The modern day Major League Baseball pitcher was largely a one-trick pony in high school. That wasn’t the case for Logan Webb, the ace of the San Francisco Giants.
He was a two-year starting quarterback for Rocklin (Calif.) just 20 miles northeast of state capitol Sacramento and completed 254 of 466 passes for 3,707 yards, 47 touchdowns and 18 touchdowns. In games he started, Rocklin was 12-8.
“As impressive as Webb was in high school as a pitcher he threw gas he impressed me just as much as a quarterback,” said Joe Davidson, a longtime sports writer at the Sacramento Bee. “Big, stout, strong armed and personable. Logan loved the position and he was a driving force for a Rocklin playoff team.”
Listed at 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds in high school, Webb was certainly more coveted as a pitcher than at quarterback. He earned Sacramento Bee All-Metro and Cal-Hi Sports All-State honors after posting a 4-3 record and 73 strikeouts in 57.2 innings with a 0.49 ERA his senior season.
File photo by Scott Hall
Logan Webb, Rocklin
Though baseball was always going to be his meal ticket, “He felt a need and obligation to play (football), to be with his teammates, to quarterback winning drives,” Davidson said. “No one pressured him to play just football or just baseball. He was encouraged to do it all, and he did, and now a big part of Placer County watches him in these playoffs with a measure of pride.”
Of the 30 MLB Opening Day scheduled starting pitchers this week, Webb is one of the few who played football in high school. Most specialized to play only baseball as preps and of those, many only pitched.
Here are the 29 other starters, highlighting their high school athletic days:
American League
Baltimore Orioles
John Means: A 5-foot-4 freshman at Olathe East (Olathe, Kan.), Means played on the “D” team as a freshman and by the time he was a junior, didn’t figure to make the varsity either. Instead he transferred to Gardner-Edgerton (Gardner, Kan.), where he started as a first baseman, batted third and was second starter to Bubba Starling, who would later be the fifth overall pick of the 2011 draft.
Boston Red Sox
Nathan Eovaldi: His hometown of Alvin (Texas) is where Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan made the fastball famous. Even after going through Tommy John surgery as a junior, Eovaldi trained hard and sported a 12-1 record his senior year with a 1.66 ERA with 72 strikeouts in 70 innings and three saves. He earned honorable mention All-State.
Chicago White Sox
Lucas Giolito: Began playing t-ball at the age of five, played Little League in Santa Monica and threw his first 90-mile-per hour pitch at age of 14. He attended Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, Calif.) and helped form one of the most lethal trios in high school history, along with two more future MLB aces, Max Fried (see below) and Jack Flaherty (Cardinals). In his career, he went 12-2 with a 1.51 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 97 innings.
Cleveland Guardians
Shane Bieber: Another Southern California product, he was a 2013 graduate of Laguna Hills, where he posted a 7-5 record with a 2.06 ERA as a senior. Also played third base and outfield during his three-year prep career. Was a three-time scholar-athlete.
Detroit Tigers
Eduardo Rodriguez: As a 14-year-old in Venezuela, Rodriguez was told he was good enough to play in the majors. He got a tryout with the Tigers at 16, didn’t get signed and considered giving up until his mom gave encouraged him to stick with it. He played for a baseball academy in Venezuela, improved his velocity to 91 mph and signed with the Orioles at age 17.
Houston Astros
Framber Valdez: A late bloomer, Valdez didn’t start pitching in Palenque of the Dominican Republic, until he was 16 and wasn’t signed until he was 21. That is considered ancient for Dominican signees.
Zack Greinke: Most multi-sport players who make it to MLB often play the mainstream football and basketball but Greinke also excelled in golf and tennis as a youth in Orlando. By the time he focused on baseball, he was a star hitter, fielder and pitcher for Apopka, where he hit 31 career home runs and hit over .400.
Los Angeles Angels
Shohei Ohtani: Ohtani’s father played corporate league baseball at a Mitsubishi plant in Japan and his mother was a national-level badminton player during high school. The youngest of three children, Ohtani took to baseball immediately and by the time he was 16, he threw a pitch 99 mph.
Minnesota Twins
Joe Ryan: The hard-throwing 6-foot-2 right-hander thanks his time playing water polo at Archie Williams (San Anselmo, Calif.) then called Drake for his arm strength. And peace of mind. He was a highly-touted pitcher at a young age, so water polo: “Kept my mind clear when I would start the season,” he told the Cal State Stanislaus newspaper when he attended in 2016. “It kept baseball more fun for me.” He went 24-4 with an 0.86 ERA, with 249 strikeouts in 188 career innings at Archie Williams.
New York Yankees
Gerrit Cole: He dabbled in football and soccer, but by the time Cole reached Orange Lutheran (Orange, Calif.) yes another Southern California hurler one of the game’s most dominating pitchers was sold on baseball. He was all bones as a sophomore but grew into a 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame (he’s now 6-4, 220) as a senior in 2008 when he posted a 8-2 record, 0.46 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 75.2 innings. He could also mash at the plate, blasting eight career home runs with a .310 average and 40 RBIs.
Oakland A’s
Frankie Montas: Prepped in Dominican Republic.
Seattle Mariners
Robbie Ray: The most famous story about Ray before he graduated from Brentwood (Tenn.) wasn’t so much that he went 7-1 with a 0.50 as a senior, but that he regularly played against Mookie Betts. Ray pitched three no-hitters as a senior, including a perfect game.
