Landon Thomas Sims (born January 3, 2001) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.

Amateur career

Sims attended

South Forsyth High School South Forsyth High School is a public high school, built in 1989, located in Cumming, Georgia, United States, a suburb northeast of Atlanta. It is one of eight public high schools in the Forsyth County School District, and serves students who li ...

Cumming, Georgia Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is a suburban city, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 2020 census, the population is 7,318, up from 5,430 in 2010. Su ...

, where he played on the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team as a

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

and on the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team as a pitcher. As a sophomore in 2017, he went 6-2 with a 2.10 ERA and 58 strikeouts over fifty innings. As a junior, he won ten games while pitching to a 0.90 ERA over 62 innings. Sims went unselected in the

2019 Major League Baseball draft The 2019 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 3 to 5, 2019. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2018 MLB season standings. In additi ...

and enrolled at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

. Sims made seven appearances as a freshman on the

Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball The Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team representing Mississippi State University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The program is a member of the West Division of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

team in 2020 and compiled a 3.46 ERA before the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In 2021, he became the team's closer. For the season, he made 25 relief appearances and went 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA, 100 strikeouts, 15 walks and 13 saves over innings. Sims, alongside

Will Bednar William Ross Bednar (born June 13, 2000) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the San Francisco Giants organization. He played college baseball for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Amateur career Bednar attended Mars Area High School in ...

, threw a combined one-hitter against the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

in the final game of the

2021 College World Series The 2021 College World Series was the final stage of the 2021 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament held from June 19–30 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. This marked the 74th edition of the College World Series and 71st time the event is being held i ...

, leading the Bulldogs to their first ever championship. He was named to the USA Baseball National Collegiate Team after the season. Sims entered the 2022 season as a top prospect for the upcoming draft. For the season, he moved into the starting rotation. He was named the team's Opening Day starter and pitched seven innings in which he gave up one earned run, seven hits, no walks, and 13 strikeouts in a 3-0 loss to

Long Beach State California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

. On March 4, in a game against the Tulane Green Wave, Sims was removed in the fourth inning due to a right arm injury. On March 14, it was announced that he had torn his ulnar collateral ligament and would undergo

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season. Over innings pitched in 2022, he compiled a 1.15 ERA and 27 strikeouts.

Professional career

Sims was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 34th overall selection of the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 ...

. He signed with the team for $2.35 million.

References

External links

Mississippi State Bulldogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Landon 2001 births Living people Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Baseball pitchers Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball players United States national baseball team players Sportspeople from Lawrenceville, Georgia