Coaching Staff

Jeff Isom

Field Manager

Jeff Isom will begin his first season as the field manager of the Chicago Dogs in 2024. The 2024 Season will be Isom’s 21st season managing at a professional level.  He began managing professionally in 2000 after a seven-year playing career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and multiple other Independent League teams.  Isom has managed in the Milwaukee Brewers organization as well as the Frontier League and Northern League.  He is no stranger to the Chicago area, where most recently he managed for the Joliet Slammers and won the Frontier League Championship in 2018.  Isom has been named Frontier League Manager of The Year three times. Isom lives in West Lafayette, Indiana and was drafted out of Purdue University in the 1993 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Stu Cliburn

Pitching Coach

Stu Cliburn enters his fourth season as Chicago Dogs pitching coach. Cliburn boasts an impressive professional baseball history. It all began four decades ago, when the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the fourth round of the 1977 MLB Draft. Cliburn signed with the Angels in 1982 and two years later, debuted at the big-league level. Skyrocketing into a dependable relief pitcher in 1985, he appeared in 44 games, posting a 2.09 ERA and finishing 5th in the American League Rookie of the Year voting that season. In 1991, Cliburn transitioned into a coaching role in the Angels organization until 1993 when he joined the Twins organization as a pitching coach. Cliburn remained with the Twins through the 2019 season, coaching at every level during his 28-year run with the organization ending with the Rochester Red Wings (Triple-A).

Thomas Incaviglia

Hitting Coach

Thomas Incaviglia enters his 1st season as the hitting coach for the Chicago Dogs.  The 2024 season will be Thomas’ 6th season as a 3B/Hitting/Bench coach in professional baseball. Incaviglia played professionally for the Grand Prairie AirHogs of the American Association for two seasons, and played collegiately at Oklahoma State University, University of Texas, and Cal State Monterey Bay, winning an NCAA Division I National Championship with the Texas Longhorns in 2005. The last three seasons he was with the Tri-City ValleyCats as their 3B/Bench Coach in the Frontier League. During his tenure as part of the coaching staff, the ValleyCats posted a 159-127 record and a franchise record 55 wins in 2023. He was also named by the Commissioner’s office to the Frontier League’s East Division Coaching Staff at the 2023 All-Star Game as the 3B coach. He also was a manager in the California Winter League in Palm Springs, CA in 2022 and 2023.