Tampa Bay Rays
Shane McClanahan: His career stats at Cape Coral (Fla.) were awesome: 29-7, 1.02 ERA, 187 strikeouts in 123 innings. Before that he was driven to success by his hard-coaching dad who also had his son play all sports including soccer and golf.
Texas Rangers
Jon Gray: The prototypical all-around jock, Gray played football, basketball and baseball at Chandler (Okla.). As a receiver he had five catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns as a junior, and delivered 14 tackles and a sack as a 6-3, 205-pound linebacker. He was much more productive on the baseball diamond where he went 8-1 with a 1.50 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 65 innings as a senior.
Toronto Blue Jays
Jose Berrios: Prepped at San Juan XXIII in Puerto Rico, was throwing 93 mph coming out of high school according to perfectgame.org.
National League
Arizona Diamondbacks
Madison Bumgarner: One of the greatest postseason pitchers in MLB historywas one of the most revered players in North Carolina history, leading South Caldwell (Hudson, N.C.) to 2006 and 2007 4A state titles. MadBum not only was a dominating pitcher with a 23-4 mark, 1.00 ERA and 263 strikeouts in 170 innings over his final two seasons. But, as he’s shown also at the MLB level, Bumgarner was a dangerous hitter. Fittingly his final prep at-bat was a walk-off, inside-the-park home run to win the state title.
Atlanta Braves
Max Fried: A three-sport standout, Fried played football, basketball and baseball at Montclair Prep (Van Nuys, Calif.), where he went 10-3 with a 1.81 ERA as a sophomore while batting .446 with four home runs and 40 RBI, and 7-3 as a junior (1.31, 100 strikeouts). But the school cut baseball after his junior year, so he transferred to Harvard-Westlake to join Giolioto and Flahety. Fried went 8-2 with a 2.02 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 66 innings at Harvard-Westlake.
File photo by Larry Gasinski
Max Fried, Harvard-Westlake
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Tyler Mahle: And yet another from the Southern part of California, Mahle went a combined 11-4 in two seasons at Westminster with an ERA of 1.87 with 86 strikeouts in 104 innings. Also a third baseman, Mahle hit .409 as a senior with 18 hits in 44 at-bats and four doubles. The Lions were a combined 33-20 in those two seasons.
Colorado Rockies
Kyle Freeland: A two-sport star in his hometown of Denver, Freeland played both golf and baseball at Thomas Jefferson, where he graduated from in 2011. He went 11-7 in three years on the varsity, including 7-2 as a senior when he sported a 1.44 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 58 innings. He was quite the slugger, hitting a preposterous .631 as a senior with 41 hits in 65 at-bats with six doubles, six triples and six home runs while driving in 26.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Miami Marlins
Sandy Alcantara: Quit school in San Juan de la Maguana of the Dominican Republic in the eighth grade to focus on baseball. He signed with the Cardinals at 17.
Milwaukee Brewers
Corbin Burnes: And yet one more California native, Burnes went 8-4 at Centennial (Bakersfield) with a 2.23 ERA in 22 appearances during his two-year career. He also hit .297 in 128 career at-bats with 10 doubles, a home run and 27 RBIs. Named co-MVP of the Southwest Yosemite League and three-time academic honoree.
File photo by David Dennis
Corbin Burnes, Centennial
New York Mets
Max Scherzer: At 37, one of the oldest on the list, the three-time Cy Young winner was a three-sport star at Parkway Central (Chesterfield, Mo.). According to his basketball coach Austin Kirby, Scherzer was the school’s varsity quarterback as a freshman, the same year he played varsity baseball. He was also a key player on the varsity basketball team for three years. His final pitching performance at the school he threw a five-inning no-hitter with 13 strikeouts.
Philadelphia Phillies
Aaron Nola: A six-inch growth spurt led to a stress fracture in his back during his freshman year at Catholic (Baton Rouge, La.) didn’t curtail a brilliant baseball career there. He went 21-2 during his final three years with 214 strikeouts in 152 innings. He was the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Mr. Baseball in 2011 and as a junior helped the Bears to a 5A state title.
Pittsburgh Pirates
J.T. Brubaker: Known as much as a hitter as pitcher at Tecumseh (New Carlisle, Ohio), Brubaker hit .386 as a junior and .333 as a senior with 42 career RBI. He went 9-2 during his career and had a 0.76 ERA as a senior.
San Diego Padres
Yu Darvish: Darvish was 7-3 in his final year for Tohoku High School and despite being heavily scouted, chose to play professionally in Japan for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
St. Louis Cardinals
Adam Wainwright: The oldest on the list, the 40-year-old was a multi-sport athlete at Glynn Academy (Brunswick, Ga.), where he was an All-State wide receiver and All-Region placekicker. His best sport was unquestionably baseball, being named the 2000 Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year.
Washington Nationals
Patrick Corbin: Basketball was Corbin’s game as a youth growing up in Clay (N.Y.) and he played Pop Warner football. His basketball friends convinced him to play baseball as a junior and by the time he graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse (Cicero, N.Y.), he was 14-0 with 139 strikeouts for the top-ranked team in the state. He was All-League and All-Central New York in baseball and also All-Section in basketball after breaking the school’s single-game 3-point field goal record.
