Former High School Stars in Professional Baseball

pcbuck

pcbuck

Well-known member
It's interesting to see how these outstanding players have been doing after HS baseball.

Walsh Jesuit has 2 currently playing professional baseball
Ryan Feltner (Ohio State) RHP for the Colorado Rockies
Dominic Canzone OF (Ohio State) for the Reno Aces in AAA for the Diamondbacks

Feltner pitched his first game for the Rockies this year going 5 innings with 7K and 4 ER on April 27. He did strike out Bryce Harper
He was 2-0, 3.10 ERA with 24 Ks in 20.1 innings for AAA Albuquerque prior to this

Canzone was promoted to AAA Reno about 1 week ago and is hitting .276 with 3 HR and 14 RBI in 16 games this season.
 
 
Jackson has at least 2 that I'm aware of. Both Dillon Dingler and Kyle Nicolas were key cogs in Jackson's State Championship teams in baseball and basketball during their senior year of 2017.

Dillon Dingler is an overall top-5 prospect in the Detroit Tigers organization as a catcher. He was drafted 38th (1st pick, 2nd round) in 2020. He's currently with the AA affiliate, Erie SeaWolves.

A hard-throwing pitcher, Kyle Nicolas is one of Pittsburgh's top right-hand prospects. He was drafted in the 2nd round (61st overall) of the 2020 draft. He's currently with AA affiliate, the Altoona Curve.
 
Mike Mayers from Grove City has turned into a pretty solid hold man for the Angels. Anybody remember his MLB debut?
 
Mutant said:
Mike Mayers from Grove City has turned into a pretty solid hold man for the Angels. Anybody remember his MLB debut?
Click to expand...
I had to look it up and you can give us the details but wow that was a memorable debut.
He's stuck with it and pitched in the majors for 7 seasons.
 
Last edited:
Evan White from Gahanna was fun to watch, saw him play at UK a couple of times. Too bad injuries have slowed him last year and this year
 
pcbuck said:
It's interesting to see how these outstanding players have been doing after HS baseball.

Walsh Jesuit has 2 currently playing professional baseball
Ryan Feltner (Ohio State) RHP for the Colorado Rockies
Dominic Canzone OF (Ohio State) for the Reno Aces in AAA for the Diamondbacks

Feltner pitched his first game for the Rockies this year going 5 innings with 7K and 4 ER on April 27. He did strike out Bryce Harper
He was 2-0, 3.10 ERA with 24 Ks in 20.1 innings for AAA Albuquerque prior to this

Canzone was promoted to AAA Reno about 1 week ago and is hitting .276 with 3 HR and 14 RBI in 16 games this season.
Click to expand...
Nice!...IMO....This is one of the hardest sports to make it in.
 
Mutant said:
Evan White from Gahanna was fun to watch, saw him play at UK a couple of times. Too bad injuries have slowed him last year and this year
Click to expand...
Hopefully Evan can come back this year from injury. Even if he doesn't, he'll always be a big leaguer and he'll always be a former Gold Glove award winner.
 
Dominic Canzone (Walsh Jesuit and OSU) had a slow start in AAA but is starting to heat up.
On Saturday he was 2/5 with 3 RBI
On Sunday he was 1/4 with a homer and 2 RBI

For the year he's hitting .284 with 4 HR and 19 RBI in 18 games.
 
This thread has brought back memories of players I’ve heard of from high school but also guys I’ve heard of from the minors but never realized they were from Ohio. Evan White and Sean Murphy are in the second category.

Another guy I didn’t know was from Ohio is Joe Smith, reliever formerly of the Indians but currently playing with the Twins. I used to work with someone related to his wife, who is in broadcasting. Joe is from Amelia High School which closed in 2017 after the opening of West Clermont High School. I had never heard of his school before but even they have an OHSAA state championship. It was in baseball Class B in 1950.
Joe has made quite a career for himself, playing in the majors for 15 years now. He makes 2.5 million dollars a season for an average of about 50 innings a year. For those that are math challenged, that’s $50,000…..per inning.
 
Probably the most well known out of Ohio is Andrew Benintendi out of Madeira. He was the 7th overall pick out of Arkansas in 2015, made his MLB debut in 2016 for the Red Sox where he was a key factor in Boston's 2018 World Series team. Some other accolades are a 2021 Gold Glove, won the golden spikes in 2015 along with the Dick Howser Trophy. At Madeira his senior year he batted .564 with 12 HR, 57 RBI, and stole 38 bases and when it was all said and done he broke the record for most runs scored in a high school career (199). These stats allowed him to win the ABCA/Rawlings National Player of the Year, and won the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year. His career MLB stats are .277 69 HR 343 RBI
 
Tigers84 said:
Probably the most well known out of Ohio is Andrew Benintendi out of Madeira. He was the 7th overall pick out of Arkansas in 2015, made his MLB debut in 2016 for the Red Sox where he was a key factor in Boston's 2018 World Series team. Some other accolades are a 2021 Gold Glove, won the golden spikes in 2015 along with the Howser Trophy. At Madeira his senior year he batted .564 with 12 HR, 57 RBI, and stole 38 bases and when it was all said and done he broke the record for most runs scored in a high school career (199). These stats allowed him to win the ABCA/Rawlings National Player of the Year, and won the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year. His career MLB stats are .277 69 HR 343 RBI
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea he was an Ohio boy
 
I was thinking that the best Ohio HS player in the majors right now was either Andrew Benintendi or Kyle Schwarber.

