of the Cape Cod Baseball league and later landed with the Harwich Mariners of the Cap Cod Baseball League. 

Matt continued to find success in 2019 being named to the LEC second team and the American Baseball Coaches Association New England Third team. 2019 also marked Matt’s first season of professional baseball where he played for the West Side Wooly Mammoths of the United Shore Professional Baseball League. In his first season of pro-ball, he earned USPBL Pitcher of the year. 

Matt is now in his second season playing in the American Association of Professional Baseball. 

Prior to joining The Farm family, Matt has coached for NEB Coastal, the Umass Dartmouth Youth development program and been the Pitching Coach at Fitchburg State University for the past three season. In conjunction to being the Director of Pitching, Matt will also provide valuable insight into the college recruiting process.

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Coaching & Instructional Staff

Minutemen Baseball

Nick Lesanto

Instructor

Ryan Gagne

Coach

Kevin Mealey

Coach

Frank McManus

Instructor

Renegades Softball

Kat Noftall

Instructor
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