Four former Warriors have played Major League Baseball

Mike Leake is the only former Fallbrook High School baseball player who is currently playing Major League Baseball, but three other former Warriors subsequently played in the majors.

Matt Chico, Troy Cate and Donny Lucy all played their first major league game in 2007. Leake made his major league debut in 2010. Chico and Cate were pitchers, as is Leake. Lucy was a catcher.

Cate graduated from Fallbrook High School in 1998 and continued his baseball career at Ricks College in Idaho. In 2000 Ricks College became Brigham Young University Idaho, transitioned from a two-year college to a four-year university and dropped intercollegiate athletics. Cate undertook a mission service with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the sixth round of the 2002 baseball draft.

The Mariners’ Northwest League affiliate in 2002 was in Everett, Washington, and Cate began his professional career there. He had 13 starts and three relief appearances for Everett and posted a 6-1 record including his only complete game and only shutout in professional baseball. He had 25 starts and two relief appearances for Inland Empire of the California League in 2003, and he also had one start for Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League and was the winning pitcher in that game. In 2004, Cate posted a 3-0 record in three starts and four relief appearances with Inland Empire and pitched 12 games for San Antonio of the Texas League. His 23 games with Inland Empire in 2005 were all relief appearances.

Cate was released by the Mariners after the 2005 season and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization as a minor league free agent in January 2006. The 2006 season for Cate included 34 relief appearances for Palm Beach in the Florida State League and 10 relief outings for Springfield in the Texas League.

In 1998 baseball’s Class AAA minor leagues were contracted and the American Association was disbanded, so Memphis was in the Pacific Coast League in 2007 when Cate started the season there. He was called up to the Cardinals and made his major league debut May 29, 2007. Cate had 14 major league appearances and threw 16 innings. He had no pitching decisions and posted a 3.38 earned run average. He struck out 12 of the 24 major league batters he faced. Cate had one major league at-bat but did not hit safely.

Cate was granted free agency after the 2007 season and signed with the Oakland Athletics’ organization. He pitched for the A’s Pacific Coast League team in Sacramento and pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Southern League team in Huntsville and the Brewers’ PCL farm club in Nashville that year. During 2009, Cate pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays’ New Hampshire affiliate in the Eastern League before concluding his career with independent minor league baseball. He was with the Atlantic League’s Long Island team for the other part of the 2009 season and played for the Canadian-American League’s Quebec franchise in 2010.

Chico graduated from Fallbrook High School in 2001. He pitched for the University of Southern California during the 2002 season, transferred to Palomar College and was on the Comets’ 2003 team.

If a player is with a National Collegiate Athletic Association program, he cannot be drafted until his third year out of high school, but because Chico had transferred to a junior college he was eligible for the 2003 draft. The Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the third round.

Chico began his minor league career with Yakima of the Northwest League in 2003. His 2004 season included games with South Bend of the Midwest League and El Paso of the Texas League. During 2005 Chico played with Lancaster of the California League and Tennessee of the Southern League. Chico also spent parts of 2006 with Lancaster and Tennessee.

The Diamondbacks had the opportunity to obtain veteran pitcher Livan Hernandez from the Washington Nationals, and Arizona traded minor league pitchers Chico and Garrett Mock to the Nationals for Hernandez, Aug. 7, 2006. Mock and Chico would both eventually pitch for Washington. The trade to the Nationals’ organization sent Chico to Harrisburg of the Eastern League to conclude his 2006 season.

The Nationals kept Chico on the major league 25-man roster to begin the 2007 season, and Chico made his big league debut April 4, 2007. Chico started 31 games for the Nationals in 2007 and posted a 7-9 record with a 4.63 earned run average in 167 innings. He struck out 125 opposing batters. Chico also had two starts with the Nationals’ Columbus farm team in the International League that year, winning one and losing one.

Chico returned to the Nationals to begin the 2008 season but lost all six decisions and posted a 6.19 earned run average in eight starts and three relief appearances. He threw four innings in a start with Columbus before undergoing elbow reconstruction surgery. In 2009 Chico had three starts for Hagerstown of the Southern League, not garnering a decision but having a 2.45 earned run average, and started 12 games for Harrisburg while posting a 2.99 earned run average.

