Caleb Dirks. Trevor Oaks. Adam Hofacket. Tyson Miller (who was profiled right here last season). They are just four of the many pitchers that California Baptist and head coach Gary Adcock has pumped out to the MLB Draft.
Garett King is likely the next of that bunch.
He may not get selected as highly as last year's fourth-rounder Miller (Cubs) or rise as quickly as Trevor Oaks has (Dodgers), but he has the stuff to make an impact.
"My curveball is my go-to pitch" King said. "It's kind of a plus-pitch that I've been known for the past couple of years to get people out. My fastball command has always been a strength of mine. I really rely heavily on those two things. I've got the slider to back it up and I actually started to work on a split-change in the bullpen. We'll see how that goes. It felt good in the pen, if I could translate that to the game it would be fantastic."
King transferred to the DII pitching power house -- which I coined "Pitcher U" -- from Nebraska, where he put together a Big 10 All-Freshman Team campaign three years ago. He struggled his second season, escaping the pitcher he was and tried to do too much. He slipped out of the rotation, splitting his time between their and the pen.
"From a baseball perspective, I really learned how to handle the adversity of me not playing well," King said. "That's something very important for pitchers our age: failing, and failing hard. In high school everyone is a stud. Going to college, learning to cope with that, you realize that it's the next pitch. You can't dwell on the last outing. Every day has to be a new day."
King had already been drafted once, in 2014 out of high school by the New York Mets. He decided he would be best fit going to college, a choice that seems wise in hindsight.
It also shows a lot about his makeup.
"I knew I was going to be going to college," King said. "I was 159 pounds when I graduated high school. I was a string bean. I was 17 years old. I wasn't ready to go handle minor league baseball, physically or mentally. Going to Nebraska, away from home, kind of prepared me for that lifestyle."
King now sits at 3-1 on the season. He has a 3.27 ERA and a 35-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 33 innings, going at least six innings in each of his last three starts.
(video courtesy of Prospect Pipeline)
To read more on what makes Gary Adcock's program so special, more on King and learn about the other two younger arms poised to be the next of Cal Baptist's finest, read my full interview at NCAA.com.