Draft Diamond Dawg: Pitcher Jacob Billingsley Astros’ Last Thousand-Dollar Man

The Houston Astros’ first pick in the June 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Seth Beer, got $2,250,000 as his signing bonus. That’s more than enough to buy a car, a house, a new lifestyle. All the way down in the 32nd round (there were 40), drafted as the 972nd overall draft pick, Jacob Billingsley, a fifth-year senior out of Mississippi State, was thrilled to just not be overlooked… by everyone.

Billingsley, 23, was the last Astro draft pick to receive any money. With the signing deadline (July 6) behind us, Billingsley was awarded a $1,000 signing bonus at his July 2 signing, which is a year’s worth of groceries to a college student. The Maserati and the house with a pool will have to wait, as will the steak dinners.

While Beer may happily treat his new minor league teammates to a steak dinner, “ramen all around” might be the invitation heard from Billingsley in his first clubhouse.

The right-handed pitcher was actually the ‘Stros’ last selection before the team suddenly made three out of the next five rounds a chance to make familial legacy picks (Carlos Correa’s brother JC, Alex Bregman’s brother, AJ, and Jose Cruz’s grandson, Antonio).

Related: Astros Draft Trei Cruz, 2017, Creating 3 Generations of Astros

The View From Base Camp (and Hope From Three Right-Handers)

The climb up the Houston organizational ladder may seem tantamount to Mt. Everest to Billingsley, but hope lies in players from the bowels of past drafts who have risen above their draft class to MLB success.

In 1996, the Astros took a flyer in the 23rd round, selecting a skinny 18-year-old pitcher, also from Mississippi. Roy Oswalt blossomed into one of the best pitchers in franchise history. His 143 career Astro wins rank second in franchise history behind only Joe Niekro.

Related: Roy Oswalt Inducted Into Round Rock Express Hall of Fame

In 1987, the Astros drafted Darryl Kile out of California’s Chaffey College (the school fellow pitcher and Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers attended) so late (30th round) that it was shocking to most just how quickly he progressed through the minors. Kile spent just three years in Houston’s system before making his big league debut at 22 years old. He threw a no-hitter in 1993 and went 19-7 on the Astros team that won the NL Central division crown in 1997.

Related: Darryl Kile’s Kids Honor Dad’s Legacy

While never an Astro, pitcher Robb Nen shared Billingsley’s round #32 as a 1987 Texas Rangers pick. Over his last five seasons (1998-2002) with the Giants, Nen ranked second in MLB with 206 saves, striking out nearly 11 batters per nine innings with a 2.43 ERA.

Jacob Scott Billingsley, From Senatobia to Starkville

Billingsley, born and raised as a Mississippi State fan in the tiny map-dot of Senatobia, Mississippi (pop. 8,000), attended the Magnolia Heights School. Senatobia, in the northwest corner of MS, is 40 miles due south of Memphis, and 29 miles due east of Tunica, recipient of a gambling license in the early 1990s, aiding the area’s tourism and economy.

A lifelong devout Christian, Billingsley taught a weekly Bible study for elementary school students while attending Magnolia. He managed to successfully juggle a heavy schedule, as he was feted as a Member of the National Honor Society while also pitching for the Chiefs.

Billingsley actually didn’t start pitching, though, until he was a junior at Magnolia. He went 12-2 with a 1.75 ERA his first season. His second year, as team captain, he went 10-0 with a 0.54 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 51.2 innings and was named MAIS (Modern American International School) Player of the Year.

Billingsley won back-to-back state championships his junior and senior season when the Chiefs went 37-0 and 33-5.

Bulldog Pride

Apparently pre-ordained to attend his long-beloved Mississippi State in Starkville, just over two hours away from home, Billingsley was a psychology major. He red-shirted in 2014 and threw out of the pen for two years before he got a chance to start last season after arm injuries wreaked havoc on the Mississippi State pitching staff.

In the summer of 2014, he played for the Bethesda Big Train in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, where he was named an all-star. He finished 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, striking out 16 in seven relief appearances while holding opponents to an .068 batting average in 14.2 innings of work. His 2015 was marked by surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing shoulder.

In 2017, his junior season, Billingsley made 16 appearances, 13 of them starts, and collected 52.2 innings pitched. He developed into a Sunday starter for the Bulldogs later that season. Teammates were often entertained by his “weird” pre-game routine, centered around a marathon three-hour warm-up time.

After being named to the 2017 Spring SEC Academic Honor Roll, Billingsley started six games in the Cape Cod League for the Harwich Mariners in the summer of 2017, throwing 29.2 innings while maintaining a 3.94 ERA. His outstanding work there earned him the George Lane Sportsmanship Award.

College World Series

Billingsley and his Bulldog mates saw their recent College World Series run end in the semifinal against Oregon State, 5-2. A win would have put the Diamond Dawgs into the national championship series.

He’s a leader in the clubhouse, but he’s not afraid to have some fun, according to a recent Mississippi Clarion Ledger article. Former MSU head coach Gary Henderson called him “extremely thorough” in his preparation.

Billingsley, after several games this year, became part of a new tradition that players contend helped turn their season around.

One of Billingsley’s fellow pitchers, another Magnolia Heights product, started turning up the volume and blasting Canadian rockers, Nickelback, in the Bulldog locker room before games on Sundays, Billingsley’s regular day to pitch.

About halfway through this season, in April, the Bulldogs started wearing all-black jerseys, cranking up the music and calling it “Nickelblack Sundays.”

Billingsley, of course, got into it. “It was just kind of this fun thing that we started doing,” he said. “But for some reason, it worked.”

Since that point, the Bulldogs went 7-2 on Sundays, with most of the wins coming with Billingsley on the mound.

“Some kids, they rise to the moment,” Henderson said of his star pitcher. “He’s pitched well in big games. That’s why I have confidence in him, and the team has confidence in him.”

At press time, Billingsley was yet to be placed on his new team in Houston’s system.

Related Posts

• With Orioles Roster On The Radar, Could The Yankees Pull Off The Biggest Blockbuster This Summer?
• Does Giancarlo Stanton Deserve The AL Final Vote?
• Chris Sale In The Midst Of Dominance