Jeff Barto

Jeffrey Charles Barto

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.
• School Utah Valley University, Western Nevada Community College
• High School Boise High School

• Born September 15, 1989 in Boise, ID USA

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Jeff Barto pitched in the US, Czech Republic and Croatia as well as for the Czech national team.

Barto played baseball, basketball and football in high school then was 2-0 with two saves and a 2.10 ERA as a sophomore at Western Nevada, going with them to the 2009 NJCAA Division I Baseball World Series. Transferring to Utah Valley, he redshirted then was 2-0 with a save and a 5.25 ERA in 2012. As a senior, he went 2-2 with 3 saves and a 2.85 ERA. His US pro career was brief as he allowed 10 hits and 7 runs (all earned) in 3 1/3 innings for the Roswell Invaders of the 2013 Pecos League.

He signed with Hroši Brno in the Czech Republic. In 2016, he was 4-8 with a 4.03 ERA between the regular season and the playoff. He was among the Extraliga leaders in ERA (6th, between John Hussey and Marek Červenka), WHIP (5th, between Michal Sobotka and Ondřej Satoria), K/9 (9.6, 7th, between Tyson Cosgrove and Marek Minařík), K:BB (5.8, 2nd, behind Boris Bokaj), losses (2nd, one behind Matěj Hušek) and strikeouts (105, 4th, between Červenka and Elroy Urbina). Taking on a managerial role in addition in 2017 , he improved to 4-6, 2.18 with three saves. He was 10th in ERA (between Sobotka and Devon Barker), 5th in WHIP (between Dylan Brammer and Bokaj), 9th in K/9 (between Jake Rabinowitz and Barker), 2nd in K:BB (6.6, just behind the 6.7 by leader Tim Brown) and 9th in K (again 105, this time between Barker and Satoria).

In 2018, he was 6-2 with two saves and a 2.20 ERA, good for 7th in ERA (between Hussey and Rabinowitz) and 6th in WHIP (1.03, between Hussey and Jan Novák). He then moved to Croatia's Nada Split team. He returned to the Extraliga in 2022 with the Třebíč Nuclears, going 4-2 with two saves and a 2.57 ERA; he also was their pitching coach.

By this time, he had obtained Czech citizenship, married a Czech lady and started a family there. He was one of only four non-native players on the Czech team for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, alongside Rabinowitz, Willie Escala and Alex Sogard. His one appearance was superb, against South Korea. He relieved Lukáš Ercoli with one out in the second, two on and a 6-0 deficit. He immediately threw water on the red-hot Korean offense, getting Eui-ji Yang to hit into a double play. He went 1-2-3 in the third against KBO home run record setter Jeong Choi and MLB vets Hyun-soo Kim and Tommy Edman. The 4th was also 1-2-3, this time facing Kun-woo Park, Ha-seong Kim and Jung-hoo Lee. A perfect 5th made it ten batters retired in a row. He allowed only a Hyun-soo Kim single in the 6th to end his perfect day. Ha-seong Kim homered off him in the 7th, but that was only the second batter who reached in his 5 2/3 innings. Novák took over from there. The undrafted former indy leaguer finished 5th in the star-laden WBC in WHIP, behind only José De León, Se-woong Park, Jack O'Loughlin and Hyeong-jun So.

For the 2023 Nuclears, he was 5-3 with a 3.06 ERA, finishing 5th in ERA, 5th in WHIP (between Minařík and former major leaguer Juan Jaime) and tied for 8th in wins. With the Czech team in the 2023 European Championship, he was not as dominant as he had been in the World Baseball Classic. In his lone outing, he relieved Martin Schneider in the 5th against Great Britain and closed out a 12-2 loss by allowing 7 hits and 5 runs (all earned) in 3 innings.