Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Selected biography/62

Madison Kyle Bumgarner (born August 1, 1989), nicknamed "MadBum", is an American professional baseball starting pitcher with the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. Bumgarner is listed as 6 ft and 235 lb. He features a four-seam fastball that sits in the 90 to 94 mph range, a cutter or slider that hovers around 86 to 90 mph, a curveball that ranges from 75 to 80 mph, and a change-up that sits at 82 to 84 mph.

Bumgarner was born in Hickory, North Carolina, and attended South Caldwell High School in Hudson, where he helped his baseball team win the 2007 4A State Championship. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the first round (tenth overall) in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft out of high school. In his first year playing professionally, 2008, he won the South Atlantic League pitching triple crown. He made his major league debut in 2009 with the Giants. In 2010, he began the season in the minor leagues but was called up midway through the season and wound up becoming the youngest left-handed pitcher to throw eight scoreless innings in a World Series as the Giants won the 2010 World Series, their first since 1954. He got off to an 0–5 start in 2011 but managed to finish with a 13–13 record. In 2012, Bumgarner set a career high with 16 wins and won his second World Series. He had the best ERA of his career in 2013, at 2.77, and started on Opening Day for Giants in 2014. (more...)