Right-hander Jacob Rhame was selected by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft. Many Dodger fans may not have heard of Rhame as he does not show up in any top 20 lists of Dodger prospects. That certainly is not surprising and is by no means a knock on the 21-year old Rhame. Pitching in relief and toiling with the Class-A Great Lakes Loons in 2014 did not raise his profile unless one was closely connected to the Loons as teammates, coaches, scouting staff or fans of the Dodgers entry in the Midwest League. I happen to be a fan of the Loons through radio and MiLB.TV and follow the team very closely.

Rhame played his high school ball in Denton, Texas, a city of about 113,000 located on the northern edge of the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. Born in Corinth, he grew up in Denton – the hometown of former Dodgers reliever Javy Guerra. Rhame attended Guyer High School and later became the first player from that school to be drafted in any professional sport. The school opened for business in 2005, so his selection as the first major league draftee might not be surprising although his performance was certainly worthy of recognition.

Rhame became the first player in any sport to be drafted out of Guyer High School.
(Photo credit – David Minton)

As a member of the Denton Guyer Wildcats, Rhame was selected to the All District Team as a second team member in 2009 and as a first team member in both 2010 and 2011. He capped off his 2011 season with a selection to the All State team which is definitely an honor in a state as large as Texas.

In 2010 Rhame was selected to participate in the Area Code Baseball Games that were held in August in Long Beach, California. He tried out at Weatherford College with around 300 other young players and was selected to the “Texas Rangers” – a team made up of Texas and Louisiana players. The selections were made by the scouting staff of the American League Texas Rangers. In 2009 Dodgers prospect Zach Lee from McKinney, Texas had played in that year’s Area Code Baseball Games.

As a senior at Guyer in 2011 Rhame went 6-2 in the regular season with a 1.57 ERA and 82 strikeouts with just 15 walks. He led the team to the playoffs in their first season in the state’s largest classification and following the season he agreed to attend the University of Oklahoma where he was awarded a scholarship to play baseball with the Sooners.

Up to this point it had been smooth sailing for Rhame as a starting pitcher. He had pitched ten innings with the Sooners after reporting in November. But that’s when his career, which seemed to be on the fast track, hit a speed bump – a big one. Oklahoma baseball coach Sunny Galloway invited him to a post-season conference in which Rhame expected to learn what he must do to prepare for his freshman year. Instead he learned that he had been cut from the team – presumably because of a very significant drop in the velocity of his fastball – apparently the result of his sudden and substantial weight gain. Rhame went from being a 6’-1”/190-pound high school senior to a 6’-1”/240-pound college freshman in a very short period of time. Suddenly, his baseball dream had been shattered.

“I just kept eating … we ate along with the football team, so I ate like the football team,” Rhame said. “Getting cut or released by Oklahoma was my wake-up call. It was my motivation. If I hadn’t been cut, I would not have lost that weight. I would not be here right now.”

Rhame knew what he had to do and did it. He returned to his optimum weight of about 190 pounds and his fastball velocity returned. He was able to resurrect his career when he transferred to Grayson County College in Texas for the 2013 college season and once again began to dominate hitters, striking out 58 in 75 innings with 11 walks and compiling a 2.16 ERA.

Rhame credits his year with the Grayson County College Vikings and a 2012 season with the Anchorage Bucs in the Alaska Summer League with helping him to get his career back on track along with his changed eating habits and conditioning program. Although he was devastated at the time, he now thanks Coach Galloway for saving his career by cutting him loose from OU after only ten innings.

Considering the bump in his baseball road, it may have been a bit surprising that the Dodgers selected Rhame in the sixth round of the 2013 draft. Former Dodgers vice president of scouting Logan White explained the decision: “He has an electric arm,” said White. “He knows how to pitch. We’ll start him in the Minor Leagues, but he could go either direction because he throws strikes and his delivery is sound.”

Rhame figures to begin the 2015 season with the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
(Photo credit – Tim Goessman)

Rhame began the 2013 season with the Ogden Raptors of the Rookie Pioneer League and made 20 appearances, all of them in relief. He had previously pitched 75 innings with the Grayson County College Vikings in 2013 so it made good baseball sense to use him in a relief role with the Raptors. His first season of professional baseball really wasn’t an indication of what was to come. In 19.2 innings he posted a 4.58 ERA with 21 strikeouts and nine walks. He had continued his pattern of a strikeout an inning but his walks were uncharacteristically high, albeit in a small sample.

He started the 2014 with the Great Lakes Loons and, along with other Loons’ relievers, his numbers were a bit off the charts. On the season he posted a 2.00 ERA giving up only 48 hits in 67 innings. He stuck out 90 while walking 14. His trademark control had returned, exhibited by a stingy 0.925 WHIP.

Following the all-star break Rhame posted a 1.17 ERA and an even more minuscule WHIP of 0.76 while allowing just 24 hits in 38.1 innings, striking out 56 and giving up but five walks. Hitters had a .176 batting average against him in the second half. For good measure, he closed the season with a 32.2 scoreless-innings streak coming out of the bullpen and moving more and more into a closer’s role.

Three years removed from his Oklahoma experience Jacob Rhame has put himself on the Dodgers radar and perhaps on the radar of other teams. Word has it that his name was tossed around in trade talks by the Dodgers in the possible acquisition of ace starter David Price, who was eventually dealt from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Detroit Tigers.

Rhame had been a starter until his professional baseball career began. However, he has quickly adapted to his role as a relief pitcher in the later innings of a game. In fact, he relishes the assignment. When asked about the transition by Adam Boedeker of the Denton Record Chronicle, he succinctly answered: “I see that as the way to move up quick,” Rhame said after giving up on the idea of being a starting pitcher. “It’s hard to move up as a starter. You have to sit there for a while. As a reliever, you could go up any day. You get more appearances. If you have a bad outing, the next thing you know you’re in the next day and it’s a clear mind.” He continued “I love it. I think I had [51] appearances compared to 20-something [as a starter]. It was awesome. It was a lot of baseball.”

How can his success in 2014 be explained? I expect he just wants to enjoy it and not dwell on explaining it. However, part of the answer no doubt is in his velocity – returned and increased. Hugh Bernreuter who posts on MLive.com reported in August that Rhame was touching as high as 99 mph in games.

There must be more to it that just velocity and there is. Rhame indicates he is able to throw sliders in fastball counts and is re-developing his change-up as an off-speed speed to use against left-handers. But wait – there’s even more and this is the part you really have to like: “I worked with (Loons pitching coach) Bill Simas at throwing hard at the knees. I worked on it so much that now my body is used to it. I’m throwing as hard as before, but now it’s at the knees. The difference for me is where I’m throwing it. In the first half of the season, I was trying to throw it as hard as I could wherever.”

Rhame will undoubtedly report to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes to begin the 2015 season. And wouldn’t you know it, Bill Simas has just been promoted as the pitching coach for the Quakes for the upcoming season.