Topic: Jered Weaver

Jered David Weaver (born October 4, 1982 in Northridge, California), is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Weaver was drafted in the first round (12th overall) in the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft by the Angels out of California State University, Long Beach.

Although Weaver was born in Northridge, he was raised in Simi Valley and attended Simi Valley High School.

Weaver attended college at California State University, Long Beach. He was the 2004 College Baseball's Dick Howser Trophy winner as the national collegiate baseball player of the year. He also won college baseball's top pitching honor, the Roger Clemens Award. He was also named first-team All-American by Baseball America in 2004 as a starting pitcher and was projected by them to be the top draft pick in a midseason update. Weaver went 37–9 at Long Beach State and was 15–1, with a 1.62 ERA in his last season with 213 strikeouts and just 21 walks in 144 innings. A 2004 Los Angeles Times called him dominating, describing his pitching as overwhelming "batters with a fastball between 89 and 94 mph, a sharp slider and an improving curveball all thrown with the same three-quarter arm delivery. He also has a fiery streak that is revealed with a fist pump or yell after a strikeout that ends an inning or a long at-bat." The article compared him to 2001 college pitching sensation Mark Prior.