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Imagine being a kid on a sun-splashed afternoon and spending the day at the ballpark, around Major Leaguers, and getting to be close to them all day.  Now, imagine getting to share that experience with your dad, and imagine how much you would grow to love the game of baseball and everything about it.  

Imagine winning a State Championship in High School, then getting drafted by the Dodgers and getting a facetime call from Clayton Kershaw and Walker Beuhler. 

Pete Heubeck is a pitcher in the Dodgers organization who never had to imagine any of these things, he got to live them, and through those experiences, baseball became a passion, and now has become a career.

Gilman Great

Heubeck grew up in a great family, around great people, in great environments, and in a great school, Gilman. Gilman is a school system in Baltimore that teaches its students how to have balance in their lives, how to operate with respect, how to approach life with humility, and how to act with Honor.

There are a lot of schools that claim to provide these kinds of opportunities, but, at Gilman, it is not just a motto or a Mission Statement, it’s real, it’s life-lasting, and it has a big impact on its students.

While Heubeck was learning life-lasting lessons at Gilman, he was also making life-lasting memories through his experiences as a Greyhound.  His dad was one of the baseball coaches, so he got to spend a lot of time at the ballpark around guys like Larry Sheets, Cal Ripken Jr.,  Ryan Ripken, and Gavin Sheets. 

Cal Ripken Jr. was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007, Coach Sheets played in the MLB for almost a decade, his son Gavin is currently in the MLB with the White Sox and Ryan Ripken has spent time in professional baseball as high as AAA.

As if that’s not enough, he got to do it all with his dad, so growing to love baseball and everything about it became a pretty natural thing for the young Heubeck.

Yeah, so, at Gilman they teach you work ethic, and you can’t mess around because it’s such a good school, so, it’s been a huge part of my life, that’s for sure. I’ve been so lucky to have such great mentors ever since I was little and I grew up loving baseball and everything about it. 

Heubeck continued about his mentors

My dad helped coach, so the coaching staff was Cal Ripken, Coach Sheets and my dad so that was pretty amazing.  I would go to every practice, every game and I loved being around it so much and I loved everything about it.  Coach Sheets and Cal Ripken really instilled the right way to play baseball in everybody.

Transition to Pitcher

Heubeck had grown up being mentored by some of the Gilman greats, and as he entered High School he couldn’t wait to put it all to use. 

Entering his freshman year he was a catcher but only weighed 150 pounds, and wasn’t going to be the Varsity starter.  He was too talented to not be in the lineup however, so, knowing he had a great arm and loved throwing the ball hard, Coach Sheets, his High School coach, asked him if he wanted to pitch instead.  Heubeck loved the idea of having the ball in his hand every play, so he jumped on the chance to pitch for the Varsity and it didn’t take long for it all to click. 

As a Freshman and a Sophomore, he was the starting pitcher in the State Championship finals and threw very well even though his team lost close games on both occasions.  When Covid canceled his Junior year, it drove him to work harder than ever for his senior year, and as a result, he entered his last year at Gilman in the best shape of his life. 

Heubeck had a dominant senior season, was the Gatorade Player of the Year, and finally got to win a State Championship.   He led the Greyhounds to the Class A championship by throwing a complete game in the Semifinals and then closing the finals in the next game and is very thankful that Coach Sheets believed in him and let him finish both of those games. 

I started the Championship game my Freshman year and my Sophomore year and we lost both times in really close games so Coach Sheets letting me go out and finish those last 2 innings really meant a lot to me and it was just really awesome.  I owe a lot of credit to him and I’m very thankful for everything he did for me.

Wake Forest

After his prep career at Gilman, Heubeck committed to Wake Forest to continue his elite education and high-caliber baseball career and was excited about his opportunities at Wake, especially considering that he had a full ride. Tom Walter, the Demon Deacons Head Coach, had, at the time, produced 41 draft picks in the last 8 years, one being Heubeck’s mentor, Gavin Sheets, and, under his watch, 100% of the Seniors have graduated on time in the last 6 years. 

