UC Santa Barbara junior right-hander Shane Bieber was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the fourth round of Friday’s Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
The 144th overall pick, Bieber becomes just the third Gaucho pitcher since 2000 to go in the top four rounds, joining some elite company in 2015 No. 4 overall pick Dillon Tate and 2009 third-rounder Joe Gardner.
Interestingly, the last Gaucho to be drafted by the Indians was Gardner, in 2009.
This season, Bieber is 11-3 with a 2.96 ERA in 119 2/3 innings. He is the first UCSB pitcher to hit the 11-win mark since 1983, and he has had one of the more productive careers in program history.
The third-winningest pitcher in the school annals, he’s also racked up the second most strikeouts (224) and pitched the eighth most innings (285) in Gaucho history. Additionally, his 2.78 career ERA would be the sixth-lowest ever for a Gaucho if his career were to end today.
Bieber’s calling card is his command, and he has been one of the best strike-throwers in the NCAA over the past two seasons. In 2015, he ranked in the top-10 countrywide in both walks allowed per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio. This year, he is 14th in the nation with 1.13 walks per nine.
Up to this point in career, he has issued just 37 walks in 285 innings.