Baldwin Wallace star pitcher begins the long road to pro baseball

by Sheldon Ocker

It’s a long road from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School to the major leagues, but Danny Cody is one of the fortunate few to wedge his foot in the door as a minor leaguer.

Cody polished his resume at Baldwin Wallace University, capping his four-year career by being named an American Baseball Coaches Association Rawlings All-American and the Ohio Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year.

It doesn’t get any better than that for a Division III baseball player. Then again, Division III schools are not the gold standard of college baseball. The glamour players and coaches reside in Division I, bigger schools such as Vanderbilt, UCLA, Georgia and Texas Tech, mostly in the southern and western parts of the country, where the weather is predictably mild in the spring, when college baseball is played.

That isn’t to denigrate what Cody has done. Pitching for a small northern school makes it all the more difficult to be evaluated highly by major league scouts. So being drafted in the 17th round by the Houston Astros is a considerable accomplishment, even though it does not put Cody in the rarified air of a top-10 round selection.

Brian Harrison knows all of this. He has been head coach at BW for nine years, taking his team to the NCAA Division III tournament four times. This year, he was Coach of the Year in the OAC, and the Yellow Jackets were co-champions.

“Almost every time Cody pitched, scouts were watching,” Harrison said. “A lot of them met with him privately. From what I could tell, there were 8-10 teams that might have drafted him.”

Last season, Cody posted a 9-1 record and a 1.89 earned-run average in 15 appearances, 13 of them starts. He also struck out an average of 11.5 batters per nine innings.

“Cody throws in the low-to-mid 90s and can run it up to about 96,” Harrison said. “He uses three pitches: fastball, slider and changeup and has outstanding command. He struck out four or five batters for every one he walked for us, which was really good.”

It is not routine for BW players to be selected in the major league amateur draft. Cody is the highest pick in the history of the school.

“He texted me when he got drafted,” Harrison said. “Without a doubt, he was hugely excited.”

Cody signed a contract and was sent to the Astros’ rookie-level team in Florida’s Gulf Coast League. He didn’t stay long, making only four appearances and giving up four hits, four walks and two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Houston player personnel staffers saw enough to promote Cody to Tri-City in the New York Penn League, another outpost for first-year players with a higher skill level than those in the Gulf Coast League.

The odds that a 17th-round draft pick will play even one game in the majors, let alone forge a career, are far less than 50-50. So what if Cody doesn’t reach his goal?

He graduated from BW with a degree in finance and made the dean’s list with a 3.5 GPA. He also is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society. So Cody will have options.

In discussing his own success at BW, Harrison said, “When you have guys like Danny, it makes life a lot easier. He’s a phenomenal kid, a great person and a leader.”

Featured image photo caption: Danny Cody pitches for his alma mater, Baldwin Wallace. Photo courtesy A. Palmer