Madison Bumgarner

Madison Kyle Bumgarner (born August 1, 1989), nicknamed, "MadBum", is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent.

Bumgarner was born August 1, 1989, in Hickory, North Carolina, and grew up in an area ten miles away 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.

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.

In his junior season, he had a 12–2 win–loss record, an 0.99 earned run average (ERA), and 120 strikeouts in 84 innings pitched as he helped his team to a runner-up finish in the 2006 4A State Championship.

Bumgarner played high school baseball at South Caldwell High School in Hudson, North Carolina, where he helped his team win the 2007 4A State Championship.

After graduating, he was selected with the tenth overall pick in the 2007 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.

The next season as a senior, he went 11–2 with a 1.05 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 86 innings, helping his team to win the 2007 4A State Championship.

He hit .424 with 11 home runs and 38 runs batted in (RBIs).

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.

The San Francisco Giants selected Bumgarner in the first round, with the tenth overall selection, of the 2007 MLB draft.

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).

Previously, he pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants (2009–19) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2020–23).

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.

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.

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

Bumgarner has won three World Series championships and two Silver Slugger Awards (2014, 2015).

He has also been selected to four National League (NL) All-Star teams and has the most strikeouts in franchise history by a Giants left-handed pitcher.

In 2014, Bumgarner started the Wild Card game for the Giants, throwing a shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He set the World Series record for the lowest earned run average (ERA) in 2014, taking home the Most Valuable Player award as the Giants won their third World Series during his time in San Francisco.

He won 18 games (his career-high) in 2014 and 2015, and he had a 15–9 record in 2016, along with a career-high 251 strikeouts.

Bumgarner started his second Wild Card game against the New York Mets, again throwing a shutout.

Going into the draft, Baseball America had ranked him as the 14th-best prospect overall.

In 2015 and 2016, Bumgarner reached his third and fourth All-Star Games, though the 2015 game is the only one he pitched in during his time with the Giants.

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, posting a 9–9 record.

A free agent after the year, he signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the Diamondbacks.