So Heubeck knew he had a gold mine waiting for him in College, but when the Dodgers drafted him in the 3rd round this past Summer, the offer was simply too good to turn down and the young Maryland native decided to turn pro.  

With my dad being an educator, the graduation rate and the fact that Wake Forest is such a great school, those things really stuck out.  The amount of people that have come through that program and played Major League baseball is pretty amazing too, so it was a tough decision, but I couldn’t be happier with my decison to become a Dodger.

It was an interesting coincidence that the young Heubeck got drafted by LA, because, although he grew up in Baltimore, he had become a big Dodgers fan while in High School. 

Of course, growing up in Baltimore, he is a huge Orioles fan too, but the Orioles games get blacked out in Baltimore on the MLB.TV package, so he started watching Dodgers games several years ago instead.

His mother is a huge Dodgers fan as well and he and his mom spent hours playing catch in the backyard and watching Dodgers games, so getting drafted by them was an awesome experience.

Draft Day was crazy! I was on the phone all day, and I got to watch some of my friends get drafted so that was cool.  But then my Agent called and told me that the Orioles were going to draft me and that was exciting being from Baltimore, but then, 30 seconds before I got picked, he told me that the Dodgers might pick me in that spot. 

Heubeck continued about how exciting it was to get drafted by the Dodgers

The Dodgers and Orioles have always been my two favorite teams and I have watched the Dodgers play every night for the last 2 to 3 years, so when they picked me it was surreal.

Dodgers Culture

The Dodgers are a World Champion caliber organization, that much can’t be disputed.  But, they are also a World Class organization so Heubeck and his family knew his development would be 2nd to none both on and off the field.  And It didn’t take long for the Dodgers to confirm what Heubeck already knew about the culture of the organization as shortly after being drafted he was joined by Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler in a facetime chat. 

Buehler and Kershaw explained what it’s like to be a Dodger, talked about baseball in general and the three had a great conversation.  

That was really special! I mean, I was in shock first of all because I have always looked up to those 2 guys.  I watched Walker Buehler all the way back to his Vanderbilt days and Clayton Kershaw is a Hall of Famer so that was awesome. 

Heubeck continued on about the Facetime chat

The thing that stood out is that those 2 guys are such nice guys and that has carried over into everybody else in the organization.  The whole organization is full of good people and good players and the coaches really care about you and your development so that’s really nice.

Feature Cut

Heubeck is 6’3 and entered the Dodgers organization at just 165 pounds, so he entered long and lanky with a lot of room to grow.  He has put on good weight since becoming a professional and is at 185 pounds currently and hopes to stick at 190 pounds or a little above. 

Heubeck wants his fastball to sit at 94 and touch 97, and when combined with the big curveball, slider, and the newly developed change, it makes for the potential of a good starting pitcher mix.

He grew up playing catcher so he knows how to attack hitters and has an advanced understanding of how to use tunneling and spin rate to set hitters up and then get them out.  Check out the breaking ball 4 seam tunnel.

His breaking ball is big!

One of the big keys to his development, as he works his way through the system, will be his command. His curveball is so big that it can be hard to control and he wants to ride the 4-seam at the top of the zone. So, he’s incorporated a “smaller” breaking ball with a tighter spin in an attempt to have a better feel for the strike zone. 

One of the first things that pitchers in the Dodgers organization learn is how to throw a changeup. Heubeck is developing that pitch and, in my opinion, it will be a plus pitch for him in a very short amount of time. As you can see, he already can get it to fall off the table, the next step will be to create consistency with the pitch.

Finishing Up

Heubeck was drafted out of High School, so he is just getting started with his professional career and is certainly going to grow both mentally and physically.  The great thing about drafting players out of High School is that you can take your time with their development and let them get comfortable with the adjustments they have to make to be successful at the professional level. 

Although he has had great training throughout his childhood and prep career, the training he has gotten since he’s become a Dodger is next level and that’s going to continue as he progresses.

The Dodger’s player development is 2nd to none and will continue to provide him with tools, analytics, data, and instruction that will give him give him great support, will put him around great people, and will, once again, give him the chance to “Grow Up Around Greatness”.  

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