Scott Feldman

Did You Know?

• Feldman changed his arm angle from sidearm to three-quarters in September 2007.
• In 2009, he was named the Jewish Major Leaguers Pitcher of the Year.
• Through 2017, he ranked seventh among all Jewish major leaguers in career strikeouts.

Early and personal life

Scott Feldman was born in Kailua, Hawaii, and raised in Burlingame, California. He is Jewish, like his father, and the family was once part of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. His father, an FBI agent from a Pennsylvania coal mining town who played college baseball at Duquesne, coached him in youth baseball. Standing 6 feet tall, Feldman was large even as a child; his second-grade teacher remarked that he was always too big for his seat. He went to Lincoln Elementary, Burlingame Intermediate, and Burlingame High School, where he threw a no-hitter and led the Peninsula Athletic League in batting average as a junior. In high school, he was overweight, once reaching 265 pounds. As of 2018, he was one of 42 Hawaii-born players to reach the majors.

College

Before his freshman year at the College of San Mateo, Scott Feldman dropped 40 pounds and joined the team as a walk-on. Over two seasons, he posted a 25-2 record with a 1.30 ERA and an 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Bulldogs coach Doug Williams said that when Feldman pitched, the game was essentially over, adding that he had a gift. Feldman was named Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year and an All-American in both 2002 and 2003. The Houston Astros selected him in the 41st round of the 2002 draft, but he did not sign. A year later, the Texas Rangers picked him in the 30th round, and he signed after receiving a lucrative contract.

Minor leagues

Feldman underwent reconstructive elbow surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament in October 2003. In 2004, he pitched seven scoreless innings for the Arizona League Rangers. In 2005, after nine scoreless innings for the Single-A Bakersfield Blaze, he was promoted to the Double-A Frisco RoughRiders. On July 28, 2005, Feldman and two teammates threw a perfect game against the Corpus Christi Hooks, the first combined nine-inning perfect game in Texas League history.

For 2005, between two teams he had a 2.06 ERA and 17 saves in 52 relief appearances. Baseball America tabbed him as having the best control of all minor league pitchers in the Rangers' organization. In 2006, he had a 1.98 ERA in 23 relief appearances for the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks, and in 2007 a 4.50 ERA in 21 relief appearances. In 2008, converted to a starter, he started and won a game for Frisco, taking a perfect game into the fifth and a no-hitter into the seventh. Overall through 2008, his minor league ERA was 2.70 in 153.1 innings over 105 games, giving up 6.6 hits per 9 innings.

Major leagues

Feldman was a late-season call-up in 2005, making his debut against the Chicago White Sox on August 31. In eight relief appearances with the Rangers, he had a 0–1 record with a 0.91 ERA in 9.1 innings. In spring training 2006, after being told he had made the team, manager Buck Showalter pranked him by pretending he was being sent down before revealing the truth. During the regular season, Feldman bounced between the Rangers and Oklahoma. On August 16, 2006, he sparked a bench-clearing brawl in a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, after tensions had escalated from earlier ejections of Rangers pitchers and the manager. Two Angel pitchers and their manager had already been ejected before Feldman took the mound.