What Happened
ATTLEBORO, MASS. — The game had already been decided. The story already written. Bishop Feehan High School 2, Attleboro High School 1, with the Shamrocks winning in walk-off fashion. Players, former players, coaches and parents celebrated on the field, basking in a season that has brought more attention to Bishop Feehan baseball than at any point in the program's history.
The n the re was the reason for all the attention, standing near his domain on the mound. The tool used to compact the clay looked almost toy-like in the hands of Brody Bumila, whose 6-foot-9 frame has a way of distorting perspective much like his high-powered 101 mph fastball. The left-hander didn't pitch that day. His presence still filled the ballpark.
The buzz surrounding Bishop Feehan baseball this spring was largely his doing. The life coursing through the program had been amplified by what Bumila accomplished on the mound, including a 20-strikeout no-hitter that only further fueled the attention surrounding him. He's committed to Texas, but few inside the game expect him to ever throw a pitch in Austin.
Why It Matters
The 6-foot-9 left-hander is widely projected to be a first-round pick in July's MLB Draft ( he was projected as the No. 21 overall pick in CBS Sports' first Mock Draft ), cementing himself as perhaps the most coveted high school player Massachusetts has ever produced.
Bumila, a decorated basketball player who led his team to its first state championship, understands the reality of his situation. "It would be so cool to be a first-round draft pick because that's my dream," he said. "But that's the first step of the dream." His high school coach, Joe Breen, took it a step further. "He wants to be round No. 1, pick No.1," said Breen, who has known Bumila since he was 11 years old. "He wants a Cy Young, World Series.
He wants it all." High risk, high reward The re is an industry-wide reluctance to spend first-round picks on high school pitchers. The reasons are understandable. Teenagers are still growing into the ir bodies.
What Comes Next
The jump from pitching once a week in high school to the demands of professional baseball, not just taking the ball every five days but managing the workload between starts, can be difficult to predict. "The Bumila kid, he's got everything you want to see," said a former MLB executive, who has watched Bumila this spring and evaluated countless amateur pitchers throughout his career. "He's got arm strength.
You could tell the re's aptitude the re. He's gonna get a better feel for a breaking ball and changeup. A better feel for a breaking ball, better feel for a changeup." But Ricciardi also understands the volatility attached to projecting teenage pitchers.
Of the 53 high school pitchers drafted in the first round between the 2013 and 2022 MLB Drafts, 30% of the m (16) failed to reach the majors "Yet despite all of that," he continued, "he can go out the re to the minor leagues and never get out of A ball." In Bumila's case, his high-powered fastball and size are the hook. Standing next to him, it's easy to forget he's only 18.