Madison Bumgarner

Madison Bumgarner - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Madison Bumgarner

Madison Kyle Bumgarner (born August 1, 1989), nicknamed "MadBum", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants (2009–19) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2020–23). Bumgarner won three World Series championships (2010, 2012, 2014) and two Silver Slugger Awards (2014, 2015). He was also selected to four National League (NL) All-Star teams and has the most strikeouts in franchise history by a Giants left-handed pitcher.

This profile of Madison Bumgarner covers Early Life and Family Background, Draft and minor leagues, San Francisco Giants (2009–2019), Arizona Diamondbacks (2020–2023) and Career and Rise to Fame.

Bumgarner played high school baseball at South Caldwell High School in Hudson, North Carolina, where he helped his team win the 2007 North Carolina 4A State Championship. He was selected with the tenth overall pick in the 2007 MLB draft by the Giants. He and Buster Posey both made their major league debuts in 2009 and established a reputation as one of the best batteries in recent MLB history. Bumgarner pitched eight scoreless innings in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, helping win the franchise's first World Series in San Francisco and the first since 1954. Two years later, Bumgarner pitched seven more scoreless innings in Game 2 of the 2012 World Series. In 2014, Bumgarner started the Wild Card Game, throwing a shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He set the World Series record for the lowest earned run average (ERA) in 2014, with an ERA of 0.25, and took home the Most Valuable Player award as the Giants won their third World Series during his time in San Francisco.

Bumgarner won 18 games (his career-high) in 2014 and 2015, and he had a career-high 251 strikeouts in 2016. That fall, he threw his second Wild Card Game shutout, blanking the New York Mets. Injuries interrupted the first half of his next two seasons, a dirt bike accident in 2017 and a broken finger in 2018. Bumgarner led the NL in games started in 2019, with a 9–9 record. A free agent after that season, he signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the Diamondbacks. In 2021, he pitched the third complete game shutout with no hits in franchise history in a seven-inning win over the Atlanta Braves. Arizona released Bumgarner in April 2023. He had a career 134–124 record, 3.47 ERA, and 2,070 strikeouts.

Early Life and Family Background of Madison Bumgarner

Madison Kyle Bumgarner was born August 1, 1989, in Hickory, North Carolina, and grew up in an area ten miles northwest nicknamed "Bumtown" because of the abundance of people with the surname Bumgarner who have lived there over the years, after their ancestors had arrived from Germany. He grew up in a log house built by his father, sleeping in a loft. At the age of four, he began playing youth baseball league, for which his father had to sign a waiver because the league was for five- to eight-year-olds. He would not let Madison throw curveballs until he was sixteen. His parents, Kevin and Debbie, divorced while Bumgarner was in high school.

Bumgarner attended South Caldwell High School in Hudson, North Carolina, where he was known as "Maddie" and played on both the school's baseball team and the Post 29's American Legion Baseball team. In his junior season, he had a 12–2 win–loss record, a 0.99 earned run average (ERA), and 120 strikeouts in 84 innings pitched, as he helped his team to a 2006 North Carolina 4A state runner-up finish. His senior season, he went 11–2 with a 1.05 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched, and also had a batting average of.424 with 11 home runs and 38 runs batted in. In his final high school game, with his team ahead 8–0, Bumgarner hit a two-run inside the park home run to end the game and win the 2007 North Carolina 4A State Championship. He was named most valuable player (MVP) of the playoffs and the Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year, garnering the nickname "The Carolina Peach." Bumgarner attracted so much attention from scouts and agents in high school that his father built a wall around the bullpen at his high school field to keep them from distracting him as he warmed up. He committed to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a college baseball scholarship.

In 2013, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association included Bumgarner on its "100 To Remember" male athletes list, which included Michael Jordan, Carl Eller, and Jim Beatty.

Draft and minor leagues of Madison Bumgarner

The San Francisco Giants selected Bumgarner in the first round, with the tenth overall selection, of the 2007 MLB draft. Going into the draft, Baseball America had ranked him as the 14th-best prospect overall. He was the first high school pitcher to be selected as the Giants' first pick since Matt Cain in 2002, and the first left-handed pitcher selected in the first round by the organization since Noah Lowry in 2001. Bumgarner was also the first left-handed pitcher taken as the first pick by the organization since Mike Remlinger in 1987, the first high school left-handed pitcher the Giants drafted in the first round since Frank Riccelli in 1971, and the first high school left-handed pitcher taken as the first pick by the organization since Riccelli in 1971. In many do-overs, Bumgarner would be selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as the first overall pick of the 2007 MLB re-draft.

In 2008, Baseball America ranked Bumgarner the third-best prospect in the Giants organization. Bumgarner pitched for the Augusta Greenjackets, the Giants' Low-A South Atlantic League affiliate, in 2008. The Giants had him alter the angle of his head during delivery, but after Bumgarner struggled over his first three starts in Augusta, he reverted to the way he had thrown in high school. With Augusta, he worked on his changeup, slider, and ability to throw effectively on the inside part of the plate, a critical trait for a pitcher with his side-armed delivery. He won the South Atlantic League pitchers' Triple Crown, tying for the league lead in wins (15, tied with Levi Maxwell), leading the league in ERA (1.46), and leading the league in strikeouts (164).

Before the start of the 2009 season, the magazine ranked Bumgarner as the ninth-best prospect in baseball. He began the 2009 season with the Giants' High-A affiliate, the San Jose Giants of the California League. After five starts, in which he went 3–1 with a 1.48 ERA and 23 strikeouts, he was called up to the Giants AA affiliate, the Connecticut Defenders of the Eastern League. On July 22, he hit a grand slam against Eric Niesen and picked up the victory in a 9–3 triumph over the Binghamton Mets. In 20 games (19 starts) with them, he went 9–1 with a 1.93 ERA and 69 strikeouts.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Bumgarner), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.