Schwarber went to Middletown High school and then Indiana University. He was drafted with the 4th pick in the 2014 draft by the Cubs. He helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series (he sucks for this). Kyle now plays for the Phillies and currently has 160 HR with 366 RBI in the Major Leagues. He was an All Star in 2021, playing for the Nationals and also the Red Sox that year.
 
Ronnie Dawson, Licking Heights- Really successful player at Ohio State. Drafted 2nd round by the Houston Astros in 2016. Recorded his first hit and run scored last year. The Reds picked him up in the off season and he now plays for the Triple A Louisville Bats. The way the Reds are playing wouldnt be surprised to see him pulled up this year.
 
LCL said:
Ronnie Dawson, Licking Heights- Really successful player at Ohio State. Drafted 2nd round by the Houston Astros in 2016. Recorded his first hit and run scored last year. The Reds picked him up in the off season and he now plays for the Triple A Louisville Bats. The way the Reds are playing wouldnt be surprised to see him pulled up this year.
Click to expand...
I always rooted for Ronnie at OSU. Good luck to him with the Reds.
 
Last edited:
West Jefferson has LA Dodgers lefty relief p Caleb Ferguson who is currently on the DL, he had his 2nd Tommy John surgery last year. Ferguson had his first Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school. Ferguson was a 38th rd pick in the 2014 draft and made the majors by the time he was 21. His career record is 10-5 with a 3.90 era. Hopefully Ferguson can bounce back to form sometime this season.
 
WJ-OSU-STEELERS said:
West Jefferson has LA Dodgers lefty relief p Caleb Ferguson who is currently on the DL, he had his 2nd Tommy John surgery last year. Ferguson had his first Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school. Ferguson was a 38th rd pick in the 2014 draft and made the majors by the time he was 21. His career record is 10-5 with a 3.90 era. Hopefully Ferguson can bounce back to form sometime this season.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the update on Caleb. I knew he made it up to the Dodgers bullpen. Him and Ronnie Dawson in the same league made for fun HS baseball to watch.
 
Another guy that hadn't been mentioned so far is Eric Lauer of the Milwaukee Brewers. He went to Midview High School and later Kent State. Eric was selected by the Padres with the 25th pick of the 2016 MLB draft. He has had a great start to the 2022 season going 2-0 in 4 starts this year with a 1.93 ERA in 23.1 innings.
 
WJ-OSU-STEELERS said:
West Jefferson has LA Dodgers lefty relief p Caleb Ferguson who is currently on the DL, he had his 2nd Tommy John surgery last year. Ferguson had his first Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school. Ferguson was a 38th rd pick in the 2014 draft and made the majors by the time he was 21. His career record is 10-5 with a 3.90 era. Hopefully Ferguson can bounce back to form sometime this season.
Click to expand...
Love hearing stories like this. Not the surgeries but picked in 38th round. Kudos to Caleb and hope he bounces back
 
LCL said:
Ronnie Dawson, Licking Heights- Really successful player at Ohio State. Drafted 2nd round by the Houston Astros in 2016. Recorded his first hit and run scored last year. The Reds picked him up in the off season and he now plays for the Triple A Louisville Bats. The way the Reds are playing wouldnt be surprised to see him pulled up this year.
Click to expand...
With Naquin going on the IL for the Reds, Ronnie was called up yesterday.
 
Mackinbiner said:
Jackson has at least 2 that I'm aware of. Both Dillon Dingler and Kyle Nicolas were key cogs in Jackson's State Championship teams in baseball and basketball during their senior year of 2017.

Dillon Dingler is an overall top-5 prospect in the Detroit Tigers organization as a catcher. He was drafted 38th (1st pick, 2nd round) in 2020. He's currently with the AA affiliate, Erie SeaWolves.

A hard-throwing pitcher, Kyle Nicolas is one of Pittsburgh's top right-hand prospects. He was drafted in the 2nd round (61st overall) of the 2020 draft. He's currently with AA affiliate, the Altoona Curve.
Click to expand...
I’d like to see Dillon get called up this year
 
Ryan Feltner (Walsh Jesuit/ OSU) was back down in AAA Albuquerque after his spot start against the Phillies last week
He pitched May 3 going 5 innings with 2 ER, 8 K and getting the win.
Ryan is 3-0 this season in AAA with an ERA of 3.20 and 32 K in 25.1 innings.
 
The highest Ohioan that I know that was drafted in the 2021 MLB draft was Seth Lonsway from Celina HS and Ohio State
Seth was drafted in the 6th Round by the San Francisco Giants
So far this year in A ball in long relief, he has a 3-0 record with 4.15 ERA and 23 K in 17.1 innings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top