Jake Diekman

Who is Jake Diekman?

Jacob Tanner Diekman is an American professional baseball pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies. He throws left-handed, and is a lefty specialist in the Phillies bullpen. Diekman grew up in Wymore, Nebraska, where he attended a high school too small for a baseball team, so he instead focused on golf, playing baseball in the summer for an American Legion team. He played two seasons of baseball in college – one at Doane College the other at Cloud County Community College – before attending a junior college baseball showcase, at which he was offered a scholarship to play Division I baseball. However, in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft, the Philadelphia Phillies selected him in the 30th round, and he ultimately signed.

With the Phillies, Diekman began as a starting pitcher and progressed through a few levels of the Phillies' farm system in his first two years as a starter before adjusting his mechanics, and lowering his arm slot to throw sidearm out of the bullpen as a relief pitcher. He flourished with the adjustment, moving through the remaining levels of the Phillies' farm system and, in 2012, making his major league debut.