One final major league start for Chico occurred in 2010. He allowed two runs in five innings and did not receive a decision. In his last major league game, he struck out three and did not walk a batter. Chico also pitched for Harrisburg and for Syracuse of the International League during the 2010 season.

The 2011 season for Chico was split between Gulf Coast of the Gulf Coast League, Harrisburg and Syracuse. He closed out his playing career in the independent minor leagues in 2012, pitching for New Jersey of the Canadian-American League and York of the Atlantic League.

Chico’s major league career consisted of 40 starts and three relief appearances. He had a 7-15 record and a 4.95 earned run average. He struck out 128 batters in 222 innings. While at the plate he had 10 hits and three runs batted in while also executing 11 sacrifice bunts. His major league batting average was .159, and he scored three runs. During his minor league career he pitched in 171 games, including 140 starts and posted a 51-49 record with a 3.87 earned run average while striking out 657 opponents in 798 1/3 innings.

Lucy followed his 2001 Fallbrook High School graduation with three years on the Stanford University baseball team. The Chicago White Sox selected him in the third round of the 2004 draft, and Lucy began his minor league career in 2004 with Great Falls of the Pioneer League. He was with Kannapolis of the South Atlantic League in 2005 and played for both Winston-Salem of the Carolina League and Birmingham in the Southern League during 2006. When the major league teams had 25-man rosters, Lucy was with Birmingham and with Charlotte of the International League for 2007.

Major League teams can expand their active rosters from 25 to 40 players on Sept. 1 each year. Lucy was one of the players called up by the White Sox in 2007, and he made his major league debut Sept. 5, 2007. Lucy appeared in eight games for the White Sox that year and had three hits in 15 at-bats.

Lucy returned to Charlotte for the 2008 season and played for both Birmingham and Charlotte in 2009. He was with Charlotte for most of the 2010 season before returning to the White Sox and playing in seven games, and he hit his only major league home run that year. He was also with Charlotte for most of 2011 but played six games with the White Sox.

The 21 games Lucy played in the majors resulted in 10 hits in 40 at-bats for a .250 average, four doubles, one home run, three runs scored, three runs batted in and one stolen base. Lucy’s 501 minor league games included 412 hits, 72 doubles, four triples, 25 home runs, 202 runs scored, 151 runs batted in, 51 stolen bases and a .241 batting average.

Leake is a 2006 Fallbrook High School graduate who played collegiate ball at Arizona State University. The Cincinnati Reds made Leake the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2009 draft. The Reds opted to rest him for the remainder of the 2009 season.

In 1967 Mike Adamson, who had played at University of Southern California for two years after graduating from Point Loma High School in 1965, was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the June draft and started his professional career with the Orioles. Adamson thus became the first player since the 1965 inception of the draft to skip the minor leagues, at least initially, and start his professional career in the majors. Adamson was also the only San Diego County player since the start of the draft to begin his professional career in the majors without minor league experience until Leake made the Reds’ pitching staff for the start of the 2010 season. Leake made his major league debut April 11, 2010.

Leake pitched for the Reds from 2010 to 2015 and was traded to the San Francisco Giants during the 2015 season. He signed with the Cardinals and played for St. Louis in 2016 and part of 2017 before being sent to the Mariners. Leake concluded 2017 with the Mariners and was also with Seattle for 2018.

For his first nine major league seasons Leake has posted a 93-87 record in 264 starts and five relief appearances, not including a first-round playoff game in 2012 in which Leake pitched against the Giants. Leake has thrown four complete games, including one shutout, and as of the end of the 2018 season he had 1,104 strikeouts in 1,632 innings pitched. He has a .198 batting average at the plate with 92 hits including 18 doubles, one triple and six home runs. An additional 44 plate appearances were successful sacrifice bunts. Leake has scored 46 runs and driven in 31 runs.